Fireball | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 1971 (US) [1] September 1971 (UK) [2] | |||
Recorded | September 1970 – June 1971 | |||
Studio | De Lane Lea Studios and Olympic Studios, London, The Hermitage, Welcombe, North Devon | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:30 | |||
Label | Harvest | |||
Producer | Deep Purple | |||
Deep Purple chronology | ||||
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Singles from Fireball | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [5] |
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 9/10 [6] |
Music Story | [ citation needed ] |
Fireball is the fifth studio album by English rock band Deep Purple,released in 1971 as the second album with the Mark II line-up,consisting of Ritchie Blackmore,Ian Gillan,Roger Glover,Jon Lord and Ian Paice. It was recorded at various times between September 1970 and June 1971. It became the first of the band's three UK No. 1 albums,though it did not stay on the charts as long as its predecessor, Deep Purple in Rock . Even though the album has sold over a million copies in the UK,it has never received a certification there.
The album was the first that Deep Purple worked on after establishing their career with In Rock,which had been a critical and commercial success,staying on the charts for over a year. [7] Because of this,the group were in continual demand for live concerts,which began to affect band members' health. Keyboardist Jon Lord suffered back problems (dating back to his days in The Artwoods when he had to transport a Hammond organ to gigs without the assistance of a road crew),and bassist Roger Glover had stomach problems which prevented him from performing live on several occasions. [8] Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore felt he had been vindicated by the decision to concentrate on hard rock,and believed the group's success was largely because of him. This led to increasing conflict with singer Ian Gillan and the relationship between the two began to become strained. [7]
As with the previous album,sessions for the follow-up to In Rock were booked in the space of many months in between the bands touring commitments. On the first of these,in September 1970,the band completed just one song,"Anyone's Daughter",with the band struggling to come up with more ideas. [9]
Further material for the album was rehearsed in Welcombe Manor,Devonshire in December 1970. [10] The band cancelled several live performances in order to put together material that could serve as a follow-up to In Rock. "Strange Kind of Woman","I'm Alone" and "The Mule" were written during these sessions,and recorded in January 1971, [11] with the first two coupled together as Deep Purple's next single in February,to keep the band in the public eye while the album was still being worked on. [12] Another song,"Freedom" was written at Welcombe and recorded during these sessions,but didn't make the final track listing. [13] Other material was recorded in-between gigs through to March. [14] "Strange Kind of Woman" was added to the group's live set at the end of January,quickly developing into a showpiece for Gillan to sing back Blackmore's guitar riffs in a call and response manner. [15] The last song to be recorded was "Demon's Eye" in June. [16]
Meanwhile,their American record label,Warner Bros,grew impatient waiting for the new album,as the band had an American tour booked for July. As a result,"Demon's Eye" could not make the final tracklist there,with the label opting to include "Strange Kind Of Woman" instead. [17]
Fireball reached the No. 1 position on the UK albums chart, [18] while also hitting No. 1 in several other European countries,such as Germany,Austria,and Sweden. In North America,it outperformed its predecessor,In Rock,reaching No. 32 in the US [19] and No. 24 in Canada. [20]
The original UK version had "Demon's Eye" as its third track,but did not include "Strange Kind of Woman",which was instead released as a single there. The US version includes the latter track in place of the former. [16] The boogie-inspired "Strange Kind of Woman" single reached No. 8 in the UK and Germany,and No. 1 in Denmark. "Fireball",the album's title track,was also released as a single and reached No. 15 in the UK.
"Strange Kind of Woman" has been a staple of the live set up to the present day,and "Fireball" also made a few live appearances,mainly as an encore as it required Ian Paice to use a double bass drum,which was set up during the break after the main set. "Strange Kind of Woman" and "The Mule" were played regularly live throughout 1972 (and appear on the live album Made in Japan ),with the latter replacing an instrumental "Paint It Black" as a vehicle for Paice's drum solo. [21] 1971's Fireball Tour frequently featured "No No No" in addition to the three aforementioned songs.
"Anyone's Daughter" was played on the 1993–1994 tours,while "Fools","No One Came","I'm Alone",and "Demon's Eye" have all made periodic appearances in various tours since 1996.[ example needed ]
The original vinyl release was in a gatefold sleeve,with a generic Harvest LP-bag and a lyric-insert.
