COME TASTE THE BAND

Believe me or not, Come Taste the Band was my first purchase by Deep Purple. I had already heard lots of their singles, and really enjoyed the whole band; Ian Paice's heavy use of the hi-hat became an instant favorite thing of mine; Lord's Hammond-Organ both in the riffs and solos made me a fanboy of both, the Hammond and Jon Lord himself; and then of course Ritchie Blackmore's riffs and solos were always stunning and powerful for me, but always thought he missed some emotion and groove. And as for the vocalists on board, each were pretty original and strong generally. So why did I purchase this hated and maligned album by them? Simply because I had never heard a single song from this album, while from the others(that were in the CD shop) I had at least heard two songs, and what I really wanted was something completely fresh, with no previous listens.

What were my first impressions of the album? Well, I'll be sincere and say that at first I thought it was pretty heavy, yes, laugh if you want, my brother laughed too at that comment, he was already listening to Black Sabbath and The Who at that time. I could barely stand the riffs of Love Child or Dealer, they just seemed to me way too heavy, the only song that grabbed me at first listen and that I became an instant fan of, was the funky rock single from the album, Gettin' Tighter, with that irresistible catchy guitar riff and Glenn's voice, it just couldn't get better than that, could it? Yes, it could actually, with time and more knowledge about the band and music, I've pretty much understood why had my brother laughed at that comment, and also discovered that this album was rather hated by the fans due to the inclusion of Tommy Bolin, and dominance of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. But that was not the only thing I discovered, I started to really appreciate the music that this album presented for what it really was; every song showed me something that made me rock-out, either a simple catchy riff or Coverdale's strong voice, or a funky section with a groovy guitar or synth solo, or simply the delicate and well arranged piano/synths and Hughe's voice delivered on This Time Around.

The album as a whole resulted as an incredible mixture of two of my favorite genres/styles of music: Hard Rock and Funk. And now I can really say that it couldn't get better than that, with under-appreciated guitarist Tommy Bolin on board, like Jon Lord said: "He made the band sound so fresh and new I just had to play with this guy. He made the band sound so different and exciting. " While obviously he was very different to Ritchie Blackmore in style, delivering the already mentioned groovy, though maintaining some kind of heaviness, riffs and solos, as well as having a very unique sound, he definitely added to the band something really exciting and fresh. Also with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes as lead vocalists, I really couldn't ask for more; both turned into some of my favorite vocalists of all-time, which soon lead me to discover the early blues/hard rock-esque era of Whitesnake and the funky/soul-inspired hard rock of Trapeze. Both having very singular voices, Coverdale's bluesy and throat-powered voice which could easily match Gillan's in that sense, while Hughes' soul-esque range of voice also could match and even surpass Gillan's range, but don't get me wrong Ian Gillan is one hell-of a vocalist. Jon Lord, on the other hand, is the only member that I can state that wasn't on par with what he had done on previous Deep Purple albums, his infrequent use of the Hammond-Organ is a big loss for common Deep Purple fans, however he had moved towards the synths that Prog bands had so much popularized, and as a result giving some really nice funky synth solos never heard before by him. Last but not least, Ian Paice, like he had always done, played flawlessly with that dominating and proficiency on the hi-hat that obliges me to play air-drums and go out of control.

Come Taste the Band ends up being an odd-ball in Deep Purple's catalogue, such as Stormbringer, with a pretty radical change of style compared to what Deep Purple was/is known-of(luckily you may think? For me it's unfortunately), but what a fantastic odd-ball it is! While Deep Purple MK II fans would be disappointed for the funk style, as well as for the lack of the Hammond-Organ, these type of fans should have predict it, since Deep Purple was no monotonous band which stayed always firm to the classic Hard Rock roots, and that's already shown with the Mark 1.

The one-of-a-kind blend of funk and hard rock, with Tommy Bolin's dominating and singular riffs and solos makes this album a masterpiece for fans of either Coverdale, Hughes or Bolin.

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