Deep Purple with Orchestra
Live In Montreux 2011
Eagle Eye Media cd/dvd
www.eaglerockent.com

The Rolling Stones
Some Girls: Live In Texas ‘78
Eagle Eye Media dvd
www.eaglerockent.com
By George W. Harris

Both of these releases give a whole new meaning to the term “70s rock”
as the music reflects the wild 70s, but the artists are presently
pushing that very decade in their Social Security years.

Deep Purple is still rocking after all of these years, and with
Blackmore playing English folk music, the band now consists of Ian
Gillan, Ian Paice, Roger Glover, Steve Morse and Don Airey. This single
dvd or double cd has a pretty inspired and completely coherent (what a
concept!) band in front of a full orchestra conducted by Stephen “BK”
Bentley-Klein. The orchestra has a very 60s shark suit hipness a la
Lalo Schifrin, as the punctuated horns on “Highway Star” sound like a
car chase scene. Gillan’s voice is in good form, and with the wisdom of
age, the band keeps the songs like “Space Truckin’” and “Smoke On The
Water” at tolerable and fairly tight lengths. Gone are the 12 minute
mindless solos, we’re going for song structure here, and it works well.
The interviews on the bonus section have each member chipping in with
some sage observations.

The Rolling Stones are captured live at the Will Rogers Auditorium on a
July 1978 concert as they were beginning their renaissance with the
hard rocking Some Girls album. The regular band of Jagger, Richards,
Watts, Wyman and Wood have the additon of Ian Stewart/p, Ian
McLagan/key and Cajun violinist Doug Kershaw (on”Far Away Eyes”). The
band is at their hedonistic best here, with Charlie Watts’ lithe
drumming being a visual high point, showing his jazz chops as
timekeeper for the Glimmer Twins. Bonus features include a Saturday
Night Live episode from 1978, an ABC 20/20 with Jagger being
interviewed by a very dapper Hugh Downs, and a more recent interview
with Jagger reflecting on a rocker’s life. It is only rock and roll,
but in 78, they liked it.