DEEP PURPLE : SPRINGFIELD 1976

 

Disc One (68:22)

  1. Intro / Burn
  2. Lady Luck
  3. Love Child
  4. Gettin' Tighter
  5. Smoke On The Water
  6. Georgia On My Mind
  7. Keyboard Solo
  8. Lazy
  9. Drum Solo
  10. Homeward Strut

Disc Two (50:53)

  1. This Time Around
  2. Owed To "G"
  3. Guitar Solo
  4. Drifter
  5. Stormbringer
  6. Going Down
  7. Highway Star

Label : Leftfield Media

Venue : Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

Recording Date : January 26, 1976

Quality : FM Recording (A+)

Review (Trinkelbonker) : I have always been drawn to the MK4 version of Deep Purple. I was around 14-15 when it all took place and I loved the music, the image, and it all looked great to me. Of course, at the time, we did not really know anything (admittedly, I lived a sheltered life) about the realities of drug use and inflated egos within many groups of the era and that it had crept into this band as well. Consequently, when they broke up in mid-1976 it was a huge shock. Six months later Tommy Bolin was dead. Other big name acts were still around but you could tell that time was not on their side and that they were struggling. New bands were coming in. Looking back then on Purple MK4 is always interesting. Some shows had been awful, others absolutely brilliant. As a collector it was always a case of, was this a good show or not? The Springfield show then (that are now out in the form of a dodgy release) was originally recorded for radio but was deemed not good enough to use at the time. Instead they had another crack at it at the Long Beach Arena some time later on the tour and parts of that was later aired (and quickly surfaced on bootleg and much later in complete form as official product with a few bonus tracks from the Springfield show). Exactly how this has now surfaced from the hands of officialdom is anybodys guess, but here it is. On the MK4 scale of things, they are operating at maybe 80% of the power here. They sound a bit tired, David Coverdale certainly sounds a bit depressed in between songs and Glenn Hughes is not really delivering like he could have. Ian Paice is awesome, so is Jon Lord. “Lazy” was a MK2 song that suited this version well, “Smoke On The Water” not so much (not on this night, but they nailed it at Long Beach). “Highway Star” worked well most nights. MK3 was represented by the title tracks of “Burn” and “Stormbringer” and that was it. I think they longed for other songs that could showcase more depth but they had to be Deep Purple, they had to rock out, and these songs were as close to Metal as Purple would ever come. The “Come Taste The Band” songs had a strong new identity that they were keen to introduce and it would have been really interesting to have seen how the set would have changed had they done a second studio album. Some interesting sounds (must have been pretty cool back in the day) from Tommy Bolin in his extended solo. We have to remember that these were the days when bands did this kind of thing (just think of Led Zeppelin). I like Tommys solo spot here but obviously when a good chunk of the show is taken up by individual showcases, and songs that exclude the presence of the lead singer from being on stage, you could argue that the audience might get a bit frustrated. I have no way of knowing how excited that crowd was on the night in real life, but they certainly had no reason to doubt that Bolin was an interesting player (flashes of brilliance is wrestling with mundane moments elsewhere though). Good to hear “Drifter” on this set, and they close proceedings with a very powerful trio of songs, “Stormbringer”, “Going Down” (best cover version ever if you ask me, but Hughes asking for some cocain is an incredible low) and “Highway Star”. Deep Purple had an animalistic side, when they went for it, it was supremely powerful. All the more so because of the lighter moments. I still have to hear maybe 25 other shows of this tour, and I bet that there are some really good ones hidden in the mist of time that has yet to surface. In the meantime, I am quite happy to get anything that I can get my hands on. The Springfield show then has its place in the old collection (bootleg or not). I just wish that the history of Purple could be handled better by the powers that be, just look at the Elvis Presley output. Half assed dodgy releases should not be the way that we get this stuff.

Review (Past Daily) : This concert was recorded during what would be the last tour of Deep Purple Mark IV. It also featured some of the last work with guitarist Tommy Bolin who had joined the band in 1975 as replacement for Richie Blackmore. Before he joined Deep Purple, Bolin’s best-known recordings had been made as a session musician on Billy Cobham’s 1973 jazz fusion album Spectrum, and as lead guitarist on two post-Joe Walsh James Gang albums: Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). He had also played with Dr. John, Albert King, the Good Rats, Moxy and Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo album, Teaser, when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple. The resulting album from Deep Purple Mark IV, Come Taste the Band, was released in October 1975, one month before Bolin’s Teaser album. Despite mixed reviews and middling sales (#19 in the UK and #43 in the US), the collection revitalized the band once again, bringing a new, extreme funk edge to their hard rock sound. Bolin’s influence was crucial, and with encouragement from Hughes and Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the album’s material. Despite Bolin’s talents, his personal problems with hard drugs began to surface. During the Come Taste the Band tour many fans openly booed Bolin’s inability to play solos like Ritchie Blackmore, not realizing that Bolin was physically hampered by his addiction. At this same time, as he admitted in interviews years later, Hughes was suffering from cocaine addiction. The last show on the tour was on 15 March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. The break-up was finally made public in July 1976, with then-manager Rob Cooksey issuing a statement: “the band will not record or perform together as Deep Purple again”. Bolin went on to record his second solo album, Private Eyes. On 4 December 1976, after a show in Miami supporting Jeff Beck, Bolin was found unconscious by his girlfriend and bandmates. Unable to wake him, she hurriedly called paramedics, but it was too late. The official cause of death was multiple-drug intoxication. Bolin was 25 years old. While firmly placed in the hard rock and heavy metal categories, Deep Purple’s music frequently incorporated elements of progressive rock and blues rock, prompting Canadian journalist Martin Popoff to once call the band “a reference point of a genre in metal without categorization.” Jason Ankeny of AllMusic said the band “made hard rock a fine art, and unleashed some of the greatest guitar riffs known to the world.” As a reminder of Deep Purple during the Mark IV years and Tommy Bolin’s contribution, here is their concert from January 26, 1976. Technical note: As with all live concerts, sometimes it takes a while for the sound mix to settle down – this one is no different. The vocals are wandering in and out for most of Burn before settling into something listenable – but when it settles down, all is good.