Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews · Phil Aston

Seven Decades of Deep Purple with Martin Popoff - Podcast

·1 hr 9 min·4 clips

Popoff argues Deep Purple are the clearest case for later albums overtaking the classics.

1. Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews focuses on Martin Popoff’s Seven Decades of Deep Purple and the band’s full catalogue. 2. Phil Aston hosts Martin Popoff, a prolific rock writer with hundreds of music books, and Popoff matters here because he wrote the 640-page Deep Purple volume. 3. The episode asks why Popoff returned to Deep Purple now, and his answer is that the project needed a clearer, more mature rewrite. 4. Popoff says Castle Full of Rascals ended around 2011, and he has added roughly five studio albums since then. 5. He says the new book uses more photography, better scans, and interviews gathered after years of work with Deep Purple musicians and photographers. 6. Popoff describes Schiffer Publishing as a major part of the project, noting that the Deep Purple book follows a giant Dio book and a 666-page Iron Maiden book. 7. He says the new volume is organized chapter by album, with the band members speaking in long interview passages rather than short summaries. 8. Popoff calls the later Deep Purple records deserving of “reverence,” and he rejects the idea that they are inferior to earlier marks in the band’s history. 9. He points to Ian Gillan’s lyrics, Roger Glover’s contributions, and Bob Ezrin’s production style as major reasons the recent albums still work. 10. He says the current lineup, including Don Airey and Simon McBride, has given the band a stable creative identity across the Steve Morse years and beyond. 11. Popoff says Perfect Strangers is his favorite Deep Purple album, and he defends that choice by comparing track counts and album consistency. 12. He says Deep Purple are a rare band that can be judged without nostalgia, because a recent album can plausibly be argued as their best. 13. He compares that case to Motörhead and Lemmy, saying later albums can stand above Overkill, Bomber, and Ace of Spades in a similar way. 14. Popoff identifies a walk in Portugal with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover as a key turning point for writing from their own age and experience. 15. He connects that shift to Woosh, the band’s humor about aging, and the continued interest in deeper themes and world events. 16. He says Deep Purple’s messiness, lineup changes, and stylistic swings create more to write about and more to debate. 17. The tone is conversational and reflective, with Phil Aston prompting detailed answers and Popoff moving between biography, criticism, and memory. 18. The format stays interview-led, but it becomes analytical when the discussion turns to keyboards, drumming, and the band’s changing eras. 19. Listeners who like Deep Purple discography debates and album-by-album history will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting only classic-era nostalgia or short answers may skip it.

As heard by us

A broad Deep Purple history that keeps circling back to the band's core identity.

This episode tracks Martin Popoff and Phil Aston across Deep Purple's seven decades, with Seven Decades of Deep Purple as the anchor for a broad look at the band's shifting lineups and stubborn sense of identity.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a deep Deep Purple history lesson centered on Martin Popoff's new Seven Decades of Deep Purple book, from the first album to the Simon McBride era.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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