Stormbringer by Deep Purple

Album: Stormbringer (1974)

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In a 1974 interview with New Musical Express, David Coverdale, the third vocalist with Deep Purple (in their new Mark III lineup), said of this song: "I wrote the lyrics about a mythical creature called Stormbringer who, in a surrealistic story, creates a lot of trouble."

It was, he said, similar to "Burn" - the title track of the band's previous album - adding, "But I never even considered Michael Moorcock's work." It was only when he showed the lyric to another member of the band that the comparison was made.

Like the rest of the album, the title track, which runs to 4 minutes 3 seconds, was recorded in Munich; it was co-written with lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. When Coverdale returned home he discovered some of Moorcock's science fiction works in a trunk of paperbacks. The author's Stormbringer is a sword which was introduced in his 1963 novel The Stealer Of Souls. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England

Comments: 2

George Gaprindashvili from Minneapolis, MnIn 1975, in Soviet Georgia, we heard “Stormbringer” in a completely different way.
We didn’t know about Michael Moorcock or the sword — those books didn’t exist for us behind the Iron Curtain.

The word “Stormbringer” immediately connected to our own cultural symbol: the storm‑herald bird — the буревестник in Russian, ქარიშხალა in Georgian — a fearless creature sailors believed appeared before storms.

So for us, the song was about that mythic storm‑bird, the one that dances above chaos and brings the storm with it.

Decades later I learned that David wrote it about a mythical creature of his own imagination, and only afterward discovered Moorcock’s sword.
I just wanted to share how the song lived in our world back then — a different place, a different time, but the same music connecting us all.
Mick from Newcastle I was heavily into the dune novels when listening to this album and the original dune movie came out and I thought stormbringer has to be something like this...even a massive sand worm the solo seems to sound hot like desert sands and sciroccos

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