Ultimate-Guitar.com
recently caught up withDeep Purple bassist Roger Glover. An excerpt
from the interview is available below:
UG:
Do you have any sense of what made Deep Purple’s songs so
timeless?
Glover: "I think any song that’s without artifice is gonna stand the test of time because it’s honest. It’s honest playing; it’s people playing instruments. There’s no extra effects; there’s no big shows, fireworks or dancing girls—it’s just musicians playing music. And I think that has an appeal especially after the last 20 years of drum machines and computers and so on. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—it depends how you use them. I think there is a backlash especially since CD sales have slumped beyond recognition and live is really the key. If you can play live then you’ve got a career. A lot of bands come out and they have a couple of hits but they can’t back it up live."
UG: By the time you recorded Fireball, you and drummer Ian Paice have created this very unique kind of rhythm section. Where did that come from?
Glover: "Well, Paicey swings; he’s a Big Band drummer at heart. So playing hard rock, he can’t help but swing somehow. I remember listening to Machine Head when I did the remixes [Glover remixed the album for a special 2-CD 25th Anniversary edition] and 'Highway Star', it was the first time I listened to the drums on their own since that time and it amazed me. Because you get so used to the finished mix that it sounds like gnn gnn gnn gnn [sings very straight robotic type of rhythm]. It sounds like a machine gun in the beginning but when you take the drums on their own, they’re not straight, they’re swung; there’s a little kick to them somehow. And it’s that juxtaposition of dotted notes and straight notes that is the essence of rock and roll to me. That’s what Little Richard’s all about; that’s what New Orleans is, to me the birthplace of rock. There’s several birthplaces but that’s one of the main ones. That tension between jazz and straight if you like."
UG: Ritchie Blackmore was a strange guitar player in that he didn’t approach rhythm like a typical guitarist. Many times Blackmore would sort of double a bass part by pumping on his low strings. What was it like playing bass around his guitar parts?
Glover: "It was a learning process; I’ve no idea what my thought processes were like but instinctively you either tuck in with him or you play something that is complementary to it. And as you say, Ritchie didn’t play rhythm guitar very often and that’s really what formed Jon’s sound—Jon started playing rhythm organ. To that end, he wanted to match Ritchie’s sound so he ditched the Leslies and went through a Marshall cab and that’s what gives it that really harsh, edgy sound. It wasn’t thought out—it was a natural progression, I guess. You can’t think ahead; you can’t think of what music’s gonna be. It’s not as if we sat around and said, 'Right, let’s write some iconic music here [laughs].' You don’t plan it that way; it’s just whatever happens, happens and fortunately we were at the right place, right time, right image, right whatever. It’s just one of those things that clicked."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
Glover: "I think any song that’s without artifice is gonna stand the test of time because it’s honest. It’s honest playing; it’s people playing instruments. There’s no extra effects; there’s no big shows, fireworks or dancing girls—it’s just musicians playing music. And I think that has an appeal especially after the last 20 years of drum machines and computers and so on. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—it depends how you use them. I think there is a backlash especially since CD sales have slumped beyond recognition and live is really the key. If you can play live then you’ve got a career. A lot of bands come out and they have a couple of hits but they can’t back it up live."
UG: By the time you recorded Fireball, you and drummer Ian Paice have created this very unique kind of rhythm section. Where did that come from?
Glover: "Well, Paicey swings; he’s a Big Band drummer at heart. So playing hard rock, he can’t help but swing somehow. I remember listening to Machine Head when I did the remixes [Glover remixed the album for a special 2-CD 25th Anniversary edition] and 'Highway Star', it was the first time I listened to the drums on their own since that time and it amazed me. Because you get so used to the finished mix that it sounds like gnn gnn gnn gnn [sings very straight robotic type of rhythm]. It sounds like a machine gun in the beginning but when you take the drums on their own, they’re not straight, they’re swung; there’s a little kick to them somehow. And it’s that juxtaposition of dotted notes and straight notes that is the essence of rock and roll to me. That’s what Little Richard’s all about; that’s what New Orleans is, to me the birthplace of rock. There’s several birthplaces but that’s one of the main ones. That tension between jazz and straight if you like."
UG: Ritchie Blackmore was a strange guitar player in that he didn’t approach rhythm like a typical guitarist. Many times Blackmore would sort of double a bass part by pumping on his low strings. What was it like playing bass around his guitar parts?
Glover: "It was a learning process; I’ve no idea what my thought processes were like but instinctively you either tuck in with him or you play something that is complementary to it. And as you say, Ritchie didn’t play rhythm guitar very often and that’s really what formed Jon’s sound—Jon started playing rhythm organ. To that end, he wanted to match Ritchie’s sound so he ditched the Leslies and went through a Marshall cab and that’s what gives it that really harsh, edgy sound. It wasn’t thought out—it was a natural progression, I guess. You can’t think ahead; you can’t think of what music’s gonna be. It’s not as if we sat around and said, 'Right, let’s write some iconic music here [laughs].' You don’t plan it that way; it’s just whatever happens, happens and fortunately we were at the right place, right time, right image, right whatever. It’s just one of those things that clicked."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
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