Space Truckin'

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"Space Truckin'"
"Space Truckin'" cover
Song by Deep Purple
from the album Machine Head
Released March 1972
Recorded December 6 - 21, 1971
Mountain Studios
Montreux, Switzerland
Genre Hard Rock
Length 4:35
Label EMI (UK)
Warner Bros. Records (US)
Writer(s) Ian Gillan
Ritchie Blackmore
Roger Glover
Jon Lord
Ian Paice
Producer(s) Deep Purple
Machine Head track listing
"Lazy"
(6)
"Space Truckin'"
(7)
"When a Blind Man Cries"
(8)

"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 very high vocal abilities of singer Ian Gillan and powerful drumming of Ian Paice.

[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, or in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W04-HBd2HXA

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.

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 features much high pitched screaming by Gillan (now 61) - features high pitched guitar in the same key as his original vocals.

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Deep Purple
Ian Gillan | Steve Morse | Roger Glover | Don Airey | Ian Paice
Ritchie Blackmore | Jon Lord | David Coverdale | Joe Lynn Turner | Tommy Bolin | Glenn Hughes | Rod Evans | Nick Simper | Joe Satriani
Discography
Albums : Shades of Deep Purple | The Book of Taliesyn | Deep Purple | Deep Purple in Rock | Fireball | Machine Head | Who Do We Think We Are | Burn | Stormbringer | Come Taste the Band | Perfect Strangers | The House of Blue Light | Slaves & Masters | The Battle Rages On | Purpendicular | Abandon | Bananas | Rapture of the Deep
Live albums: Inglewood - Live in California | Concerto for Group and Orchestra | Kneel & Pray | Scandinavian Nights | Gemini Suite Live | Space Vol 1 & 2 | Made in Japan | Deep Purple In Concert | Made in Europe | Live in London | California Jamming | Just Might Take Your Life | Perks And Tit | Mk III: The Final Concerts | Last Concert in Japan | King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents: Deep Purple in Concert | This Time Around: Live in Tokyo | Nobody's Perfect | In the Absence of Pink: Knebworth 85 | Come Hell or High Water | Live in Europe 1993 | Live at the Olympia '96 | Live at Montreux 1996 | Total Abandon: Live in Australia | In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra | Live At The Rotterdam Ahoy | The Soundboard Series
Videos and DVDs: Concerto for Group and Orchestra | Special Edition EP | Live In Concert 1972/73 | Rises Over Japan | Live in California 74 / Live at the California Jam | Come Hell or High Water | Bombay Calling | Live at Montreux 1996 | In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra | Total Abandon Australia '99 | New, Live & Rare | Perihelion | Live Encounters
Compilation Albums: Purple Passages | 24 Carat Purple | When We Rock, We Rock, and When We Roll, We Roll | The Mark II Purple Singles | Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple | The Anthology | 30: Very Best of Deep Purple | Days May Come and Days May Go | Listen, Learn, Read On | Winning Combinations: Deep Purple and Rainbow | Deep Purple: The Platinum Collection
Related articles
Rainbow | Blackmore's Night | Ian Gillan Band | Gillan | Trapeze | Black Sabbath | Garth Rockett & the Moonshiners | The Javelins