1186. Deep Purple / Who Do We Think We Are. 1973. 3.5/5

Deep Purple the band had barely stopped to take breath over the three years leading up to this album being written and recorded. The infusion of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to the group had brought the Mark II line up to the fore, and on the back of three triumphant albums in “In Rock”, “Fireball” and “Machine Head”, along with the euphoric live album “Made in Japan” which had been recorded on the Machine Head tour, Deep Purple was riding the crest of a wave that never looked like stalling. However, the pace that was being set for them was one that always appeared as though it would eventually be the straw that broke the camel’s back. As has been said on earlier episodes of this podcast, where the albums “Fireball” and “Machine Head” were given the 50 year treatment, the band’s management and record company were pushing the band to its limits. Forced to write and record those albums on minimal breaks from their touring schedule, and then straight back on the road to continue to bring in the dollars, you can imagine just how tired the band members must have been getting.
The album was recorded in two sessions. The first was in Rome in July 1972, and the second in Frankfurt in October of that year. From the first session, only one song made the final cut for the album, the single “Woman from Tokyo”. The band was then back on the road, including the tour of Japan where the live album was recorded and then subsequently released. The band then went to Frankfurt, but was struggling on all kinds of levels. They were struggling to come to any agreement upon which tracks should be used or even completed, and various members were not even speaking to each other through the process. Indeed, many of the tracks were only completed and recorded by having schedules arranged so that they could record their parts separately and therefore not have to be in the studio at the same time as the other members of the band. This of course all came to light after the album had been released, and is something that is often quoted by critics when they like to suggest that this isn’t up to the standard of the previous albums that this line up had released.

You couldn’t ask for a better start to this album, especially given the quality of the few albums that preceded it. “Woman From Tokyo” is a great opening track, written about touring Japan and combining the best parts of Jon Lord’s organ and keyboards, Ian Paice’s drums and Ian Gillan’s smooth as honey vocals. It was a mainstay of the setlists both prior to the sabbatical and then once again after the reformation. That Ritchie Blackmore guitar riff along with Roger Glover’s bass line throughout help to make this one of Deep Purple’s classic tracks. This then flows into the beautiful “Mary Long”, a superb track that not only is fantastic musically, but cutting edge lyrically. Ian Gillan was quoted about the meaning of the song, saying, "Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford were particularly high-profile figures at the time. It was about the standards of the older generation, the whole moral framework, intellectual vandalism – all of the things that exist throughout the generations… Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford became one person, fusing together to represent the hypocrisy that I saw at the time."
“Super Trouper” holds that kind of form and continues down the line of easy listening 70’s rock. “Smooth Dancer” tends to lift the tempo in the middle of the album, with a concentration of Lord’s keyboards, that go from jaunty piano bar through the verse and chorus, into an orgasmic (pun intended) solo in the middle of the song. It’s quite noticeable how this is his song to dominate and shine on. “Rat Bat Blue” pulls back that intensity again to the mid-road tempo the album hides in, lyrically moving in the Gillan/Glover styled ‘girl meets boy’ theme. “Place in Line” is very much in an old blues theme, carrying many of the same characteristics of AC/DC songs that are in the same realm. The turn has begun to come. “Our Lady” completes the seven track album in much the same way, in a slow mannered way that tinges itself in the same sort of style.
Does "Who Do We Think We Are” take on more of a blues feel, as many critics suggest? I guess in a way it does, as there are no out-and-out hard rock tracks here such that had been prevalent on earlier albums, and the back half of the album definitely in mired in this, which is perhaps the first time Deep Purple had moved in this direction for some time musically. There is little doubt that this grated with Ritchie in particular who at that time wanted to continue down the hard rock path, whereas Gillan was less inclined. This had been an issue since the “Fireball” album, and it continued to fuel the fire here, and it can be easily seen why tensions flared during the writing and recording process.

Having conducted my Deep Purple upbringing with the album “In Rock”, “Machine Head” and “Perfect Strangers”, this album has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The opening is fantastic, and over recent days having put the album on again at home and listened to it in the Metal cavern, it is still terrific to listen to, taking in every part of each band members brilliance and what they contribute to the album in that way. The songs however? Well, if I was to sit here and pick them apart, then I would certainly not rank it in the top echelon of Deep Purple albums. It was never an album I grabbed and put on, that always fell to those three I mentioned earlier, as well as a few modern albums. And for me it IS the lack of momentum in the album and the tracks, the fall back to a slower tempo and less aggressive approach throughout. And once you factor in the trouble that went into writing and recording, and how exhausted the band must have been, and how they were certainly pulling apart, then it probably isn’t hard to understand how they got to this point. It didn’t stop the album selling all over the world. For me though, despite a couple of songs that are still favourites to this day, it doesn’t stand up to the best the band has produced.
Ian Gillan left the band following this album, citing internal tensions, which was basically reaching the breaking point that had been coming for some time with Ritchie Blackmore. It is interesting though that in an interview held when they reformed once again in 1983, Ian stated that fatigue and management had a lot to do with it, that if the managers and record company had just afforded them a three month holiday in order to rest and recuperate, then perhaps the band would never have exploded. Of course, that would have changed the entire history of the band, and we may never have had the legendary album that followed this one in just a few short months time.