Who Do We Think We Are
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Publication |
February 1973 |
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Format (s) |
LP, MC, CD |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
34:27 |
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Deep Purple |
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Studio (s) |
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Who Do We Think We Are! ( English for: 'What do we think we are!') is the seventh studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple . As the CD booklet shows, the title refers to the outraged press headline “Who do Deep Purple think they are ...”. The album is the fourth and last in the “classic” or Mk-II line-up before the re-establishment in 1984.
background
In 1971 the band members founded their own record label Purple Records , despite increasing conflicts in the band . The album Who Do We Think We Are! Like the previous album Machine Head , it was released on this label in the USA and Japan due to an existing contract with Warner Bros.
The album was recorded in July 1972 in Rome and in October 1972 in Walldorf near Frankfurt am Main, both in the Rolling Stones mobile studio. But while the three previous albums received good reviews and sold very well, this album could not make it to the top of the charts everywhere . It reached number 15 on the US charts. On November 4, 1973, the album was awarded the gold record . A remastered version of the LP was released in 2000. Despite all internal and musical discrepancies, Deep Purple became the best-selling musical act in the United States in the same year thanks to their albums Machine Head, Made in Japan and Who Do We Think We Are , and ended 1973 with the highest number of record sales worldwide .
The relationship between the band members during the recordings was tense. They went to the studio separately and there was talk of the breakup of the band. In early 1973, the band members agreed that Deep Purple was breaking up. In fact, at the end of June, following the album, singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover left, who had learned that Ritchie Blackmore wanted to push him out of the group. They were replaced by Glenn Hughes and the later Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale .
Woman from Tokyo
Woman from Tokyo was the album's hit. It is one of the most famous songs by the band. The piece, like Painted Horse , was recorded in Rome. The long, difficult session produced just these two songs. Ian Gillan commented on the text of Woman from Tokyo that it was actually not about a woman, but about the enthusiasm and expectations of the first tour to Japan. The loudest band in the world at the time, according to the Guinness Book of Records , made their debut in the early autumn of 1972 with their tour of Japan. On February 16, 1973, Purple Records also released the song.
Track list
All songs were written by Ritchie Blackmore , Ian Gillan , Roger Glover , Jon Lord and Ian Paice . In the piece Rat Bat Blue (Lords Organ Solo), original music by JS Bach ( Prelude in E minor, BWV 855 ) is taken over.
page 1
- Woman from Tokyo - 5:48
- Mary Long - 4:23
- Super Trouper - 2:54
- Smooth Dancer - 4:08
Page 2
- Rat Bat Blue - 5:23
- Place in Line - 6:29
- Our Lady - 5:12
Bonus tracks (Remastered CD from 2000)
Original album and the following additional titles:
- Woman from Tokyo - 6:37 ('99 Remix)
- Woman from Tokyo - 1:24 (Alt. Bridge)
- Painted Horse - 5:19 (Studio out-take)
- Our Lady - 6:05 ('99 Remix)
- Rat Bat Blue - 0:57 (Writing session)
- Rat Bat Blue - 5:49 ('99 Remix)
- First Day Jam - 11:31 (Instrumental)
reception
The album got rather mixed reviews and was mainly due to the song Woman from Tokyo . After the album was released, the music magazine pop said it was a “copy”, “a listlessly thrashed compulsory exercise”, and further: “The purple rhythm rolls hard and bone dry. Dense arrangements are interpreted by singer Ian Gillan in an almost fifties rock 'n' roll style. But only rarely do delicate organ improvisations and fast guitar passages work through the pounding rock machine ”.
Www.allmusic.com writes about the album : "Considerably inferior to its three first-class predecessors, the album reveals a worn out band that is clearly falling apart at the seams."
The Musikexpress commented positively : “'Who Do We Think We Are' is ... by far the best album by Deep Purple, who rock harder than ever. Despite the increasingly frequent rumors of separation, the band presents itself in an incredible dynamic on this latest and perhaps also the very last LP. [...] Deep Purple (have) become a lot more varied compared to the past. "
useful information
As part of the Who Do We Think We Are! - European tour in Denmark in early 1973, the later Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich followed the group's live performance. He was so enthusiastic about the band's performance, and especially from Ritchie Blackmore, that he bought the album Fireball and began to learn to play the guitar for the first time.
Chart placements
The album and individual singles reached the following chart positions:
album
| year | country | Charts | placement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Norway | Norwegiancharts.com | 1 |
| 1973 | Austria | Austriancharts.at | 2 |
| 1973 | Germany | Charts-surfer.de | 4th |
| 1973 | Great Britain | British charts | 4th |
| 1973 | United States | Billboard.com | 15th |
Singles
| year | single | country | Charts | placement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Woman from Tokyo | Germany | musicline.de | 16 |
| 1973 | Woman from Tokyo | Netherlands | dutchcharts.nl | 6th |
Awards
The album received the following awards :
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) (USA)
| date | vinyl record | Edition |
|---|---|---|
| April 11, 1973 | gold | 500,000 |
Web links
- Who Do We Think We Are at Allmusic (English)
- Who Do We Think We Are at Discogs
Individual evidence
- ↑ History Purple Records accessed on July 22, 2009 ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Who Do We Think We Are Studio on Darker Than Blue, accessed February 11, 2017
- ↑ a b Billboard Chart Information at www.allmusic.com (accessed on July 23, 2009)
- ↑ a b GOLD & PLATINUM at www.riaa.com (English, accessed on July 24, 2009)
- ↑ [Dave Thompson. "Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story". P. 154]
- ↑ Deep Purple Mark 2 History - Deep-Purple.net
- ↑ Biography at www.monstersandcritics.de ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 8, 2009)
- ^ Barry Graves, Bernward Halbscheffel, Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: Rock-Lexikon , p. 254, Rororo, 1998, ISBN 3-499-61588-6
- ↑ Biography at www.mtv.de ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 7, 2009)
- ^ "Scouting". Published by Boy Scouts of America, Inc. (en)
- ↑ You Tube, Woman from Tokyo - Deep Purple (Live) (accessed July 23, 2009)
- ↑ Notes on Woman from Tokyo at www.gillan.com (accessed July 8, 2009)
- ↑ Singles Purple Records accessed on July 22, 2009 ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Jürgen Roth and Michael Sailer: Deep Purple, the story of a band . Verlagsgruppe Koch GmbH / Hannibal, 2005. Page 210
- ↑ Review at www.allmusic.com (accessed July 8, 2009)
- ↑ The Plates of the Month, 1973–1989. The ME Library / Volume 2 . Berlin 2012 (supplement to musikexpress 2/2012). Page 13
- ^ "Birth School Metallica Death: The Biography", by Paul Brannigan, Ian Winwood (en)
- ↑ norwegiancharts.com (accessed July 7, 2009)
- ↑ austriancharts.at (accessed on July 7, 2009)
- ↑ Charts-surfer.de (accessed on July 22, 2009)
- ↑ Tony Brown, Jon Kutner, Neil Warwick: The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles and Albums , p. 310, Bosworth Musikverlag, 2004, ISBN 1844490580 (Engl.)
- ↑ Woman from Tokyo at musicline.de ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 8, 2009)
- ↑ Woman from Tokyo at dutchcharts.nl (Dutch, accessed July 8, 2009)
