Highway Star (song)

March 1972

Highway Star is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple, which was created during the year 1971. It was used as the opening track for the 1972 album Machine Head and he was released in Japan and the U.S. as a single. As a distinctive feature of the scoring of the first speed metal song Highway Star is considered the middle of the song played on the guitar solo by Ritchie Blackmore. This solo was listed by the magazine Guitar World number 15 of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos ". Bassist Roger Glover himself certified that Highway Star " Deep Purple, the final song is".

Background

According to Ritchie Blackmore, the song was written in a tour bus on the way to Portsmouth as a present journalist asked him how he arrange his songs. Then Blackmore him playing his acoustic guitar in front of a just improvised riff, while Ian Gillan endowed the song with vocals. The song was premiered after some refinements on the same evening in Portsmouth, and a short time later also presented on German television in the program Beat-Club. Even before his first publication on the album Machine Head, the group began with this song to open their concerts and did so for the next two years. Then the piece Burn took over this role, Highway Star, however, remained firmly in the live repertoire of Deep Purple. With the reunification in 1984, Highway Star was again used as the opening piece. Since 1993, after his replacement as " Konzerteröffner " by Fireball, the song is played at the end of the live performances. A very " impulsive Stormy " designed live version of this song was released on the live album Made in Japan.

Structure

The song starts with a 35 seconds of bass and guitar intro before the band for the first time plays the reef. After 55 seconds Ian Gillan is a song, after the first two stanzas begins Jon Lord be one minutes permanent organ solo, after Gillan sings the third verse. At the end of the third verse the guitar solo starts. After the fourth and final stanza, which was originally a repetition of the first verse begins. The piece ends then, in some versions of the song, there is a 15 seconds long outro.

In live performances, improvised Gillan, as seen in the official music video, the text often.

Cover versions

Because of its speed Highway Star has been covered by many bands from the genre of speed metal and other game directions of rock music. These groups include:

• Night Ranger (cover of the guitar solo )
• Faith No More ( a one-minute version of the song )
• Metal Church
• Buckcherry
• Type O Negative
• Alter Bridge (live)
• Dream Theater (live, along with the rest of the Made in Japan album )
• Do As Infinity (live)
• Chickenfoot (live)
• Puhdys
• Stryper

Others

Highway Star also found in several television series such as My Name is Earl, The Simpsons, The wild seventies or in the video games Rock & Roll Racing, Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony catchment. The song is also in the soundtracks of the films Chicks and Confusion - included Summer of Freaked. Also the Ruhr comedian Herbert Knebel built in the 90's a version in his program. The band Stiff Little Fingers was called in an earlier incarnation Highway Star.