Deep Purple Whoosh Was Designed As The Last Deep Purple Album

When Deep Purple entered the studio to start work on their new album ‘Whoosh’ they expected it would be their last. A world tour would have taken the historic band through until the end of 2021 at which point Roger Glover, Ian Gillian and Ian Paice would all be in there mid 70s.

Roger Glover recalls contemplating a last record in the studio. He tells Noise11.com, “We recorded it last summer, a year ago. Its uncanny. We’ve been together 50 years. Well, sort of untogether and together. 50 years as a band is pretty long time. There was an unconscious feeling that this could be our final album. Any album we make these days could be our final album. We are all in our 70s. Gillian and I write words together. Sometimes we write words apart. This album is more him than me. He was in a very contemplating mood. Where he comes up with stuff like that, I do not know.

Watch the Noise11.com Roger Glover Whoosh interview:

If this is the last album its come full circle. ‘Whoosh’ features a new version of the very first song from the very first Deep Purple album ‘Shades of Deep Purple’ titled ‘And The Address’. “That was Bob (Ezrins) idea,” Roger says. “He is an energetic, dynamic man. We had this habit of doing a cover just for fun. He said ‘why don’t you do ‘And The Address’. It will come full circle. It was done in minutes. We learned the song. Ian and I. We used to play the song when I first joined the band back in 1969. It was part of our set. It may of may not be the last album now because of this situation. The next possible gig we have is a year from now, next summer. What do we do in the meantime? Well we can go back in the studio and make another album. All we need to do is find a way to do it. Then what are we going to do then for Bob’s idea for a full circle? We just broke it”.

‘Whoosh’ was recorded before Covid was a thing but the lyrics resonate with today. There is an environmental theme to ‘Whoosh’ and also a theme of conclusion. “That’s part of the message,” Roger says. “Once we had the title ‘Whoosh’, our record company are very good at joining up the dots. We said we wanted to call the album ‘Whoosh’ and they didn’t baulk at that. So they said, ‘how do you illustrate the word ‘Whoosh’. The first thought that comes to mind is a cartoon, a car going up a hill with a pile of dirt. ‘Whoosh’. It’s a statement about time passing, its an expression that time is relative. That seems like a long time to us but really a short time in cosmic time. Its nothing. It’s a speck. Its come and gone. The record company came up with the astronaut idea. We can’t meet because of this Covid business. We emailed each other and made comments and it was narrowed down to that image. It is ambiguous. Its not an obvious image. We just make the music. They package it.