Deep Purple – Space Truckin’

I had a relative that played this song to death…but I didn’t mind. Machine Head is a great hard rock album.

The intro to this song is worth the price of admission. Jon Lord’s organ has a filthy dirty sound. The half-step riffs in the refrain were inspired by the theme music for the Batman TV program composed by Neal Hefti. Blackmore asked singer Ian Gillan if he could write any lyrics over the riff, and the rest of the song evolved from there.

Machine Head peaked at #1 in the UK, #1 in Canada, and #7 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1972. Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice – are all credited as writers of this song.

This song actually got into space when the astronaut Kalpana Chawla took a copy of the Machine Head album with her on board the Space Shuttle Columbia, which sadly disintegrated before it could land back on Earth during its 2003 mission. Chawla got to know Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse, which is why she brought the album with her. Morse wrote a song called “Contact Lost,” which appeared on the 2003 Deep Purple album Bananas in memory of Chawla and the others on board.

The album Machine Head was recorded in a hotel. The plan was to use the Montreux Casino in Switzerland as a studio to help capture their live sound, but the day after they got there, it burned down during a Frank Zappa concert. We all know that story told so well as told in Smoke On The Water.

They ended up recording this at the Grand Hotel and they used the Rolling Stones mobile unit that Zeppelin and a few others used at that time. That was a genius idea…you could have a studio in your house or an old castle somewhere if you wanted.

Ace Frehley covered this song in 2020. 

Space Truckin

Well, we had a lot of luck on Venus
We always had a ball on Mars
We’re meeting all the groovy people
We’ve rocked the Milky Way so far
We danced around with Borealis
We’re space trucking ’round the the stars

Come on, come on, come on
Let’s go space truckin’
Come on, come on, come on
Space truckin’

Remember when we did the moonshot?
And pony trekker led the way
We’d move to the Canaveral moonstop
And every ‘naut would dance and sway

We got music in our solar system
We’re space truckin’ ’round the stars

Come on, come on, come on
Let’s go space truckin’
Come on, come on, come on
Space truckin’

The fireball that we rode was moving
But now we’ve got a new machine
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah the freaks said
Man those cats can really swing

They’ve got music in their solar system
They’ve rocked around the Milky Way
They dance around the Borealis
They’re space truckin’ everyday

Come on, come on, come on
Let’s go space truckin’
Come on, come on, come on
Space truckin’

Come on, come on, come on
Let’s go space truckin’
Come on, come on, come on
Space truckin’

Yeah, yeah, yeah, space truckin’
Yeah, yeah, yeah, space truckin’
Yeah, yeah, yeah, space truckin’
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, space truckin’
Yeah, yeah, yeah

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

38 thoughts on “Deep Purple – Space Truckin’”

  1. A great driving straight ahead rock track where each guy gets to flex there musical muscle and Gillian delivers a great vocal…. Good pick Sir Max A lot!

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    1. I like this also and most of their work through this period. He has one of those v1oices that work great with hard rock. Thanks Deke

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  3. Good song. I had to look through their discography a bit, because I remember my brother playing a version that seemingly never ended – the song for anyone who thought ‘American Pie’ was far too edited and abbreviated – but I found that was a live version from ‘Made in Japan’. to me, Jon Lord’s keyboards were what made them a bit better than a lot of their competition in hard rock back then.

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    1. Yes…his keyboards made them different than others I agree. It pushed them over the top and the riffs that they came up with…like yea Smoke on the Water and My Woman from Tokyo

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  6. Machine Head is an iconic hard rock album. Used to have it but another one lost along the way. I do have Space Truckin’ favorited and in my spotify playlist and love it every time it comes on. This blows me away: “The album Machine Head was recorded in a hotel.” The whole story around it is so danged cool, what else could the album be but far out and kick ass. I love Ian Gillan’s voice and he rocked out Jesus Christ Superstar as well. Great choice to cover on this beautiful Thursday afternoon.

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    1. His voice is great…and my favorite member by far was Jon Lords Keyboards. It is my favorite album by them…yea it’s a classic.

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      6. Sorry… we are on our way back from Atlanta and I hate checking by a phone… you are used to it more than I am

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  12. Great pick. I love that tune and the album, which is my favorite album by Deep Purple and my favorite hard rock record. I got it on vinyl in the late ‘70s and still own that copy.

    What I always found cool about Deep Purple is that the organ got “equal treatment” to the guitar as a lead instrument. Jon Lord was a beast of a keyboarder.

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