Welcome to the many "marks" of Deep Purple. In the initial phase of the story, they were essentially court jesters jackknifing around the fringes of rock royalty…but other than the odd flash or two, were not taken at face value. Then again, Shades of Deep Purple - at its' core - was a shameless Vanilla Fudge imitation, laden with exquisite classical-tinged covers and faux-expressive psychedelic passages. Really, its' calling card (and only saving grace) were the 3 core members - Blackmore, Lord, and Paice - injecting enough tension to make things interesting. Rod Evans croons Elvis-style over the odd din, definitely standing out on the Joe South cover/hit "Hush", which became a bona fide flower power anthem. And unlike the 'Fudge debut (which was all covers), 4 of the 8 tracks were band originals - the guttural "Mandrake Root" easily the best of the four.