• AllMyVinyl #47
• Band: Deep Purple
• Album Title: Come Taste The Band
• Release Date: 7 Nov 1975
• Date purchased: 16 Jul 2020
• Location purchased: eBay
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

This is an album I have more of a story about than the music itself (says the guy that ended up writing about 2200 words all told here).  First off…  “funk”.  That’s a word that will come up a few times.  :)

Like a lot of Deep Purple fans, I got into the band with the Mk II lineup.  As time went on, I found out there were other combinations of the band.  Much like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple has about a gazillion different lineups.  I know of the Coverdale/Hughes era of course.  I’ve known about the song “Burn” as long as I’ve known Purple as it was on the first thing I ever bought (The Deepest Purple compilation).  So Coverdale & Hughes instead of Gillan & Glover (Gillian & Grover, MTV song?).  But was an unknown variable to me for a long time is what is collectively known as “Mk IV” of Deep Purple.  That’s after Ritchie Blackmore quit to form Rainbow.  The remainder of Purple replaced him with Tommy Bolin.  When I found out about this, I thought “What’s this all about?”  I fully admit in 2024 that old opinion of mine in the early 80’s was well, wrong.  I wrote the era off.  I never owned the album – I never even heard the full thing for an exceptionally long time.  As time went on, Purple reformed, and I never felt the urge to do much with Come Taste The Band.  Somewhere along the line I must have, as I HAVE listened to the album in full in the 80’s somewhere.  But I kind of poisoned myself to it.  I did kind of like the track “Comin’ Home”, but that was about as far as I went with it in terms of “liking” it.  Mk IV was something to be ignored.  It wasn’t “real Purple”.  At that time it was “No Ritchie no Purple”.  As time marched on, I recall trying to give it a chance a few more times, but nothing.  The album just did nothing for me.  It was a non thing for me – never bought it in any format.  Just passed over in my library.

Jump forward and now we’re in 2020.  I had discovered the “Deep Purple Podcast“.  This is hosted by Nathan Beaudry and Jon “Candle Wax” Mottola. These guys produce an amazingly detailed podcast on well.. Deep Purple (and related artists and albums).  I even guested on their show once (I’d really love to come back guys!) but before that, I got hooked on their stuff.  That’s because they spend a lot of time breaking down the album production, the music, and there’s a lot to talk about there.  I was enjoying their series, and started looking backwards, so I checked out their episode on “Come Taste the Band”.  I was wondering what I’d think of this since I really didn’t care for the album, but these guys did as they’re big fans of Mk III & IV.

Holy crap was I glad I listened to this episode, as they completely turned me around on this album, and while I’m not gonna sit here and claim it’s the BEST Deep Purple album or anything like that.  It’s gone from one I didn’t own and ignored to buying two copies of it.  I picked up a used copy on vinyl in the summer of 2020 as it’s been long out of print.  Found a fairly good shape copy on eBay for a good price, so I jumped on it.  Then two years later I picked up the 35th anniversary version on a 2CD package as it contains all kinds of remixes and extra tracks.   I fully credit these two for turning me around on Mk IV.  It’s a great album.  Of course it’s not In Rock or Machine Head…  But it’s a great album if allow yourself the venue to believe it can be good.  If you’re gonna stonewall it, you won’t grow musically.  I’m super glad I did listen to Nate & John about this album, as I really enjoy it.  I’ve embedded this episode below on my blog page.

I also found a DVD/CD combo that had come out some years prior called “Phoenix Rising”.  This basically tells the story of the end of Mk III, and the rise and fall of Mk IV, and the end of Deep Purple in 1976.  Now I love a good documentary as much as the next guy, but this one is amazing.  It’s over an hour and a half and all about Mk IV.  It’s mostly with Glenn Hughes & Jon Lord, and I learned a LOT from this documentary.  It’s still available in a CD/DVD set now new. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Sadly not too long after this the world lost Tommy.  Deep Purple disbanded in July of 1976, and after a solo band concert in December of 1976, Tommy OD’ed on a cocktail of drugs that would have likely killed most humans.  Thing is he wasn’t the only one who did this in that era.  Glenn Hughes was a major cocaine fiend, and both of them at the same time with a major drug problem made it amazing that they were able to function as a band at all.  If you watch some of the footage on the Phoenix Rising DVD, Tommy is pretty out of it. I think I remember in the interview where Jon Lord said they had to cover for him musically in a few shows.  It was sad, because I would have LOVED – LOVED I tell ya to hear more from Deep Purple with Tommy.  I get why they disbanded, it makes sense given where they all were in 1976.  However, I’ve really grown to appreciate this era FAR more than the earlier version of “No Ritchie, no Purple” person I used to be.   The last part of this I want to say is Tommy was fucking 25 when he left.  The same age as Randy Rhoads.  I’m now older than both of their ages combined now.  That saddens me.

I hope you found peace, Tommy.

OK, enough of that.  What about the music?

