The work that must have gone into getting the Mark II lineup of Deep Purple to reform, and then record that comeback album
Perfect Strangers is staggering, and though that is not part of this episode it will be an interesting one to relive in a couple of years time. However, the time between the end of that tour, and the release of
The House of Blue Light seemed to have old tensions resurface when it came to writing and recording. While it was said by Jon Lord that
Perfect Strangers seemed to write itself, it was not such easy work when it came to the follow up. Writing and recording of the album took place over six months through 1986, with all members of the band later commenting that there was little cohesiveness within the individuals, that ideas were difficult to cultivate and trying to cobble together all parts of the songs into an album was time consuming and problematic.
In the long run, it appears that many of the same tensions that crept up on the group prior to their first dissolution were back again. Ian Gillan spoke about it being as difficult to write and record as the
Who Do We Think We Are album, and for similar reasons. Fatigue was brought up as a factor, as the band had been writing, recording and touring for three years straight without a break from 1984 to 1987. Back when
Who Do We Think We Are was recorded the feeling was the same, and Gillan said that if they had proper management, they would have made them all go on holiday for three months. Gillan and Glover left the band after that tour and Blackmore followed 18 months later. In 1987 the band were in a similar predicament, looking to capitalise on their resurging fame. Moreso by this time was the difficulty in the relationship in particular between Blackmore and Gillan, one that caused much friction in the band for close to the next decade.
Despite all of this, the album was recorded and delivered, and the world got another taste of the most famous form of the Deep Purple band.
Whether or not you subscribe to the thought that Deep Purple was looking to modernise their sound on this album, it is certainly a much more 1980’s kind of musicianship than what the band performed in the 1970’s, which is as it should be. From the opening bars of the opening track “Bad Attitude”, both Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar and Jon Lord’s Hammond organ don’t take their usual place at the helm of the song. Indeed, initially the album is led by Ian Gillan’s vocals and Ian Paice’s drums, stamping their ample brilliance onto the tracks. What hasn’t changed for Deep Purple is that everyone has their opportunity in each track to make their mark which is an important part of the continued relevance in the music industry. There isn’t as much duelling between Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s organ as there used to be, and that perhaps is a shame and an obvious victim of the attempt to update to an 80’s sound. What there is though is excellent. Roger Glover’s bass locks in beautifully with Paice’s drums to hold everything together.
The opening of “Bad Attitude” is right in the wheelhouse of 1980’s Deep Purple, and is followed by “The Unwritten Law” which also is favoured by Gillan’s vocal melody and Paice’s drumming. “Call of the Wild” was the first single from the album, and whether deliberately by design or chosen because of its structure, it sounds like a single. The middle songs of the first side “Mad Dog” and “Black and White” are the solid Deep Purple tracks that bolster the album rather than provide highlights, and by that I don’t mean to say they are average songs, they are good solid tracks that are important in the fleshing out of the album. This is then followed by the faster paced “Hard Loving Woman”, a song that could have come straight from the band’s salad days, combining everything that makes this band great. The playing off of Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s organ, Paice’s drums locking in with Glover’s wonderful bass guitaring, and Gillan’s vocals perfectly emoting the story of the lyrics throughout.
Not everything works to 100% but they are not so dull that they influence the rest of the album. And any real doubts about the album occur in the second half. “The Spanish Archer”, “Strangeways” and “Mitzi Dupree” all tend to overstay their welcome just a little. “Mitzi Dupree” is a song with a vastly different set up and style from every other song on the album, almost in a swing/jazz style of tempo that feels out of place after the hard rock style of song that dominates the album before it. And for me both “The Spanish Archer” and “Strangeways”, if I am to be critical, are a little long without anything much interesting going on. This is all forgiven once we reach the closing track “Dead or Alive”, which rushes at you at speed and power. It is another terrific Deep Purple song that completes an album that was the second and final studio release by the band for the 1980’s.
1987 was my final year of high school, and as a result there are a lot of albums that were released in this year that hold special memories for me. And I had really enjoyed the previous album, so the release of this album was an exciting moment, which also brought the hope that the band would tour Australia again as they had in 1984 (they did not, and in fact didn’t return until 1999). Indeed, the album was dubbed ‘The House of the Red Light’ by my friends group for fairly obvious reasons. Ah, teenage boys...
So this album got a lot of listening throughout that final year of school, and there is little doubt that for that reason I hold it in higher stead than I may have if it had been released at a different time. Because I know that there are other people I know who have come across the album in the years since who hold a much lower opinion on it. And it is certainly true that while I still enjoy the band’s future release of
The Battle Rages On..., I don’t find it as attractive as this, and when I had occasion to consider why this may have been, my main reaction was that
The Battle Rages On... was released at a time in my life that doesn't hold such strong memories as 1987 does.
Is that the ONLY reason I enjoy this album? I don’t think so, but I think it does explain why I rate it much higher than most of the fan base does. In fact, it is hard to find any reviews of the time that give it more than 3/5, and many are much lower. Some have accused the band of trying to modernise their sound on this album, and thus it doesn’t gell with the fanbase as other albums do, and this could certainly be a point. From not having released an album since 1975’s
Come Taste the Band, Deep purple had arrived in the 1980’s 9 years later with
Perfect Strangers and now were looking to find their path forward with the reunited line up, and that probably meant finding their place in the new decade. To be fair, they went another step away from it with their next album
Slaves and Masters before trying to recover ground with “The Battle Rages On”. Realistically they did not find their mojo again until Ritchie Blackmore’s departure and the recruiting of Steve Morse, and the album
Purpendicular in 1996.
My own opinion remains that this is a sister album to
Perfect Strangers. It has many of the same qualities, with some strong singles and the majority of the songs solid enough to back them up, and then a couple of songs that may be on the average side. If anything perhaps the band’s strengths are not allowed to shine through here, in an effort to not rebrand as such but to modernise their sound. But I don’t think that takes away from some great songs, and an album I still love very much.
