Shadows 3

This song is a demo from before they had a record contract- it was never released officially or re-recorded, but appears on several compilations as well as the box set. This track alternates between being a slightly weird, rather dark tune with crunching guitar, and a light, almost whimsical, somewhat psychedelic pop track. Not a great tune, but a pretty decent one. The band's early history is extremely complex, but the band began when a former member of The Searchers, Chris Curtis, decided to form his own band. Curtis dropped out of the project shortly thereafter though. Mike Harrison of Spooky Tooth, a truly great but now obscure, singer was considered, as was apparently a young Rod Stewart. Deep Purple's first steady lineup was comprised of two guys from an act called The Maze ( Singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice) as well as three well known/ highly respected session men/ musicians from the British rock scene, whose lengthy and complicated list of credits, session appearances and bands they'd been with would take all day to list: bassist Nick Simper, keyboardist Jon Lord, and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. After several names were considered, they settled on Deep Purple. The band played some warm up dates in Denmark, and then were signed to EMI at home, and for the long since defunct Tetragrammaton label in America, a company that had as one of the chief investors ( you can't make this stuff up) none other than comedian Bill Cosby! Their first album "Shades of Deep Purple," and first single 'Hush" appeared shortly afterwards.