Speed King
The opener of In Rock, the first Deep Purple song written by Gillan.
Deep Purple, from Deep Purple in Rock (1970)
- Written by
- Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice
- Released
- 1970
- Length
- 5:53
- Album
- Deep Purple in Rock
Speed King was the first Deep Purple song written by Ian Gillan, whose working title for it was Kneel and Pray. It grew from a bass riff by Roger Glover, who was trying to echo Jimi Hendrix's Fire. Gillan said the first words in his head were Chuck Berry and Little Richard lines, so he wrote down a mix of lines from Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry songs in the order they came to him.
In Britain it was the B-side of Black Night, and it was a single in its own right in the Netherlands and Germany ahead of the album. Andy Knight engineered the recording at IBC. The song has been cited as an influence on the development of speed metal.
More songs by Deep Purple
Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, Child in Time, Black Night, Hush, Space Truckin', Strange Kind of Woman, Woman from Tokyo, Burn, Perfect Strangers, Knocking at Your Back Door
Sources
- Speed King, Wikipedia
- Deep Purple in Rock, Wikipedia