"You Can't Do It Right (With the One You Love)" / "High Ball Shooter"
Released: 1974 (US only)
"Stormbringer" / "Love Don't Mean a Thing"
Released: 1974

Ritchie Blackmore chronology

Burn
(1974)

Stormbringer
(1974)

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
(1975)

Alternative cover

35th anniversary CD slipcase

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Blogcritics	(favourable)
Džuboks	(favourable)
Record Collector
Rolling Stone	(mixed)

Stormbringer is the ninth studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in November 1974. On this album, the soul and funk elements that were only hinted at on Burn are much more prominent.

The cover image of Stormbringer is based on a photo. On 8 July 1927 a tornado near the town of Jasper, Minnesota was photographed by Lucille Handberg. Her photograph has become a classic image, and was used and edited for the album's cover. The same photograph was used for Miles Davis' album Bitches Brew in 1970 and Siouxsie and the Banshees' album Tinderbox in 1986.

Stormbringer is also the name of a magical sword described in several novels by Michael Moorcock. David Coverdale has denied knowledge of this until shortly after recording the album. A few years later, Moorcock collaborated with Blue Öyster Cult to write "Black Blade," a song that actually was about the sword Stormbringer.

According to Glenn Hughes, the slurred gibberish that is spoken by Coverdale at the beginning of the title track just prior to the first verse is the same backwards dialogue that Linda Blair's character utters in the film The Exorcist, when she is questioned by the priest.

Alex Henderson of AllMusic writes that "Stormbringer falls short of the excellence of Machine Head and Who Do We Think We Are, but nonetheless boasts some definite classics – including the fiery "Lady Double Dealer," the ominous title song (a goth metal treasure), the sweaty "High Ball Shooter," and the melancholy ballad "Soldier of Fortune."

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Wikipedia