In September 2010,a limited-edition 24k gold CD was released by Audio Fidelity. The CD was mastered from the original master tapes by Steve Hoffman. The gold CD contained the original USA track listing with "Strange Kind of Woman" and does not have "Demon's Eye".
Most of the band do not consider the album a classic,although it is one of Ian Gillan's favourites. He stated in a 1974 interview:"The reason I liked that so much was because I thought,from a writing point of view,it was really the beginning of tremendous possibilities of expression. And some of the tracks on that album are really,really inventive." [22] However,Gillan also said that the inclusion of "Anyone's Daughter" on the album was "a good bit of fun,but a mistake." [23]
Ritchie Blackmore,in particular,stated publicly that he was not overly pleased with Fireball. He said of the production:"That was a bit of a disaster,because it was thrown together in the studio. Managerial pressure,we had no time. 'You gotta play here,here,there,then you've got to make an LP.' I told them,'if you want an LP,you've got to give us time.' But they wouldn't. I just threw ideas to the group that I thought up on the spur of the moment." [22]
Jon Lord stated that Fireball "wanders slightly" and "goes to places that the band wasn't expecting it to go to." Lord did praise several songs on the album,including "No No No" and "Fools",and particularly singled out Ian Paice's drumming on the title track. [24]
On 9 April 2011 episode of That Metal Show ,guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen stated that his older sister had given him Fireball when he was eight years old,and "it changed everything" for him. Similarly,Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich stated that he purchased a copy of Fireball within 12 hours after his father had taken him to a 1973 Deep Purple concert in Copenhagen,and he credits the concert and album for sparking his interest in hard rock music. [25]
Likewise,Michael Monroe stated on Eddie Trunk's podcast that it was the first album he ever bought,and one of the first he ever heard along with Led Zeppelin II ,and was a major influence to get him into a career in rock and roll.
King Diamond also mentions Fireball as the first studio album he purchased as a teenager and an important influence in his future career. [26]
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore,Ian Gillan,Roger Glover,Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Fireball" | 3:25 |
2. | "No No No" | 6:54 |
3. | "Demon's Eye" | 5:19 |
4. | "Anyone's Daughter" | 4:43 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Mule" | 5:23 |
2. | "Fools" | 8:21 |
3. | "No One Came" | 6:28 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Fireball" | 3:25 |
2. | "No No No" | 6:54 |
3. | "Strange Kind of Woman" | 4:07 |
4. | "Anyone's Daughter" | 4:43 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Mule" | 5:23 |
2. | "Fools" | 8:21 |
3. | "No One Came" | 6:28 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
8. | "Strange Kind of Woman" (A-side remix '96) | 4:07 | |
9. | "I'm Alone (single B-side)" | 3:08 | |
10. | "Freedom" (album out-take) | 3:37 | |
11. | "Slow Train" (album out-take) | 5:38 | |
12. | "Demon's Eye" (remix '96) | 6:13 | |
13. | "The Noise Abatement Society Tapes (Midnight in Moscow, Robin Hood, William Tell)" | Traditional | 4:17 |
14. | "Fireball" (take 1 – instrumental) | 4:09 | |
15. | "Backwards Piano" (Reversed piano solo at the end of "No One Came") | 0:56 | |
16. | "No One Came" (remix '96) | 6:24 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Germany (BVMI) [43] | Gold | 250,000^ |
Netherlands (NVPI) [44] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [45] | Gold | 25,000 [45] |
United States (RIAA) [46] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Machine Head is the sixth studio album by English rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded in December 1971 in Montreux, Switzerland, and released on 30 March 1972, by Purple Records. It is the band's third album to feature the Mark II line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
Who Do We Think We Are is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, released on 12 January 1973 in the US and in February 1973 in the UK. It was Deep Purple's last album by the Mark II line-up with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover until 1984’s Perfect Strangers.
Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple is a compilation album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1980 on LP. It features the original hits of Deep Purple before their 1984 reunion. Aided by a TV advertising campaign it would become Purple's third UK No. 1 album. In 1984 this compilation additionally was published on CD.
The Battle Rages On... is the fourteenth studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released on July 19, 1993 (Europe). It is the last album recorded with the band's classic Mk II line-up, which reunited for a second time.
