Deep Purple

Album released 1969


Chasing Shadows

(Lord/Paice)

An original idea of ian's, who is heard playing drums, timbales, maracas and cowbell. Jon is playing claves. The percussion instruments were tracked on afterwards of course. The song is about one of jon's nightmares. Nicky's bass line is a gas.

Jon Lord said this about the song in April 1996:
The song was something to do with a nightmare I'd had and the lyrics as I wrote them were:

Chasing shadows, over my walls
with myself hardly sleeping
Dwarfs and giants, twenty feet tall
fill the room with their creeping

Sounds of breathing sharpen my ears
then they fade into nothing
Someone's laughter out in the street
fills the night with their loving

   I feel the ice in my head
   Running its hands through my bed
   Not even dreaming I seem to be dead
   Colours of yellow and colours of red

All I'm asking some secret voice
is to lead me to darkness

Jon forgot the two last lines:

I'm so tired, dawn never comes
I just hide in the shadows

Blind

(Lord)

Jon plays harpsichord on this track, which is a love song, sort of squeezed into the format of a twelve bar blues. The middle section is a descending chromatic sequence which is intended to give a sort of "slowing down" effect.
I see reflections in the water

Autumn colours, summer's daughter

And as as the year is growing older

I see winter on my shoulder

I stand in the haze

Watching stormy ripples grow on my own

Never knew your needed

Till I found myself standing here alone



And in the water, such a sad face

Slowly drowning, such a sad face

If only I could change the seasons

Like a poet, I've my reasons

It started to snow in the middle of July

Wonder why

Never did understand you

My sorrow is hanging in the grey sky



In the summer days we flew to the sun

On melting wings

But the seasons changed to fast

Leave us all behind

Blind



But then the stone fell on the water

Putting end to summer's daughter

And me, I turn away remembering

All the seasons, such a sad thing

It started to rain in the middle of the sun

Winter's begun



Never did understand you

My sorrow is hanging in the grey sky



In the summer days we flew to the sun

On melting wings

But the seasons changed to fast

Leave us all behind

Blind

Lalena

(Donovan)

Donovan's song done how we thought Donovan might like to have heard it. The only double tracking on this cut is the guitar passage at the end. The slightly "jazzy" feel to the organ is a bow in the direction of Donovan's mellow yellow days.

When the sun goes to bed

That's the time your raise your head

That's your lot in life Lalena

Can't blame you Lalena



Arty Tart la de da

Can your part get much sadder

That's your lot in life Lalena

Can't blame you Lalena



Run you hand thru your hair

Paint your face with despair

That's your lot in life Lalena

Can't blame you Lalena



When the sun goes to bed

That's the time your raise your head

That's your lot in life Lalena

Can't blame you Lalena



Arty Tart Oh so la de da

Can your part ever get, ever get much sadder

That's your lot in life Lalena

Can't blame you Lalena

Oh, Lalena

a) Fault Line

(Blackmore/Lord/Simper/Paice)

Recorded when we heard that we were going to be in L.A. at earthquake time. The drum track was recorded first (with organ) and then reversed.
(instrumental)

b) The Painter

(Blackmore/Lord/Evans/Simper/Paice)

This track was recorded live; no double tracking.
Painter

Come colour up my life

Oh painter

Come colour up my life

Take away the misery

Take away the strife



Writer

Make me up a play

Writer

Make the meaning gay

[For I don't know who I am]

Just give me words to say



Singer

Let me sing a song

Singer

Let me sing a song

You don't have to worry

Cause singer you can sing along


Why Didn't Rosemary

(Blackmore/Lord/Evans/Simper/Paice)

Vaguely inspired by an Otis Spann number, and again it's an attempt to widen the scope of a plain 12 bar sequence; in fact the verses are 14 bars long and the guitar solo verses are 17 bars long. Interesting words from Rod.

There's a black hill 

We had a climb

Everything I need but nothing's mine

Satan's world, I've had a kill

Why didn't Rosemary ever take the pill?

