Deep Purple, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Malcolm Arnold – Concerto For Group And Orchestra

I make no bones about this – I really like this piece of music. The whole thing from start to finish. It’s melodic. It obviously rocks. The lyric is wonderfully appropriate for Gillan’s nervousness at performing his part of this daunting task.

And Blackmore goes off the charts, and off, and off and off. And to be fair so does Paice.

And Jon Lord deserves rightful praise for concocting this very listenable and earnest piece of classical music in the form it is received best in. He’s not avant-garde here as a John Cage or a Kronos Quartet would be but in a way its the traditional-ness that makes it still live . . . with me at least.

If you’re listening to this to get Pre In-Rock, or not-so Fired Up Ball or Machine Cello, forget it; it’s its own thing and all Deep Purple as well as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Listen, if you’re reading this review you obviously like DP very much and you should have no problem absorbing its concept and its importance in the history and evolution of 20th Century music.