Deep Purple: In Rock [HARVEST]

Why you'll love it

This 180g edition comes in a glossy gatefold jacket with a download card. In Rock reached No. 4 in the UK and stayed on the chart for more than a year.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

By mid-1969 Deep Purple had three albums and some success in America, and Ritchie Blackmore had heard Led Zeppelin's debut and wanted to have a go at being really heavy. Ian Gillan and Roger Glover came over from Episode Six, and the classic Mark II lineup with Jon Lord and Ian Paice was born. The new songs were in the live set within weeks, and the band previewed "Speed King" and "Living Wreck" in a BBC session that November.

They worked up the songs at Hanwell Community Centre and road-tested them between gigs, then recorded at IBC, Abbey Road and De Lane Lea in London. "Speed King" grew from a Glover bass riff modelled on a Jimi Hendrix song, "Child in Time" builds from Lord's quiet organ intro to Gillan's famous screams, and "Hard Lovin' Man" closes with everyone flat out.

It's a key early text for both hard rock and heavy metal, and the band's faces carved into Mount Rushmore made for one of the era's most recognizable covers. The presidents were not consulted.

Also at Kops: more Deep Purple on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Harvest (cat# SHVL 777), a reissue of the 1970 album.