Space Truckin'
The closer of Machine Head, which grew to almost twenty minutes onstage.
Deep Purple, from Machine Head (1972)
- Written by
- Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice
- Released
- 1972
- Length
- 4:31
- Album
- Machine Head
Blackmore said the half-step riff in the refrain came from the Batman TV theme by Neal Hefti. Gillan wrote lyrics as a pastiche of 1950s rock 'n' roll with a science fiction theme.
Live it stretched to about 20 minutes, 19:42 on Made in Japan, and was extended with the Mandrake Root instrumental. Blackmore smashed a guitar to it at California Jam on 6 April 1974. In 2003 it was used as a wake-up call for the crew of the Space Shuttle STS-107, and the band closed their album Bananas with a piece called Contact Lost for the astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
Covers and versions
- Iron Maiden (2012) on the tribute Re-Machined
- Overkill (1999) on Coverkill
- Ace Frehley (2020) on Origins Vol. 2
More songs by Deep Purple
Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, Child in Time, Black Night, Hush, Strange Kind of Woman, Woman from Tokyo, Burn, Perfect Strangers, Knocking at Your Back Door, Speed King
Sources
- Space Truckin', Wikipedia
- Made in Japan (Deep Purple album), Wikipedia