Deep Purple Minisite
Deep Purple Feature: PART TWO
PART TWO:
When Deep Purple decided, against the odds, to try and find replacements for Gillan and Glover, it seemed a forlorn task. Enter, in June 1973, vocalist David Coverdale and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes. Cue: the inception of what became known as Deep Purple MkIII – and the second golden era of the band. From Yorkshire, 22-year-old Coverdale had sung in several short-lived bands – including The Government, who had supported Purple in Sheffield, in August ’69 – but was now working in a fashion boutique when he answered the ad in Melody Maker.
The same age, Birmingham-born Glenn Hughes had left school at 15 to play guitar in local group The News. His major claim to fame before joining Purple, though, was Trapeze, who he released a clutch of fine albums with, most notably their 1972 classic You’re The Music, We’re Just The Band, a modest hit in the States.
Contrary to expectation, Burn, the first album from the new Purple line-up, released in March 1974, was a tremendous comeback, and a huge success. Coverdale’s rich, deep voice and Hughes’ higher-pitched soulful vocals reintroduced a bluesier feel to the band’s sound, with a reinvigorated Blackmore, Lord and Paice adding extra layers of power. Songs like the blistering title track or the surprisingly funky first single, ‘Might Just take Your Life’, proved a superb showcase for the twin-vocal line-up, and Burn became recognised as the band’s finest hour since Machine Head. Stormbringer followed in December 1974, but the anthemic title track aside, the album was a disappointment after the rekindled promise of Burn. Blackmore was becoming increasingly disenchanted and admits he had begun keeping his best songs for his own planned solo album. When he left to form the first incarnation of Rainbow, it came as no surprise to the others.
Once again, sceptics predicted the end. And once again, they were proved wrong, the band finding a replacement for the previously thought irreplaceable "Man In Black " in the waif-like figure of 23-year-old Tommy Bolin. As Jon Lord told Purple biographer Simon Robinson, “He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four Marshall 100 watt stacks and that was it.”
Born in Sioux City, Iowa, Bolin had played drums and piano before switching to guitar when he was 13. Moving to Denver, he played with several now forgotten mid-’60s bands before joining Zephyr, who he recorded two albums with in the early-’70s. Bolin’s best-known recordings before Purple, however, were on Billy Cobham’s jazz-rock fusion classic, Spectrum (1973), and two albums with The James Gang: Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). 
Bolin had also jammed with such luminaries as Dr. John, Albert King, and Alphonse Mouzon and was busy working on his first solo album, Teaser, when he accepted the invitation to join the new Deep Purple MkIV line-up. Despite picking up mixed reviews, the resulting album, Come Taste The Band, released in December 1975, revitalised the Purple sound in all sorts of unexpected ways. With the encouragement of Coverdale and Hughes, the guitarist came up with some of his best material, including ‘Getting Tighter’, co-written with Hughes, which also became a major highlight of the new stage show, and ‘Coming Home’, co-written with Paice, that was more in the hard rock tradition. “[Ian] started a beat and I just started making up these chords,” Bolin recalled in a rare interview. “We built the whole riff around that.” Bolin’s guitar solo in the middle also became his onstage showcase. But not all the band’s fans were convinced about the new, more soulful direction Bolin was helping take them in. When his drug problems also began to manifest themselves in cancelled shows and missed cues, the writing was on the wall.