Lying there waiting, waiting for the kill

Oh man won't do it, but the devil will



I'm losing time and my mind

Why can't I ever have what's naturally mine?

I got life and the things that go with it

If there's something else, where can i get it?

Lying there waiting, waiting for the kill

Oh man won't do it, but the devil will



Well here's my views, I always lose

Things I want to do are yesterday's news

Say life's a ball, I've had it all

Out there in another dance hall

Lying there waiting, waiting for the kill

Oh man won't do it, but the devil will



Take me as I am, an excuse for a man

Wherever I push someone stops my hand

As a matter of interest, tell me if you will

Why didn't Rosemary ever take the pill?

Lying there waiting, waiting for the kill

Oh man won't do it, but the devil will



Oh, why won't Rosemary ever take the pill?

Bird Has Flown

(Evans/Blackmore/Lord)

A different recording from the version released on a single. Ritchie tracked the wah-wah guitar on afterwards and also the guitar at the end of the middle section.

Oh the beggar on his cornerstone

Catches pity in his wrinkled hand

But the lover whose bird has flown

Catches nothing only grains of sand



All the children in the distant house

They have feelings only children know

But the lover whose bird has flown

Catches nothing only flakes of snow



The sensation is not new to you

It's something we all have known

You get it - it goes right through you

Yes it's something we all have known



	And the bird it has flown

	To a place on it's own

	Somewhere all alone



Now the hermit in his lonely cave

Has himself to keep him company

But the lover whose bird has flown

He has heartaches same as you and me



The sensation's not new to you

It's something we all have known

You get it - it goes right through you

Yes it's something we all have known



	And the bird it has flown



Now the hermit in his lonely cave

Has himself to keep him company

But the lover whose bird has flown

He has heartaches same as you and me



	Oh it's started snowing

April

(Blackmore/Lord)

A sort of 3 part of concert about the month of april. The first section is played by just Jon and Ritchie. Jon played piano and organ, and Ritchie played acoustic guitar (a rhythm pattern and a double tracked lead pattern) and electric guitar. The choir was added afterwards. The whole section used about 11 different tracks. Also Ian on timpani can be heard in the background. The second section is Jon's orchestral description of April. The instruments used were : two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, two violins, viola and two cellos. The third section is a treatment of the chord sequence of the first section in a more "Purple" way. As a whole, we hope April hangs together as personal evocation of a beautiful, but sad (to us) month.

April is a cruel time

Even though the sun may shine

And world looks in the shade as it slowly comes away

Still falls the April rain

And the valley's filled with pain

And you can't tell me quite why

As i look up to the grey sky

Where it should be blue

Grey sky where I should see you

Ask why, why it should be so

I'll cry, say that I don't know



Maybe once in a while I'll forget and I'll smile

But then the feeling comes again of an April without end

Of an April lonely as they come

In the dark of my mind I can see all too fine

But there is nothing to be done when I just can't feel the sun

And the springtime's the season of the night



Grey sky where it should be blue

Grey sky where I should see you

Ask why, why it should be so

I'll cry, say that I don't know

I don't know


Deep Purple original lineup:

Ritchie Blackmore - Lead Guitar
Rod Evans - Vocals
Jon Lord - Keyboards
Ian Paice - Drums
Nicky Simper - Bass Guitar

Deep Purple was, unusually, the band's third album, recorded between January and April 1969. It was the last album to feature the band's original line up, which survived until June 1969. The album was their most ambitious at the time; combining hard rock and classical music together - hardly the most obvious combination. The track "April" was a taste of things to come later that year - the "Concerto for Group and Orchestra"....

The song notes that appear before the lyrics on each track are the sleeve notes that were issued with the original gatefold sleeve album.


These bottom notes were (I think) written by Richard Swann. Lyrics transcribed by Richard Swann, with Trond J. Strøm.

The Lyrics Page
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