It’s a subtle effect, but I think it makes listeners sit up and pay attention.” “Night Meets Light“ – Dixie Dregs ('What If,' 1978) On the first part of the song, I’m choking the pick with my fingers and moving back up the low-E string to generate those harmonics. For example, church organ music and the chord progressions in a lot of heavy songs have a lot in common. “There’s a lot of commonality between disparate musical genres. Others might say it is different styles, but I’d probably say that they’re sub-styles. I basically play a style of music that I call ‘tonal music.’ I don’t write in atonal styles. “I can’t really help that, because I don’t see any real distinctions between styles. For example, church organ music and the chord progressions in a lot of heavy songs have a lot in common There’s a lot of commonality between disparate musical genres. The song has a bit of southern rock, fusion… You know, that mixture that is kinda like the Dregs’ philosophy. “I was trying to simplify my writing a bit, but then I slipped back into the more complex route, just like somebody falling off the wagon. When the verse came in, it had a lot of power chords, and the idea was to start with the rock riff in E. “I was working on an idea for a song, and I realized that I wanted to compose more parts for it, rather than have a lot of improvisation. “Take it off the Top“ – Dixie Dregs ('What If,' 1978) Given his long career and numerous bands, we were curious to see which five tracks Morse considers among his most important. He has also periodically revisited the Dregs, both to tour and record.
In addition to Deep Purple, Morse has continued to work with his Flying Colors side project, which released its third studio album, Third Degree, last year, and has just issued the new live album Third Stage: Live in London. You look at Spotify and you’d need a computer to work out what percentage of one percent your royalty check would be.” For a lot of people, royalties don’t help much, even when they’re getting them. It is so bad for so many artists who have depended on their live income. “We’ve lost 18 months of work,” Morse laments. Like other performing acts, Deep Purple have been sidelined by Covid-19 and the worldwide shutdown of live music. (Image credit: Matt Quina / Prog Magazine) Onstage with Flying Colors at the Ventura Theater, Ventura, California, September 5, 2019, playing his Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar. I tried a treatment of blood-sucking mosquitos yesterday,” he says, laughing.
I go through a show pretty well now, though at times there is lot of pain that requires pharmaceuticals. “Most of my technical practice is designed to perfect that. The most difficult has been trying to pick from the elbow rather than the wrist.
“There’s no doubt that all my years of playing have made it worse, but I’ve adapted my technique to deal with it. “It’s in my family,” he says of his arthritis. On the new record, Morse’s playing is as invigorating as ever, and while he suffers from arthritis, it’s had no discernible effect on his ability to weave his signature lines in and out of Deep Purple’s distinctive sound.
Since 1994, Morse has been in Deep Purple, who have just released Whoosh! (earMUSIC), a collection of thoughtful and inventive songs that take their lyrical cue from today’s world and the direction in which it’s headed, without ever sounding preachy or sanctimonious. By then, he’d been a member of Kansas, which he joined in 1985.