remembering Deep Purple's Jon Lord

John Douglas "Jon" Lord [Wikipedia]/Jonathan Douglas Lord [Metal Archives] (9 June 1941 – 16 July 2012)

Jon co-founded Deep Purple in 1968. He is known for his work with Deep Purple's most popular songs. Jon and drummer Ian Paice were the only continuous members during the band's legendary first run between 1968 and 1976, and also from its reunion in 1984 until his retirement in 2002. He also played for the bands Whitesnake, Paice Ashton Lord, the Artwoods, the Flower Pot Men and Santa Barbara Machine Head. Jon fused rock with classical and resulted in a recognizable sound. His sound with Deep Purple made them an important foundation in heavy metal music. Jon's discography is massive.

Below are some perspectives on Jon Lord, taken from Wikpedia:

Lars Ulrich, founding member and drummer in Metallica commented, "Ever since my father took me to see them in 1973 in Copenhagen, at the impressionable age of 9, Deep Purple has been the most constant, continuous and inspiring musical presence in my life. They have meant more to me than any other band in existence, and have had an enormous part in shaping who I am. We can all be guilty of lightly throwing adjectives like 'unique,' 'one-of-a-kind' and 'pioneering' around when we want to describe our heroes and the people who've moved us, but there are no more fitting words than those right now and there simply was no musician like Jon Lord in the history of hard rock. Nobody. Period. There was nobody that played like him. There was nobody that sounded like him. There was nobody that wrote like him. There was nobody that looked like him. There was nobody more articulate, gentlemanly, warm, or ******* cooler that ever played keyboards or got anywhere near a keyboard. What he did was all his own."

Interviewed in 2012 for Blabbermouth, Motörhead frontman Lemmy said: "It's just a shame, because Jon Lord was, to a large extent, responsible for me being in rock and roll. He was in a band called the Artwoods years ago, with Ronnie Wood's brother Arthur. They were sort of a jazz-blues band, I guess. They played at the place in Wales where I was living,[a] this dingy little boozer, and I was talking to Jon and, like an idiot, he gave me his address in London. So, of course, I went down there and he wasn't there, but he was living at Art's mother's house where Ronnie Wood who was in a band called The Birds was living and they let me crash on the couch.... I saw him late last year in a hotel in Germany in Cologne. He was over there doing some orchestral stuff, and we talked in the bar for awhile.... I'm glad I saw him, since he's since departed."

Also in 2012, music critic Terence Towles Canote wrote shortly after Lord's death: "While many of his contemporaries would turn to the Moog synthesiser, Jon Lord continued to rely primarily on the Hammond organ. Of course, it must be pointed out that Jon Lord could make a Hammond organ do things that other keyboardists could only dream about. Jon Lord's playing not only stood out from the pack, it also held up over time. As a youth in the Eighties I could listen to old Deep Purple songs and they would not sound dated at all. It is an incredible achievement for any artist to create works that are essentially timeless, and that is precisely what Jon Lord did."

Deep Purple - Speed King - Live (1970)