Poor Deep Purple.
Even as a classic rock know-it-all I was never big on Deep Purple, you can only hear songs like Smoke on the Water, Woman from Tokyo and Hush so many damn times.
Child in Time, Highway Star and Burn are all great songs though... They were all excellent musicians, espeicially Ritchie Blackmore, and their live performances, well lets just say they give it their all. But they have some pretty annoying fans, I mean guys who overrate the holy crap out of them. People who seriously believe Blackmore has contributed more to rock guitar than anyone else.
Again they were a good classic rock band, Machine Head is worth having, but they're not on the same level as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as their hardcore fans try to claim. Hell I wouldn't even put them on the same level as Blue Oyster Cult and Heart.