Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Deep Purple and Archduke Francis Ferdinand
I always said I'd never start a blog. And yet, here I am. Why? There's a bit of a story behind that...
Most everyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of the English rock group Deep Purple. In fact, I'm a member of the Deep Purple Appreciation Society - probably the only one in the greater Jackson, MS area. Maybe even the only one in the state of Mississippi!
On occasion, my fanaticism (for lack of a better word) works its way into conversations that are almost totally unrelated. Example: a few weeks ago I was watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with some friends and somehow The Sound of Music came up. While we were talking about the movie, I mentioned that the Von Trapp family home in Vermont was used as the location for Deep Purple's rehearsals for the Perfect Strangers album in 1984. A friend said I could probably connect Deep Purple to anything.
I was then challenged to come up with a connection between Deep Purple and the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. I had to do some research, but here's what I came up with, and what I emailed my buddies:
I couldn’t think of any connection between the Archduke’s assassination and DP, but my research shows that the Archduke was born in Graz, Austria. DP’s concert in Graz on the 1975 European tour was the first of three concerts recorded for what would become the Made In Europe live album (Saarbrucken and Paris being the other two). These turned out to be the final shows by the Mark III lineup before Blackmore left to form Rainbow. Made In Europe is largely pulled from Saarbrucken, but several tracks from Graz turned up on Mark III: The Final Concerts.
My friend Stewart, a recent entry to the blogging world, said I should start a Deep Purple blog and list that as my first entry. I thought about it - after all, I'm in the (slow) process of going through all my Deep Purple recordings and writing track-by-track reviews, to help myself remember which shows have the best versions of which songs, and I thought at some point I'd put them on a website. A blog would probably serve just as well for that. I was leaning against doing it, but since I had to register to post a comment on Stewart's blog, I thought I might as well go ahead. So here I am.
"I'd cut a long story short, but it's much too late for that!"
- Deep Purple, "Somebody Stole My Guitar"
Anyway, I'll start posting my track-by-track commentaries as soon as I get around to typing them up. In the meantime, I'll post whatever thoughts I have about Deep Purple, its various members, and related bands (such as Rainbow, Whitesnake, Gillan, etc.). I'll probably even comment on other musical groups as the mood strikes me, but I think I'll keep this blog limited to the musical arena.
And I'll be willing to try to find a Deep Purple connection to anything my readers might suggest.
Most everyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of the English rock group Deep Purple. In fact, I'm a member of the Deep Purple Appreciation Society - probably the only one in the greater Jackson, MS area. Maybe even the only one in the state of Mississippi!
On occasion, my fanaticism (for lack of a better word) works its way into conversations that are almost totally unrelated. Example: a few weeks ago I was watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with some friends and somehow The Sound of Music came up. While we were talking about the movie, I mentioned that the Von Trapp family home in Vermont was used as the location for Deep Purple's rehearsals for the Perfect Strangers album in 1984. A friend said I could probably connect Deep Purple to anything.
I was then challenged to come up with a connection between Deep Purple and the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. I had to do some research, but here's what I came up with, and what I emailed my buddies:
I couldn’t think of any connection between the Archduke’s assassination and DP, but my research shows that the Archduke was born in Graz, Austria. DP’s concert in Graz on the 1975 European tour was the first of three concerts recorded for what would become the Made In Europe live album (Saarbrucken and Paris being the other two). These turned out to be the final shows by the Mark III lineup before Blackmore left to form Rainbow. Made In Europe is largely pulled from Saarbrucken, but several tracks from Graz turned up on Mark III: The Final Concerts.
My friend Stewart, a recent entry to the blogging world, said I should start a Deep Purple blog and list that as my first entry. I thought about it - after all, I'm in the (slow) process of going through all my Deep Purple recordings and writing track-by-track reviews, to help myself remember which shows have the best versions of which songs, and I thought at some point I'd put them on a website. A blog would probably serve just as well for that. I was leaning against doing it, but since I had to register to post a comment on Stewart's blog, I thought I might as well go ahead. So here I am.
"I'd cut a long story short, but it's much too late for that!"
- Deep Purple, "Somebody Stole My Guitar"
Anyway, I'll start posting my track-by-track commentaries as soon as I get around to typing them up. In the meantime, I'll post whatever thoughts I have about Deep Purple, its various members, and related bands (such as Rainbow, Whitesnake, Gillan, etc.). I'll probably even comment on other musical groups as the mood strikes me, but I think I'll keep this blog limited to the musical arena.
And I'll be willing to try to find a Deep Purple connection to anything my readers might suggest.
