Monstrous and wonderful HARD ROCK album in capital letters. It was 1970 and the Deep Purple after a few first steps of pop, rock, and psychedelia are rockier than ever, both for that wonderful cover of the five musicians carved in the mountain, a Rushmore mount of metal!, And for the sound of this album with authentic masterpieces of hard rock and heavy metal.
The organ introduction of ‘Speed King’, as if it were a recreation of the musical genesis emulating the theory of the creation of the universe from chaos.
‘Speed King’ was interpreted as an allusion to amphetamine, but in reality, they just wanted to express the vertigo of singing “desperately fast.” The members of Deep Purple detested drugs. They preferred alcohol, much less damaging to the brain.
With the Purple putting their instruments to the test, the leading role for that sound Hammond of the master Lord and the Stratocaster of Blackmore. After that demonstration as an intro and Lord putting order to the initial chaos begins Speed King, a great song with the band at the top and a perfect Ian Gillan.
The group’s memorable performance of the song was their appearance on Granada TV filmed for the ‘Doing Their Thing’ show during August 1970, which they also released on DVD in Japan. You can watch the video below: