Never before
| Never before | |
|---|---|
| Deep Purple | |
| publication | March 18, 1972 |
| length | 4:01 (album), 3:30 (single) |
| Genre (s) | Hard rock , rock , blues rock , ballad |
| text | Ritchie Blackmore , Roger Glover , Jon Lord , Ian Paice |
| music | Ian Gillan |
| Label |
EMI Music (Europe) Warner Bros. (USA) |
| album | Machine head |
| Cover versions | |
| 1986 | Vanadium : Born to Fight |
| 2012 | Kings of Chaos ; Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head |
Never Before is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple that was released on the 1972 album Machine Head and as a single before that.
Recording and style
Never Before was created in December 1971 in Montreux , Switzerland. Deep Purple wanted to make a commercial single with this song in case the record label asked for it. The band thought the song was the most commercial they'd ever produced and put a lot of time into arranging it. Never Before starts with a funky-bluesy groove and combines Deep Purple's hard rock roots with a middle section reminiscent of the Beatles (and foreshadows Deep Purple's 1973 classic Woman from Tokyo ). Never Before was released on the newly founded Purple Records label two months before Machine Head was released. A promotional video was shot to mark the release of the single.
success
The single came in 4th place in Switzerland, 20th in Germany, while it was only 35th in Great Britain.
The funny thing is, when Machine Head came out the song we thought was going to be big was Never Before. We put a lot of work into that, a nice middle eight, polished performances, properly mixed. No one ever expected smoke ( smoke on the water ) to take off.
Live performances
Deep Purple performed the song live on the occasion of several concerts and a BBC show in 1972. This can be heard on the live album Deep Purple in Concert . In 2004 the group played the song during another Machine Head tour
Cover versions
- Les Humphries Singers (Never Before / Shot From The Gun / Sky Rocket Roll, 1972)
- Vanadium on the album "Born to Fight" (1986)
- Eric Singer Project (1999)
- Gary John Barden ( Ex- Michael Schenker Group ) on the album Rock 'n' Roll My Soul (2010)
- Kings of Chaos on the album Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head , (2012)
- Out Of Phase (2001)
The guitar riff in Peter Frampton's 1973 song Do You Feel Like We Do is similar to that of Never Before .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jon Lord Interview on Machine Head
- ↑ The Mojo Collection: 4th Edition , from Various Mojo Magazine, p. 274
- ↑ Jürgen Roth and Michael Sailer: Deep Purple, the story of a band . Verlagsgruppe Koch GmbH / Hannibal, 2005. p. 173.
- ^ Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story , by Dave Thompson, p. 129
- ↑ Swiss hit parade. Never before
- ↑ Purple Records 1971-1978, by Neil Priddey
- ↑ The Mojo Collection: 4th Edition , from Various Mojo Magazine, p. 274
- ↑ Deep Purple live albums at www.thehighwaystar.com
- ↑ www.coverinfo.de Deep Purple, Never Before