Customer Reviews

The Very Best of Deep Purple

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Deep Purple is the heavy metal equivalent of Yes. Both bands sprung up in the late 1960's, flirted for awhile with the idea of combining classical music with rock, had a relatively brief early 1970s heydays in which they recorded their best albums, had some latter success upon reuniting in the mid-1980s, and have since faded into a long and uninspired twilight that has added little to their legacies. Like Yes, most of Deep Purple's best music resides on a handful of albums ("Machine Head," "Made in Japan," "Perfect Strangers") and any anthology album simply sweeps the other bits and pieces together into one package.

As single disc anthologies go, "The Very Best of Deep Purple," is as tightly packed as it could be (just a tad over 75 minutes of music). And while you can always quibble about track selection around the margains on a disc lke this (I'd have chosen the title track of the band's 1984 comeback album "Perfect Strangers," for example) all of the band's best known tunes are here, including "Smoke on the Water," "Space Truckin'," "Hush," "Woman from Tokyo," "Knocking at Your Back Door." It's also no accident that about 12 of the 15 tunes included were recorded by Purple's "classic" lineup with BOTH vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Without either one or both of them, the Purples are little better than just another arena rock band. The CD booklet contains lengthy liner notes and photographs from various periods in the band's history.

Overall, a decent single disc anthology album that will be of most interest to the casual fan.

For anyone on a financial plan this CD of hard rock's best band is adequate. It consists of 15 songs from Deep Purple's various stages. Opening with 1968's Hush and ending up with 1984's Knockin' At Your Back Door. This disc will give you a good perspective on how this great band changed throughout the years.

For a present I got this CD, I was timid at first but my dad assured me I would like so I tried it out. I am a younger fan of rock, so I tried it out and really like it! Deep Purple have a great album here. So if I were you I would buy it!

Rhino Records has done it again! Reviving and remastering the sound of one of the 70's heavy hitters, Rhino has presented Deep Purple's hard-rockin' style to a new generation. The liner notes (if you're into that kind of thing) provide a terrific history of this innovative group.

"The Very Best of Deep Purple" contains 15 of the band's best tracks. And, while some of the previous reviewers have stated that they would have liked to have seen some tracks exchanged for material found in the band's "Made in Japan" live album, IMHO, you can't go wrong with this compilation. Unlike most greatest hits albums, Rhino has chosen to list these 15 songs in chronological order. I liked that! It gave the album a "flow" that's rarely found on compilations.

The album starts out innocently enough with covers of Joe South's "Hush" and Neil Diamond's (Neil Diamond? - are you kidding me?) "Kentucky Woman". (very well done, by the way!) and picks up speed from there. Of course, the old Purp staples, "Highway Star" (the name of the official Deep Purple web pages, b/t/w), "Woman From Tokyo" and "Smoke On the Water" are present. But the true gems for those new to the band are their lesser-known hits, "Burn", "Black Night" and "Demon's Eye".

Deep Purple went through a LOT of personnel changes over the span of the band's existence, but some things remained true through those changes - great vocalization, great instrumentation, and innovative techniques all stayed the course.

This CD should be a part of any serious collector of 70's classic rock. It's a great value and will hold a place near the front of the owner's CD cabinet. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, play it LOUD!

It would have been a perfect best of if instead of HUSH,KENTUCY WOMAN,STRANGE KIND OF WOMAN and DEMON'S EYE,some live cuts from LIVE IN JAPAN,one of the most famous rock live albums of the seventies with GET YER YA YA'S OUT and LIVE AT LEEDS would have been incuded.As it is,it's still good because it collects all the greatest hits.The liner notes are excellent,delivering the turbulent story of a group forever associated with the birth of hard-rock.Who would have thought at the time that DEEP PURPLE with LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH had created a genre that would stay popular until the early nineties,even if the word heavy-metal finally replaced the hard-rock craze?The riffs,the voice of IAN GILLAN who had so many imitators remain potent.

As a casual fan of Deep Purple (I own Machine Head and Live in Japan), this is a terrific (and by definition, somewhat scattershot) overview of the band from 1968 to 1984. One thing you have to say about Deep Purple, subtlety was never part of their musical vocabulary. Whether they were covering other artists' hits ("Hush," "Kentucky Woman") or doing their own material ("Smoke on the Water'), this was no-holds-barred rock 'n' roll. Surprisingly, these were the only three times Deep Purple hit the Top 40. But other singles like "Fireball," "Highway Star", "Space Truckin'" and "Burn" rock with the same kind of ferocity and reckless abandon. To fully appreciate this CD, PLAY THIS MUSIC LOUD! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

For those who are on a budget this newly remastered cd of one of rock's "loudest" bands is sufficient. It includes songs from the band thru it's various stages. Staring with "Hush" a late 60's smash and ending up with the 80's "Knocking At Your Door". Personel changes throughout Purple's life were sometimes beneficial and othertimes not. This cd will give you a good perspective on how this truely great rock band changed throughout the 60's and the 80's. For those with a few more dollars to spend I would suggest opting for the European (newly remastered) 2-cd collection entitled "Deep Purple 30: Very Best Of" as it is more representative of what great music this band produced.

Smoke on the water is an awesome awesome song. The rest of the collection is okay. Somewhat rockin' but bland.

I'm basically repeating everyone else. Great CD. All the hits, except.......... you got it, "Perfect Strangers." Somebody wasn't paying attention.

For a novice, or even a vet DP fan, I rate it a 4 because it's missing PERFECT STRANGERS, brightside: Excellent liner notes!