"Highway Star" is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple off their 1972 album Machine Head. It is characterized by a long classically-inspired guitar solo and organ solo.[1] Ritchie Blackmore claimed that he wanted the song to have a "Bach sound."[2]
[edit] History
This song was born on a tour bus going to Portsmouth in 1971 when a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs. To demonstrate, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore grabbed an acoustic and began playing a riff consisting of a single "G" repeated over and over, while vocalist Ian Gillan improvised lyrics over the top. The song was refined and was performed that same night[3]. The song first appears on the 1972 LP Machine Head. The track remains one of the band's staple live performances, and was the set opener for many years. These days the song is usually an encore. The album Made In Japan features a live version of the song, and two live versions can be heard on the Deep Purple-Extended Versions Live Compilation CD. The first version heard on the CD is fused with the song "Not Fade Away".
[edit] Structure
The structure of the song consists of a 35 second bass guitar introduction, before the band launches into the thumping opening riff, which soon leads into the first vocals section (0:55). The first two verses are sung, then Jon Lord begins his organ solo (2:14). The organ solo lasts for about a minute, then Ian Gillan sings the third verse of the song (3:24). At the conclusion of the third verse, the guitar solo starts (3:45), and lasts for just under a minute and twenty seconds. Then, the fourth and final verse, which in the original recording is simply a repetition of the first verse, is sung, finishing around 6:10. Depending on the version, there may be a 15 second-long exit section before the end of the song. When the song is played live, Gillan has been known to improvise its lyrics, as seen in the official video for the song.
The guitar solo would gain recognition when readers of Guitar World voted it #15 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" [4]
[edit] Covers
Because of its fast tempo, "Highway Star" is covered by numerous bands in the speed metal genre as well as other bands from other genres.
- Night Ranger covers a portion of this song live during their song, "This Boy Needs to Rock". The album version of "This Boy Needs To Rock", from their Seven Wishes album, contains a lengthy guitar solo that is essentially the exact same guitar solo found in "Highway Star".
- Faith No More has covered at least one verse of the song, which can be heard on the second disc of their greatest hits album Who Cares a Lot?.
- X-Cops, a GWAR side project, covered the song (with slightly different lyrics to better reflect the theme of the band and album) on their only album, You Have the Right to Remain Silent....
- Metal Church covered the song on their self-titled debut album.
- Australian classical guitar band Saffire perform an equally fast but acoustic cover of Highway Star on their 2004 CD Nostalgica.
- Alter Bridge covered the song several times on their concerts with Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy playing both the guitar solo and the organ solo together.
- Type O Negative has a version of the track on their recently released 'Best of'.
- Dream Theater performed the song as well as the rest of the Made in Japan album on January 13 2006. It was subsequently released as an official bootleg on Mike Portnoy's Ytse Jam Records.
- Bugotak band from Novosibirsk made their Men Chuguruk cover with throat singing vocals in Buryat language and instruments of Siberian indigenous people.
- Do As Infinity covered the song on the last live from "Need Your Love Tour". It appears in their "Live in Japan II" DVD.
- Quintorigo covered the song in their album Grigio.
- The New Jersey band Project EriE has covered this song numerous times sans keyboard player, instead having lead guitar player Nikk Cubillos play the organ solo in addition to the guitar solo.
- Supergroup, Chickenfoot, have performed the song live.[5]
[edit] Appearances in other media
- Part of this song was played during a Rob and Big episode when Big was showing Rob that he knows how to protect Rob in a car
- A cover version of "Highway Star" by Kaleb James is featured in one stage of the Nintendo DS video game Elite Beat Agents.
- In The Simpsons episode "Viva Ned Flanders", Homer Simpson sings his own version of the song: "Nobody's gonna take my Ned, I'm gonna teach him to have fun! Ooh, He's a Flanders machine..."
- An instrumental version of Highway Star is featured in Super Nintendo title Rock N' Roll Racing.
- "Highway Star" was the original name for the NES game Rad Racer until they were asked to change it by Deep Purple. The name, however, was still used as the title for the game in Japan, and one of the tunes in the game is inspired by the song.
- The song can be heard very briefly in the film Dazed and Confused and is also featured on the soundtrack.
- The master recording of this song is a playable track in the music video game Rock Band. The song also plays during the game's introduction video. In Rock Band, the volume of the organ solo has been decreased to make it easier for players to hear and play their respective instruments.
- The master recording of this song is also playable in Rock Revolution.
- Yuuya Fungami, a character in part four of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, names his stand ability "Highway Star".
- A cover version of this song can be played on Guitar Freaks 3rd mix/drummania 2nd Mix.*
- In the Metalocalypse episode Birthdayface, the character Toki Wartooth proclaims that a car has 'Big fat tires and everything!', referencing a line in the song.
- In the anime series Bubblegum Crisis, an advanced motorcycle named "Highway Star" was built by the mechanic Mackey Stingray.
- The song is played briefly in the episode "Stolen Car" of That '70s Show.
- Highway Star is the name of an enemy in the Capcom video game Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for the PlayStation 2 console.
- Highway Star was the original name of the Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers, when they were still a classic rock cover band.
- In the CSI episode, "Cockroaches", the song can be heard in the beginning while the camera follows the red car behind the dumpster truck.
- During the My Name is Earl episode "Dad's Car" in Season One, the song is played during a drag race between Earl and Billy Reed.
- The second episode of Devil May Cry is named "Highway Star".
- The song is also in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, albeit in a shortened form that fades out in the middle of the last guitar solo.
- The song is featured in the movie The Stoned Age.
- In 2009, Buckcherry recorded the song for Nascar and a version appears on the deluxe edition of their "Black Butterfly" cd.
- A Nextel commercial in 2004 with Jeff Gordon has the 4-time NASCAR champion driving a 1970's Chevrolet Camaro convertible listening to the song when he forgets his car is nearly out of fuel. Gordon uses push-to-talk to contact his team's fueler for fuel. Early NASCAR Nextel Cup Series commercials featured drivers in unusual situations.
- A version recorded by Buckcherry is used as the theme song for the 2009 NASCAR on TNT Summer Series, which consist of the six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races that air on TNT. Since TNT developed its own six-race Sprint Cup Series television package in 2007, classic rock songs have been used for the theme song to their events.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ :::: Roger Glover - the official website
- ^ http://www.guitarworld.com/article/100_greatest_guitar_solos_15_quothighway_starquot_ritchie_blackmore
- ^ Roger Glover Interview at stevemorse.com
- ^ 100 Greatest Guitar Solos - Highway Star
- ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/05/15/chickenfoots-rowdy-tour-launch-draws-visit-from-fire-department/
- ^ NASCAR.COM TNT Summer Series: Buckcherry
