Legend has it the song was born in on a tour bus to Portsmouth. When a reporter asked how they wrote songs, Ritchie Blackmore reportedly grabbed an acoustic guitar and began playing a G-major riff while Ian Gillan improvised lyrics about "the ultimate racing car". By that evening, it was already part of their live set. The 1972 "High Quality" Visual Legacy
The Mach IV Velocity: Deep Purple's "Highway Star" (1972) Released in as the opening track of the seminal album Machine Head , " Highway Star " isn't just a song—it’s the definitive blueprint for speed metal. While "Smoke on the Water" might be the album's most famous riff, "Highway Star" is its high-octane engine, capturing the Mark II lineup (Gillan, Blackmore, Lord, Glover, and Paice) at their absolute technical zenith. Origins on the Road deep_purple_highway_star_1972_video_hq
The most iconic "HQ" footage associated with the song from this era often stems from two legendary performances: Legend has it the song was born in