Space Truckin'
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| "Space Truckin'" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Deep Purple | |||||
| Album | Machine Head | ||||
| Released | March 1972 | ||||
| Recorded | December 6 - 21, 1971 Montreux, Switzerland | ||||
| Genre | Hard rock Heavy metal Psychedelic rock | ||||
| Length | 4:35 | ||||
| Label | EMI (UK) Warner Bros. Records (US) | ||||
| Writer | Ian Gillan Ritchie Blackmore Roger Glover Jon Lord Ian Paice | ||||
| Producer | Deep Purple | ||||
| Machine Head track listing | |||||
| |||||
"Space Truckin'" is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple. It is the seventh track on the Machine Head album. Its lyrics talk of space travel and it showcases the vocal abilities of singer Ian Gillan and powerful drumming of Ian Paice.
The song's legendary chorus riff, although different, slightly resembles that of the song Red The Sign Post, released in 1968 by the band Fifty Foot Hose on their album Cauldron.
[edit] Live performances
When it was first performed live, the band appended an instrumental that was originally part of the song "Mandrake Root" on their first album but gradually evolved into a showcase for Jon Lord's Hammond organ and Ritchie Blackmore's guitar solos. This usually took the length of the overall song to over twenty minutes, and was always performed as the last number of the main set. A good example of this arrangement can be found on the Made In Japan album, wherein Blackmore also quotes "Fools" of Fireball "cello" solo.
Jon Lord played his solo through a ring modulator or played some of it on an ARP synthesizer. Meanwhile, Ritchie Blackmore usually chose the last guitar solo as the spot to smash his guitar, play it with his feet or throw it into the air. One of the most infamous incidents where this happened was at the California Jam festival in 1974, where he dropped one guitar over the edge of the stage, smashed a second against a TV camera, then set his amplifier on fire which subsequently exploded. A video of the incident can be seen here.
When Deep Purple reformed in 1984, this extended arrangement was reworked, and later included snippets of other songs.
During the Rapture of the Deep Tour, the final part of the song, which originally featured much high pitched screaming by Gillan (now 61) - featured high pitched guitar in the same key as his original vocals.
[edit] Cover versions
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One covered the song during their 2002 European tour, as seen on the Live On Earth DVD.
