Machine
Head. It’s been 40 years since the British rock band Deep Purple gave us this
amazing classic. I’m only 19 and I feel like I’ve been listening to its star
tracks for decades. The sad thing is there are many people who have no idea
what Machine Head is. For those who don’t, the album contains arguably the
greatest rock riff next to "Iron Man" of Black Sabbath; "Smoke on the Water". When
a teenager gets a guitar, 90 percent of the time that is the first thing they
try to play. Everyone knows it whether they know who initially played it or
not. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this album, several
big name artists, varying from Carlos Santana to Metallica, came together and
made a tribute album entitled “Re-machined: A tribute to Deep Purple’s Machine
Head.”
Track List:
1.
Smoke on the Water- Carlos Santana and Jacoby
Shaddix
2.
Highway Star (live)- Chickenfoot
3.
Maybe I’m a Leo- Glenn Hughes and Chad Smith
4.
Pictures of Home- Black Label Society
5.
Never Before- Kings of Chaos
6.
Smoke on the Water- the Flaming Lips
7.
Lazy- Jimmy Barnes and Joe Bonamassa
8.
Space Truckin’- Iron Maiden
9.
When a Blind Man Cries- Metallica
10. Highway
Star- Glenn Hughes, Chad Smith, and Steve Vai
I was very
excited for this tribute album for two reasons. For one, I was really happy to
read that Metallica, Chickenfoot, Iron Maiden, and Carlos Santana among others
would be playing songs from one of the greatest albums from one of the greatest
rock bands ever. And the other thing was that I really wanted to dive into the
album as a whole. Before this album, I really only listened to three tracks;
Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, and Space Truckin. I thought that these
covers would open my eyes to some of the hidden gems of the album, just like
how listening to Metallica’s Diamond Head covers made me go listen and discover
the original tracks. After listening to the entire album, I can say that there
is MUCH MUCH more beyond the album’s three heavy hitters.
The first
track I heard off the album was Metallica’s cover of “When A Blind Man Cries.” At
first I was confused. Based on their previous history, I would have expected
them to pick an obscure song instead of picking a big hit (a previous example
is when they played “Remember Tomorrow” for an Iron Maiden Tribute album
instead of choosing “Number of the Beast”), but “Blind Man” isn't even on the
album. Upon further review, ‘Blind Man’ was a b-side single to “Never Before”
which was on the album and was initially recorded when Machine Head was. Then I
heard the song. MY MIND WAS BLOWN! As they usually do, Metallica put their own
thrash spin on the song but it was done in a way that was well thought out and
amazing. For almost the entire song, ‘Tallica sticks to a style similar to the
original recording, slow and mild, but then they add a thrash solo on to the
end that makes it fit perfectly with their other ballad recordings like The Day
That Never Comes and Fade to Black. Looking back I’m glad that Metallica didn't choose Highway Star and instead choose something that they could creatively put
their own spin on. It reminded me of their thrash version of Queen’s Stone Cold
Crazy on Garage Inc. and shows that Metallica is still as great as ever and it
highlights one of Deep Purple’s silent classics.
Now what
would a Machine Head tribute album be without a version of Highway Star and
Smoke on the Water. These classics are so awesome that they both get two
versions. Smoke has a version by the Flaming Lips and Carlos Santana. Both are
equally thoughtful and show to different sides of the classic, although I
personally the Santana version is better. The Highway Star cover was initially going
to be just a live cover played by the super-group Chickenfoot, but upon the
death Purple keyboardist John Lord, Glenn Hughes organized a second cover
including Chad Smith and Steve Vai to pay tribute not only to the album but
Lord, who was arguably one of the greatest keyboardists in the genre. Again
both versions are great but the energy Chickenfoot puts into the live version
is truly unparalleled.
The
greatest song on the album in my opinion is the cover of the silent classic “Lazy.”
The track was recorded by Jimmy Barns on vocals and Joe Bonamassa on lead
guitar (special mention to Brad Whitford who kept the beat on rhythm guitar and
also ripped one guitar solo) and when I first heard it in the trailer for the
album, I couldn't stop listening to it. I was simply amazed and stunned. It was
so powerful and full despite being a ‘jazz-rock’ type of song. I went back and
listened to the original and while Purple’s version is just as good, the cover
really shows the power that the song has and shows why metal artist truly see
Deep Purple as one of their ancestors with Led Zeppelin. It is easily the best
track on the entire cover album and now is now my second favorite song on the
original, second only to Highway Star which still holds a special place in my
heart for some reason.
All in all,
this is probably one of the greatest tribute albums in the history of tribute
albums. This album really shows that wide spread of influence had on music from
influencing ‘lighter’ artists like Carlos Santana and Jimmy Barns to heavy
metal artists like Iron Maiden, Machine Head, and Metallica. If you’ve never
heard Machine Head before, this is a good way to get into some of these classic
songs. If you’re like me and have overlooked some of the lesser known songs,
then this a way to get into to them. And if you live and breathe Machine Head,
then you will appreciate these covers of the classics.
5/5
Links to some of the covers:
Lazy-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLa7Err_0Nw&list=FLqOMs-psDSf5RGVAF4dyWzw&index=2&feature=plpp_video
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