Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are?

[TheLoony]

Right. No dearth of DP threads and this is another one not needed as I'm pretty damned sure there was one a year or so ago but I can't find it. The search engine here leaves a bit to be desired, but that's neither here, nor there.

I pulled out a cassette the other day. My friend has all my old cassettes as he's the only one with a tape player anymore and they come into good use when people are around and we are hanging in the garage. So, this particular one had some DP odds and ends on one side, which was the reason for playing it as it had Son of Alerik and I'd been hankering for that one. The flip was WDWTWA? and I enjoy this one much more these days than I ever did.

It always seemed a bit lackluster, like their hearts weren't in it. I don't know why this album hasn't gotten more play from me over the years but other than the kinda weak Woman From Tokyo, it's a pretty solid album. Sure, it's not any of the three before it but it doesn't deserve the vitriol it's gotten, even from me, over the years.

Still love that riff in Rat Bat Blue. Loved it, even if it took me years to figure it out, when Helloween used that riff to start Heavy Metal Hamsters. I knew that riff but couldn't place it and for years and it drove me almost nuts. I may have already been nuts, but that is also neither here, nor there.

Did anyone ever find out if Mary Whitehouse ever DID lose her virginity? I'm glad I'm too young and from the wrong side of the pond to have known about that wanker. I'd like to know who the "Long" guy is, maybe someone can enlighten me on that one.

I'm a gonna play this on cd tomorrow as my friends tape player is slow and I want to hear it on a better(in theory) system. Been a while since I heard all the extras on this one.

[JJ88]

The 'Long' was Lord Longford, who became infamous for taking up the cause of child murderer Myra Hindley but I think at this time was just known as being a similar 'moral crusader'. Mary Whitehouse also got a tongue-lashing from Roger Waters on 'Pigs'.

I don't really care for this album. It's not an embarrassment, but they were tired and it shows big-time on songs like 'Place In Time'. See also Uriah Heep's 'Wonderworld'. Some solid material is on there somewhere, but I don't think much on it is up to the standard of their previous three albums. There's a reason that they don't play much from this in concert IMHO.

[JeffCarney]

other than the kinda weak Woman From Tokyo, it's a pretty solid album.

Funny. I think it's WFT that is "pretty solid" and the rest of the album that is "kinda weak."

This one just hasn't aged all that well. "Rat Bat Blue" is good but much of this album sounds thoroughly uninspired and ordinary, IMO.

[TheLoony]

JJ, thanks for that, I'll look him up. I'll also have to check out the lyrics to that Floyd as I didn't know that. Place In Line, along with Souper Trouper, were always the tunes I dug the most on this one. With Steve Morse in the band they have played a lot from other albums so maybe they will get around to ...oh, who am I kidding, they aren't going to do it at this stage. Be nice to hear some of those tunes someday though.

Jeff, WFT, while not bad, is one of those songs where the band seems to be trying to write a hit(worked in this case) and falls a little flat. DP weren't a hit band and being a somewhat hardcore fan, it seems like a sellout, for lack of better definition. When bands are clearly capable of better then I get a little disappointed. WFT is ok, but it ain't all that special IMO. I'm only right most of the time and could also be a wee bit wrong on this one, as WDWTWA? could, and by most is, considered a album where DP was "clearly capable of better".

I dug the album the other day, more than I had in some time. At least for me, that rates a second listen to see if I was high or something.

[Rufus]

I rate it higher than Fireball but falls short of In Rock & Machine Head. Very good album & better than anything by the MK 3 & 4 & 5 line ups. It was DP's last good album!!!

[JJ88]

Just played it again out of fairness, after my earlier post. Worse than I remember, actually. Jeff is right- 'Woman From Tokyo' is the only song which has that magic, especially the ethereal bridge. 'Place In Line' is the worst song featured on any of their albums up to that point IMHO. The others aren't objectionable but not really special.

I don't really rate the subsequent 70s line-ups even half as much as the MK II one, but there's no doubt that 'Burn' is a better album than this IMHO. Maybe a break might have helped the MK II line-up too, but of course it's easy to say that now.

[TheLoony]

Rufus, wow, even over PS and Purpendicular, although that's like Mark 69,593,071 or something, I think. That's a ballsy choice. I've heard people claim they like Slaves & Masters above all else, so you have them beat by miles as far as taste goes.

Saying it's DP's last good one means exactly what, that they all suck since then? Curious and not argumentatively, I say that. They still make music that pleases me in this day and age, though I'm biased I'm sure. I wonder where you are coming from with that statement is all. This band fascinates me over and above the music. The reactions to them(good or bad) and the crazy fuckers themselves in the band and all the drama they have created over the years never ceases to keep me highly amused. I just wonder why nothing after compares.

[JeffCarney]

Jeff, WFT, while not bad, is one of those songs where the band seems to be trying to write a hit(worked in this case) and falls a little flat. DP weren't a hit band and being a somewhat hardcore fan, it seems like a sellout, for lack of better definition. When bands are clearly capable of better then I get a little disappointed. WFT is ok, but it ain't all that special IMO.

