Come Taste the Band

With the departure of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (who formed Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio), Deep Purple brought in Tommy Bolin as his replacement. Bolin had the chops, but filling the shoes of a beloved figure is never easy, even in the best of times. The band had been moving toward funk and soul on their previous album, *Stormbringer*. While longtime Deep Purple members drummer Ian Paice and keyboardist Jon Lord remained in place, the newer arrivals—singer David Coverdale and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, who\'d joined on the third album—continued to shift the band into more commercial hard rock territory. Songs such as “Comin’ Home,” “Lady Luck,\" and “Dealer” showed the players could still make magic. “I Need Love” sounds like a late-\'80s hair-metal tune being played as a loose funk jam. Hardcore devotees find much to recommend about this unusual chapter in the band’s history, and when considered song by song, there are certainly moments that even casual Deep Purple fans would love.

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