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Sunday 7 June 2020

The Two Sheds Mix Tape #6: Deep Purple: The Evans/Simper Years

It was inevitable really, wasn’t it? Deep Purple have been my favourite band for nearly forty years now, so I couldn’t really leave them out of this series. But with countless line-up changes and over twenty studio albums released since 1968 I couldn’t lump it all in at once. Which is why I’m splitting this series within a series into several parts, beginning with their formation and their first three studio albums, released in 1968 and 1969.

By the time the band had formed singer Rod Evans, bassist Nick Simper, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboard player Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice were all experienced musicians, having cut their respective teeth as session players and in various groups.



But if the tracks from these three albums show anything is that Deep Purple was looking for it’s identity back then. There progressive and psychedelic rock influences are here, but for a great deal of the time it sounds as if they’re trying to become a British version of that great American band Vanilla Fudge, and it wasn’t until Rod Evans and Nick Simper were replaced by Episode Six’s Ian Gillan and Roger Glover that the band truly found it’s calling.

So here we have a collection of tracks featuring Evans and Simper taken from their first three albums, Shades of Deep Purple, The Book of Taliesyn, and their self-titled third album. Part one features a collection of cover versions, while part two includes songs composed by various members of the band.

Part 1
1) Hush (originally recorded by Joe South)
2) Help (originally recorded by The Beatles)
3) Kentucky Woman (originally recorded by Neil Diamond)
4) Happiness/I’m So Glad (second part previously recorded by Cream)
5) Lalena (originally recorded by Donovan)
6) Exposition/We Can Work It Out (second part previously recorded by The Beatles)
7) River Deep Mountain High (originally recorded by Ike & Tina Turner)
8) Hey Joe (previously recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience)



Part 2
1) And the Address
2) Emmaretta
3) Mandrake Root
4) The Shield
5) The Painter
6) Listen Learn Read On
7) Chasing Shadows
8) Bird Has Flown
9) Love Help Me
10) Why Didn’t Rosemary?
11) April


Don't forget you can listen to the previous mix tapes and my podcast over at https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-radbourne/

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