Deep Purple fans are impressed after learning the origin story behind one of the band’s most well known songs.
The English rockers, who hail from London, are renowned as part of the “unholy trinity” of British hard-rock in the 70s, alongside legendary bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Originally founded in 1969, Deep Purple has seen a number of member shake-ups over the years. Its most famous “Mark II” line-up was formed shortly after and is made up of Jon Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice. This quintet were behind four hit Deep Purple studio albums, spawning a medley of epic songs still lauded to this day.
One of those albums is the 1972 classic, Machine Head, which opens with the track, Highway Star.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Highway Star is “possibly the best summation of everything that was great about the best Deep Purple songs”.
The track sees each member “on top of their game” and some fans are amazed after learning how the song came to be.
As per Rock Reflections, Highway Star was crafted on a tour bus headed to Portsmouth in 1971. When a journalist enquired about the band’s writing process, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore picked up an acoustic guitar and began riffing.
He played a ‘G’ note over and over while vocalist Ian Gillan began improvising lyrics over the top, and there the song was written.
Blackmore’s guitar solo on the track was ranked #15 on Guitar World Magazine’s list of the 100 greatest guitar solos in 2008. The musician told the magazine he wanted it to sound like “someone driving in a fast car”.
On Reddit, one Deep Purple fan recently learned of the song’s impromptu creation and was keen to share it with fellow rock music lovers.
They penned: “[Today I learned] that Deep Purple wrote one of their best-known songs, Highway Star, on the spot during an interview on their tour bus.
“A journalist asked Ritchie Blackmore how the band wrote songs. So they started jamming, came up with the song and performed it live for the first time that very night.”
In the comments section beneath the post, fellow Reddit users were similarly impressed. One fan said: “When your on-the-spot is better than most bands’ whole careers.”
Another said: “There’s talent and then there’s ‘we can’t even fake being bad’.” A third quipped: “‘And here’s a little ditty we whipped up on the bus today. Hope you like it….’” while another commented: “Jon Lord was on fire on this one. Honestly could be my favourite Deep Purple song and I never knew this!”
Someone else said: “This is a wild piece of trivia! The whole Machine Head album is fantastic.”
And another fan added: “Spontaneity is a powerful tool for creativity. Black Sabbath wrote Paranoid after the label executives said there wasn’t enough songs.”