Highway Star
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| “Highway Star” | |||||
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| Song by Deep Purple | |||||
| Album | Machine Head | ||||
| Released | March 1972 | ||||
| Recorded | December 6 - 21, 1971 Mountain Studios Montreux, Switzerland |
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| Genre | Hard rock Heavy metal Speed metal[1] |
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| Length | 6:08 | ||||
| Label | EMI (UK) Warner Bros. Records (US) |
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| Writer | Ian Gillan Ritchie Blackmore Roger Glover Jon Lord Ian Paice |
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| Producer | Deep Purple | ||||
| Machine Head track listing | |||||
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"Highway Star" is one of British rock group Deep Purple's most famous songs. It is characterised by a long classically-inspired guitar solo and organ solo[2]. Jon Lord claimed that the organ solo is based on a Bach-like sequence. The song appears on the album Machine Head and is the fastest song (tempo-wise) recorded on the album.
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[edit] History
This song was born on a tour bus going to Portsmouth in 1971 when a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs. To demonstrate, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore grabbed an acoustic and began playing a riff consisting of a single "G" repeated over and over, while vocalist Ian Gillan improvised lyrics over the top. The song was refined and was performed that same night[3]. The song first appears on the 1972 LP Machine Head. The track remains one of the band's staple live performances, and was the set opener for many years. These days the song is usually an encore. Two live versions of this song can be heard on the Deep Purple-Extended Versions Live Compilation CD. The first version heard on the CD is fused with the song "Not Fade Away".
[edit] Structure
The structure of the song consists of a 25 second guitar introduction, before the band launches into the thumping opening riff, which soon leads into the first vocals section (0.55). The first two verses are sung, then Jon Lord begins his organ solo (2.14). The organ solo lasts for about a minute, then Ian Gillan sings the third verse of the song (3.24). At the conclusion of the third verse, the guitar solo starts (4.07), and lasts for just under a minute and twenty seconds. Then, the fourth and final verse, which in the original recording is simply a repetition of the first verse, is sung, finishing around 6.10. Depending on the version, there may be a 15 second-long exit section before the end of the song. When the song is played live, Gillan has been known to improvise its lyrics, as seen in the official video for the song.
[edit] Covers
Being an early speed metal song, "Highway Star" is covered by numerous bands in the genre. Other bands (that do not fall under the "speed metal" description) have covered this song, as well.
- Faith No More has covered at least one verse of the song, which can be heard on the second disc of their greatest hits album Who Cares a Lot?.
- X-Cops, a GWAR side project, covered the song (with slightly different lyrics to better reflect the theme of the band and album) on their only album, You Have the Right to Remain Silent....
- Metal Church covered the song on their self-titled debut album.
- Australian classical guitar band Saffire perform an equally fast but acoustic cover of Highway Star on their 2004 CD Nostalgica.
- Alter Bridge covered the song several times on their concerts with Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy playing both the guitar solo and the organ solo together.
- Type O Negative have a version of the track on their recently released 'Best Of'
- Dream Theater performed the song as well as the rest of the Made in Japan album on January 13 2006. It was subsequently released as an official bootleg on Mike Portnoy's Ytse Jam Records.
- Bugotak band from Novosibirsk made their Men Chuguruk cover with throat singing vocals in Buryat language and instruments of Siberian indigenous people.
[edit] Appearances in other media
- A cover version of "Highway Star" by Kaleb James is featured in one stage of the Nintendo DS video game Elite Beat Agents.
- In The Simpsons episode "Viva Ned Flanders", Homer Simpson sings his own version of the song, replacing the word "car" with "Ned".
- An instrumental version of Highway Star is featured in Super Nintendo title Rock N' Roll Racing.
- "Highway Star" was the original name for the NES game Rad Racer until they were asked to change it by Deep Purple. The name, however, was still used as the title for the game in Japan, and one of the tunes in the game is inspired by the song.
- The song can be heard very briefly in the film Dazed and Confused.
- The master recording of this song is a playable track in the music video game Rock Band. The song also plays during the game's introduction video. In Rock Band, the volume of the organ solo has been decreased to make it easier for players to hear and play their respective instruments.
- Yuuya Fungami, a character in part four of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, names his stand ability "Highway Star".
- A cover version of this song can be played on Guitar Freaks 3rd mix/drummania 2nd Mix.*
- In an episode of Metalocalypse, the character Toki Wartooth proclaims that a car has 'Big fat tires and everything!', referencing a line in the song.
- In the anime series Bubblegum Crisis, an advanced motorcycle named "Highway Star" was built by the mechanic Mackey Stingray.
- The song is played briefly in the episode "Stolen Car" of That '70s Show.
- Highway Star is the name of an enemy in the Capcom video game Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for the Playstation 2 console.
- Highway Star was the original name of the Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers, when they were still a classic rock cover band.
- In the CSI episode, "Cockroaches", the song can be heard in the beginning while the camera follows the red car behind the dumpster truck.
[edit] References
- ^ Heavy Metal: Speed metal Speed?
- ^ :::: Roger Glover - the official website
- ^ Roger Glover Interview at stevemorse.com