I tend to like their "hits." "Never Before" is one my very favorite Purple songs, for example. I appreciate artists who can make something accessible while retaining a signature sound.

[Frankie]

Hey, what about 'Our Lady'? I love that tune!

[davis]

I think they set the bar high by making WFT the first song on this album. I've always loved that song and haven't heard the album in a long time, so I'm listening to it on YT and wondering how the rest of it is going to follow that song.

[ronmac]

It was DP's last good album!!!

I think "Perfect Strangers" is better.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I think "Perfect Strangers" is better.

But didn't you get it??? No!!! NO!!!

[ronmac]

But didn't you get it??? No!!! NO!!!

Translation, please.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Translation, please.

Exclamation marks, please!!! Now!!!

[ronmac]

Exclamation marks, please!!! Now!!!

Whatever!!!

[JJ88]

Translation, please.

I don't think it was aimed at you.

Agreed on 'Our Lady', that's not bad.

[trurl]

I love this album. It and Fireball are my two favorite Purple albums, what can I say.

[trurl]

Btw shouldn't that be "No, no, no!!!"??

[Scrotum Scissor]

Btw shouldn't that be "No, no, no!!!"??

Yes!!! Yes!!! Yes!!!

DP were my absolute favourite band from when I was 11 till' about 14. There wasn't a single superfluous or cheap sampler or anthology or live album I didn't stock in my collection, if only for the LP cover. I adored this band, and found them rich in just about every department where ALL the other early hard and heavy rock groups - IMO back then - lost out (including LZep). I thought Fireball to be the greatest and coolest rock album ever released, and I actually still think the world of "Demon's Eye", "The Mule", "Fools" and epsecially "No One Came" - the latter of which contains some of the most poignant and persistent vocals I heard in a rock tune, this in regard to the objective of the lyrics and the mood of the song as such.

Yet they somehow fell from my (admittedly rather dubious) grace, and I've often wondered why. Possibly because I used to dig Blackmore in my own coming-of-age as guitarist, while suddenly losing complete interest in him after learning of his manners and seeing what campy kitsch he allowed of his career later on. I experienced (no pun) some of the same with Hendrix, Cream and most early 70s hard rock, and there were 250 such titles to hand the vendors when I decided to sell 1/6 of my record collection as part of my moving away from my native town after I left for the capital back in 2002. I kept exactly one record by all of them - Purple, LedZep, Sabbath, Free, Wishbone A, Alex HB, Humble P, Spooky T, Budgie, Hendrix, Atomic R, Grand F, Cactus, Captain B, Bloodrock, Iron B and so forth (on and on). I even almost kept a Heep album.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

I would rate this my second favorite DP album, after In Rock:

In Rock
WDWTWA
Fireball
DP(last Mk 1 album)
Machine Head

I really lost interest after Gillan left and didn't care for any of the stuff with Bolin(I liked him as a guitarist, just not in DP), Hughes, Coverdale etc.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I really lost interest after Gillan left and didn't care for any of the stuff with Bolin(I liked him as a guitarist, just not in DP), Hughes, Coverdale etc.

You mean you don't cherish it when Hughes gets a spike up his arse while attemptively "singing" on Last Concert In Japan? Or Coverdale when in "Highway Star" he so wonderfully utters "[...] she's got big fat knockers, big fat knockers and AVERYTHAANG" and somehow succeeds in sounding like an old brothel mama?

[Watanabe]

Coverdale and Hughes were a couple of posturing hacks.Truly terrible songwriters.

Sometimes i wonder if Coverdale wasn't some kind of self-aware prototype formed specifically to mock the dodgy route hard rock was mostly going down...but no he was actually serious with his lyrics and stage persona.I mean...Whitesnake ffs

[grego]

I don't know why this album hasn't gotten more play from me over the years but other than the kinda weak Woman From Tokyo, it's a pretty solid album. Sure, it's not any of the three before it but it doesn't deserve the vitriol it's gotten, even from me, over the years.

They never sound better. I mean mark 2 formation..WFT is not the strongest point there, Smooth Dancer and Rat Bat Blue I rank as better ones. I like Blackmore's attempt to imitate Jeff Beck's style for a few seconds in Super Trouper..Though WDWTWA is Lord's album..he played some mad organ solos, like never before or after on a studio album.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

This was the first DP album I ever got, and I got it when it came out. I have an unabashed love for it! Gillan is great on it. Blackmore doesn't solo that much, but the songs are great! The only tune I don't like much is "Place in Line" or whatever it's called. "Women From Tokyo" is one of my favorite DP tunes!

[trurl]

Though WDWTWA is Lord's album..he played some mad organ solos, like never before or after on a studio album.

Hadn't thought of that. Maybe that's why I like it so much.