Champions or chumps? Deep Purple.

Champions or Chumps?

  • The band that molded heavy rock.

    Votes: 18 78.3%
  • A great band to see live if you want to have a bit of a kip.

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • There is no Deep Purple without Ritchie Blackmore.

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • Yet another overrated rock band from the 70's.

    Votes: 2 8.7%

  • Total voters
    23
I voted for the first option. They´re one of the forefathers of heavy metal.

However, I consider them a little overrated in relation to other contemporaries like Uriah Heep or Nazareth (in the UK) or Grand Funk Railroad in the US.

I guess it´s a matter of tastes but I prefer Deep Purple Mark III (with Coverdale and Hughes) to Mark II (Gillan, Glover). Besides, I prefer Rainbow to DP.

I saw them three times lives in Madrid in the last 6 years. First one in orchestra tour. Just Ok but the best part was listening DIO singing "Rainbow in the dark". Other two were during the last two albums tours. A little boring with Ian Gillan "trying to be" the singer that once was. About Steve Morse, for me he´s the best one in the current DP line up. Nobody can be Ritchie but Steve owns a personal style.

well all i know is Uriah Heep used to be known as a 'poor mans deep purple' so i suppose they wernt as good and there albums were a bit cheaper???
 
I voted for the band that molded heavy rock. I love Purple and think they are absolutely fantastic., they are definitely in my top 10 fav bands of all time. Like most bands, they have a handful of songs that are just average but loads of thier songs are brilliant and they do of course have quite a few masterpieces. I preferred Purple with Gillan, so am really ultra looking forward to seeing them in May. Got 2 tickets in the 2nd row from the stage, so thats gonny ROCK AND RULE.
 
well all i know is Uriah Heep used to be known as a 'poor mans deep purple' so i suppose they wernt as good and there albums were a bit cheaper???

Yeah, It´s said that Uriah Heep used to be considerered as a "second hand Deep Purple" but I don´t agree at all. Both have things in common but they´re quite differents I guess.

In the end, it´s a matter of tastes but albums like "Demons and wizards", "Look at yourself", "Salisbury" are masterpieces. I don´t know how to explain it but, in my opinion, Deep Purple are a "big arena hard rock band" with great hymns (Smoke on the water, Highway star, Black night, Burn....). However, Uriah Heep are more dark and atmospheric.

Talking about members, I consider Ken Hensley (then Uriah Heep keyboard player) a genius almost as good as Jon Lord and David Byron is one of the most underrated singers in history.

Obviously they never got the same attention as DP but nowadays playing live I think they´re far better.
 
Purps.... definitely champs in my book. The only problem for me was that Blackmore's style ground to a halt in '72 and didn't really develop further.

When Ritchie left the band last time and Steve Morse was recruited, I was a little sceptical. I went to see that line-up on the In Rock anniversary tour and suddenly it looked like the Purps actually liked being together again, instead of leaving the venue for 5 different hotels in 5 different cars.

When you see a band ressurrect itself and keep enjoying itself, it transmits to the audience.