Earlier this month I featured “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’ by Joe South. By pure circumstance I am yet again featuring a Joe South song. Simply because it gained high profile as a release by Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ Deep Purple. Straight up…I had no idea that Joe South wrote this song. This is a prime example of learning as I go.
Joe South wrote ‘Hush’ for Billy Joe Royal in 1967 and the song did reasonably well in the U.S and Canada, rising to #52 and #45 respectively on the Billboard Top 100. The opening lyrics set the tone with Royal singing ‘Hush, Hush. I thought I heard her calling my name.’ This is a twist on traditional gospel passage which works on variations of ‘somebody’s calling my name.’ I suspect that ‘somebody’ is Jesus but that is another story. Here is the Billy Joe Royal version…the original. It is different. Like a cross between The Monkees and The Hollies.
In 1968, an up and coming British band called Deep Purple released their version of ‘Hush’ and it sent the iconic band on the track for a storied career. The Deep Purple version of ‘Hush’ went to #4 in the U.S and #2 in Canada. Surprisingly it did not resonate in their home country. The interesting thing about Deep Purple is they began as more of a progressive rock band. The early history of the pioneers of heavy metal is very interesting. The remainder of this post will focus on their early years leading up to their seminal album; Machine Head.
In 1967 Chris Curtis who was the one time drummer for The Searchers had an idea for a supergroup that would see him and a business partner named Tony Edwards recruit a group of upper echelon musicians to write, record and perform. The band was to be called ‘Roundabout’ which was a take off on the idea that members could get on and get off whenever they wanted. The ultimate goal was to see their impending success compel them to stay on the ‘roundabout’. Edwards agreed to finance the project with the support of a couple of other partners. The first recruit was Jon Lord who was a classically trained Hammond organ player. His distinct sound would remain a constant from day one. Lord was a friend of Chris Curtis who had a history of playing with the brother of future Rolling Stone, Ron Wood and future Yardbirds singer Keef Hartley.
Soon the focus turned to a bass player named Nick Simper (Johnny Kidd and the Pirates) and a highly regarded session guitarist named Ritchie Blackmore. The two had known each other for a while and they blended well with Lord. Unfortunately Chris Curtis turned out to be pretty erratic so he was replaced by drummer Bobby Woodman who was once the drummer for Vince Taylor and the Playboys. You may remember Vince Taylor as one of David Bowie’s influences for the Ziggy Stardust character.
As I outline Deep Purple’s early days I intend to impress upon you how intertwined musicians were in the early British rock scene. By this time all the band needed was a vocalist. Apparently Rod Stewart auditioned but ultimately a club singer named Rod Evans got the job. Evans was a friend of an 18 year old drummer named Iain Paice. As the story goes, Bobby Woodman was not happy with the bands’ musical direction so he quit. This was fine with Ritchie Blackmore because he preferred Ian Paice’s drumming anyway. So the checklist reads…Woodman out…Paice in.
As Roundabout embarked on their first tour which included Denmark (coincidentally this is the same route another early band took to get their feet wet as a touring act…Led Zeppelin). While on tour Blackmore who had emerged as the band’s leader suggested they change their name. He proposed ‘Deep Purple’ after a song his grandmother used to play on the piano. In 1968 ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ was released which gained traction in North America and they were also brought on as the opening act for Cream’s farewell tour. The original lineup would go on to record a second album called ‘The Book of Taliesyn’ which featured a cover of ‘Kentucky Woman’ by Neil Diamond. A third album self titled album was also released. Due to divergent musical directions, Simper and Evans were replaced with players who favoured a less progressive and more ‘heavy’ direction. They set their sights on a local singer named Ian Gillan who in 1968 had ironically told Nick Simper he didn’t think ‘Roundabout’ would take off and rejected the opportunity. This time Gillan who was singing for a group called ‘Episode Six’ accepted. The connection to Episode Six also opened their eyes to a bass player named Roger Glover. Drummer Iain Paice loved Glover’s work and implored Blackmore to hire him. Drummers have an eye for good bass players because they form the band’s rhythm section. Blackmore relented and the new incarnation of Deep Purple was formed, essentially destroying Episode Six. It was at this point that Jon Lord began to take over the band, creating a classical and orchestral undertone that gave the band a rare depth, placing them among the best of that era along with bands like The Moody Blues, Yes, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. The orchestral direction produced a record called ‘In Rock’ which led to a follow up album called ‘Fireball’. Both of these albums solidified Deep Purple as heavy metal pioneers. ‘Fireball’ went to #1 and planning for the next album began. In December of 1971, Deep Purple travelled to Switzerland to record an album that would be called ‘Machine Head’. They were set to record the new material in the Montreux Casino using the Rolling Stone Mobile Studio but an incident occurred that is the stuff of rock and roll legend. Some idiot shot a flare gun into the ceiling of the casino and literally ‘burned the place to the ground’. Ultimately, Machine Head’ was recorded in the Grand Hotel and the story was brilliantly captured in the classic song ‘Smoke on the Water’. ‘Machine Head’ would go to #1 and it yielded four FM radio staples; ‘Smoke on the Water’, Lazy’, ‘Highway Star’ and ‘Space Truckin’. Four years into what was a brilliantly executed music experiment Deep Purple was at the pinnacle of the rock and roll world.
Here is ‘Smoke on the Water’. If you follow the lyrics you can hear the band paint the scene that chronicles this well documented moment in music history. Quite frankly, this song never gets old.
Back to today’s feature song; Deep Purple would release another version of ‘Hush’ with Ian Gillan on vocals on their ‘Deep Purple’ album. Here is a more raw live version with Gillan taking the lead:
In a completely opposite rendition The Partridge Family performed it in 1968 on their TV series. One of the most famous versions and the one I will settle into is performed by Kula Shaker in 1997. It went to #2 on the U.K Singles Chart and became a signature song for the briefly successful U.K psychedelic rock band.
Have a great day.
Ted Tocks Covers 