Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The Label That Signed Deep Purple… Founded by Bill Cosby?! [Highlight From Episode 350]

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The Label That Signed Deep Purple… Founded by Bill Cosby?! [Highlight From Episode 350] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

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  Speaker 1: Here's a clip from a recent episode of Booked on Rock. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that's Knackvie is the author of John Lord Before we Forget,
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  Speaker 1: a work in eight Movements. Deep Purple was the name
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  Speaker 1: of a song. It was.
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  Speaker 2: It was a kind of fifties pop song, which I
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  Speaker 2: think may have had a history before that as well,
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  Speaker 2: but it was apparently Richie Admore's grandmother's favorites right or
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  Speaker 2: she liked it. So among the various names that came up,
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  Speaker 2: like Orpheus and some worthy sounding proggy names, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they were struggling a bit because none of the names
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  Speaker 2: quite fitted what they wanted to achieve. One was called
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  Speaker 2: I think Concrete God. One is called Orpheus, and then
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  Speaker 2: Richie says, why don't we just call it Deep Purple,
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  Speaker 2: because you know, that sounds like an interesting enough name,
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  Speaker 2: And they adopted the name Deep Purple.
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  Speaker 1: Weren't they on a label that was run by Bill Cosby.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they landed up.
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  Speaker 1: What a bizarre story. Yeah, you know when you think
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  Speaker 1: about it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they eventually land up when hem I in the UK,
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  Speaker 2: but obviously international rights at the time, I yes, EMI
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  Speaker 2: was probably less active in the US and much more
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  Speaker 2: of a European label, and obviously they owned Abby Roads
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  Speaker 2: Studios and all that kind of stuff, so they needed
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  Speaker 2: a label in the US, and this single Hush you know,
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  Speaker 2: gets put together as part of the first album, and
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  Speaker 2: a label called Tetragrammaton, which includes Bill Bill Cosby as
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  Speaker 2: an investorent shareholder, gets set up. So the good thing
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  Speaker 2: is obviously at the time he has a lot of
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  Speaker 2: heavyweight Hollywood connections and so on. So Hush gets released
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  Speaker 2: by Tetragrammaton in the US becomes very successful, like a
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  Speaker 2: number four chart single from zero in terms of the
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  Speaker 2: band not having any name. So they end up landing
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  Speaker 2: up in the US in late sixty eight, if I recollect,
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  Speaker 2: they do a tour of the US. They do a
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  Speaker 2: tour also supporting Cream, and they land up in Hollywood
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  Speaker 2: and they land up on you know, Hugh Hefner's Evening
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  Speaker 2: Playboy program and they do a rendition of Hush. So
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  Speaker 2: the reality is Tetragrammatan, and the Cosby connection is actually
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  Speaker 2: really useful to them initially because it gives them an
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  Speaker 2: entree into Hollywood and into gigging and into their first tour,
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  Speaker 2: which probably wouldn't have happened without that.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. The full episode is available wherever you
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: get your podcast