Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple (1941-2012)

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple (1941-2012)
From: alanabit
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 01:18 PM

Thanks for the anecdotes. These things always add a lot to the mere image which one gathers from the press and other media.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple (1941-2012)
From: GUEST,Clive Pownceby
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 09:26 AM

It was the Artwoods too, who first flicked the switch for me. Mike Raven used to play them on 'JazzBeat' - seminal mid-'60s half hour programme on the radio. I've re-collected their material on CD over recent years and it still holds up.
I so wish I'd seen them live.
Their 'Jazz In Jean's' EP goes for fantastic sums to vinyl collectors. I guess there's only Malcolm Pool and Derek Griffiths left, now that Art, Keef and now Jon are gone.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple (1941-2012)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 06:13 AM

When The Artwoods played at our club in Grimsby Jon Lord, and the rest of the group, was always friendly. On holiday in London in 1967 a friend and I went to see them at the 100 Club. In the Blue Posts we were greeted warmly and went to the gig as the band's guests. Jon told me that it was 10 years to the day that he arrived in London to 'make his fortune'. I never met him again but I'm sorry to hear of the passing of such a gifted gentleman.
RIP Jon.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: GUEST,Charles Macfarlane
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 08:18 PM

Sorry, forgot to sign it, but last post was from me.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 08:17 PM

> From: GUEST,josepp
>
> I think it was Emerson who taught him how to play the synth.

I suppose it hinges on what you mean by 'taught'.

I first discovered Deeple Purple through the album In Rock, with that wonderful send-up on the cover of the faces of American Presidents carved in the cliff-top overlooking Hollywood replaced by the members of the band. I then started buying their back catalog and went forward with them up to and including Fireball, so at that point I had every Deep Purple album and single. I tended to prefer Jon's keyboard solos to Ritchie Blackmore's guitar solos, the main exception being the guitar solo in Child In Time, the best song on In Rock.

I never replaced the albums with CDs, so I don't have them anymore, and, particularly, I don't therefore have the sleeve notes, so this is all based on recollection. IIRC, Jon Lord was classically trained from an early age (but perhaps I had better check my facts ... yes, that was right: Deep Purple's Jon Lord dies at 71), so I'd be surprised if Keith Emerson taught him anything except possibly the actual workings of a synth and what it could do - he couldn't have taught him much about keyboard playing.

In fact Jon was knowledgeable enough to write a Concerto For Rock Band which was performed with, I think, the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall around the turn of the decade 60s to 70s. I had that album as well.

So many good numbers, I really must get some CDs when I have some spare cash.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 07:06 PM

I think it was Emerson who taught him how to play the synth. Anyway, sorry to hear it. DP was a big fave of mine in junior high.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: GUEST,Rattler
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 07:06 PM

DP were my favourite band around the time I was discovering folk. We saw no incongruity in being "in to" both, and and a few other styles of music too. Though I didn't follow the fortunes of individual band members, they certainly played a major role in my musical education.

Virtuoso playing, powerful voices, strong lyrics: elements that we recognise and respect in the folk world, are the common ground.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 06:57 PM

Jon Lord was the player who first made me aware of the power and magic of the Hammond B-3. The album, I believe, was Book of Taliesyn. A fine keyboardist, he sounded classically trained and had stylistically quite a bit in common with Keith Emerson.

Subject: RE: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 06:55 PM

Subject: Obit: Jon Lord of Deep Purple Dies
From: alanabit
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 05:27 PM

The death of Jon Lord, the Deep Purple keyboarder has just been reported. They were not my favourite band, but he was definitely a musician of some standing, who will no doubt be remembered with some affection by many of his generation. He died of stomach cancer at 71.