Deep Purple enjoyed a massive hit with their "Smoke on the Water" song off of their Mark II album, Machine Head. And oh how I remember buying that album, marvelling at its gorgeous psychedelic cover, and enjoying every song on it. Made in Japan followed and no ride around town was complete without the 8-track blaring out of our speakers. Subsequent albums arrived and brought us several new incarnations of the band, all of whom left an indelible mark on how we perceive one of the great heavy metal bands of the '70s.

Our Poll was a bit surprising as there were some definite omissions. No one who got a taste of "Smoke on the Water" neglected revisiting some earlier DP albums even if "Hush" did respectable radio business. However, no one emailed votes for Book of Taliesyn and Shades of Deep Purple, both good albums that furthered our Deep Purple fixation at the time. Never mind that these albums were easily found in cut-out bins, they still gave us embryonic DP. Also, nothing after 1984's Perfect Strangers made the list at all. I do understand these exclusions simply because the earlier material was inferior to the consistently developing band and the latter material, although good, is not the peak stuff...at all. In addition to those, no other live set from the band including Made in Europe (released to capitalize on the success of the definitive Made in Japan) were remembered. So, having said all of this, I follow with the results of the Best of Deep Purple Poll:

• In Rock (15) - Deep Purple In Rock is the first album from the classic Mark II line-up with Ian Gillan at the mike. It had wonderful songs on it that included the epic "Child in Time," and "Flight of the Rat." But really, all of the songs were great and this numero uno spot is not a surprising one. I would have picked another myself but this one is deserving.
• Machine Head (14) - You can't be ignored if you contain one of the most recognizable and oft-repeated guitar riffs in the history of Rock 'n Roll as the engine of one of the songs on here. "Smoke on the Water" is a grand tune. But it is joined by classics like "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," and "Never Before." And we just cannot ignore the other three great tracks. It played on every stoner turntable and 8-track car player that was manufactured in the '70s. And it didn't take DP Mark II long to get here.
• Made in Japan (10) - Those High Schoolers lucky to be driving likely ran through every light in their respective town with this tape blaring out their windows. Representative of a great Live band, this double Album made many an adolescent believe in Rock and Roll as a powerful force, a life changer. Perfect in every way and might just be the most defining DP album. Certainly one of the great Live albums of all time. Don't argue!
• Fireball (10) - This pre-Machine Head album tied Made in Japan. It contained unforgettable tunes like "The Mule," "Anyone's Daughter," and the title cut, "Fireball." The 5-heads as a massive flaming "space fireball" with an upward trajectory was prescient as the next album (Machine Head) lit the band up.
• Perfect Strangers (5) - The reunion of the classic Mark II lineup delivered an adaptable 'DP for the '80s' album that resonated with some voters. There are some great tunes on here including the title track. It wasn't forgotten.
• Deep Purple (3) - This self-titled album has some very good songs but DP is still developing here. It is pre-Gillan, and pre-Glover but the in-place band didn't skimp. The album isn't as supremely representative of this constantly changing band, but it still holds a place.
• Come Taste the Band (2) - This incarnation of Deep Purple featured a new guitarist in Tommy Bolin, who would soon die due to a heroin overdose. After this album, DP split for nearly a decade sending Bolin into a promising solo career, and David Coverdale into the formation of Whitesnake. This album was well-received and is considered a strong album in the catalogue with Bolin providing strong support.
• Stormbringer (1) - Not a bad Deep Purple album, just not one that abides well. Solid DP fans do not completely dismiss the album because it has obvious strengths in it.
• Who Do We Think We Are? (1) - Now here's where I'm supremely surprised. Ok, not a great follow-up to Machine Head, but it STILL has some great DP songs on it like the funky "My Woman From Tokyo," "Mary Long," Rat Bat Blue," and "Super Trouper." Nevertheless, this album is the last to feature Glover and Gillan for a while until their '84 release, Perfect Strangers brought them back together. But it also set the stage for the Mark III version of Deep Purple with Coverdale and Hughes.
• Burn (1) - Burn brought about a sound change with the addition of Glenn Hughes. Regardless of any personnel changes , this version of Deep Purple still knew how to bring it with such songs like "Might Just Take Your Life," along with other excellent tracks on this very good album.

