Deep Purple - Icon - Music & Performance - CD

If "any" heavy-metal group deserves the "icon" label, it's these trailblazing UK legends. Organ and guitar tangle throughout "Perfect Strangers; Nobody's Home"; storming live versions of "Smoke on the Water; Hush; Woman from Tokyo; Child in Time; Black Night", and more!

Despite the band's constant personnel changes, which featured a revolving cast that included Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, and Ian Gillan at one time or another, Deep Purple's then-innovative blend of hard rock, prog rock histrionics, and nascent heavy metal in the early '70s makes them, in retrospect, the perfect template for bands like Led Zeppelin, who then pushed hard rock toward hair band metal later in the decade. This 11-track set makes an OK introduction to the group's legacy, but not a great one, since the versions collected here of the band's biggest hits "Smoke on the Water," their cover of Joe South's "Hush," "Woman from Tokyo," and "Strange Kind of Woman" are all live versions and not the original radio mixes. The live versions are both credible and fine, but Deep Purple was really one of the first arena bands, which forced them to draw large strokes in concert, and the versions here lack some of the precision of the original singles. That said, there are some cool cuts included of songs that are lesser known but no less memorable like "Knocking at Your Back Door" and "Perfect Strangers" (which sounds like Led Zeppelin before there was a Led Zeppelin), and all of it adds up to a fair survey of what this band was all about -- you'll find yourself wanting to hear the original single versions of the big hits, though. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi

Performer	Deep Purple
Music genre	Heavy Metal
Music subgenre	CD - Heavy Metal
Music release type	Release
Media format	CD
Original release date	2012
Edition	Standard Edition
Language	English
Is collectible	Y
Number of tracks	13
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Series title	Deep Purple - Icon COMPACT DISCS
Track listing	Smoke on the Water [Live] [Live], Hush [Live Version] [Live], Woman from Tokyo [Live] [Live], Knocking at Your Back Door, Call of the Wild, Perfect Strangers, Bad Attitude, Nobody's Home, Black Night [Live] [Live], Child in Time [Live] [Live], Strange Kind of Woman [Live] [Live]
Record label	Mercury
Target audience	Adult
Composer	Deep Purple
Songwriter	Deep Purple
Music producer	Martin Birch
Number in series	1
Occasion	All Occasion
Track name	Perfect Strangers; Nobody's Home; Smoke on the Water; Hush; Woman from Tokyo; Child in Time; Black Night
Digital audio file format	CD
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N