Well, as a I said before, I always liked the song “Coming Home”.  It to this day remains my favorite song on the album, and for years it was the only track on my overall Deep Purple playlist.  It starts off with a sound I really like.  Before the vocals even start, it’s got an intro I adore.  Piano sound, synth sound, and an initial note delivered by Ian Paice – the kind of sound you’d hear at the end of a song. I always loved that. It’s my favorite kind of track.  3:55 and fast.  It’s got great guitar work by Tommy – synth & piano in the same song…  The only thing that sounds a little off is the chorus.  By this point you’re used to the sound of David & Glenn signing together in Purple.  However, for this song, Glenn was off dealing with cocaine issues, and the background vocals here are Tommy Bolin.  Other than that, this song is a 4.5 for me by the DPP rating scale.  It would have been a 5 if Glenn did the background vocals.  Go fumble with the spreadsheet, John.

Lady Luck – Probably the song I liked the most out of the other tracks from times in the past.  Love the bass work in this track, it stands out for me.  Overall the song isn’t as in your face as some Purple can be.  It’s a slower song, but not SLOW.  The beat that runs through it doesn’t change much.  I did like the guitar solo.  “If I see you again, I’ll call you my friend”.

Gettin’ Tighter – A bit more of a “rock” song than Lady Luck.  At least until a couple of minutes in when it goes hardcore into the “funk” sound that Mk III gets labeled with.  Probably the most out there in terms of that sound that I can think of for Mk III/IV.   The funk stuff is an interesting diversion, but I love the rock parts of this song a lot.

Dealer – This is an odd one – the bit a minute in when they go into a totally different vocal style (which reminds me a bit of Mk I & Rod Evans.. But aside from that, the guitar work is quite good, and the funk that was there in the last song is reigned in.  This song is credited to Bolin/Coverdale, but Glenn does a bunch with the bass here – so much so I thought he had a hand in writing the song.  Great combination of beat and guitar in the back end of the song when the vocals stop.  Liked this too.

I Need Love – Given Coverdale’ proclivity at writing about getting laid in Whitesnake….  Was this an early version of that? :)  Anyway, more “funk”.  Not my fav track on the album.

Drifter – This feels like more a straightforward rock song than some of the last few on the album (meaning the “funk” is gone).  I did like the beat while I was listening now.  Jammed along – that’s usually my indicator that I like the song, so it is good, I guess (haha).  Especially like Tommy’s solo and REALLY liked the way the song ended.  Good stuff.

Love Child – The funk is back.  We went too long without any of it.  This time it’s Jon Lord – it’s a keyboard thing getting in there.  At last that’s what my untrained ear says about who is doing this.  Other than the funk bit in the middle, the rest of is a straightforward rock song which is decent – a 3 on the DPP scale.  ;)

This Time Around / Owed to G – This is officially two songs, yet joined together.  On the back of the vinyl, they refer to them as tracks 3a & 3b on Side 2.  The instrumental part (Owed to G) is credited solely to Bolin.  This Time Around is credited to Hughes & Lord – the only credit Lord gets on the album, and only one of two that don’t have Coverdale on the writing credits.  I can definitely see that it’s a Hughes dominated song – the bass is out in front here, and I’n nearly positive it’s him who sings the thing.  What’s interesting to me is that the second part being credited to just Bolin isn’t just a guitar solo.  It’s the entire band playing (well, not Coverdale, it’s an instrumental).  I actually prefer the Owed to G part more than the first part, although the first part has a sound unlike anything else on the album too.

You Keep On Moving – This album (and Mk IV) ends with this track.  This is credited to Coverdale & Hughes, and again I can hear a lot of bass here.  It’s not my favorite on the album, but there is one moment on here I really adore.  It’s the absolute last note you hear.  In the last two seconds of the song, there’s a big fat bass sound from Glenn Hughes which closes out everything – I oddly like that single sound a lot, closing out Mk IV.

One interesting thing about the back cover art – it shows the glass from the front nearly empty with lipstick on the glass.  I always liked that art design.  Nearly 50 years later, I don’t know WHO was responsible for the idea on the back cover, but thumbs up from me, I thought it was a great way to have art on the back that matches the art on the front.

I also had forgotten completely this album was produced by Martin Birch – a master at this kind of stuff.  I suspect he had a lot to do with how it came out.  All hail “The Wasp”!

To sum this up, I’ll basically restate – I became a big fan of Mk IV after being 100% turned around on this by the guys at the Deep Purple Podcast.  A big piece of the ammo in that was their 20th episode on “Come Taste The Band”.  It made a massive difference in my opinion on this album.  If you never cared for this, or had it filed under “meh” or “who cares”, I urge you to listen to that episode.  It might turn you around like it turned me around.

I’m super glad I’m now a fan of this, as I discovered some tunes here that are great.  While the debate on whether or not Lord & Paice SHOULD have done a Mk IV, or just stopped after the Stormbringer tour is up for debate.  Heck, even Jon Lord kind of downplays this era in videos talking about it.  But… This album exists, it’s here, and there’s some great tunes on here which you’ll only discover by listening to it and giving it a chance…

RIP Tommy Bolin – there should have been more.