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Come Taste the Band

Deep Purple - Come Taste the Band Audio CD

A fair review of the Deep Purple "Come Taste the Band" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Deep Purple reviews here, or go back to the Deep Purple tabs.

Band: Deep Purple
Title: Come Taste the Band
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-07-31
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Comin' Home 2: Lady Luck 3: Getting' Tighter 4: Dealer 5: I Need Love 6: Drifter 7: Love Child 8: This Time Around 9: Owed To G 10: You Keep Moving

remastering done wrong
No real dynamics, Coverdale sounding like he's singing from another room but I guess we're stuck with this. I love this album but the original LP always sounded compressed and remastering has done little to help except boost the frequency extremes. Tommy Bolin in good form here, the band were always top class musicians but you can tell lots of these songs were written quickly and never really developed fully. The funkier side of DP is fine by me, these guys could really mix it up (Gettin' Tighter remains a real gem) and it captures a time in rock music that's now gone forever but the recording really does not do the band justice -- it is hard to know why given the producer, the money involved and the studio. Let's hope someday the regular DP remastering process involving the band catches up with this release -- there's got to be better tapes out there somewhere.

WHAT PURPLE COULD HAVE BEEN AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN!!!!
After that I picked up all of their other albums in succession according to the line-ups and of course I started with Mark II, then Mark III, and so on. I have been a Deep Purple fan since high school when I was 13 years old when I bought my first Deep Purple album featuring the wickedly good line-up that featured Turner as the lead singer but produced what that godawful red-headed stepchild REO Speedwagon-Foreigner disgustingly bad rip-off " Slaves and Masters ", that only had the one good track ( The INSANE first track " King of Dreams " ). When I got to Mark IV I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY BY THIS ALBUM FOR ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ALONE: TOMMY BOLIN. THE GUY WAS AN INSANE GUITAR PLAYER, especially on tracks like " Coming Home ", " Dealer ", the disco Purple track " I Need Love, and " You Keep On Movin' ". I had never heard a guitarist like him ever in my life and after being a Classic Rock/ Hard Rock/ Metal fan for most of my life I don't think there will ever be one like him again. If you're a new fan just getting into DP, RUN, DON'T WALK TO BUY THIS ALBUM IF YOU CAN FIND IT LOCALLY and then buy some of Bolin's other works, especially his two solo albums " Teaser " and " Private Eyes ", Tommy Bolin Whips and Roses 1 & 2, and anything else you can get your hands on that's legit Bolin. Having died of a heroine overdose at the age of 25 we weren't blessed to hear the sounds that this legendary guitarist would have made over the years, and it's a damn shame that most people today haven't heard of him but I think that's more a testament to how narrow-minded people are in their choice of good quality music and see it as just music but for serious fans of any band it's art, and Tommy Bolin's canvas was his guitar.
The album itself is a mixed bag, I do have to say. Coverdale sounds more mellow and groovy than he did in " Burn ", whereas Burn had slower tempo tracks then this album did ( mostly cos Blackmore's guitar playing didn't have the frenetic energy and flair Bolin was known for ) on this album he and Glenn Hughes are singing in concerto, that is they sound more on the same page on this album then they did on the previous Mark III albums they had made with Blackmore. This was a really revitalized era for Purple and could have been a kind of Renaissance for them, but by this time Lord had been thinking of quitting the band for a while and almost all of them were hooked on drugs and the rock and roll lifestyle had gotten to them, but not before they entered the studio to record the album! It's just a fun, fun album if you're more into blues rock and jazz ( the main reason Blackmore quit the band, since he was having problems with Coverdale and Hughes over their love of what he referred to it as " shoeshine " music. )
That is where the true problem with this albums lies with true DP fans, and causes the raging debates that you'll hear from all the warring Purple factions. This album is not DEEP PURPLE MARK II, AND IT NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN. I'm sure most Deep Purple fans would have been happy it the band had changed it's name to reflect something new and didn't have the moniker Deep Purple since most fans have a hard-on for Gillan or Blackmore ( both of whom I love to death but I think of Deep Purple as an institution, not as a band ) but most fans probably don't know that the band was actually founded by Jon Lord and the first musician he approached to join was Blackmore, and that little tidbit has been lost over time and later on Blackmore took over more and more and Lord went along. The power struggles with Gillan and Blackmore led to the Mark III phase and while most people didn't initially know how to react to Coverdale subbing in for Gillan it was Glenn Hughes who made a more capable and better bass player than Roger Glover, so this thing went on and on until Blackmore finally had enough and founded Rainbow. This could have marked a new era in Deep Purple's history, but tragically this final, tragic album was their last until the Mark II reformation in 1984. Bolin breathed new life into Deep Purple just like Steve Morse did in 1996, and his flailing guitar playing and thrashing style should be emulated more today ( IF at all possible, cos NOBODY comes close to playing like this guy, NOBODY. ) For anything else, BUY THIS ALBUM TO HEAR TOMMY BOLIN SLAY YOU WITH HIS GUITAR ELTEE!!!!!!!!!!.

