{"id":29930,"date":"2025-10-22T05:30:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29930"},"modified":"2025-08-20T11:18:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:18:23","slug":"take-five-great-performances-by-ian-gillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/take-five-great-performances-by-ian-gillan\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Great Performances by Ian Gillan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ian Gillan is one of hard rock\u2019s most celebrated vocalists. He\u2019s best known for his work with Deep Purple; his vocal on the hit \u201cSmoke on the Water\u201d is among the many highlights of his time with that group. But Gillan \u2013 who celebrated his 80<sup>th<\/sup> birthday August 19 \u2013 has many other credits of note. Here are five stellar turns from the hard rock hero, who these days is once again fronting Deep Purple.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cLove-Hate-Revenge\u201d by Episode Six (1967)<\/b><br \/>\nThough they never released an album while together, pop group Episode Six made a number of excellent singles in the late 1960s. In their heyday the group featured lead singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, both of whom would go on to Deep Purple. A high point of Episode Six\u2019s catalog is this, their fifth single. Decades after its release, \u201cLove-Hate-Revenge\u201d would be included on the essential various-artists boxed set <i>Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond 1964-1969<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Episode Six - Love Hate Revenge\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oY_sGhh4Tdo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cGethsemane (I Only Want to Say)\u201d from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice\u2019s <\/b><i><b>Jesus Christ Superstar<\/b><\/i><b> (1970)<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A largely successful attempt to combine the Passion of Jesus and rock music, J<i>esus Christ Superstar<\/i> would eventually spawn a Broadway show, film and television adaptations and more. Over the years, more than ten vocalist-actors have taken on the lead role, but on the original album, Ian Gillan portrayed Jesus, backed by members of Joe Cocker\u2019s Grease Band. A large cast contributed to the record, but Jesus got a (super)star turn on several numbers including this one.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vqvdgWxRu1k?si=gS9rahVRo5Z1ymWD\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cSpace Truckin\u2019 by Deep Purple, from <\/b><i><b>Machine Head<\/b><\/i><b> (1972)<\/b><br \/>\nEverybody knows \u201cSmoke on the Water,\u201d the autobiographical hit from Deep Purple\u2019s landmark <i>Machine Head<\/i> LP. But the album is stuffed to the brim with riches. Among those is the rifftastic \u201cSpace Truckin\u2019\u201d a song with a melody allegedly inspired by Neal Heft\u2019s \u201cBatman Theme.\u201d The tune features powerful lead vocals \u2013 and plenty of melodic screaming \u2013 from Ian Gillan. (For those who want more \u2013 <i>much<\/i> more \u2013 Deep Purple\u2019s live version on 1973\u2019s <i>Made in Japan<\/i> clocks in at nearly 20 minutes.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5hqG-29NTSU?si=TiVa_ZpSQngB3FGp\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cTrashed\u201d by Black Sabbath from <\/b><i><b>Born Again<\/b><\/i><b> (1983)<\/b><br \/>\nWhen second lead singer Ronnie James Dio left the band, Black Sabbath\u2019s future was in doubt. But the group recruited Ian Gillan and went on to make <i>Born Again<\/i>. Unfortunately, mixing problems gave the record a muddy sound, and critics largely panned it. But fans dug <i>Born Again<\/i> \u2013 it charted well in the UK and U.S. \u2013 and time has been rather kind to the record. Gillan would only hang around for one record and the tour to promote it, but he left behind some good material, including \u201cTrashed,\u201d a tune he co-wrote with Black Sabbath founding members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. The song was released as a single, and its lyrical content was targeted by noted killjoys the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3Kw9wHBl_Yk?si=AC8k_IeZPzAbEOEy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b>Child in Time\u201d by the Ian Gillan Band from <\/b><i><b>Child in Time<\/b><\/i><b> (1976)<\/b><br \/>\nDeep Purple had recorded \u201cChild in Time\u201d for their 1970 <i>Deep Purple In Rock<\/i> LP; that version ran more than ten minutes. When Gillan launched his eponymous group, he recorded a new (and slightly shorter) version of the song, giving it a more jazzy arrangement. It\u2019s a highlight of the band\u2019s critically-acclaimed album of the same name, which charted in the UK and Sweden. (A demo recording of the song found on the band\u2019s <i>Rarities 1975-1977<\/i> is also quite excellent.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pwkJo9_c3fM?si=pfrlEbWz_3dGGazJ\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ian Gillan is one of hard rock\u2019s most celebrated vocalists. He\u2019s best known for his work with Deep Purple; his vocal on the hit \u201cSmoke on the Water\u201d is among [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5758],"class_list":["post-29930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-ian-gillan","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29934,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29930\/revisions\/29934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}