Spitfire Records is a subdivision of Eagle Rock Entertainment located in New York, United States.
So now that we know that, let's talk about Deep Purples' Shades Of Deep Purple. It took the industry long enough but they finally got it right for the earlier Deep Purple. These guys did it right. First of all this CD was digitized from the original master tapes. Before this CD the recordings where very bad, definitely not from first generation tapes, if from tape at all. The second thing, they did the remastering at Abbey Road. The sound is really great. They also did a great job with the liner notes. If you buy "Shades Of Deep Purple", "The Book of Taliesyn" and "Deep Purple" these liner notes pretty much all together tell you the early story of the Deep Purple. I am very glad I purchased this CD. I only wished I would have done this earlier. I highly recommend this whole Spitfire series. I don't believe this will ever get any better. By the way for all of you who believe that this band didn't contributed to the hard rock era. Living through it I can remember the actions of people when Hush came out. The older generation of the time S#?t a brick.. The fuzz the rawness and the harshness. This was definitely a group that contributed to Hard Rock. It may not match what happened after these guys MK1 broke up but they did help shape it.

Band Personnell:
Rod Evans - Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - Guitars
Nick Simper - Bass and Backing Vocals
Ian Paice - Drums
Jon Lord - Organs and Backing Vocals

This was the time right after they changed name from "Roundabout" to "Deep Purple", in this period they tried to find their sound, because of this 50% of the album contains cover songs from Joe South, Skip James, The Beatles and Billy Roberts, they only used a couple of days to complete the whole album.
The cover song "Hush" by Joe South was their most successful song from the poineering lineup, "Help" was a slower version than the original version by The Beatles, and the final song "Hey Joe" was earler covered by Jimi Hendrix also became very popular from this lineup.
All in all this album is a very good beginning of new Deep Purple fans, just to get the feel of how it all began.

Ever since SHADES OF... appeared, Deep Purple set a pattern of being years ahead of their time.

When you first hear the opening track "And The Address," you are calmed by Jon Lord's Hammond organ, then he cranks it up for a sonic blast, he is joined by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and bassist Nick Simper for the full on assault! Classic Deep Purple! "Hush" follows and is so psychedelic and ahead of its time....no wonder it's timeless! Then comes my favorite, the beautiful "One More Rainy Day" with it's nifty drum work to showcase Paice's talents. Then you slide right into "I'm So Glad" which really brings out the vocals of Rod Evans. And then there's "Hey Joe." Total excellence. I am convinced that this is a better cover version than Hendrix's. The jamming "Mandrake Root" is a great filler, something most bands never obtain. The Beatles song "Help" is also covered. It works! John Lennon once said, "That's the way the Beatles should have done it". Enough said. The rest of the songs (including bonus tracks) are great, too. The playing and the singing is fantastic. The sound quality is excellent.

This is vintage, progressive rock ahead of it's time for 1968. Sit back, crank this up, turn down the lights, and the sounds will take you away. Folks, this is a classic and a stellar way for Deep Purple to launch their historic career. Quit comparing and just enjoy this unique and cool first album. Totally underrated.

Shades Of Deep Purple (1968.), Deep Purple's first studio album

'Shades of Deep Purple', Deep Purple's first studio album, released in 1968 marks the start of the career of one of the great rock bands that there has ever been. Deep Purple had over the years a constantly changing band line up, the most famous being the Mark II line up which would produce some of the band's finest material in the early '70's. Most people therefore consider the Deep Purple career to start in 1970 with the release of 'Deep Purple in Rock' but what they overlook is the fact that the band had released 3 pretty good albums before this. As a result, the Mark I Deep Purple line up (the 5 members which feature on the first 3 albums) often get overlooked and underrated.

So who were the origianal band members in Deep Purple. Rod Evans was the original vocalist who sadly often languishes in his successor Ian Gillan's, shadow. He's, in my opinion not as good a singer as Gillan but he still has a pretty good voice and fronts the line up very well. Similarly, Nick Simper is the forgotten but certainly more than able bass player. The rest of the band though are the more famous members of the great Deep Purple. John Lord, from the very start of the album shows us just how brilliant a keyboard player he is and for me, his playing shines out the most on this album. Ian Paice's drumming is also excellent on this album - he is seriously the most UNDERRATED drummer of all time! Ritchie Blackmore, the guitar genius also debuts for Deep Purple too - his contributions are very good even if they are not quite at the level his playing would reach with the later DP and his years with Rainbow (i.e. he doesn't do as many solos on this work).

With 'Shades of Deep Purple', the band hadn't yet discovered their classic sound that they would produce in the 1970's but they certainly show signs of it, with great promise. The album, by its general nature is pretty psychedelic with plenty of extravagent keyboard dubs - but its very listenable. The band achieved very limited success in the UK with the work but had a hit with 'Hush' from the album and certainly had a good reception in the US. The issue to get of the album is the remaster edition which contains the bonus tracks - avoid the original album issue which has extremely poor sound quality. The bonus tracks themeselves make nice additions. 'Shadows' is a catchy outtake - the other extras include an alternate take of 'Help', a live performance of 'Hush which has poor quality sound to it and some other versions of 'Love Help Me', 'Help' and 'Hey Joe' which all feature on the album.