In a few weeks we'll introduce a new Poll.

I'm having to resurrect our Albums You MUST Hear Before You Die! simply because we have uncovered yet another "lost" list. We DO want to get them all in and so it is with pleasure that we present to you number 45 of this series as submitted by Jesse, who delivers a complete package:

"I am taking this poll not only to be desert island records, but also those records that either blew me away upon first listen or are just so...so...so... that you MUST hear it. In order of my memory:

1. Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power (Columbia KC3211--the original master). This really falls into all three of my criteria; some may say no, but I heartily say yes, Yes, YES!!!

2. Antony and the Johnsons - S/T. Just simply one of the most beautiful and haunting chanteurs since Nico--it's no wonder that Lou Reed has collaborated and toured with him.

3. Pixies - Bossanova. Again, possibly not the fanbase fave, but more experimental and challenging than their previous work. Listening to it today it's still fresh and new; not many popular bands would venture here.

4. Silver Mt. Zion - Horses In the Sky and 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons. While Godspeed You! Black Emperor introduced me to the post-rock sounds of Efrim & co., it wasn't until thier second band's fifth album, "Horses", that I felt they coalesced into an entity that could lay everybody to waste. "Horses" was the most emotional and rocking album in 2005 and I thought it the ultimate place that SMZ could take it, but this year I was proven wrong with "13". Where "Horses" may have been the band's last nail in the post-rock coffin, "13" is hammering away at post-metal's. As each Isis album seems to loose something, and other post-metal outfits are in a stable orbit, SMZ has rocketed into the stratosphere with four tracks that gather the emotion of punk, metal and classical music into just under an hour of sublime beauty and pummeling rage--juxtapositions that fuse together on these albums effortlessly. Just listen to the first minute of "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound", and if you don't get goosebumps I guess there's just no accounting for taste anymore.

5. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual. I seem to be in the mood for pairs of albums. Night/day complements, if you will. Where "Nothing's Shocking" is a brilliant piece of weaving jams and songs into an intricate patchwork of an album (and, I actually used to fall asleep to this album for one whole summer), it's sucessor "Ritual" takes that patchwork and reduces it down into each song. None more appealing than "Three Days"--one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking songs in modern rock. A truthfully emotional answer to the pop sensibilities of "November Rain".

6. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads and The Boatman's Call. I suppose a desert island list is easier these days when we can walk around with 100Gigs in our pockets instead of dragging the 12" around everywhere (though for my money, the files on that portable would be direct uncompressed rips of those slabs of 12" beauty), but nevertheless, Nick Cave went to the well of complementary albums which have been pinnacles of his career with these two mornful odes to loss and love.

7. Harvey Milk - My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be. Another album that fits into all three of my criteria, not only is this one of the best albums ever, but upon first spin mouths are left agape and some are running for the door. If you get them, you love them, if you can't understand what the hell is coming out of the speakers then the exit is welcoming. Their new album: "Life...The Best Game in Town" approaches this greatness, but the fact that an anvil is one of the instruments on "My Love" pushes it over the top!

8. Grace Jones - Nightclubbing. An amazing album that fits just as well in the clubs and catwalks as well as, belive it or not, the cafe's and bohemian/hipster haunts. Jones' rendition of Pop's title song is one of the most radical revisionings of a song (with the possible exception of TV on the Radio's "Mr. Grieves") that is just as great as the original. The remainder of the album balances the dance hits with the intriegue that reflects this ingenue's vamp.

