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Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple formed the holy trinity that would ultimately induce heavy metal. Yet while the band has always pinned the meters in terms of popularity, sales, and volume, critical acclaim has been less than royal – especially when viewed in the context of Zeppelin and Sabbath.
Consider Roger Glover’s snarling bass guitar on Purple’s 1972 classic, Machine Head – a record that would set the tone for decades of ensuing music – and it’s clear his contribution to the canon of rock bass has been largely overlooked.
The Machine Head sessions were cut with what was effectively Deep Purple Mark II, the classic lineup of Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Ian Gillan vocals, Roger Glover bass, Jon Lord keyboards and a thundering lan Paice on drums.
Glover’s thunderously clanky Rickenbacker/P-Bass tones were formidable, though Glover himself admitted to being very unsettled by his sound at the time: “Too much clank and not enough thump”, he told Bass Player in 2013.
“By the time I got to Purple, I felt my tone was too distorted, with not enough bottom. I used a Rick on Machine Head and I wasn’t happy with the sound.
“When we did the 25th Anniversary remix, my engineer (Peter Denenberg) isolated it and said, ‘People would kill for a sound like that’, but I always felt my tone was too distorted, especially with the Rickenbacker. Having had a P-Bass and a Fender Mustang previously, I guess I didn’t realize what I had.”
Born November 30, 1945, in Brecon, Wales, and raised in London, Glover began his musical journey with piano lessons at age seven. Gravitating toward rock & roll, he picked up guitar at 13. Bass entered the picture soon after, when Glover saw his first live band, the Lightnings, rehearsing in a local gym.
“Upon seeing them, my two friends and I decided to start a band; they were both better guitarists than I was, so I said, I’ll be the bass player, and I removed the top two strings on my Spanish guitar.”
Glover moved to North London in 1961 and formed the Madisons. A year later, the Madisons merged with the Lightnings to become Episode Six. Six released over a dozen singles, never quite breaking through, but that would all change for Glover when Deep Purple came calling in the summer of ’69.
How did you come to join Deep Purple?
Ian Gillan and I were in a band called Episode Six, where we were writing together. Purple was looking for a singer, and Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore came to see us and offered Ian the gig, which he took.
Soon after, Ian called me and said, ‘The band is looking for songs – come in and play them our songs.’ So I met Lord and he listened and passed on what we had, but he played me Hallelujah and asked me to record it with them that night.
After the session he offered me the gig and I turned him down. I said, ‘You already took our singer, if I leave Episode Six it kills everyone else’s hopes and dreams, and I can’t live with that.’ So he said, ‘Well, think about it.’
I went home and thought about it all night and called him the next morning to take the gig. It still amazes me how close I came to not following this path.
What about original bassist Nick Simper?
Well, the band politics were horrible. Nick didn’t know he’d been replaced until someone told him, and on the Hallelujah session I used his bass and amp. I felt bad; both (original vocalist) Rod Evans and Nick were let go without notice, which must have hurt terribly.
I’ve never met Nick, but his bass playing definitely had an impact on me because I had to play his parts. I thought he had a great plucking sound; you can really hear it on Hush – I could never get that sound.
People have noted that the bass is louder on Machine Head than other early Purple albums. Was there a reason?
I really don’t know why that was, but it surprises me, as well. I very rarely listen to our own stuff, and so you forget what the recordings actually sound like; but every time I hear the original on the radio I go, ‘Jesus, the bass is loud!’
How did you come up with those bass parts?
Do you know the theory of the zen archer? The zen archer draws his bow back and as soon as he eyes the target he lets his arrow go. The reason is, the longer he hesitates and tries to make sure he hits the target, the more off he’s going to be because his hands will start to shake. In other words, your first instinct is always your best bet.
But at the basic level, the bass has to anchor and groove at all costs. I mean, you can get a little complicated on the bass, but it doesn’t really help the song.
What’s your role as a songwriter?
There’s no formula for it, other than we’re aware we’re a hard rock band, and that’s what the music is going to be. So it’s within those confines, except hard rock is unconfined in that it has elements of blues, folk, classical, and jazz.
Someone might come in with a riff or a chord sequence, something fairly basic that everyone can chew on for a while, and the song kind of evolves. It’s always been the same with Purple. We don’t write Purple songs; we just write songs that become Purple songs because we’re playing them.
Who were your key bass influences?
The first bass player I heard who was totally different from everyone else was Jack Bruce. Then I got into John Entwistle – My Generation blew me away – and Tim Bogert with Vanilla Fudge. But they were all virtuoso players.
I think the bassist who had the most impact on me was Paul McCartney, because he was both a great songwriter and a great player. He had the lyrical sensibility to say something profound on bass that didn’t get in the way of anything else.
Even though I don’t want to emulate them, I admire technical players. Two of my heroes are Jaco Pastorius and Victor Wooten. They’re just brilliant musicians. Occasionally I’ll go on YouTube and check out Victor or Abraham Laboriel.
What advice would you offer to young bassists?
If you want to be a bass player, study and borrow from the best and learn how to really enjoy playing the instrument. You can have just as much fun gigging in a little band at your local pub every Saturday evening as you’ll ever get from being a celebrity bass player.
A big reason Purple made it is that we didn’t follow any trends; hard rock wasn’t in vogue at the time, and we had no hope in hell of getting on the radio. We just did what we wanted to do, and it happened to become successful. That’s really the truest kind of success you can achieve.
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