So, to the 8 album tracks themselves. John Lord kick starts the opener 'And the Address' in style and it develops into a great instrumental track which features some catchy guitar lines from Blackmore. 'Hush' is the real gem on the album, a cover of a song orignally penned by Joe South - some great vocals over some pretty atmospheric instrumentation. 'One More Rainy Day' opens with a storm effect follow by a pretty extensive bit of keyboard playing giving it quite a psychedlic feel. 'Prelude/I'm So Glad' has an instrumental start which leads into the main song - the vocals are a bit repetitive overall. 'Mandrake Root' has a bluesy style in parts and some powerful vocals - a great track and an early concert favourite for the band. 'Help' is a Beatles cover - not too bad, lots of keyboard again. 'Love Help Me' is another heavily psychedelic styled track - grows on you after a few listens. 'Hey Joe' is a good attempted cover of the classic Hendrix song which he played on his immortal 'Are You Experienced' album - Rod Evans sings it pretty well - the track has a classical influence to it at the start, using some of the instrumentation from 'The Three Corenered Hat', a Spanish suite.

Overall, a pretty solid effort showing great potential for the band. Theres lots of covers on here which Deep Purple put their mark on quite well as well as some fine efforts at their own writing. This incidentally is not the place to start if you are beginning to listen to Deep Purple - start with the classic sound Mark II line up with albums such as 'Machine Head' or 'Fireball'. For any Deep Purple fan, get this album, its a great acquisition.

Mention the name Deep Purple and most people will say "Oh yeah, those guys who did that cool 'Smoke On The Water' song". It really is a shame that so many people don't know about the ORIGINAL Deep Purple. In their career, Purple had about 9 or 10 different lineups, but this one remains the best of them all (despite what uneducated fans and mindless critics will tell you).

The spaced-out psychedelic funk of "And The Address" is delicious, and it's a perfect album opener. The groove is simply irresistible, especially that driving five-note guitar riff. Blackmore sounds somewhat lethargic, but Jon totally steals the show with the mesmerizing sound of his trippy organ. In fact, this is probably the only Deep Purple song in which the organ actually surpasses the guitar (a very rare occurence, believe me). "Hush" was of course the big hit for the boys, earning them enormous success here in America, but hardly nothing in their native England. But it's a killer song; Nick Simper provides a funky, rock-solid bass line, Rod Evans' vocals are to die for and Jon delivers some of his most amazing organ work. Truly a classic. "One More Rainy Day" is a soothing ballad, highlighted by some vocals from Rod that always put me in a state of euphoria. He really is my favorite singer in the world, and what a sadly overlooked talent he was. "Happiness" is Jon's unbelievable tour-de-force on the organ, and it might just be his greatest moment ever on the instrument (it even rivals his later workout on "Lazy" with mark two, probably even surpasses it). The sheer amount of power and intensity must be heard to be believed, as his organ gets more and more intense, until finally, it's just an onslaught of earth-shattering sound accompanied by guitar and drums. Absolutely devastating! And it leads into their cover of "I'm So Glad", which is more or less the same as Cream's version, but slightly better.
We're back to more psychedelic funk on "Mandrake Root", with a riff that many people say was stolen from Hendrix's "Foxy Lady". Well, I don't know about that, but I DO know that this is an excellent tune, with a driving beat that is mostly due to the remarkable rhythm section of Paice and Simper. Simper, in particular, is one of my favorite bass players ever, maybe even my number one, and another extremely underrated musician. Anyway, Rod only gets to sing a few lines before Jon and Ritchie throw in some eerie, trippy solos.
Their cover of "Help" is unquestionably much better than The Beatles' version, I don't care what anyone says (I never saw what was so great about The Beatles in the first place). It's much slower and much more emotional. Evans' delivers one of the greatest vocal performances of his career, and the gentle organ and guitar notes are simply breath-taking in their beauty. I heard that McCartney was quite envious when he heard this version.
"Love Help Me" is a cool little rocker with one of the greatest riffs that I've ever heard, and some deafening wah-wah licks from Ritchie. And their version of "Hey Joe" is absolutely shattering. Sorry, Hendrix fans, but this version completely blows away Jimi's. For starters, there's the riff. My favorite riff in all of music. It's so powerful, heavy and massive that it probably is the heaviest riff of the 1960's. It simply floors me every time I hear it! God what a riff. Anyway, the song features some dazzling organ from Jon in the beginning, then a few vocals from Rod, then a trippy guitar solo from Ritchie, and then the grand finale - they play that stunning riff again, but only FASTER this time! Holy cow! I love it, I love it, I love it! Sorry, I got carried away for a second there. Play this song at full volume and feel your brain rattle from that crushing riff!

God bless Spitfire for releasing these albums the way they should be released - with marvelous sound quality, detailed booklets and bonus songs. And the bonus songs on this CD are all wonderful, especially the awesome "Shadows". I just can't understand why the band didn't put this on the album when it first came out. I mean - WHAT A SONG! Great riff, intoxicating vocals and a weird wah-wah solo to boot. The instrumental take of "Love Help Me" just chugs along like a monster, and it's very heavy for 1968 standards. The BBC version of "Hey Joe" features even better vocals and guitar playing than it's studio counterpart. The alternate take of "Help" is also much better than the studio rendition. And the live version of "Hush" (recorded at Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark Show) is great but the sound quality is iffy.

Overall, an excellent album. And like I said, God bless Spitfire!