We’ve taken a look at the artwork on all of the rock legends’ studio albums and rounded up 43 facts that you might not know about them.
From the incredible sleeves of ‘Deep Purple In Rock’ and ‘Whoosh!’ through to the downright bizarre artwork of ‘Bananas’ and ‘Purpendicular’, take a look at all the Deep Purple album cover facts below.
How many albums have Deep Purple released?
Deep Purple have released 22 studio albums during their legendary 50+ year career. Their first album was ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ in 1968 and their most recent was ‘Turning to Crime’ in November 2021.
Who is in the band Deep Purple?
The current Deep Purple Mark IX line-up are as follows: sole constant member Ian Paice (drums), Roger Glover (bass), Ian Gillan (vocals), Simon McBride (guitars) and Don Airey (keyboards).
Deep Purple have had various line-ups throughout their 52-year careers with each incarnation dubbed Mark I to Mark Mark IX.
Former members include the late-great Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, Nick Simper, Rod Evans, Glenn Hughes, David Coverdale, Tommy Bolin, Joe Lynn Turner and Steve Morse. Joe Satriani stood in briefly as a touring guitarist after Blackmore’s sudden departure in 1993.
Where are the band Deep Purple from?
Deep Purple formed in Hertford, Hertfordshire in 1968. However, the individual band members are from other parts of the UK.
Ian Paice was born in Nottingham, Roger Glover is from Brecon in Wales, Ian Gillan hails from London, guitarist Simon McBride is from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Don Airey is a Sunderland lad.
Are Deep Purple still together?
Yes, Deep Purple are still together and still touring. In April 2023, Roger Glover revealed that Deep Purple had been working on “exciting” new material in the studio with new axeman Simon McBride.
Deep Purple album cover facts:
Deep Purple – ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ (1968)
Released in September 1968 via Parlophone Records, the ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ album cover depicts the Mark I line-up of Deep Purple – Rod Evans (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitars), Jon Lord (organ), Nick Simper (bass) and Ian Paice (drums) – wearing sharp suits they had purchased from esteemed fashion designer Michael Fish… not to be confused with the weather forecaster of the same name.
Deep Purple – ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ (1968)
Released two months earlier in the US on the back of the huge chart-denting success of ‘Hush’, the Stateside version of ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ came with a slightly different cover that’s a very literal translation of the album title.
Deep Purple – ‘The Book of Taliesyn’ (1968)
Deep Purple’s second studio album ‘The Book of Taliesyn’ saw the band embrace a psychedelic rock sound and the artwork reflects their US imprint Tetragrammaton’s wish to aim it at a “hippie audience.” The fantasy cover (complete with Arthurian Bards, minstrels, troubadours and a castle) was created in pen, ink and colour by the British illustrator and author John Vernon Lord, the namesake of late-great Deep Purple organist Jon Lord.
In a 2013 blog post, John Vernon Lord said he was paid 30 guineas (just under £500 today) for creating the artwork, however 25% went to the agent. Vernon Lord said of his brief: “The agent gave me the title saying that the art director wanted a ‘fantasy Arthurian touch’ and to include hand lettering for the title and the musicians’ names. I mainly drew from The Book of Taliesin, which is a collection of poems, said to be written by the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin.
The dark and macabre cover artwork to 1969’s self-titled ‘Deep Purple’ is adorned with the right-hand painting from Hieronymus Bosch’s 15th Century triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, which depicts hell.
Deep Purple weren’t the first band to use The Garden of Earthly Delights on their album sleeve – Floridian psychedelic folk act Pearls Before Swine had a detail from it on their 1967 debut album ‘One Nation Underground’.The ‘Deep Purple in Rock’ album cover was the brainchild of the band’s manager Tony Edwards, who suggested placing the US Presidents’ heads on Mount Rushmore with the heads of the Mark II line-up; Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. Created by London design agency Nesbit, Phipps & Froome, the resulting cover is one of the most iconic sleeves in rock history.
For some unbeknownst reason, the German edition of ‘Deep Purple in Rock’ featured a white sky. Pictured is Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota. Created by Gutzon Borglum, the sculpture features the 60-foot (18 m) heads of Presidents George Washington
An album cover that is definitely of the era, ‘Fireball’ was adorned with a gloriously naff (and slightly sperm-esque) image of Deep Purple shooting through space in a fireball. The photography was by Tony Burrett.
