Deep Purple Turning to Crime

It has become a novelty act for many groups as of late to do a whole album of cover songs. Deep Purple has come full circle. Ian Gillan and Roger Glover who both were in Episode Six covered Arthur Lee’s Love song “Alone Again Or.” I am not surprised that the first song is “7 And 7 Is.” It’s a great selection of tunes on what is going to be perhaps the last official studio album for the group. Never say never. This is a great range of musical influences. Bob Dylan’s “Watching The River Flow” is a welcome surprise. This is a must for Deep Purple Fans.

“I had to audibly visualize the sounds that weren’t there,” drummer Ian Paice noted in a new promotional trailer for the album. “Basically, I think it’s us having fun playing roots music,” guitarist Steve Morse added. “It’s Purple.”

After five decades of records made chiefly of original material, Deep Purple’s 22nd studio album consists solely of songs written and previously recorded by other artists: a criminal offense commonly described by the rock police and purists Grand Jury as “doing covers.” Studio recordings of songs previously released by Love, Huey “Piano” Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles & Quincy Jones, Little Feat, The Yardbirds, Lonnie Donegan/ Johnny Horton, Bob Seger System, Cream, plus the “Caught In The Act” medley feat. songs by Freddie King, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, and The Spencer Davis Group came to life with the band, for the first time in their career, recording them while not being in the same room. “Turning To Crime” is Deep Purple enjoying playing music without commercial plans nor losing their edge and drive. This is Deep Purple coming full circle. This is 100% Deep Purple.

Last December, DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover revealed during a virtual meet-and-greet with Finnish fan Anssi Herkkola that the band was planning to enter the studio in 2021 to begin work on another album. Speaking about how he and the other members of PURPLE have been spending their coronavirus downtime, Roger said: “All this COVID situation has meant that we can’t tour. We’re twiddling our thumbs, really, for over a year, and the idea was to possibly go back in and do another album. And so we’re just working towards that. It’s so quick after we’d done the last album, [and] maybe that will spoil things, but we’re gonna try and do another album at some point next year. We’re experimenting with stuff.”

Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover revealed that the band was working on a new project. “All this COVID situation has meant that we can’t tour,” he explained at the time. “We’re twiddling our thumbs, really, for over a year, and the idea was to possibly go back in and do another album. And so we’re just working towards that. It’s so quick after we’d done the last album … maybe that will spoil things, but we’re gonna try and do another album at some point next year. We’re experimenting with stuff.”

Glover also said that DEEP PURPLE has “always” been a democratic group. “It was right from when I first joined the band,” he explained. “We decided that whoever writes any particular idea, we all share because we all contribute. The way we play is almost as much a part of the writing process as what the riff or the lyrics are. So we all shared everything. It didn’t last that way. When I left the band, and Gillan left the band, it changed. It changed up until when Steve Morse joined. When Steve Morse joined, we said, ‘Right, let’s share everything.’ It takes away stress, it takes away ego, it takes away jealousy, it takes away bad vibes. And I think we all share and we all write for it. We all work our bits. So that’s the way we do it, and it is a democratic band.”

“All our songs come from jamming. We don’t actually write songs, they just evolve as we play. The first writing session is usually a lot of fun. We just explore different rhythms and riffs and whatever, and then take a break to listen to them, and figure out which ones we really want to work on, and that’s the second writing session. And then we go to the studio and record them, but at this point, we rarely have finished vocals or lyrics. It’s usually when the album has been all recorded instrumentally that [singer] Ian Gillan and I go off on our own somewhere for a couple of weeks and we write the words. Sometimes he writes on his own, sometimes I write my own. Sometimes we write together. And that’s how it comes out.

He added: “You don’t go to a PURPLE session with anything like a finished song. You go with an idea, and we all work on it together. It’s got to be a collective. That’s the point of the band — it’s a collective. So, one person couldn’t write a DEEP PURPLE song. It takes five of us.

Tracklisting

1. 7 And 7 Is (Love)
2. Rockin’ Pneumonia and The Boogie Woogie Flu (Huey “Piano” Smith)
3. Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac)
4. Jenny Take a Ride! (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels)
5. Watching The River Flow (Bob Dylan)
6. Let The Good Times Roll (Ray Charles & Quincy Jones)
7. Dixie Chicken (Little Feat)
8. Shapes Of Things (The Yardbirds)
9. The Battle of New Orleans (Lonnie Donegan/Johnny Horton)
10. Lucifer (Bo Seger System)
11. White Room (Cream)
12. Caught In the Act Medley: Going Down (Freddie King)/Green Onions (Booker T. and the M.G.’s)/Hot ‘Lanta (The Allman Brothers Band)/Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin)/Gimme Some Lovin’ (The Spencer Davis Group)