Classic Rock Bottom

VOTW - ROGER GLOVER Special

Roger Glover is best known for being the bassist in Deep Purple and Rainbow, but he has also produced some fine records by Nazareth (Razamanaz), Judas Priest (Sin After Sin), The first "Whitesnake"-album and "The Michael Schenker Group"-album from 1980 among others. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Glover. I've kind of just made this special, so I could post "Love Is All" :-)) I've seen Glover live one time, though, when I saw Rainbow in concert in June 1981.

DEEP PURPLE - HIGHWAY STAR

It wouldn't be right, having a Roger Glover-special without a Deep Purple-video. This one is from a concert in Copenhagen in 1972. I was 7 at the time and lived 50 Km north of Copenhagen at the time, so no, I did not attend the concert. Actually, I never saw Purple live. I was more of a Rainbow-fan. But I certainly remember danish TV showing these cool black and white concerts at the start/middle of the 70's. Not only Purple, but also Zeppelin and The Doors, live in Denmark. At that time, it was not music for me at all, it was "hippie-music" to me, when I was at that age, but thinking about it, it was my introduction to those great bands.

ROGER GLOVER ( R.J.DIO) - LOVE IS ALL

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera appearing in 1974 and 1975 respectively, based on the children's poem of a similar title.The work was originally conceived as a solo vehicle for Jon Lord to be produced by Roger Glover who had recently left Deep Purple. However, Lord proved too busy with Deep Purple and Glover took up the reins on his own. Using his connections, Glover recruited a large cast of noted rock musicians to perform on it, with a different vocalist for each track including David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. The single "Love Is All", with vocals from Ronnie James Dio, made a minor impression in the UK but reached number one in The Netherlands and was also very popular in Danmark. I remember the song from back then, and was surprised years later to discover, that I actually knew the vocals from Dio even before he was in Rainbow.

ROGER GLOVER & FRIENDS - BEHIND THE SMILE

On 16 October 1975, a one-off performance at the Royal Albert Hall took place. Again it had a star-studded cast of rock musicians, most notably Ian Gillan who was drafted in at the last minute and received a standing ovation on his entrance. He replaced an unavailable Ronnie James Dio who had commitments with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (although Dio did eventually get to perform the song at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999 as the guest of Deep Purple). Gillan had not performed since leaving Deep Purple in 1973. Also notable was the appearance of Twiggy as singer and actress and Vincent Price as narrator. Apart from most of the musicians involved in the studio recording, the concert also featured Jon Lord. The live concert was filmed and released in 1976 produced by Tony Klinger.

RAINBOW - DEATH ALLEY DRIVER

I've seen Rainbow live twice - in 1981 and sometime around 1995. In 1981 Roger Glover was playing bass and producing their albums. "Difficult To Cure" was in many years one of my favorite albums. Time hasn't been kind to it though. I wasn't really that big a Rainbow-fan in June 1981, where the concert was held in Copenhagen. The reason for me to go was because Def Leppard was the support-act, and at that time, they had only released "On Though The Night", and Pete Willis was still in the band. Sadly they cancelled a few hours before the concert :-( But instead, I became a Rainbow-fan, because they did a good job at the concert. This is off course from the album released a year later in 1982 "Straight Between The Eyes".


ROGER GLOVER - BURN ME UP SLOWLY

Snapshot is the fourth solo album by Glover released in September 2002 by Eagle Records. It features Randall Bramblett, Warren Haynes and Gillian Glover (Roger's daughter). It is credited to Roger Glover & The Guilty Party.

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HIGHWAY STAR ... Who would complain about this track?  Interesting to note that this video was done before Machine Head blew up!  And before stage designs made bands look better apparently.  Gillan sounds off of his game here.  Paice is fun to watch as a lefty and he is way better than advertised.  The cameraman could've shown Blackmore throughout the entire solo that would have been nice.  And Glover, well he's there and he's a great bassist, not sure if hes more known for Bass playing or producing...  Good opener though...

LOVE IS ALL ...  Everybody's got to live together - All you need is love and understanding - were so happy and were celebrating - love is all...  Lyrics I never, ever, EVER, thought I would hear Dio sing.  Never heard this nor heard of this, had no idea this existed until now.  What a cool slice of rock and roll history!  This video alone makes this a great post.

BEHIND THE SMILE ... Not a very interesting song until the jammin' started anyway, then it was very cool - but its far more interesting watching Coverdale sing and Glover play keyboards and tambourine (which I didn't expect)

DEATH ALLEY DRIVER ... What a cool Rainbow album as a whole, and this tune is great and even better cranked up.  But how about that video game?  Fun to watch that one!

BURN ME UP SLOWLY ... He sings??!!! Like the reggae feel and the Hammond adds to the tune, I've always loved that style and sound of keyboard.    Not sure I would run out and look for his solo stuff but I am interested in his producer credits now!

Fun stuff here!

Can't say that I'm particularly familiar with Glover.  I mean, I've heard of him and realize that he was in Deep Purple, but that's about it.  I didn't even realize he was a producer, though I think I've got a Machine Head reissue that has a version of the album remixed by Glover.  That's the extent of my knowledge.

Highway Star - Well, I obviously know this song.  But I've never heard this live version.  It is very good.  I like the photo montage at the beginning of the video.  Love the black and white classic footage.  I love that the drums are very minimum.  And I also find it funny that the camera man stayed on the vocalist for a big chunk of the guitar solo before finally switching over.  This was cool.

Love Is All - Never, ever heard of this.  This makes me think of Saturday morning cartoons.  Maybe because it's animated.  But even the feel of the song makes me think of that.  Dio sounds great.  I can't say, as it stands alone, that it's fabulous or anything, but as for a cartoon, it's quite cool.

Behind The Smile - This is a very good song.  Not familiar with it though.  That is Coverdale, right?  I was expecting Gillan from the write up.  Man, Coverdale could really sing back then.  Who is on guitar?  And what is it with these camera men.  Why not immediately go to the guitar player when he starts the solo?  I don't get it.  

Death Alley Driver - What a gloriously cheesy video.  I love it.  I did not know who Joe Lynn Turner was until his solo album around 1984.  Still didn't know even at that point that he had been in Rainbow.  As a matter of fact, I had never even heard of Rainbow.  Of course, I'm much more familiar with those things now.  This song is pretty hard rockin', but it's just okay for me.  However, I was very interested to see who was gonna win that race.  I was thinking the whole time that that was one slow motorcycle.  But he pulled away nicely in the end.

Burn Me Up Slowly - Hey, I like this.  It's very laid back and similar to some Americana type stuff I've been listening to lately.  The chorus dips into the reggae genre.  I can't say I've ever been much of a reggae fan, but I like it when it's used sparingly like this.  His voice isn't bad at all.  Yeah, this is a cool track.

So, nice job.  I feel somewhat educated.  If I were to rank these songs, it would go like this:

1. Highway Star

2. Behind The Smile

3. Burn Me Up Slowly

4. Love Is All

5. Death Valley Driver

I wonder if we'll ever get a Kiss related special?

 

I AM thinking about a KISS-Special, but I only have 3 videos lined up now. But, yes, there will eventually be a KISS-special, in the line of "since KISS was my very first favorite band...". But I have around 10 ideas, until we get to that one :-)

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