Jon Lord

Black Monday returned and took three highly regarded musicians and singers that defined music in their own way.  Kitty Wells, the original Queen of country music passed away from complications of a stroke and joins her hubby Johnnie Wright in the Great Opry In The Skies at 92.

Bob Babbitt, who replaced James Jamerson on some of the funkier Motown recordings and Dennis Coffey and The Detroit Guitar Band died at age 74.  He kept somewhat busy in the later years appearing on the Phil Collins Going Home CD of 2010.  The rumbling bass on Ball Of Confusion by The Temptations?  That was Bob. According to Bob there were more to the story of Papa Was A Rolling Stone. http://www.bobbabbitt.com/smf/index.php?topic=234.0

And there's Jon Lord.  I grew up being a big Deep Purple fans back in the days of Rod Evans being lead singer and the singles that introduced me to them.  More so on Kentucky Woman than Hush although the former I heard in a Fort Dodge Diner years ago and then Hush was found as a 4 for a dollar 45 but I also enjoyed the B side One More Rainy Day to which I think Lord did contribute more backing vocals than he would when Ian Gillan joined up.

The early years had Lord competing with Richie Blackmore on the solos and intro, the long beginning to River Deep Mountain High, I think most of April is more Jon than Richie and of course Mandrake Root to which the song extended jam would appear more so down the line on the 20 minute Space Truckin.  The original Deep Purple In Rock, Lord's intro to Speed King was taken out (later restored on the Deepest Purple Best of) and perhaps the best known song he's associated with: Child In Time.  Jon was behind the Concerto For Group And Orchestra concept to which was the final 8 track that their old label put out and the new label Warner Brothers took over but it wasn't promoted very well but it remains one of the things that Jon was most proud of.  Made In Japan, an album that people still call the definite DP remains the best way to hear DP in live setting, even though I don't play it much myself.

With each new album after that, Lord was beginning to be more in the background and the change from Gillan to David Coverdale/Glenn Hughes still showed signs of life in Burn although Stormbringer the less said the better. And then the confusion period when Blackmore left and doomed guitar specialist Tommy Bolin gave us Come Taste The Band and Deep Purple was history.

It's hard to think of Lord being in Whitesnake now and depending on who you ask or read in interviews it was either Lord begging to join the Snake or Coverdale begging Lord to help out but I always thought that when Lord joined up that Whitesnake returned to that Deep Purple sound that they created on Burn but with more guitar and even if Jon thought he was a sideman he still enhanced the albums he was on.  And when Ian Paice joined up for their best album Ready And Willing (1980 Mirage, never issued on CD in the US for some stupid reason) and got Martin Birch to produce it was kinda like a DP reunion of sorts.  Come And Get It sounded too much like Foreigner but it did have a couple album cuts of note like Wine Women And Song driven by Lord's piano playing and Don't Break My Heart Again.  Paice would exit after Saints & Sinners and Lord would rejoin the reunion Deep Purple after Slide It In and Perfect Strangers was a triumph return to the charts and to the fans. And Jon Lord would remain with them till leaving in 2002 to concentrate  more on the classical side of things and less hectic touring.

For side projects there's First Of The Big Bands, a 1974 album with the late great Tony Ashton (reissued on Wounded Bird in 2009) with help from Peter Frampton, Ronnie Wood and Cozy Powell although the album never did reveal who played what.  I've never heard Malice In Wonderland with Ian Paice playing drums, nor Gemini Suite, nor the long forgotten and hard to find Last Rebel with Roy Dyke on drums.  Jon could be heard on Alvin Lee's Detroit Diesel and Ride's 1994 Carnival Of Light, playing on 2 tracks.

If nothing else, Jon Lord can be credited as the first heavy metal Hammond organ player since that was his keyboard of choice back in those days.  Did you know that after his original organ died he ended up buying Christine McVie's keyboard and still played it through Whitesnake and DP the comeback?  There are plenty of sites that have Jon Lord talking about DP, Whitesnake and his keyboard set up.  He remain quite accessible via the net till the day he passed on.

Another original that can't be replaced.  RIP Jon.