Mange of Hair and a Scream, from Cal Jam

A Deep Purple review by Ken Boyd concerning April 6^th 1974

What was I doing then? Well, unfortunately I was not at THIS show! In fact I was but a wee lad. But thanks to the magic of video conversion I was able to EXPERIENCE this show in all its glory you possibly can without actually being there.

The opening shot starts out with the colorful rainbow arching across the stage. The sun is dropping just as they come on—a gray dampness is across the horizon. But it is tainted with shades of purple!

Today it is funny to see the dress of the day. Glen decked in a white polyester suite slacks and jacket, and hair flying haphazard –and no shirt! Blackmore, we see, in an open black jacket and black jeans, reaffirming to us the long adhering title of THE MAN IN BLACK. Ian Paice is going nuts playing his ASS off—not often seen in his renditions of those old tunes today. Coverdale sets the tone of the era with his flared bell-bottoms and the butterfly-covered sweater, distinctions of the boom mic he often used. Jon Lord seems his usual cool self in a toned down blue suit of the day.

Opening with BURN! What a great choice to get a crowd of THIS size up on their feet and ready for some hard core rock and roll. “You know we had no time!!” Glenn screams! Setting the mood for what is to come for the rest of the show.

I find it interesting that the camera spends a LOT of time on Glenn when normally the bass player is essentially discounted as an evil necessity to the rhythm section. But, being a fan of Glenn—particularly of this period in his career, I certainly won’t complain.

Might Just Take Your Life, is broken into next as Coverdale introduces this he seems just so wrecked. Though, I have to say likely due to years of practice under the influence, his guttural crooning seems quite in tact. Naturally Glenn does a fantastic backing on this to meld with Dave’s voice at the right parts and hold up his own selections quite well. No wonder they call him the voice of rock!

Going into the solo Jon Lord seems to put it on so much more energetically than Ritchie—it makes me wonder if he was he bored and ready to leave at this point? Well we know it DOES happen before the year out.

            Also as I watch I noticed that the crowd is so far away that it must have been so hard to “connect” with them easily…

Glenn introduces the next blues song, Mistreated! As Ritchie brings in the six string introduction there is no mistaking this guitar maestro—bored or not—is REALLY on top of his game. It absolutely gets your blood flowing unless you are flat out DEAD!

I still find it quite unusual to hear David’s voice kicking in on those vocals—it always seemed so much a stronger hit for Rainbow (and later in Ronnie Dio’s solo career) than it was by that of Deep Purple.

Likewise of this show it should be noted that Coverdale is so adept at Walking in the Shadow of the Blues, you cannot help but be mesmerized by his talented vocal skills. I find myself of two minds in my fandome—you know that feeling of a loyalty to a certain song a certain way? Well, it CAN be done more ways than one—and done WELL! And this video has a prime example of that proof.

            At this point Ritchie goes into his guitarical tirade while Dave moves to the motions of the feel!—kicking back in with those great pipes at just the right time. Watching that mic bounce off his lower lip in those early day trademark motions (as if he had a dip of chew that MADE the sound he evokes from within) you know he is not just going through the motions. Then, without a doubt one of the most interesting parts, the Ooh ooh ahh ah section and you can hear Dave and Glenn just melding—Glenn spiking that signature scream now and again! Before you know it, Dave calms it down—“woman, I been losing my mind and I don’t know where I am going…” he adlibs and brings the crowd back to a hypnotized state. Bringing it all to a close with a closing fist is just so appropriate for a song that CAN evoke such emotion—done deal here.

As the music comes to a close, Dave says something about swallowing flies and such—LOL! Okay there DAVE! I really have to wonder if they are really there or just a figment of the old induced imagination.

Jon turns things a little more normal when he introduces the band:

Deep Purple is:

Ritchie Blackmore on guitar

Dave Coverdale on vocals

Glenn Hughes on bass guitar and vocals

Jon Lord on keyboards

Ian Paice pounding the drums.

Amusingly, Jon refers to Glenn as the “Gentleman selling ice cream”, though you cannot hear the crowd, they MUST be rolling. So apparently it was not so every day dress even then.

Jon then introduces the next song, Ritchie coming in with a guitar intro that just RIPS right into the ever accepted and anticipated Smoke on the Water!

Though that guitar, snare jog, and keys are SO distinctive it is still a hit to me to hear Dave Coverdale kick in the lyric. I think this is one point that Ian Gillan is a bit missed, but the track is pulled off with near-epic proportions. Glenn sings the second verse (same one Ronnie does in recent Deep Purple orchestra tours in which he guested).

Paice is seen really bobbing and rocking for this tune, while again Ritchie is little personally/bodily mobile—the solo is as usual quite outstanding and meticulous—nothing unexpected. Naturally, Jon Lord really rocks on those keys we know him to have played SO many times over and over—yet evokes a nice level of energy for the performance and goes a bit further when he starts rocking the whole key rack back and forth on its stand! AMAZING!

Glenn introduces the next double tune intro featuring Jon Lord’s key signature work. With this you KNOW why this man is still in the rock business after all these years—pure talent.

Lazy comes in instrumentally, followed by a highly recognizable Zeppelin riff, finally going into some vocal oriented tune with some more blues based crooning by Coverdale.

A fairly ripping, but mostly too long guitar solo by Ritchie Blackmore, which eventually kicks right back into The Word. A drum solo almost right off…Like I said this is a young Ian Paice and we see some things that are not to be seen later in his more physically full life. I am not a big one on instrumentals and this really starts to get boring.

Just before I doze off, Glenn talks about what is happening in the next song with word and tone as we jump into SPACE TRUCKIN’! Again, Dave adds his own flavor at this point to the lyrics we are SO used to hearing from the mouth of Ian Gillan. This performance brings to mind – thank GOD Dave Coverdale learned some moves in the ‘80s – but back then you could get away with standing at the mic and just singing in a non animated manner. At least his voice was a gem to listen to. During this classic, Glenn does some more ad lib vocalizations after Ritchie’s solo—getting higher and higher on his vocal ladder, bringing us higher and higher as he ascends. It is all topped off with the bass riffing and “WHOAA!” by Glenn’s high yalp!

When I see his frontmanship of Glenn Hughs at this point it makes me wonder what happened during the Sabbath tour of 7^th Star—two completely different people on that stage. Absolutely, no doubt about it.

At this point in the show, we evidence Jon going into a unique keyboard solo that you do not often see these days. Using his knees, hands and even face to play the array of keyboards spread about him on stage…very interesting and all in time to the ongoing rhythm section pounding away all the while.

The next transition is into another long Ritchie Blackmore rendition of a guitar solo—initially interesting due to the melodic classical piece he goes into before finally sliding into a maniacal destruction of his own cream colored Strat. (Unfortunate but true!) Hell, he even smashes an amp, lighted afire, and tosses it into where the audience would have been. Bringing this recording to a close.

The video was produced and made available by Indy Finney for BBC Video.

If you have a chance to check this out—particularly if you are unfamiliar with this era of Deep Purple—you will most definitely want to get your hands on a copy to view again and again.

And so, there you have my own thoughts on it.

All The Best,

KEN