Lord's organ was at least as essential to Deep Purple's sound as Richie Blackmore's guitar was. Lord co-composed several of the band's greatest songs, including "Child in Time", "Space Truckin'", "Black Night", "Strange Kind of Woman", and "Smoke on the Water", and it's difficult to imagine the band sounding anything like it did without his contributions. It would be fair to say that the entire genre of hard rock (and, by extension, heavy metal) would not exist in the same form if Jon Lord had never lived.
A massive talent. R.I.P. :sadpanda:
NPR
