In our youth, many of us drove around towns, down famous (and not so famous, but familiar) streets, and other activities. One thing kinda stood out in the soundtrack of those days, Deep Purple’s Made In Japan live set.
Made in Japan underscored not only a time, but also our fascination with the band, Deep Purple. As popular and important as “Smoke On The Water” was to many of us, the music found on Made In Japan walked us through some pretty interesting periods.
While many of us remember the solid guitars of Richie Blackmore, and the rockin’ vocals from Ian Gillan, it’s impossible to forget the keyboards of Jon Lord. Jon Lord contributed his share of the foundation of Deep Purple, helping to forever etch into our collective memories, the songs that belong in our youth and its many songbooks.
Today we learned of the passing of Jon Lord, who succumbed to the evils of cancer. His bout with pancreatic cancer proved to be too overwhelming. At 71, the diease took a part of our cornerstone of Rock ‘n Roll away.
While we will always have the important songs of Deep Purple to listen to, over and over again, we will also feel a void left by the departure of Mr Lord.
Thank you, Jon, for all that you left behind, the product of your creativity and inspiration.
We will always miss you. May you make the heavens reverberate with your distinctive Hammond B3 keyboards.
Jon Lord
1941-2012
RIP
One of my favorite Jon Lord moments is the the intro to the song “Perfect Strangers” from the album of the same title. Classic.
While I agree wholeheartedly with the above, Child in Time featuring the howling vocals of Ian Gillan would pale without the symphonic ectasy brought on by his majesty, Jon Lord. RIP sir, you will be missed and the Great Band in the Sky has got an awesome keyboardist. Somehow, Deep Purple has become more shallow. Apologies to Mr. Don Airey.