In 2018 Deep Purple veteran Roger Glover instructed Prog bout his surprising 1974 hit album The Butterfly Ball And The Grasshopper’s Feast, based mostly on a kids’s image guide and designed to be the soundtrack to a film that was by no means made.
In 1973, Alan Aldridge and William Plomer revealed an image guide titled The Butterfly Ball And The Grasshopper’s Feast, based mostly on a Nineteenth-century poem of the identical title by William Roscoe.
On the floor, it appeared unlikely to stir any conceptual inspiration from a former Deep Purple member – however, as Roger Glover remembers, it did simply that.
“I’d seen a four- or five-page function within the color complement of a Sunday newspaper, and I assumed then it appeared a bit vigorous,” he says. “Then in 1973, after I had left Purple, I went into our administration’s workplace in the future and noticed the guide on a desk there. And at that time I used to be requested if I fancied doing an album based mostly on it.”
The preliminary concept was a soundtrack to accompany a proposed film, and Glover hadn’t been the primary alternative for the job. “Pink Floyd have been requested to do it, however they weren’t obtainable. Jon Lord was additionally approached and turned it down. So it got here my manner.
”However I used to be excited by the probabilities; it allowed me to go in any musical path. I could possibly be as creative as I needed.”
Regardless of the logistical difficulties in co-ordinating the huge array of expertise that appeared on the album, what emerged was a powerful musical expertise. Its vary spanned psychedelia, folks and flamboyant pop rock.
The listener can hear how bands like Kansas would possibly effectively have been influenced
However Glover made positive it didn’t turn into a whimsical dalliance by utilizing grasp craftsmen like prog stars Eddie Jobson and Michael Giles to nice impact. He additionally had a distinct vocalist for each character.
“I needed voices that captured the persona every of the roles had,” he says. “I didn’t wish to get in skilled session vocalists. I didn’t imagine they might do justice to what I used to be after. What mattered was extra the persona of the singer coming by, quite than the standard of the voice.”
The film by no means acquired made – however the album, launched in November 1974, was an enormous success. Love Is All was additionally a shock hit single, and No Answer was a really early instance of lyrics that handled environmental points.
In some ways, the listener can hear how bands like Kansas would possibly effectively have been influenced by The Butterfly Ball; there there are clear parts of pomp rock all through.
“It now sounds of its time,” Glover accepts. “However I nonetheless get Purple followers coming as much as me and saying how a lot they favored what I did musically on it.”
