Space Truckin'
Encyclopedia
"Space Truckin' " is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple
. It is the seventh and final track on the Machine Head
album. Its lyrics talk of space travel and it showcases the vocal abilities of singer Ian Gillan
and powerful drumming of Ian Paice
. According to Ritchie Blackmore
, the main riff is based on the Batman Theme
.
" on their first album
but gradually evolved into a showcase for Jon Lord
's Hammond organ
and Ritchie Blackmore
's guitar solo
s. This usually took the length of the overall song to over twenty minutes, and was always performed as the last number of the main set. A good example of this arrangement can be found on the Made in Japan
album, wherein Blackmore also quotes the "cello" solo of "Fools" off Fireball
.
Jon Lord played his solo through a ring modulator or played some of it on an ARP synthesizer
. Meanwhile, Ritchie Blackmore usually split the guitar solo into two halves, a quiet section with just drums, then a loud section with the full band. The second half was often when Ritchie would smash his guitar, play it with his feet or throw it into the air. One of the most infamous incidents where this happened was at the California Jam festival in 1974
, where he dropped one guitar over the edge of the stage, smashed a second against a TV camera, then set his amplifier on fire which subsequently exploded.
When Deep Purple reformed in 1984, this extended arrangement was reworked, and later included snippets of other songs.
During the Rapture of the Deep Tour
, the final part of the song, which originally featured much high pitched screaming by Gillan (now 65), featured high pitched guitar in the same key as his original vocals.
The intro was featured on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati
on the episode "The Airplane Show" (later issues of the episode replaced this track with generic music).
The song is featured as a downloadable track for the Rock Band series of music video game
s as of December 30, 2008.
It was also featured in the movie Lords of Dogtown
when the main characters are sneaking into pools to skate.
On the remastered version of their 1982 album Live in London
album, there is a 31 minute long live version of the song. It consists a lot of improvising from the band members and in one part of the song they play the main riff from "Child in Time
".
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
. It is the seventh and final track on the Machine Head
Machine Head (album)
Machine Head is the sixth studio album released by the English rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded through December 1971 in Montreux, Switzerland, and released in March 1972....
album. Its lyrics talk of space travel and it showcases the vocal abilities of singer Ian Gillan
Ian Gillan
Ian Gillan is an English rock music vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career Gillan also fronted his own band, had a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath, and sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of Andrew Lloyd...
and powerful drumming of Ian Paice
Ian Paice
Ian Anderson Paice is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the English rock band Deep Purple. As of Jon Lord's departure in 2002, he is the only founding member of the band who never stopped performing with the group, and the only member to appear on every album the band has...
. According to Ritchie Blackmore
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...
, the main riff is based on the Batman Theme
Batman Theme
"Batman Theme", the title song of the 1966 Batman TV series, was composed by Neal Hefti. The song is built around a guitar hook reminiscent of spy film scores and surf music. It has a twelve bar blues progression, using only three chords until the coda...
.
Live performances
When it was first performed live, the band appended an instrumental that was originally part of the song "Mandrake RootMandrake Root
"Mandrake Root" is a song by Deep Purple that is featured on their debut album Shades of Deep Purple. The title is in reference to the hallucinogenic mandrake plant, but is also the name of a pre-Purple band that Blackmore was trying to form in Germany when he got the call from Deep Purple's...
" on their first album
Shades of Deep Purple
Shades of Deep Purple is the debut album by English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1968 on Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Tetragrammaton in the United States....
but gradually evolved into a showcase for Jon Lord
Jon Lord
Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
's Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
and Ritchie Blackmore
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...
's guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
s. This usually took the length of the overall song to over twenty minutes, and was always performed as the last number of the main set. A good example of this arrangement can be found on the Made in Japan
Made in Japan (album)
Made in Japan is a double live album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded during their first tour of Japan in August 1972. It was originally released in December 1972, with a U.S...
album, wherein Blackmore also quotes the "cello" solo of "Fools" off Fireball
Fireball (album)
-Side two:-Bonus tracks on the 25th anniversary CD re-issue:-side one:-Side two:-Personnel:* Ian Gillan - vocals* Ritchie Blackmore - guitar* Roger Glover - bass* Jon Lord - keyboards, Hammond organ* Ian Paice - drums-Additional personnel:...
.
Jon Lord played his solo through a ring modulator or played some of it on an ARP synthesizer
ARP Instruments, Inc.
ARP Instruments, Inc. was an American manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. Best known for its line of synthesizers that emerged in the early 1970s, ARP closed its doors in 1981 due to financial difficulties...
. Meanwhile, Ritchie Blackmore usually split the guitar solo into two halves, a quiet section with just drums, then a loud section with the full band. The second half was often when Ritchie would smash his guitar, play it with his feet or throw it into the air. One of the most infamous incidents where this happened was at the California Jam festival in 1974
California Jam
California Jam, also known as Cal Jam, was a rock music festival concert held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California on April 6, 1974. It was produced by ABC Entertainment, Sandy Feldman, Don Branker and Leonard Stogel...
