It took Deep Purple seven years to climb to the top. Two years to fall apart. That’s what happens when you breathe rarefied air. It’s thin up there. You can’t stay long.

Gillan and Glover gone in ’73. Coverdale and Hughes drafted in. Then Blackmore walked. Which was insane, because Purple was his band. Like the owner of the house leaving and the guests sticking around to run the place.

But the machine kept rolling. They found a young gun from the U.S., Tommy Bolin. Suddenly it wasn’t MK3 anymore, it was MK4. Coverdale, Hughes, Lord, Paice, and Bolin.

“Come Taste the Band” dropped in ’75. Same Birch production, same Purple machinery. But it wasn’t the same band.

And here’s where my own Bolin story starts. I didn’t find him through Purple. I found him through Mötley Crüe. They covered “Teaser” on that “Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell” comp tied to the Moscow Peace Festival. Then put it on a “Raw Tracks” CD for Japan. I bought it. And I thought it was a Crüe original, sleazy, dirty, perfect. Then I looked closer. Tommy Bolin.

Who the hell was Tommy Bolin?

So I went digging. Same way I’d gone back through Coverdale because of the Whitesnake ’87 juggernaut. Only this time, the rabbit hole was deeper. “Teaser”. “Private Eyes”. And then surprise, I stumble on a record that has both Coverdale and Bolin.

Come Taste the Band.

“Comin’ Home”

Coverdale singing, Bolin riffing. Straight out of the gate, pure rock, but more Grand Funk than Purple.

But.

“Gettin’ Tighter”

That’s the turn. Hughes singing over Bolin’s funk riff, greasy and alive.

“Dealer”

Hendrix in the front half, Beatles in the interlude, with Bolin himself singing.

“I Need Love”

Coverdale up front, Lord on keys thick as glue, Bolin making it swing.

Side 2 is where it catches fire.

“Drifter”

It kicks like “American Woman.” Coverdale’s blues rasp sits perfectly, and halfway through the bottom drops out, bass, drums, keys, and Bolin comes in with volume swells, building into a solo that still gives me goosebumps.

This is why you listen. For this.

“Love Child”

The riff screams “Heartbreaker”. The verse groove is killer even if the lyric isn’t. Then a prog detour with Lord running wild.

“This Time Around/Owed to ‘G’”

Hughes, Lord, Bolin, 12/8, ELO vibes into an instrumental jam. Gorgeous.

And the closer.

“You Keep On Moving”

Coverdale and Hughes together. Haunting. Melancholic. Originally meant for Burn, saved for now. The standout.

Europe loved it. Japan too. Even New Zealand. But it wasn’t the old Purple. The classical progressions were gone. Funk, groove, soul were in. A blueprint for what Whitesnake would become.

And here’s the problem, 1975 also had “Teaser”. Two Tommy Bolin records fighting each other. The labels even slapped “Guitarist of Deep Purple” stickers on “Teaser” to try and sell it.

But the party didn’t last. The tour ended in March ’76 and MK4 was finished. Coverdale went solo and eventually started Whitesnake, bringing Lord and Paice along. Bolin was gone by December. Morphine, cocaine, lidocaine, alcohol. Dead at 25.

But when you drop the needle, when you crank the stereo, when Bolin’s guitar cuts through the speakers…he’s alive.

Always will be.