MACHINE HEAD

This line-up in this band was also their best: Ian Gillan`s powerful vocals; Ian Paice`s very good drums playing (maybe one of the best and maybe one of the underrated); Ritchie Blackmore`s very own Fender Stratocaster electric guitar playing style; Jon Lord`s distorted keyboards; and Roger Glover, a very good bassist.

This album was released in April 1972, and at that time I was 7 years old. Maybe the first time that I listened to this album was later in that year, or maybe until 1973. At that time, my brothers were listening to very good music, and this album was one of them.

The songs:

"Highway Star": a very good way to start this album, with an energetic song. Maybe this is the best song from this album.

"Maybe I`m a Leo":with lyrics which are like a joke, really.

"Pictures of Home": a song which demonstrates how good was this band improvising, because, IMO, I think that there was a basic structure of a song to which the members of the band added new things improvising.

"Never Before": another energetic song, which I think that it was also released as a single.

"Smoke on the Water": maybe the most famous song from this band. How many amateur or semi-professional bands play this song in their "garage rehearsals" and in their first gigs? I think that this song also was released as a single.

"Lazy": another song with funny lyics.

"Space Truckin`": another energetic song to close the album on a high point.

I could be wrong, but this album gives me the impression of being composed and recorded at the same time, as the songs sound to me like they were saying to each other duing the recording sessions: "Hey, I have this riff, I think that it could be good for a song. Let`s us play it to see how it develops from there...", and after some improvisation, ideas were chosen, and songs were structured from there. The lyrics are simple, like Gillan simply was improvising them while the band was playing the music. If my impression is right, the final product is of a very good album, and it shows how good was this band playing togehter and composing songs together. I agree with previous reviewers: this album is a "clasic " of Rock music recorded in only 15 days.

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