Hard Road:The Mark 1 Studio Recordings ‘1968-69’ (5CD CLAMSHELL BOX & DOWNLOAD - DIGITALLY REMASTERED)
by Deep Purple £29.99

Details

5CD CARD WALLETS IN CLAMSHELL BOX, 48 PAGE BOOKLET

• From their first gig in Denmark on 20th April 1968 until their final show in Cardiff on 4th July 1969, Deep Purple released three albums that laid the musical foundations of its members for the next five decades, forging the careers of offshoot bands including Rainbow, Whitesnake, Gillan and of course Deep Purple themselves, who continue to record and tour today.

• This new box set includes these digitally remastered versions of those 3 albums:- Shades Of Deep Purple (Mono Mix) - Shades Of Deep Purple (Stereo Mix)- Book Of Taliesyn (Mono Mix)- Book Of Taliesyn (Stereo Mix)- Deep Purple

• Plus digitally remastered bonus material including: alternative mixes, album outtakes, instrumental versions, alternate takes, single edits, U.S edits, early versions and B-sides as well as previously unreleased versions

Hi Paul,yeh i saw this on Spin cds site,i have the first 3 albums on cd that have extra tracks etc and which were remastered.....but thats a while back,so i wonder if this is a new remaster for this box set and hopefully not the same extras that featured on those earlier first 3 cds.......i'll probably still get this set anyway.I must say i love early Deep Purple,those first 3 albums are very good and have some psych elements to them to my ears anyway...........Bring it on!!!!!

Hi Stuart,

I have a couple of those original cds - they are cheap on Amazon. Always liked DPs version of Hush!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4QBhC1uCP4

Yes guys, I love those albums too, they can be a little inconsistent in places but they all have some real gems on 'em and great bonuses. BBC sessions gets a fair bit of play round here too...I'll probably have to get this one myself!
Thanx for the heads!

Full details here:

http://darkerthanblue.wordpress.com/review-pages-%E2%80%A2-cd-dvd/deep-purple-%E2%80%A2-hard-road-5cd-set-july-2014/

Thanks for that Painterman,

There doesn't seem a lot more there then on the original cds and the comments are quite negative! I'm not big into mono/stereo versions and would have preferred live shows , extras etc.But if you didn't have the cds it might be worth it.

Hi Paul, I must admit I thought the same thing when I read it, bit disappointed really. Seems that the only previously unavailable material here is the mono version of 2 of the albums and a couple of the singles.
Couple that with the fact that some folks reckon that recent DP remasters are not even as good as the older ones and it leaves little to shell out for.

To add insult to injury they are wanting 32 quid for this!!!You can pick up the older remastered cds sungularly for 3 or 4 quid each,and they all come with booklets, xtra tracks and some BBC Sessions in there too.I really cant see who this box set is aimed at,ive had a look at the track listings for this set.....pretty disappointing,there really is no incentive for someone like myself to purchase this,i did notice that all have been newly remastered though,surely there cant be that much of a difference compared to the 2000 reisssues,or is there?I can only imagine that there aint much left in the archives for mark 1 Deep Purple or surely they wouldve been put on this box set??I just cant believe this is getting priced at over 30 quid!!!!!!!The cheek of it!!!......lol......

Well nearly 5 years after writing this post I eventually picked this box set up for £20,in June 2019, packaging wise it's a neat package and booklet with interesting interviews, particularly with the ones who got booted for the arrival of Ian gillan etc. But what really matters of course is the music, I love it, some folk say they recorded too many covers, I did too but they recorded and released 3 albums in such a quick time it was inevitable that covers they played live would be used to fill the albums, but to be honest their versions are made their own and are pretty much done in a different way to the originals. It's good to have both mono and stereo versions, though I'm not one of those I've gotta have the mono maniacs that seem to be out there,many collectors can be quite obsessive about it. There are differences of course but in truth not massively different!! But different bonus tracks on the mono and stereo versions of said cds. When this box set first came out the asking price was over £30!,and at one point that price went up further. More realistic price at £20,which is the only reason I bought it. In summary I'm happy I've got it, I'm going through a phase at the moment of picking box sets up that at one time were pretty pricey the most recent was the 6 cd set of Fleetwood Mac the complete blue horizon sessions 1967-69. This box set used to go for £70 or around that region,I picked it up for half that, not really listened to it yet, but I'll get round to it. Since I got medically retired due to ill health I'm getting into my music again, in fact it keeps me going!!but yes I'm happy to have got that Mark 1 deep purple set,much prefer this era of deep purple than what came later!!!

Sh1t! 5 years, time flies - I had totally forgotten this. Most CDs seem to have come down a lot in value recently but not vinyl. Funny how things work out.

A good many things, particularly newer bands aren't even released on cd anymore.