, where he dropped one guitar over the edge of the stage, smashed a second against a TV camera, then set his amplifier on fire which subsequently exploded.
When Deep Purple reformed in 1984, this extended arrangement was reworked, and later included snippets of other songs.
During the Rapture of the Deep Tour
Rapture of the Deep tour
The Rapture of the Deep Tour is an ongoing worldwide concert tour by British hard rock band Deep Purple. It takes place in support of their 2005 studio album Rapture of the Deep. It is supposed to be one of the most successful and long-lasting tour the band has ever done...
, the final part of the song, which originally featured much high pitched screaming by Gillan (now 65), featured high pitched guitar in the same key as his original vocals.
The intro was featured on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...
on the episode "The Airplane Show" (later issues of the episode replaced this track with generic music).
The song is featured as a downloadable track for the Rock Band series of music video game
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
s as of December 30, 2008.
It was also featured in the movie Lords of Dogtown
Lords of Dogtown
Lords of Dogtown is a 2005 biographical film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, written by Stacy Peralta. The film is based on the story of "The Z-Boys", an influential group of skateboarders who revolutionized the sport...
when the main characters are sneaking into pools to skate.
On the remastered version of their 1982 album Live in London
Live in London (Deep Purple album)
Live in London is a live album from Deep Purple. It was recorded on 22 May 1974 at Gaumont State in Kilburn by the BBC for radio broadcast, but was unreleased on vinyl until 1982...
album, there is a 31 minute long live version of the song. It consists a lot of improvising from the band members and in one part of the song they play the main riff from "Child in Time
Child in Time
"Child in Time" is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple. Featured on their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock, the song is 10 minutes and 18 seconds long.-History and characteristics:...
".
Cover versions
- Dream TheaterDream TheaterDream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
covered this and the whole Made in JapanMade in Japan (album)Made in Japan is a double live album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded during their first tour of Japan in August 1972. It was originally released in December 1972, with a U.S...
album. - Arjen Anthony LucassenArjen Anthony LucassenArjen Anthony "Oswold Jr." Lucassen is a progressive metal/rock composer, singer and musician from the Netherlands, best known for his long-running progressive opera project titled Ayreon....
's Star OneStar OneStar One is a Dutch progressive metal supergroup/side-project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen of Ayreon fame. Unlike Ayreon, the band did not follow one storyline; instead, each song was a different story with a sci-fi concept, most of the tracks based on existing movies and series.-Origins and first...
covered the song during their 2002 European tour, as seen on the Live on Earth DVD. - American thrash metalThrash metalThrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band OverkillOverkill (band)Overkill is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1980 in New Jersey. They have gone through many line-up changes, with singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and bassist D.D. Verni remaining from the original lineup. Along with Anthrax , the band is one of the most successful East Coast thrash metal...
included a cover of the song on their 1999 album CoverkillCoverkillCoverkill is a cover album released by thrash metal band Overkill in 1999. The album consists of cover songs by artists that influenced the band, including Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Ramones, and Manowar.-Track listing:...
. - SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n hard rockHard rockHard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
band Cactus JackCactus Jack (band)-Band history:The band, originally named Caramba, was formed at the end of 1998 by Stevan Birak , Miodrag Krudulj , Vladimir Jezdimirović and Dušan Gnjidić ....
released a cover on their 2003 Deep Purple TributeDeep Purple Tribute (album)Deep Purple Tribute is a tribute and the second live album by Serbian hard rock band Cactus Jack. Two discs feature twelve cover songs originally released by British hard rock band Deep Purple...
album. - American industrial metalIndustrial metalIndustrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...
band MinistryMinistry (band)Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
include their version of the song in the all-covers album Cover UpCover Up (Ministry album)Cover Up is an album of cover versions by Ministry & Co-Conspirators released on April 1, 2008. The album includes previously released covers "Roadhouse Blues", "Lay Lady Lay" and "Supernaut". Cover Up was supposedly Ministry's final release before their three year break up from 2008 to 2011...
. - TeslaTesla (band)Tesla is an American hard rock band formed in Sacramento, California in 1984. They have sold 14 million albums in the United States.-Formation and Mechanical Resonance :...
's version is the first track on their album Real to Reel. - The American band the Swamp Candles, known for being the band that performed the theme song for the Blue World OrderBlue World OrderThe Blue World Order was a stable of professional wrestlers formed at Extreme Championship Wrestling's November to Remember 1996 event at the ECW Arena...
faction in ECWExtreme Championship WrestlingExtreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
, covered the song as well. - American thrash metal band Vengeance RisingVengeance RisingVengeance Rising is an American Christian thrash metal band from Los Angeles, CA. Fronted by vocalist Roger Martinez, they originally formed as Vengeance in 1987, but changed their name in 1989 to avoid conflict with another band from the Netherlands...
covered the song on their 1990 album Once Dead.