An album replay show featuring releases, in descending order, from 1974, 1973 and 1972: Stormbringer by Deep Purple, Goats Head Soup from The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed’s Transformer. Track listing after my long preamble.

I’ve been revisiting full albums from my formative musical years of late so I expect I’ll be doing album replays for a few weeks at least, on Saturdays. Such an approach works well for my Saturday show because, unlike Mondays when I’m actually live in studio, the Saturday morning set, which I volunteered long ago to do to help the station fill an empty time slot, is one I program via the station computer system. So the songs/albums play straight through, no DJ talk to interrupt anyone should they be recording the record off the radio, and yes I’m dating myself 🙂 from the days we did those sorts of things when a new album was released and an FM station would play the whole thing and you got your blank cassettte tapes ready. And then, me at least, if I liked the album wound up buying it, anyway. Not that such is necessary these days given streaming and such but that’s, for instance, how I got into Joe Jackson, via a Toronto station playing his first album, Look Sharp! in its entirety.

I always remember such a taping circumstance with AC/DC’s Back In Black album where, at the time, shortly after college, I had moved to northern Alberta to start my journalism career and the house I was sharing with a bunch of people was beside a construction zone so every now and then a dump truck would drive by, cross the railroad tracks and shake the foundations of the building. Yes, a deliberate nod to a later AC/DC song Shake Your Foundations from the Fly On The Wall album. So, my cassette tape of Back In Black, recorded off radio, had a brief ‘rumble’ in it because the tape deck shook. As I recall, it was during Shoot To Thrill, so the truck driver’s timing (or mine) was off as obviously the rumble should have come during You Shook Me All Night Long but you can’t have everything. In any event, when I actually bought Back In Black, I kinda missed that dump truck-induced distortion I had grown used to hearing on playback.

Back to Saturday’s set . . .

Stormbringer is from the Mark III version of Deep Purple featuring David Coverdale on lead vocals supported by bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes. The lineup’s first outing was the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Burn album but by the next record, Stormbringer, Hughes in particular was pushing Purple towards a more funky, soulful sound which – while the album was still successful on the charts – guitarist Ritchie Blackmore found distasteful, leading to his eventual departure from the band.

As a forever Purple fan, all personnel versions of the band and they’re up to Mark IX now, I’ve always found Blackmore’s stance interesting given that, while Purple always purported to be a democracy, if the band did have a leader it was Blackmore, so if he didn’t like the direction one wonders why he didn’t put his foot down. But, the ever-mercurial Blackmore was also at the time looking to explore other hard rock musical avenues and had become enamoured of the band Elf, which supported Purple on tour and was led by singer Ronnie James Dio, with whom Blackmore eventually partnered to form the first (and best, to me) versions of Rainbow. Yet despite his misgivings, Blackmore still contributed his usual excellent guitar playing to the Mark III albums and Stormbringer features some of my favorite Deep Purple songs, any era and personnel configuration. Things like the beautiful Holy Man and Soldier of Fortune, featuring the vocals of Hughes and Coverdale, respectively, plus the opening rocker of a title cut.

The Stones’ Goats Head Soup received mixed critical reviews at the time of release and was considered as not measuring up to the so-called ‘big four’ studio albums that preceded it: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St. (likely my favorite album by anyone). That four-album run is one of the greatest in rock music history, but to dismiss, or sell short an album like Goats Head Soup that features songs like Angie, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Winter, 100 Years Ago and the infamous Star Star (aka Starfucker, the original title, rejected by the record company) is, well, I’m a big Stones fan so wrong guy to ask I suppose.

And in listening to Transformer again for the first time in ages, in preparing the show, wow, what an album, co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson. The record of course features Reed’s most commercially successful song, Walk On The Wild Side, but is full of great stuff like Vicious, Andy’s Chest, Satellite Of Love, Perfect Day and others.

Here’s the set list:

Deep Purple – Stormbringer

1. Stormbringer
2. Love Don’t Mean A Thing
3. Holy Man
4. Hold On
5. Lady Double Dealer
6. You Can’t Do It Right
7. High Ball Shooter
8. The Gypsy
9. Soldier Of Fortune

The Rolling Stones – Goats Head Soup

1. Dancing With Mr. D
2. 100 Years Ago
3. Coming Down Again
4. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
5. Angie
6. Silver Train
7. Hide Your Love
8. Winter
9. Can You Hear The Music
10. Star Star

Lou Reed – Transformer

1. Vicious
2. Andy’s Chest
3. Perfect Day
4. Hangin’ Round
5. Walk On The Wild Side
6. Make Up
7. Satellite Of Love
8. Wagon Wheel
9. New York Telephone Conversation
10. I’m So Free
11. Goodnight Ladies