Rock and Roll Hall of fame and Deep Purple have always been at the front of it. Alongside other legendary bands like Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin this instrumental group has been the sparkling daze of the metal revolution. They changed the face of British heavy metal and gave a slight push for the next batch of metal generation.
Standing on that foundation is Ian Gillan. With his unique wide-ranging voice, he is one of the famous Deep Purple band members. Gillian made his appearance with Deep Purple all the way back in 1969. His very first contribution to the band was the reason his talent was recognized.
The contribution was made during the band’s rehearsal process. Ian took off and created the vocal melody and lyrics of ‘Child in Time’. That’s when Tim Rice, the lyricist recognized his talent and made him perform in his rock opera ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’.
By the beginning of the 1970s, Ian was already feeling sick with the work he was doing. He handed in his retirement letter in 1973 after the release of ‘Who Do We Think We Are.’ He stayed away from performing for two years and then created a band called Ian Gillan Band. The first album was called ‘Child in Time’. Ian had some similarities when it came to Deep Purple’s songs and Ian Gillan Band songs.
Now, to talk about the technique Ian in both his solo works and Deep Purple songs. Back in the days, when Deep Purple was formed, the band was more of a psychedelic and progressive rock band. With every song, they escalated into heavier songs. As there were similarities between the songs, Ian expressed that he used the same method in his solo works and Deep Purple songs.
He revealed that he has a technique and he and the band used the same method to create songs. Gillan expressed that the band loved creating new songs, and though he loved heavy sounds, it was the band’s idea to go with the formula. In a past interview, he explained the similarities between the songs. He said,
“Well, to be quite fair, I think you could. Yes. I think you could probably say that certainly; Deep Purple as it was when I was with them,it’s the same voice, and it’s the same singer. My attitude to writing has probably matured a bit, but then again, I’ve benefited from a 2-year layoff. It’s got a freshness to it that has occurred to me, anyway. There must be a link obviously because I write the words and the tunes to the stuff I sang with Purple. And I’m writing the words and the tunes to what we’re doing now.
We’re writing very much in the same sort of way. Everyone is writing what they’re playing, if you know what I mean. We just tie it all together, and fortunately, it’s working very nicely. It’s a similar writing formula to the one with Purple. I think probably when we go on the road, we won’t be such a loud band this time. Not that I don’t like the volume, but I do like the volume very much. But the players are different kinds of players.”
He says that this was the technique he adopted while he was with Deep Purple. That way the lyric writing method became a formula. With time, the singer made lyrical writing more formulaic. Ian also said that he wanted to keep Deep Purple’s original style alive from the very beginning. He explained being more formulaic in the following way.
“I don’t think that can be denied by anybody. Every album started with the same tempo, and that’s just it. That’s one of the reasons why I left because I was becoming stagnant. We became so entrenched in it because that was the Purple identity and the Purple image. But we were really restricting our means of expression.
I think it was one of the reasons Ritchie left. We were all very high-energy people, and I think it’s done everybody good. It’s done me good; it’s done Purple good; it’s done Ritchie good. I think what we had together was kind of like a musical orgasm. Perhaps we came a bit too quickly! I don’t know.”
Ian Gillan surely tasted success with such a formula. He even reunited with Deep Purple in 1984. Even then, he used the same method to write the lyrics. While the technique surely helped, it surely limited the creativity of the band.
