And for our friend Uwe - some Brit band borrowed this theme from them...
They sure did and never denied it! The DP guys liked the respective IABD album und heard it collectively to death. Then at one session in 1969, Jon Lord started playing the intro slowed down (a bow to Vanilla Fudge's lasting influence on the Purps), Ian Gillan improvised some lyrics over it and the rest is as they say history. Though never a single, it become one of DP's most popular songs and established Gillan's trademark passagio/falsetto.
The IABD guys und gals were aware of the steal, but rather than starting litigation (as they no doubt could have, unless ... see below!), they returned in kind and stole a song from DP (Wring That Neck/Hard Road from DP's second album Book of Talisyn) for their next album (which DP likewise accepted, they even received a letter from IABD announcing it beforehand!).
Of course, if you are a cynic with a worldweary view, then IABD's reticence in asserting their rights might have been down to entirely different reasons ... Listen here at 01:50:
Sound familiar?
Legend has it that the original writer, tenor saxophonist Vince Wallace, taught IABD violinist David LaFlamme the song (allegedly written in 1962) in 1966 at a joint gig. Initially, IABD would credit it to Wallace at their gigs (as a modern jazzer, he was someone you could pride yourself with). But come the release of IABD's debut in 1969, the band had - oops! - seemingly forgotten about Wallace's songwriting and credited the track conveniently to LaFlamme, Wallace would later reappear with at least a co-credit on IABD album sleeves.
Of course, I'm not insinuating anything. It's a great melody, irrespective of who plays it. In the end, probably some Indian snake charmer we'll never hear about wrote it.
Some further background:
http://www.originals.be/en/originals/650BTW: I find Wallace's treatment of the melody intriguing and very musical (it reappears a couple of times in his rendition, each time altered a little) - too bad there is no CD release of it.
PS: Herr Wallace seems to have taken it all rather hard ...
https://www.bluoz.com/iabd/vince.html... but perhaps he also wasn't the most skillful guy when it came down to securing and asserting his intellectual property. He died in 2012, ironically the same year Jon Lord left us. I guess the two now have ample time and opportunity to sort it out among themselves!
