The most emblematic album of the pioneers of British hard rock, the one with the famous “Smoke on the Water”, is also characterized by the strange graphic of a blurred cover on which metal is present not only musically. Explanations.
The album
Formed in 1968, Deep Purple’s sound, based on the unleashed guitar of Richie Blackmore and the furious keyboards of Jon Lord, reached new heights with this sixth album, recorded in a mobile studio at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland. It is their greatest commercial success with classics like “Smoke on the Water” of course, but also “Highway Star” and “Space Truckin’”. Republished many times.
The photography
The American Shepard Sherbell moved to London in the 1960s, where he photographed the elite of the rock scene of the time: the Beatles, the Stones, The Who (he was Keith Moon’s official photographer) and even Cat Stevens. The choice of Deep Purple is therefore logical. This will be one of Sherbell’s last musical works. Shortly afterwards he returned to the USA, where he successfully converted his career into photojournalism in the mid-1970s. He died of heart failure in 2018.
The metal plate
The idea for the cover design came from the band’s bassist Roger Glover and their manager John Coletta. They suggested that Sherbell take a photo of Deep Purple that would be reflected in a metal plate and take up the entire space on the cover. At first, the American was not necessarily convinced by the delirium of the tandem, but nevertheless had a polished sheet of metal made in advance, on which the name of the group and the title of the album were engraved, leaving space for the musicians’ reflections.
The shot
Not easy. When the day comes, Sherbell places the sheet according to the musicians’ position and climbs a stepladder to take the photo. The challenge is to avoid seeing your reflection on the metal plate. It’s semi-successful as we can still see his shadow under the word “head”. But the goal is actually achieved for the five members of Deep Purple, with an effect that is sufficiently intriguing but still allows each of them to be perfectly distinguished. In a time before digital retouching, everything had to be done live. A damn good performance.
Deep Purple Machine Head (1972)