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Violin in Rock and Roll
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Of course the closer you get to the fusion of rock with traditional music then the more common the violin becomes. If including Folk-Rock in the survey then Ric Sanders with Fairport Convention treats the violin in the same way as a lead guitar (including a full range of effects pedals)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzQAfkctLcM
The violin has been an integral part of the band almost from their inception in 1967, not simply an ‘add-on’ for a particular sound for a track.
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Alan, that was delightful, thanks for sharing it. I really enjoy the UK/Gaelic folk music sounds, and Ric Sanders and Fairport Convention really make awesome use of the violin. What a rich diverse band of musicians.
In that song it is a fusion of Folk-Rock and even Country as it starts off with a banjo, and the violin seems to cross back and forth between a fiddle and viola! 🙂
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Actually, as I understood it from Simon Nicol (the singer) in a pub conversation many years ago, the inspiration probably came from a recording by Doc Watson. I subsequently found out that the original lyrics probably came from Northern England as a song called Little Musgrave which were changed over time to Matty Groves in the Appalachia. To make things even more complicated the tune used by Fairport was not the regularly accepted one but of another Appalachian song called Shady Grove.
So, although the Banjo is a relatively recent addition (since 1996 when Chris Leslie joined the band) to the Fairport performance, it is perhaps not all that inappropriate.
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Here is a very special piece by Deep Purple. The song comes from the third studio album, which was simply titled “Deep Purple” and is divided into three parts. Strings then sound in the second part. I love the song.
Deep Purple – April (German TV 1970 Very Rare Footage) – YouTube
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That was so cool Jurgen! Fantastic arrangement and I too love that, it all fit!!
Thank you so much for uploading that.
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Hello Walter,
also nice to hear from you. I am very happy if you like the piece of music April. If you are interested in Deep Purple, I can recommend you the first three albums (as far as you don’t already know them). Most pieces on the albums are really worth listening and mostly rather varied. The band was still in a kind of self-defined phase at this time, has tried different styles and was also strongly influenced by other musicians.
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Wow this is great, this is not something I expected from Deep Purple. Really elegant and beautiful and some parts feel a little Pink Floydish too. The beginning part feels like something straight out of the 18th century Vienna. Another great one Jurgen, thanks!
I am thinking it must have been the Beatles with All You Need Is Love, Eleanor Rigby, and A Day In The Life who brought classical orchestra into rock/pop. Have you seen that video about classical music and the Beatles?
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Hey Jung. You’re right, the song “April” is not something you typically associate with Deep Purple. But it’s typical of the early era of them. The first three albums of the British rock musicians are rather gentle and very experimental compared to their later work. Often also with string instruments. I think at this early stage Deep Purple were still strongly influenced by the Beatles and Donovan, less by Pink Floyd who had to reinvent themselves after their first album “The Piper of the gates of dawn” in 1967. But you’re right, probably Deep Purple and Pink Floyd influenced each other at some point and evolved differently in the 70s. On the first album of Deep Purple „Shades of deep purple“ (my absolute favorite) there is a nice cover song of “Help”. On their second album they completly reinterpreted “We can work it out“ and the early era of the later hard rockers culminated in the album “Concerto for group and orchestra”. Hard stuff. Little rock music and mostly classical instrumentation. With this album, the group not only changed their vocalist (Ian Gillian replaced Rod Evans), but also their musical style: “Deep Purple in Rock” was born and finally paved the way for the album Machine Head and the song “Smoke on the Water“. This is synonymous with this band and unfortunately also the reduction to a single song.
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I’m very happy if you like it. The video about the Beatles and classical music? Unfortunately I don’t know which video you mean exactly.
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Hi Jurgen,
I found it. It’s a bit of a long video, but at least the first 10 to 15 minutes is fascinating and worth it. Howard Goodall makes a compelling case that music, good music, stalled in the late 19th and early 20th century as Avant Garde music took over, and it took the Beatles to return harmony, melody and structure to music where Classical left off, and put music back on track.
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Jung thanks for the interesting and informative video about classical music and the Beatles. I really didn’t know that yet.
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I remember a nice rendition of Donovan’s Lalena by the 1st vocalist.
More of John Lord’s organ, less of Blackmore’s guitar.
Cheers
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Who is that vocalist?
Thanks
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Hello Thomas, it’s nice to hear from you. You are right. There is an interpretation of Lalena on the third Deep Purple album simply named “Deep Purple”. It was released on June 21, 1969 and the vocals are by Rod Evans. His last album with the band as far as I know. While still working on the third album, Nick Simper (bass) and Rod Evans (vocals) were fired. It was probably exactly about this piece of music Lalena. Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore found Lalena too soft and harmonious and wanted to give Deep Purple a harder image instead. I like the song very much.
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They sure took a turn towards heavy metal.
I think DP and Zeppelin were the hardest bands on the radio for a while.
Thanks Jurgen – (Danke Shoen?)
Does this story make anyone admire the Grateful Dead and CSN(Y) more for doing wooden music and Rock-n-Roll well. Forgive my left coast bias.
Cheers
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Hi Jurgen, Thomas, I never knew of this softer and classical side of Deep Purple. I didn’t know they did Beatles covers in their early albums. I heard about the band admiring classical, but was not aware of Jon Lord’s deep roots in classical music as well as his being an accomplished classical composer and a rock musician. It’s too bad most people associate Deep Purple as just a hard rock band and “Machine Head”, but there is so much more to them. Their version of Lalena is beautiful. Thanks for the insight into Deep Purple.
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