Ian Gillan squeals with robust delight, even as Ian Paice thunks with all the abandon that drove this song as the titanic closing moment from 1972’s Machine Head.
No, the wonder-filled excursions that were Jon Lord’s mid-song organ interludes — as heard on the subsequent Made In Japan — aren’t there. And Steve Morse doesn’t play with the angular abandon that Ritchie Blackmore once did. Otherwise, however, Deep Purple’s new version of “Space Truckin'” — featured on the forthcoming Live in Verona, recorded with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt at Italy’s Arena di Verona, and due October 21, 2014 via Eagle Rock — finds things as they should be.
You don’t really get a sense of what they sound like with strings, but you certainly can’t deny this band’s lingering power. Times change, members change, but Deep Purple remains.
The Live in Verona set also includes “Hush,” which was featured on Deep Purple’s most famous orchestral collaboration from the past, 1969’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra; as well as “Woman from Tokyo,” “Perfect Strangers,” “Highway Star” and, of course, “Smoke on the Water.”
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