Machine Head
Machine Head is the sixth studio album by Deep Purple (Mark II), released 30 March 1972.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-machine-head-album.md] It is the band's best-selling record and one of hard rock's foundational albums.
The Hammond in it
Jon Lord's Hammond B-3/C-3 — driven into overdriven Marshall stacks and swirling Leslie — is the album's second lead instrument: rhythmic underpinning on "Smoke on the Water" and full organ solos on "Highway Star", "Pictures of Home" and "Lazy".^[raw/articles/wikipedia-machine-head-album.md]^[raw/articles/wikipedia-jon-lord.md] Lord later named his "Lazy" solo among his own favourites.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-jon-lord.md]
The album is the canonical proof that the tonewheel engine could carry hard rock's volume war: drawbar settings pushed to an aggressive reedy voice, percussion turned on, distortion treated as tone (see b3-vs-combo-organs for what the combo-organ rivals could not do here).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-jon-lord.md]