Top 10 Things About the Song 'Highway Star' by Deep Purple
Highway Star deserves a list because:1) it's a very important song in metal music history but many metal fans don't know this
2) it's a great song
3) it's underrated
This explains why the lyrics are about highways and cars!
On this tour bus, a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs. To demonstrate, Ritchie Blackmore grabbed an acoustic guitar and began playing a riff consisting of a single "G" repeated over and over, while singer Ian Gillan improvised lyrics over the top.
Before 1971-1972 there were heavy solos but they weren't Heavy Metal solos in the strict sense. In this solo Ritchie Blackmore used Bach-like chord sequences and it was revolutionary. Why? Because metal music was born when blues elements in hard rock were replaced by classical elements. And this is exactly what HE did first.
The solo is very fast and it's about 1:20 min long.
That's called stellar musicianship and creativity. They didn't even have a studio version and rehearsals!
The organ solo is also impressive and it's about one minute long.
Yes, Ritchie Blackmore created the idea for using opening two strings and making metal riffs by it.
It's a metal song. Hard rock is based on blues/Rock N Roll, but Highway Star is clearly inspired by classical music for the most part (Johann Sebastian Bach in particular).
It has a metal guitar solo, metal vox with controlled screams, fast metal tempo, etc.
Uh, no. The the main verse riff is so obviously the first 3 notes of the pentatonic scale
The first part of the organ solo sounds like a guitar though.
I've even read this in several comments on this site.
It's a visitor comment, a really great description.
I like Highway Star better than Smoke On The Water. Don't kill me...
I think Highway Star is better too.
A lot of people don't notice the cool bass lick.
Yeah. Roger Glover is very underrated.
It was recorded live for German T.V. program Beat-Club in September 1971 and is featured on the History, Hits & Highlights '68-'76 DVD.