The song starts out as an instrumental, keyboardist Jon Lord plays an overdriven Hammond organ intro, followed by the main riff and with the solo swapping between him and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Vocalist Ian Gillan comes in with the vocals later in the song. He also uses harmonica both on the studio version and live. At over 7 minutes long, it is the longest track on the album, and live versions were often extended past 10 minutes.

"Lazy" was co-written by all five members of Deep Purple Mark II (ie Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice); group compositions being a trademark of this particular line up.

The studio version runs to 7 minutes 23 seconds and was recorded for the Machine Head sessions at Montreaux, Switzerland in December 1971. Being a track that lends readily to improvisation - as well as the aforementioned ego tripping - on stage it would often be spun out for considerably longer. A quarter of a century after it was released, Ritchie Blackmore's "Lazy" guitar solo was voted number 75 of all time by a readers' poll for Guitar World magazine

Lyrics

You're lazy, just stay in bed

You're lazy, just stay in bed

You don't want no money

You don't want no bread

If you're drowning, you don't clutch no straw

If you're drowning, you don't clutch no straw

You don't want to live, you don't want to cry no more

Well my trying ain't done no good

I said my trying ain't done no good

You don't make no effort, no, not like you should

Lazy, you just stay in bed

Lazy, you just stay in bed

You don't want no money

You don't want no bread

Songwriters: Paice / Lord / Glover / Blackmore / Gillan

Lazy lyrics © Emi Glenwood Music Corp. O/B/o Hec Music, GLENWOOD MUSIC CORP, B FELDMAN & CO LTD, AERIAL MEAN, MORE SHOCK MUSIC