Scandinavian Nights is a double live-album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded in the Stockholm Konserthuset on 12 November 1970. It was originally released in 1988.
Nobody's Perfect is a live album released in June 1988 by the English rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded during the band's tour in support of The House of Blue Light in 1987 in Europe and the United States. The outer sleeve photography was by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis with graphics by Richard Evans.
Listen, Learn, Read On is a box set released by the English hard rock band Deep Purple in 2002.
Live in Concert 72/73 is a live DVD from Deep Purple, released in 2005. The DVD was certified Gold on August 3, 2007 by the RIAA, selling 50,000 copies in the US. It was recorded in KB Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1972, but not released until 1987 in Japan, under the title Machine Head Live 1972, and in Europe three years later under the title Scandinavian Nights .
When We Rock, We Rock, and When We Roll, We Roll is a compilation album by Deep Purple featuring some of their most popular songs from 1968 to 1974.
Come Hell or High Water is a CD and DVD by British rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded on 16 October 1993 at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart and at the NEC in Birmingham on 9 November.
The Anthology is a compilation album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, containing material by Mks I (1968–1969), II (1969–1973), III (1973–1975) and IV (1975–1976) line-ups. It was released as a double vinyl album and double-cassette, and included a few previously unreleased tracks and mixes. The sleeve-notes were written by Chris Charlesworth, author of Deep Purple – The Illustrated Biography.
Total Abandon: Australia '99 is a double live album and DVD by English hard rock band Deep Purple, recorded at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia on 20 April 1999. When the album was released in September 1999, it was only available in Australia. From 12 October 1999, it was made available as mail-order merchandise in Europe. Later, it was also sold in music stores. In the USA, the album was not released until 2012; this edition was cut to only one disc.
The Deep Purple Singles A's & B's is a compilation album of singles released by the English hard rock band Deep Purple. It was released on vinyl in October 1978. An updated version of the album was issued on CD in 1993 and contains the complete collection of Deep Purple's UK singles, recorded and released from 1968 to 1976 by the Mk I, II, III and IV line-ups of Deep Purple. In 2010 EMI released another double CD compilation album called Singles & E.P. Anthology '68 – '80. It contains all songs as herein plus 15 tracks. The song "Kentucky Woman" is present in the album version, which is 38 seconds longer than the single edit.
"Strange Kind of Woman" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple that was originally released as a follow-up single after "Black Night" in early 1971. The song also became a hit, peaking at No. 8 on the UK chart and Germany, and No. 1 in Denmark. The 1996 remix by Roger Glover later appeared on the re-release of the band's 1971 album Fireball, while the original version can be found on various Deep Purple compilations. Although not part of the Fireball recording sessions, "Strange Kind of Woman" was included on the US and Canadian editions of the album, in lieu of the track "Demon's Eye" on the UK edition.
Live at Montreux 2006: They All Came Down to Montreux is the first live release by English hard rock band Deep Purple's mk VIII lineup. This concert was recorded in Montreux, during 2006 Rapture of the Deep tour. Besides a DVD release, the concert film has also been released on HD DVD and Blu-ray. The CD includes four tracks from their most recent album Rapture of the Deep and seven tracks originally from the Mk II line up including six from Machine Head. The twelfth track is a Don Airey keyboard solo.
The Mark II Purple Singles is a compilation album by Deep Purple. The album was released in 1979. It claimed to be Mark II both because it focused solely on the second line-up of the band and because it was intended as a second volume to the previous year's The Deep Purple Singles A's and B's. A version with purple vinyl is also available.
Live in Denmark 1972 is a live album by English hard rock band Deep Purple, recorded 1 March 1972 at the K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark, first released in 2002.
Live in Montreux 69 is a live album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded 4 October 1969 in Montreux, released in 2006. It was recorded in the Montreux Casino that burned down two years later.
Deep Purple in Rock is the fourth studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, released on 5 June 1970. It was the first studio album recorded by the Mark II line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.
"Hallelujah" is a song by English hard rock group Deep Purple, released in 1969. It is the first single to feature singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover and released in-between their 1969 eponymous album and the live Concerto for Group and Orchestra. The B-side was an edit of the instrumental album track "April".
Citations
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