9. Khanate - Capture & Release. Call it an opera from hell, Hannibal Lector's internal soundtrack, or just a great two-song album; this pummelling slower-than-death beauty is amazing. Turned up loud with headphones on, "Release", especially offers just that, twenty-five minutes of air after the nearly-twenty-minute barrage of "Capture". However both songs offer an extreme version of doom/drone/free jazz, a combination that play together amazingly well as the more recent Ascend album "Ample Fire Within" further exemplifies (enough that it almost overtook the Khanate space on this list).

10. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath. The Mars Volta announced themselves with a bang with their "Tremulant" EP, but it wasn't until "Bedlam" that their bang echoed back with a sonic-boom. "Bedlam" opens loud and fast and keeps going through some of their shortest songs since. The amazing free jazz explorations of "Frances the Mute" return here combined with the avant-metal-funk that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has been perfecting over the years. This album has been notoriously wrought with complications due to a ouiji-board gift, and the frustrations are evident in the music--in a great way: layers upon layers of music blending beautifully into a near-perfect album.

11. Mission of Burma - The Obliterati. The '80s loud-quiet-loud originators are back with a vengeance. Take the middle-album one-two punch of "13"/"Man in Decline", one of the best blasts, a prime example of the origin of the genre as well as how the band is taking it to new heights. Their humor is well evident on their closer with "Nancy Reagan's Head". It's all great fun and worth plenty of spins.

12. Thelonius  Monk with John Coltrane - S/T. I have to give props to this amazing album of  Monk tunes with great solos by oth jazz greats. There are enough subtleties in this whole record to keep you finding new moments until doomsday.

13. Sunn O))) - Black One. Speaking of doom, the main perveyors of tarpit-slow metal drones pitch a change-up here by shortening the length of some of their songs and fully embracing black metal with guest vokills from the likes of Malfec (Xasthur) and Wrest, guest guitars from experimentalists Oren Ambarchi and John Weise. While Sunn O))) dive into the black metal, they do so, in effect, at 16rpm, so rather than emerging from the depths of the lavaflowe, they pull everything down to their amplifier-worshipping burn.

14. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged. While all of Nirvana's albums could easily fit into this list, "Unplugged" is thier ultimate. Expanding their oevure by playing covers of the Meat Puppets, David Bowie, Leadbelly and traditional songs in amongst their own compositions, but breathing fresh air into every song. It is difficult to listen to this and not think about what could have been. Each album that Nirvana released pushed garage-rock further beyond its mediocre roots, and "Unplugged" is no different. It is an emotionally raw display, and one that we feel lucky to have been able to witness.

