Highway Star

(Machine Head, 1972)

“When I toured with Deep Purple [as a standin guitarist, from 199394], Highway Star was always the biggest thrill for me. The album version is a relentless, curiously swinging, high-energy song with some of the best ensemble playing the band has ever recorded. Everyone in the band shines brightly on this song. I think it was the first song I ever played with them at our one and only Japanese tour rehearsal. The first time we played it live, all I could think of was: ‘How am I going to live up to Ritchie’s freaky, symbiotic connection to Jon Lord’s immense sound and groove?’ It was impossible to emulate Ritchie’s strange, overdubbed solo guitar harmonies live, but playing his main part always put smile on my face and made my heart pump a little faster –maybe a lot faster!”

JOE SATRIANI

“Wishbone Ash got our deal with Decca/MCA after Ritchie Blackmore recommended us to producer Derek Lawrence. Ritchie and I had jammed during a sound-check when we supported Purple at one of our earliest shows [Dunstable Civic Hall, November 10, 1969].

“I first saw them at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival in 1967, when they had a different lead singer [Rod Evans]. At the time they didn’t feel like a band of the people, because they came on wearing frilly shirts. Then Ian Gillan came in, and to my mind there’s only ever been one rock vocalist to beat him, and that’s Arthur Brown. Just a few days ago I was listening to their current album, Whoosh! [2020]. Like us [Wishbone Ash], they’re a band that’s gone on and on and on.

“Although Deep Purple have a massive catalogue, it’s very hard to beat Highway Star. It has a vibe that comes from the road. If, as has been claimed, they wrote it on the way to a gig, then that sums up the song’s essence. They were thinking about beautiful young girls and driving along the road. If you’re a young guy in a rock band thinking of eating up the miles down the motorway, then Highway Star will always put you in that head-space.”

ANDY POWELL, WISHBONE ASH

“I like a bit of Deep Purple – or I used to. My mates at comprehensive school carried Led Zeppelin albums around under their arms, and the grammar-school boys all liked Deep Purple [laughs]. I had both.

“Picking a favourite is hard, but you’ve got to go with Highway Star. That one is fantastic. It’s a bit punky, really, with the intro that goes: ‘De de de de de de’, and all those sound effects on it.

“But I also liked Burn and Child In Time. And what was the one that started with the sound of a lift? Fireball, yeah. I liked that one, too.”

STEVE DIGGLE, BUZZCOCKS

“The only Deep Purple line-up that matters is Gillan-BlackmoreGlover-Lord-Paice. I was a fan of [original singer] Rod Evans with Captain Beyond, but that was just Deep Purple lite. Coverdale and Hughes than came in and had their moments, but the band was the band that wrote In Rock, Machine Head and Who Do We Think We Are!. That was fuckin’ Deep Purple. And the best song of all was Highway Star. From the first not to the last it’s absolutely perfect, in its structure, tonality and its attack. The vocals are unbelievable, and it has one of the greatest guitar solos of all time.

“You know, I’ve read that Purple wrote the song on the bus on the way to a show, and played it live for the first time that same night. That just cannot be true! Honestly, how could it be? Maybe they wrote some of it that day, but the song is structured to sheer perfection. The classical patterns of those keyboards still blow me away every time I hear it.

“So many years later, I was thrilled when the song was introduced to a whole new generation of fans as part of the computer game Rock Band.”

DEE SNIDER, TWISTED SISTER