{"id":456438,"date":"2026-02-08T13:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T13:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456438\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T13:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T13:37:10","slug":"the-mule-by-deep-purple-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456438\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mule by Deep Purple: the story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

The internet is a perilous place. It\u2019s a mine of misinformation, non-facts, rumour, innuendo and outright lies. Case in point: Deep Purple<\/a>\u2019s The Mule, a song that originally appeared on the Fireball album in 1971.<\/p>\n

As with the majority of compositions by the Mk II Purple line-up, The Mule is credited equally to the classic quintet of Ritchie Blackmore<\/a>, Ian Gillan<\/a>, Jon Lord<\/a>, Roger Glover and Ian Paice. But hang on a minute. Type the track title into Google, or indeed any search engine, and a sixth name pops up: that of Jethro Tull mainman Ian Anderson.<\/p>\n

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Drummer Paice chuckles down the phone from his country mansion in Henley-on-Thames. \u201cI can state categorically that no Aqualung influences were involved in the making of The Mule. It just so happens that Anderson is my middle name \u2013 Ian Anderson Paice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Somewhere in a parallel universe there\u2019s a live rendition of The Mule with a marathon flute solo. But what happened in reality was this\u2026<\/p>\n

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Deep Purple in the early 70s: (from left) Jon Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

After its appearance on Fireball, The Mule was incorporated into Purple\u2019s stage show and became the focus for Paice\u2019s tub-thumping talents. Live, the song\u2019s running time increased dramatically. The Fireball version lasts 5:21; on the 1972 live album Made In Japan<\/a> it\u2019s twice as long.<\/p>\n

The talent exhibited by Paice on The Mule sent shockwaves through the 70s rock scene. Cream fans in particular were stunned by the Purple pounder\u2019s dextrous display of controlled power and awesome technique. Ginger Baker\u2019s Toad \u2013 previously the benchmark for such drum-solo shenanigans \u2013 was summarily squashed under the trampling hooves of The Mule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to pick vehicles for drum solos basically rhythmically,\u201d Paice states. \u201cIf I had a rhythm that gave me a good lead-off point to go into a solo, then that made it much easier. The Mule was almost written with a drum solo in mind. But obviously until you get it on stage you never really know if it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

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\"Deep\n<\/p>\n

Deep Purple\u2019s Ian Paice onstage in 1972 (Image credit: Jorgen Angel\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Besides its chiming Blackmore riff, The Mule contains an atypical repetitive drum pattern inspired by the playing of Ringo Starr. Indeed such is the precision and consistency of Paice\u2019s percussive refrain that it could almost be on a tape loop.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of Ringo. He\u2019s one of the great unsung rock\u2019n\u2019roll drummers. Every song he plays on feels great. <\/p>\n

Ian Paice<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea came from Tomorrow Never Knows [from The Beatles\u2019 Revolver<\/a> album],\u201d Paice reveals. \u201cRingo plays wonderfully, but his pattern is much darker and more eerie than mine. I just took the rhythmic emphasis and played it in a slightly more violent way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big fan of Ringo. He\u2019s one of the great unsung rock\u2019n\u2019roll hero drummers \u2013 and not just because he\u2019s a Buddy Rich type, like me. Every song Ringo plays on just feels great.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFrom the early Cavern stuff to his more complicated work on Abbey Road, every track is brilliant. And that\u2019s not luck, that\u2019s pure talent \u2013 the knowledge of why it should be a certain way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mule (1996 Remaster) – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a sci-fi fanatic you\u2019ll know that The Mule is an evil galaxy-conquering character in Isaac Asimov\u2019s Foundation series of books. Frontman Ian Gillan has admitted that the lyrics to the Purple song of the same name were \u201cinspired by Asimov\u2026 He was required reading in the 60s and 70s\u201d.<\/p>\n

On stage Gillan would often preface The Mule with the comment: \u201cThis song is all about Lucifer and some of his friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paice, however, has a interesting take on The Mule\u2019s opening lyrics: \u2018No one sees the things you do\/Because I stand in front of you\/But you drive me all the time.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about me,\u201d he insists. \u201cI\u2019m behind Ian on stage, I\u2019m spurring him on with my playing. It\u2019s a very nice, subtle little lyric. It escaped me for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsimov may well have inspired Ian but, looking at those lyrics, I can personalise them. I never thought about it until two or three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne night the vocals were particularly loud on stage and I thought: \u2018Hang on, there\u2019s something I\u2019ve never noticed before.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Deep\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Michael Putland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Purple wrote and recorded Fireball at several locations, including De Lane Lea and Olympic studios in London, and The Hermitage in Welcombe, North Devon, between September 1970 and June 1971.<\/p>\n

Halfway through The Mule, our engineer flipped the tape. He accidentally erased the drums.<\/p>\n

Ian Paice<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mule would\u2019ve come from a jam or a designated afternoon writing session, because we were still using rehearsal rooms in those days,\u201d Paice states.<\/p>\n

Committing The Mule to tape was not without problems, though. \u201cIn those days we used eight-track tape,\u201d Paice recalls. \u201cSometimes to get different effects you\u2019d put the tape on the machine upside down, to be able to record backwards. It\u2019s a technique The Beatles often used. You\u2019d have sounds fading in and out, and you could achieve some wonderful effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalfway through The Mule, our engineer flipped the tape. But instead of going on to one of the clear tracks, he accidentally erased the drums. The kit I\u2019d been using for recording had been packed up and sent on a truck to Europe, so we had to go back in the next day with another set of drums.<\/p>\n

Deep Purple – The Mule ([Best Drumsolo Ever!]Live in Copenhagen 1972) HD – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they were different, they didn\u2019t sound exactly the same, no matter how carefully we tuned them. So when you play The Mule, you get to the halfway point and the drum sound changes significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paice\u2019s solos began cropping up in different songs when Purple eventually dropped The Mule from their live show. \u201cWe used to put one in Speed King and a couple of other tracks where the rhythm lent itself to a good start-off and I could just flap around until I ran out of ideas and then hopefully bring the rest of the band in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today The Mule has been reinstated into Purple\u2019s live performances. \u201cWe brought it back because a lot of people wanted it. It\u2019s much curtailed, though \u2013 the drum solo is only two or three minutes long. But in this day and age that\u2019s probably enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 198 (May 2014)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The internet is a perilous place. It\u2019s a mine of misinformation, non-facts, rumour, innuendo and outright lies. Case…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-456438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}