Unknown Soldier

Ahhh the country element may well be your interpretation of some of the Deep Purple humour in their music, which from time to time does take on "a country feel" I don't think I've ever read this about the band, but I know the sound that you mean.

Good point concerning "Lazy"

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Scarlett O'Hara

What do you think about their song Child In Time? I absolutely wet myself with happiness when I heard the guitar solo and incredible singing by Ian Gillan. I'd say that out of all the Deep Purple albums, Deep Purple In Rock is my absolute favourite. They are one of my favourite bands (a huge list) and really love their emotion and use of the keyboard.

Isn't it interesting how frequent it was from 60's till present day of bands that changed line ups really often? Do you guys thing drugs and alcohol addictions was a substantial factor?

__________________

Unknown Soldier

I'd say drug and alcohol were the main issues here. The problem mostly ocurred where either the addiction was running out of control or the person with the severe addiction was the minority in the band, and was therefore kicked out. Whereas on the other hand, bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin saw nobody leaving as they were all heavy drug users and drinkers anyway. So it's kind of a balancing act.

Then there is the clash of personalities within a band and also people jumping ship because they felt that success could be found elsewhwere.

I've always seen and still do, that bands that have had multiple line-up changes, to be inferior to bands that have kept a stable line-up, it's not always the case but around 80% of the time I would say it was so.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.


Bang were meant to be America’s answer to Black Sabbath and they actually started their career running-off cover versions of Sabbath tracks amongst other well known luminaries of the day. This was a three-piece outfit from Philadelphia, whose early attempts at recording an album were shelved by the record company upon signing them. The album was seen a bit too psychedelic for the record label and this album Death of a Country would resurface several years later! Instead Capitol wanted them to produce a carbon copy of a Black Sabbath album and Bang to be fair did this to an admirable standard, sure they may have ripped off Sabbath to a degree, but they did these songs some justice. Just listening to tracks like “Lions, Christians” “The Queen” and “Future Shock” are a prime example of this and singer Frank Ferrara and guitarist Frank Glicken, sounded and laid down licks that could’ve been done by either Ozzy or Tony from Sabbath. This album is a good effort, despite lacking the brute force of say Sir Lord Baltimore, the wild abandon of early Blue Cheer, the authenticity of Sabbath themselves and the jamming ability of Grand Funk Railroad, who were of course the label’s principal ‘heavy band’ at the time. Bang didn’t get the commercial break that they were looking for on this their official debut album and then bad management ruined the promotion of their sophomore set Mother/Bow to the King also released the same year and a far more diverse album and equally as good. Bang were another one of those early heavy casualties, that really seemed to afflict American heavy bands of that era. They would then plough on for a final effort on their third album Bang Music in 1973. Here are three cuts from the first two albums.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Albums that missed the cut.........
Other good albums worth checking out that were also released in 1971, but weren't quite good enough to make the top 10 and are listed below in no set order, so the best of the rest:

Budgie
Squawk 1972
An album that just missed a place in the ‘Top 10’ as the band moved beyond the confines of the debut and started evolving and despite some very dubious song choices on here, it still had stunners like “Hot as a Dockers Armpit” and "Drugstore Woman"


Alice Cooper
School’s Out 1972
The title track is the best known and most famous track Alice Cooper probably put out, but the rest of the album despite being an interesting listen, dabbles too much with a progressive West Side Story type theme for my liking, the lesser album from this his classic period.


Ursa Major
Ursa Major 1972
An accomplished album that doesn’t remotely sound like a debut set, the band just stuck around for an album which is a shame, as there was a market for their commercial brand of hard rock. Frontman Dick Wagner would go on to perform with Alice Cooper.


Jerusalem
Jerusalem 1972
An album that strangely seems to be remembered by a lot of aficionados from this era, I say strange because the compositions despite being decent and solid, were somewhat quite amateurish in relation to the competition out there at the time, produced by Ian Gillan.


Stray
Saturday Morning Pictures 1972
The third great album by the band and another album just to miss the ‘Top 10’ This is an album which expands out of the unpredictable confines of the first two stunning albums and sees a great use of synths and keyboards by the band.


Buffalo
Dead Forever 1972
A real mixed bag here from one of the earliest heavy bands out of Australia, as they can’t really decide whether they want to go for straight-out Sabbath style rockers or concentrate on the softer side of things, they would explode next year.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Haven't given In Rock as much attention as it deserves, but yeah, "Child In Time" definitely pwns big time. One of the few bands that can do the whole extended jam/prog thing without turning it into self indulgent wank. Of course, I'm sure Unknown Soldier would disagree, but fuck him.

__________________

The Batlord

Didn't Pentagram start around this time also?

__________________

Unknown Soldier

They did and it was something of an oversight on my part, they had some demos around this time, but their first album didn't come out till about a decade later.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

1973 could largely be seen to be the year of bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis and the Who, three bands which would release three themed landmark albums that have continually stood the test of time. The year also gave us future commercial giants in Aerosmith and Queen who also put out their debut albums this year, but they would be about a year or so from putting out some really great albums, especially in Aerosmith's case. 1973 though was a strange year concerning ‘heavy music’ as it featured some really dud albums by highly acclaimed acts like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep thus creating a quality hole, in fact 1973 would actually see Ian Gillan pack his bags and leave Deep Purple, too many egos in one place! The year would also see a number of very good straight-up hard rock albums, that sacrificed more complex and intricate arrangements in favour of a more basic and direct approach. But this was then countered by some acts that put out albums that weren’t overly heavy at all, but in spirit they certainly belonged in this list for the year. Of the established other big guns, Led Zeppelin were back, Grand Funk Railroad were reborn and it was business as usual for the mighty Black Sabbath to keep order in the house. At last America would give us some really good acts that would finally go the distance and last for more than an album or two! Glam rock was still riding high on its commercial wave in the UK and again it was highly influential on some of the albums and bands on this year’s list, as they were the year before. Space rock and think no further than Hawkwind when it comes to this sub-genre, would also add another diverse wheel to this year’s list as well.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Scarlett O'Hara

Great description, I adore Uriah Heep but they didn't always have a hit with every album. I really wish I was brought up during the 50's so I could rock out in the 60's and 70's as a lass. If I could go to one place in a time machine it would be woodstock of 69'. I would drop acid, chuck on my hippy dress and swim in the lake while delicious music played.

__________________