10 Greatest Keyboardists Of All Time

Whenever you hear a piano in a rock song, it sometimes feels like the band is softening up their sound too much. With each track, it always seemed like the piano would never have the sonic bite that a distorted guitar could produce. That is, until Deep Purple came along.

Across Purple's discography, Jon Lord's skills with a Hammond organ turned the keyboardist into one of the key members of the band. Lord's vision for his role in the band was to take the organ and bring it to the forefront rather than being an added extension of the band's sound. Instead of feeding the organ through a traditional keyboard amplifier, Lord strapped his keyboard onto a Marshall stack and just let it rip. Now every time you heard the organ roll in on a Deep Purple track, the sound would be overwhelming as it stood side by side with guitarist Richie Blackmore.

Lord's classical background also led to truly adventurous live shows which incorporated classical runs on songs like "Highway Star" and even performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Whether it was a rock scorcher or a subdued piano ballad, Jon Lord's diversity on the instrument made him the undisputed hard rock Beethoven.