Although musicians such as Deep Purple's original bass player Nick Simper are seen primarily as album artists, to coincide with the release of The Deep Purple MKI Songbook, Wymer Records is pleased to announce a brand new single release of The Doors' classic Roadhouse Blues, backed with a new version of Hush - the song that kickstarted Simper's career in Deep Purple back in 1968, plus The Painter, the original version of which appeared on Deep Purple's third album.
This is Simper's first single release since 1982's Russ Ballard penned Just Another Day with his then current band Fandango. So what on earth possessed us to release a new single now?
During the recent live performances of The Deep Purple MKI Songbook with Austrian band Nasty Habits, Simper has had a long-held desire fulfilled. As an admirer of The Doors, he had always wanted to play Roadhouse Blues, the opening cut from the American West Coast band's fifth album, Morrison Hotel. Although it's the only non-Deep Purple song he performs in the shows with Nasty Habits, it always goes down a storm with the audience and Nick Simper was keen for the world to hear their version.
As it was illogical to include it on The Deep Purple MKI Songbook album release we initially considered releasing it as a download single. But then we had second thoughts. We figured that most of Simper's fans are like us - traditional in their thinking and preferring a 'proper' record as opposed to a mere 'digital file.'
To be honest, not only is it wonderful to have something you can actually hold and add to your collection, nestling alongside the albums on your CD shelf, but MP3 downloads can't compete with the real thing when it comes to the audio experience. Indeed, we aren't the only ones who think along those lines and when we were considering this release, our decision was made somewhat easier by comments from an unexpected source. During a recent concert, Iron Maiden's lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson made a personal attack on his band's recent MP3 single download, even allowing for the fact that they were giving it away free!
"I apologise to those of you who have downloaded it", said Dickinson. "Stuff that is on the Internet sounds like shit - it just does. MP3s - how to take all the balls out of the song! MP3s are to music what zombies are to Shakespeare - absolute bullshit," he added. "It's terrible. All these people listening to songs with cotton buds stuffed in their fucking ears. What is that all about?"
We couldn't agree more, Bruce, and that is why we are releasing this single on CD, in a format where you can hear it in all its glory. Unlike Iron Maiden, we aren't quite in that fortunate position of being able to give our music away. However, the fact that both Roadhouse Blues and the version of Hush on this single are not available on any other releases, is even more reason to add this release to Nick Simper's recorded catalogue.
When you hear Nick and the guys belting out these classic tunes through your hi-fi we think you will agree.