15. Lou Reed - The Blue Mask and Songs for Drella. I finish out my list with another two-fer, of a different sort. "The Blue Mask" was a relief to Velvet-era Reed fans after many questionable albums--though many of these are now classics in their own right (e.g. "Berlin", "Metal Machine Music", "The Bells")--as it saw a return to the hard-edged rock of "White Light/White Heat" as well as some of the more pop sensibilities of "Loaded". Delving deeper into the songs, however, one has to question some of the lyrics that Reed sings about: "I love women"? "I'm just an average guy"?? It is only after about 2/3rds of the way through that one realizes that maybe Reed isn't in fact singing about himself, but that this is really a pean to John Cale. For Reed, the always androgynous junkie, these songs seem to sit outside of his act. One can chalk it up to that he had just gotten clean, and that perhaps these were merly a tongue-in-cheek jibe at the straight world, but that doesn't fully sit right either, for there are some truely heart-felt songs ("My House", "The Day John Kennedy Died") that can't live in the same ironic world. For myself, I have settled that this really is about Cale. As such, it pairs with their only other major collaboration: "Songs for Drella", an ode to Warhol. While this album has sigificantly less instrumentation than either of their solo work ususally does, it is paired-down to truely put emphasis on their lyrics, which are beautifully quiet investigations about Warhol's (misunderstood) life in the public eye. Opening with "Smalltown", Reed and Cale put forth the desire for immortality, for something better than where one grew up. "There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh", Reed sings, and while one can argue that Warhol was no Michelangelo, the longing to have been born somewhere more important weighs heavy on young Warhola's shoulders: "When you're growing up in a small town / Bad skin, bad eyes, gay and fatty / People look at you funny // ...I hate being odd in a small town / If they stare let them stare in New York City / As this pink-eyed painting albino / How far can my fantasy go?" Reed and Cale continue through Warhol's rise to superstardom and the telephoto lens for which he was forced to perform. Reed, toward the close of the album, relates the possible final thoughts of Warhol: "The bullet split my spleen and lung / The doctors said I was gone / Inside I've got some shattered bone / For nobody but you / ...I'm still not sure I didn't die / And if I'm dreaming I still have bad pains inside / I know I'll never be a bride / To nobody like you // I wish I had a stronger chin / My skin was good, my nose was thin / This is no movie I'd ask to be in / With a nobody like you // ...All my life / It's been nobodies like you." In one of Cale's contributions, "A Dream", he recites a passage from Warhol's diary where he cannot contact with any of his friends, past or present. Warhol writes "And then I saw Lou / I'm so  mad at him / Lou Reed got married and didn't invite me / ...I don't get it / could have at least called / I mean he's doing so great / Why doesn't he call me? / I saw him at the MTV show / And he was one row away and he didn't even say hello / I don't get it / You know I hate Lou / I really do / ...And I was so proud of him / I was so scared today / There was blood leaking through my shirt / From those old scars from being shot / ...Gee, wouldn't it be funny if I died in this dream / Before I could make another one up / And nobody called / And nobody came." The final song on the album--the saddest--is also possibly the most sencere apology that Lou Reed could ever make. It's a two-am nightmare realization that he could have done more, but because of the public image, because of the speed at which stardom hits and propells, because of his ego, he is living with an emptyness and talking to his ghosts: "Andy, it's me, haven't seen you in a while / I wished I talked to you more when you were alive / I thought you were self-assured when you were shy / hello it's me." Reed continues: "Pop goes pop artist, the headlines said / Is shooting a put-on, is Warhol really dead / You get less time for stealing a car / I remember thinking as I heard my own record in a bar // They really hated you, now all that's changed / but I have some resentments that can never be unmade / You hit me where it hurt I didn't laugh / Your diaries are not a worthy epitaph // Oh well, now Andy, guess we've got to go / I wish some way somehow you like this little show / I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know / Hello it's me // Goodnight, Andy // Goodbye, Andy."

So that's my list. I hope that maybe you will come across something new, or at least pull out an old favorite for a new spin."

We have three SACD (Mobile Fidelity) reviews today. Those include What's Going On? and Let's Get It On from Marvin Gaye. and Fool for the City by Foghat. In addition, we also direct your attention to a UK band called Orchid Thieves. You'll find links and info at the bottom of today's page.

Finally, we close with a help plea for Crawdaddy! founder, Paul Williams. There is a web-page (Addicted to Vinyl) that explains the whole situation better than I could. Here's the link. If you feel it in your heart to help, you'll get all of the info that you need at the provided link.

Who woulda thought? Check out this AP article on the resurgence of vinyl amongst a dramatically younger crowd.

See you on Wednesday.

Shout! Factory has a 17-track compilation album coming from them on April 14. The album, The Definitive Buddy Guy, assembles the best from Buddy Guy's wondrous career.

Isaac Hayes fans, rejoice! After the reissue of Black Moses, Fantasy Records will follow up with the reissue of the earlier Hayes album, Hot Buttered Soul, planned for June 23 in both CD and DD formats.

Rounder Records have a few wondrous goodies in store for us that include new music by Nanci Griffith with The Loving Kind (June 9), and Rhonda Vincent with Destination Life (June 16).

429 Records will release a new album for Marshall Crenshaw called Jaggedland, which is due on June 2.

Hear Music will release Secret, Profane and Sugarcane by Elvis Costello on June 2 in both CD and DD forms.

The Eels have new music coming from them called Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire. The new album is scheduled for June 2 by Vagrant Records.

