DEEP PURPLE — Concerto For Group And Orchestra (review)

DEEP PURPLE — Concerto For Group And Orchestra album cover Live album · 1969 · Proto-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Bmiler
This is probably the most controversial album in the Deep Purple catalog. It's an experiment they did once and never again. I know, there was Gemini Suite, but that was actually originally released as a Jon Lord album, realizing some of the Deep Purple guys (such as Ritchie Blackmore) wanted nothing to do with it, it was later reissues that tagged the "Deep Purple" name on it to help boost sales. It's clear that Concerto for Group and Orchestra was Jon Lord's idea. It's also the first to feature Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, but you'll never know that from hearing it. Lord must have had a monster sized ego to try something like this. Obviously the Moody Blues had big success with Days of Future Passed, combining rock band with orchestra, so why not Deep Purple? One big complaint many level at Days of Future Passed is the lack of band and orchestra interaction. The orchestra would play a theme that the band would later play, but rarely interact. The same problem with this album, only even more so. Malcolm Arnold conducts the orchestra here. What I do like is many of the nice ideas and moods the orchestra creates, and I do like it when the band gets jamming, but when they do, the orchestra keeps silent. There's a few parts where one of the band members interact with the orchestra later on, but never the full band. While Ian Gillan makes his vocal debut, it's only on one short spot, and he sounds just like his predecessor, Rod Evans, so much so you think Rod hadn't even left the band yet. Of course the screaming style he's most famous for would be totally inappropriate for this album. Despite obvious flaws with this album, I expected it to be boring, but actually there are some really nice ideas, and found it good, not great, though. I'm not surprised that the band members weren't on the same page when it comes for opinion. Ritchie Blackmore thought the orchestra was being condescending to the band, while John Lord and even Malcolm Arnold was happy with the results. Certainly the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed is more popular, as is probably every other rock with orchestra experiment, like Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Procol Harum's Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the Nice's Five Bridges, but it probably has to do with those albums had more emphasis on band interaction and even orchestral interaction.

Is Concerto for Group and Orchestra a total failure? Not really, as mentioned the flaws are obvious, but since I ended up enjoying it, I give it a three star rating, which is decent, but I wouldn't recommend it if you want that "in your face" rocking action of In Rock, and for fans of early hard rock/metal, it really should be a two star rating.
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