RIP Maestro Lord

I was particularly saddened this week with the news of Jon Lord's death on Monday from a pulmonary embolism, even while he was fighting pancreatic cancer with some success. When you get to a certain age, you think back on the music you grew up with less than critical eyes, and from which you can still obtain genuine pleasure in the sonic trips down memory lane. Jon for me was the sound of Deep Purple and that band is permanently etched in my mind with experiences of hearing certain music for the first time, for scouring record stores in the hope of finding obscure records and for the times when you never really got to see bands, you had to hear them first, in that pre-video, no rock-on-TV age that was the early 1970s. The death has caused an outpouring of memories and comments online and I am amazed to find that via the web, I can read comments from strangers who were actually at some of the gigs I attended years ago on the other side of the world.

The best reading on all this is at the The Highway Star where the band and many friends share their emotions or you can listen to Ritchie Blackmore and Rick Wakeman talking about Jon on the BBC's Last Word podcast.   Best line I've picked up was from Ian Gillan who told a funny story about an over-excited fan running up to Jon once in a hotel, blurting out in his confusion:  "Jon, Jon....I am your hero"  to which Jon quickly responded, "Ah, so you're King Arthur!"  Great man, great music. Go listen here as he explain his 'sound'