Glenn and an unknown singer (former school teacher and current airline pilot or something, obsessed with numerology 666 and a best friend named Eddie with severe skin issues ...) tributing Mk 3 (Burn) and Mk 4 (You Keep On Moving & This Time Around) material at the Jon Lord Memorial Concert at Royal Albert Hall last Friday (I was there). Other luminaries in the band are Rick Wakeman, Don Airey, Micky Moody and Ian Paice.
Glenn being Glenn, he split the audience right down the middle between those who loved his flamboyance and those who thought he overplayed and oversang. Overplaying and oversinging?! Who, Glenn?! That is what the man has been doing ever since he joined Les Purps in 1973, so no news there.
More importantly, I believe Jon Lord would have approved of the musicianship and coupled it with a wry smile on Glenn's antics, "he just never changes".
"I know this is blasphemy, but while some of Purple's finest moments are contained in the grooves of the Burn LP, there are some real clunkers on the record too!"
Not blasphemy, but an accurate and perceptive observation! The incredibly strong songs on Burn are the title track, Might Just Take Your Life, Sail Away (best song on album) followed by Mistreated (live versions of it were better, it was still a little underdeveloped on Burn) and the at least interesting, if not quite successful Cream pastiche You Fool No One. A 200, What's Going On Here and Lay Down, Stay Down (except for the marvellous piano solo) are a bit fillerish, I agree. It's just that the real good stuff is so strong, it elevates the whole album in my ears. But overall the songwriting is more consistent and refined on Stormbringer.