The motive to write about Deep Purple’s first album without Ritchie Blackmore was the re-release of “Come Taste The Band”. This is an album that wasn’t treated justly when it was released, in 1976, but gradually managed to win over the fans, but mostly music critics.
“Come Taste The Band” is a Deep Purple album, even though the essential element, Blackmore, is missing. It might be funkier, but improvisation is key, the guitar is flawless, Coverdale and Hughes on lead vocals are amazing, Jon Lord is majestic as always, Paice is solid, and of course marrying all these together under the banner of one of the most important groups of all times should have created some fuss about it.
26 year old Tommy Bolin brought a guitar “renaissance” to the band with his own trademark sound, and six string approach. Being American his influences were different, adding some more Southern elements to Purple’s sound, like the Allman Brothers came down to jam with the Brits.
Comosition-wise the album is of the highest standard with songs like “Coming Home”, “Lovechild”, “You Keep On Moving”, “This Time Around”, “Owed To G”, stand out and honestly making me think that if “Come Taste The Band” was out under a different band name…it would have been a smash! But, perhaps because of the departure of “the man in black”, or the fact that Purple has been way back been “labeled” as a hard rock act, or even because music trends were changing and the media were after the Sex Pistols, and disco, but surely not “dinosaurs”, made this album the weakest link in the band’s discography, plus there were fans that denied listening to it…
The only disappointing thing about the re-release of the album is the extra disc, which is supposed to contain the remixes of the original versions. No matter how many time I listened to it I couldn’t see too many differences, except from the fact that some songs run their course, and don’t end with a fade out. But, from the moment that there have been remastered editions like “Machine Head” from the same band, such a volume fails to impress the demanding connoisseur.
However, the album is a true gem, although forgotten from many people, overlooked, or hated by others. It’s quality, braveness and inspiration are evident, and actually the fact that we are still dealing with it, 35 years after its first release proves that it managed to stand the test of time quite successfully.
