Deep Purple - Machine Head

When I was 20 years old, I had just moved to Halifax and was starting to play in bands and try to get comfortable and develop my own style. When Ian Paice was 20 years old, he joined Deep Purple, and by the time he was 22 in 1970, Deep Purple was on it's way to being a massively important band. Finally, at age 24 (my current age) they released Machine Head, their most impressive and popular album to date (and no, it's not just because of Smoke On The Water). If I was to look at Ian's life in comparison to mine, I would probably pack it in, he had accomplished more by my age than I probably ever will. Hell, he only started to play the drums when he was fifteen, three years later than me. Things are not coming up in my favor.

Ian had a certain natural talent that takes drummers a step above the rest. Dave Grohl has it, ?uestlove has it, and Paice definitely has it. Listen to Highway Star and imagine being in that era. It's faster, denser, and way more powerful than any rock music that had come before it, and Paice is the driving force behind it. He starts Pictures Of Home with triplet tom/snare rolls, plays around with a straight rock beat in Space Truckin' (possibly the best song title of the 70's) and gets in a little jazzyness with Lazy.

Paice is now the only remaining original member left in Deep Purple, and that makes total sense to me. If I had written the parts to these songs I would want to keep playing them until I was dead.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Highway Star, Space Truckin, Lazy