Bolin shines
This guy would have been putting out more music that would have given him more fame & respect than just his short time with DP. As Tommy Bolin fans know he was a great guitarist who could write a good song and had a unique voice that conveyed a real passion and depth of feeling. This album stands alongside the 2 he did with the James Gang (Bang and Miami). This is an underated album by those morons who think Ritchie Blackmore was the only one worthy of playing guitar for DP. Tommy was a good choice and now they have the best in Steve Morse. If you like the David Coverdale/Glenn Hughes DP period then get this album but please check out all the Tommy Bolin stuff, he was awesome most of the time. RIP.

Not your typical Deep Purple album.
This album sounds more like early Whitesnake than the classic Purple combined prog rock/hard rock combination. This is the one and only Deep Purple album from the Tommy Bolin era. Not surprising it sounds like Whitesnake since David Coverdale and Jon Lord would reunite in that band 2 to 3 years later followed by Ian Paice coming on board later on.

Bolin's guitar playing is radically different from Blackmore's Bolin's playing had more of a slide guitar effect to it.

While Coverdale's songs sound like Whitesnake, Glenn Hughes provided a different sound on the funk influenced Getting Together and the Stevie Wonder influenced This Time Around.

The highlight song, IMHP, was the closer "You Keep on Moving". It features 3 way harmony vocals between Coverdale, Hughes, and Bolin.

The Bolin lineup lasted only 9 month before drugs and swinging caused this version of Deep Purple to implode. A few months later, Bolin would die from a drug overdose.

If you like this album, I also recommend the pre 1984 (Slide It In) Whitesnake albums.

time to taste the band

I don't think many Deep Purple fans gave Mk IV much of a chance when "Come taste the band" was released. Even 33 years after its initial release this is a difficult album to review. It was nothing like "In rock", "Machine Head", or even "Burn". By the time I got interested in rock music in the late 70ies the verdict was that the album was crap, and that Mk IV was a crap live band (the horrible "Last Concert in Japan" seemed to provide the evidence), and so I never bothered with them.

Somewhere along the line I heard "Lady Luck" on the radio on thought "not bad". I bought Billy Cobham's "Spectrum" with Tommy Bolin on guitar and thought it was so good that I even bought Tommy Bolin's first solo album and thought it was very good too. But I still didn't feel like tasting the band.

In 2006 I read the reviews of "On the wings of a russian foxbat" and got interested enough to buy it. To my surprise I enjoyed this Mk IV more than "Live in Paris" recorded with Richie Blackmore less than a year before.

In 2007 the remastered version of "Come taste the band" was released, and finally, after only a year of hesitation, I got a copy.

I admit that it was not easy at first to listen to the CD. The music was nothing like Deep Purple. But then I somehow I got over the hump. I kept playing the CD in my car for days (I wouldn't want to try this with any other Purple album), got to like it, and finally to love it. There is not a single weak song to be heard, even though it took me a long time to fully appreciate the ballad "this time around".

No, it's not a Deep Purple album. Not really. But a great rock album it is for certain. I can't stop wondering what might have been had Bolin and Hughes not been drug addicts and the band had gone on. Man, they were good.

There is only one more thing to say: come taste the band!

.

You can see a complete list of all Deep Purple discography, or go back to the Deep Purple tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.