Geffen Records is releasing the UK reissue of 2CD The Who Sell Out Deluxe Edition with remastering and expanded with previoulsy unreleased Who tracks from the period. Already out in Europe, this Edition becomes available on May 19.

The Sounds have their new album coming on June 2 from Original Signal Recordings. It is being called Crossing the Rubicon.

UMe Imports will reissue the debut release from Steeleye Span called Hark! The Village Wait (1970). This is currently scheduled for April 21 (DD for now, but I'm sure CD is in the mix as well).

On May 19, Abnormally Attracted to Sin will be released by Tori Amos in both CD and LP formats.

Sanctuary Records has You Can't Put Your Arm Around a Memory, a likely Johnny Thunders comp that is slated to appear on April 21. This will probably have some very cool material on it. For the meantime, hunt down a copy of the unbelievable classic, So Alone. You can bet I'll track this one down!!

Reprise Records will be releasing a Cavo title, Bright Nights, Dark Days on June 2. Reprise Records will also release Live From Madison Square Garden in both 2CD and 2DVD forms featuring Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood. Both titles are slated for release on May 19.

Roadrunner Records will release Carver City by Rock band, cKy. This title is planned for release on May 19 in both standard and Special Edition.

Warner Records will release The Birth in LP form on May 19. The album is by Stardeath and White Dwarves.

Nonesuch Records will issue The Bright Mississippi by Allen Toussaint on 2LP in addition to the previously mentioned CD release. It is planned for May 19. CD version is slated for April 21.

Capitol Records will release a collection of Love songs from the extensive catalogue of The Beach Boys. This album will contain 20 well-known Beach Boys tracks, with six new Stereo mixes ("Why Do Fools Fall in Love"; "Don't Worry Baby"; "Hushabye"; "I'm So Young"; "Good to my Baby"; and "Time to Get Alone"). In addition, this collection will offer a previously unreleased Dennis Wilson track ("Fallin' in Love"). Summer Love Songs is scheduled for release on May 19.

There are some desirable Mobile Fidelity reissues coming that you should know about. They include the following: ...The Way It Was! (Art Pepper) 180g LP - April; Music From Big Pink (The Band) SACD - April; Dixie Chicken (Little Feat) 24k Gold CD - May; Toulouse Street (The Doobie Brothers) SACD - April; Sea Change (Beck) 24k Gold CD - April.

The strength of this album on the social consciousness barometer of the '70s (and just as relevant today) was off the charts. Marvin Gaye had officially moved from Soul singer to Soul singer with something to say. And why not? Bands had been a voice of the people for quite some time. It was Marvin Gaye's bravado that launched the Soul market into the 'ills of the times' territory. In addition, the songs were beyond great, they were classic. What's Going On remains as one of today's great Soul albums of all time. This Mo-Fi SACD takes our breath away.

Foghat ruled the charts and Rock lovers' hearts with the release of this high-charting platinum selling release, Fool For The City. With blues, hard rock, and the uniqueness of Peverett's vocals, Foghat - and Fool for The City - remains representative of a great era in Rock music, the '70s. This album generated the huge hit, "Slow Ride" as well as the album's title cut. Mobile Fidelity, with their attention to detail, has released an excellent audio version of the classic album on SACD, where it needed to be.

The female-fronted Orchid Thieves hails from the UK (don't confuse them with the Canadian and NYC bands of the same name variations), where it currently delivers it's brand of Rock not unlike The Pretenders except with stronger vocals. The music is reminiscent of an earlier time and yet they remain very relevant to the kind of emerging musical style that it coming from the always fertile musical climate of the UK. I highly recommend them to you. I am providing links to their Facebook page and their MySpace page, where you should find plenty of music to enjoy from this new band. Soon, they will release their debut album. We hope that they will do well. You can also follow their Twitter feeds.

Check out their posted songs, especially "After Tomorrow." They will be releasing an EP in a few months.