“I get more volume and power when I play with a pick. I’d never be able to play Highway Star with my fingers”: Roger Glover’s isolated bassline on Deep Purple’s Highway Star is a masterclass in high-velocity picking

If heavy metal is the bastard son of rock ’n’ roll, Deep Purple is due a paternity test. Like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, their peers in the trifecta of hard rock, Purple reacted against the bubblegum pop and hippy-dippy fare of the 1960s with a high-octane sound that was powered by the blues and borrowed as freely from classical music as it did from psychedelia and folk. 

From the band’s 1968 debut, Shades of Purple, through its self-titled 1969 album, bassist Nick Simper anchored the burgeoning outfit with sinewy lines that darted deftly between guitarist Richie Blackmore’s leads and Hammond organ player Jon Lord’s progressive keyboard stabs. 

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