At the age of 16 I used to be a zealous
purist of the seventies' progressive rock movement. I was barely
beginning to discover the greatest rock discographies, and from
within that yet undiscovered abundance could afford a luxury of not
liking Deep Purple. Feeling respect, but by no means affection –
finding their songs too chopped compared to the fluent melodism of
Uriah Heep's golden line up's sound. Plus a touch of a teenage
snobbery was involved to be completely honest. But that's not the
point – the point is that even back then Machine Head moved every
single muscle of my weird soul and I considered it exceptional at the
very least. And by the way, for a long time I wouldn't believe that
the cover art was produced in a precomputer age.
The record sounds rather a greatest
hits compilation than a studio album. No, seriously - Highway Star,
Maybe I'm a Leo, Pictures of Home, Never Before, Smoke on the Water,
Lazy, Space Truckin' – all on the same album?! Juicily heavy,
without a single slow three-hankie but with a plenty of marvelous
guitar and organ sections, recorded by likely the greatest line-up of
one of the greatest bands from the Known Universe – it's a freaking
work of art! Once in Berlin I happened to see a “best of '72”
compilation CD, which (out of about 20 tracks) included 2 titles from
Machine Head.
So would it come as a surprise there is
a Wikipedia article for each song and a tribute album to the album?
And could it be you haven't heard it yet?
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