Deep Purple
Album Title: Come Taste The Band: 35th Anniversary Edition
Record Label: EMI/Purple
Review by Sal Serio
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Deep Purple - Come Taste The Band: 35th Anniversary Edition
Talk about your “sleepers”! It’s almost taken 35 years for this Deep Purple release to find it’s share of mass acceptance, however the 35th Anniversary Edition of “Come Taste The Band” shows that Purple was indeed alive and well following Ritchie Blackmore’s 1975 departure. Replacement guitarist, the talented yet tragic Tommy Bolin, pretty much established a “Ritchie WHO?” attitude from the opening Echoplex blast on “Comin’ Home”, to the last fading solo notes of “You Keep On Moving”.
Bolin’s whiplash lasso funk chops on “Getting’ Tighter” create an infectious swagger, but his lead guitar improvisations that conclude the song are flat out mind boggling. Obviously this release is a must-have for Bolin fanatics, but really it needs a second chance for long time steadfast Deep Purple and Whitesnake fans as well. Vocalist David Coverdale and drummer Ian Paice are at the top of their game, and even while Glenn Hughes and Bolin were both in a pattern of serious drug usage, the recorded tracks on “Come Taste The Band” are all unquestionably brilliant.
Of particular note here is the second CD featuring the entire album remixed and re-sequenced by Kevin Shirley, who also recently worked with Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa on their Black Country Communion project. Shirley’s new mix brings every last detail and nuance of the “Come Taste The Band” sessions to the surface, and the presence of additional and alternate tracks, especially of Bolin’s guitar, are a delight. It’s fun to hear some songs run to the end of the tape also! It’s like the train runs right off the track! Completely off the rails is the bonus song titled “Bolin/Paice Jam”… it’s too bad MORE studio moments like this weren’t captured on tape!
Keyboardist Jon Lord is also pulled into the new mix, which was a common criticism upon the original album’s release. Lord’s honky tonk piano solo on “Comin’ Home” and Hammond B3 on “Love Child” pour right out of the speakers, indeed enticing the listener to come taste the band!
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