10 Best Hard Rock Bands Of The 1970's
6. Deep Purple
Coming out of the British rock scene of the late 60's, Deep Purple were originally a jam band who would take cover songs and put big arrangements to them. After the band noticed the music world shifting to harder territory, they changed their lineup and brought more professionalism into the hard rock world.
While the songs of Deep Purple were always firmly rooted in the hard rock tradition, the band's aspirations were always far greater than the blues-based playing of their contemporaries. Keyboardist Jon Lord took the Hammond organ and turned it from a church-style instrument into a major rock force by playing classical runs through a Marshall stack. At the other side of the spectrum, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was taking influences from jazz, blues, and even Eastern music and concocting them into an incredible hard rock fusion.
As the band started to hit their stride with In Rock, their tunes went from admirable displays of rock to colossal feats of hard rock brilliance. Even when the band changed their lineup midway through the decade, they were still unbeatable on songs like "Burn." When hard rock bands began to have carbon copies of each other, Deep Purple stood out amongst the pack with their vicious sonic attack.