If I say "Perfect Strangers" and you don't respond with "Larry and Balki" or "don't be rideekulous" or don't perform the "dance of joy" then either you are much younger than I am or a Deep Purple fan. All kidding aside, it's must be Reunion Week here on the blog with this following hot on the heels of the unlikely Move Like This. I wouldn't go so far to say this was a "miracle" album; in fact in the couple years before its release there were plenty of signs that a reunion of Deep Purple's best-known lineup was only a matter of time.
A couple of harbingers occurred in the late 1970's. First, Roger Glover was recruited into Rainbow to resolve Ritchie Blackmore's inability to retain a bass player for more than a single album (just ask Craig Gruber, Jimmy Bain, Mark Clarke, and Bob Daisley). Glover wasn't exactly a natural choice, given the history of hostility (mostly from Blackers, as Rog is exceptionally good-natured), which included Glover's virtual firing from Deep Purple in 1973 and Blackmore's "theft" of Ronnie James Dio in 1975. Nevertheless, Roger worked out brilliantly, sticking with Rainbow for the next four albums, offering both bass and production services throughout and pushing the band into more lucrative territory. Meanwhile, somewhere around 1979 a rather-intoxicated Blackmore crashed a Gillan show and attempted to recruit his old nemesis into Rainbow to replace Ronnie James Dio. Needless to say that didn't happen, but it showed that after a few years of bitterness, Blackie was softening up toward his old bandmates, even the ones he clashed with the most.
Meanwhile, Jon Lord and Ian Paice were keeping busy, primarily in and around another Purple alum's band, Whitesnake. Before you start screeching "Still of the Night" in your best faux-Plant voice, keep in mind this was quite a few years earlier, when hairstyles were considerably more modest and less androgynous. After the demise of Deep Purple in 1976, the two immediately got to work on a new and different kind of band with horns and other non-Purple-y things. They even attempted to rope in David Coverdale to assume vocal duties from the stage-shy Tony Ashton, but the tables were turned on them and by 1980 they were both working for him instead! Their stint in Whitesnake was fairly unremarkable, with Paice ultimately leaving and hitching his wagon to Gary Moore's band while Lord was buried far down in the mix to near-inaudible levels on 1984's Slide It In (ah, Whitesnake album titles!). Needless to say, a Deep Purple reunion sounded mighty fine to them around 1983 or so.
Turning back to Ritchie and Roger, Rainbow was pursuing a far more commercial direction than they had in the Dio years. Although Gillan rejected them and Dio's eventual replacement was a non-starter, then managed to secure a core trio of Blackmore, Glover, and American singer Joe Lynn Turner, that would get them through the next three albums. However the keyboard situation continued to remain an issue for the band, and the drum seat was becoming equally problematic since Cozy Powell left. Although the Rainbow faction of Deep Purple probably had the most to lose in a reunion, I'm sure Ritchie saw some clear benefits in stabilizing those two roles, plus the bass would be handled by his own bandmate.
Finally, the most chaotic and unpredictable element of the reunion, Ian Gillan. Gillan had the wildest ride of the bunch between Purple stints, starting off by quitting music, then inching back in through an abortive children's album and flirtations with disco and jazz-fusion. In 1978 he "quit his own band" with keyboardist Colin Towns and formed Gillan (the band), which brought back many Purple music elements and tapped into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. While capturing Gillan at his most vibrant, the band was dangerously unstable and collapsed in 1982 due to Ian having "throat problems". So the band was justifiably outraged when the next thing they knew Ian Gillan was fronting Black Sabbath (rumor has it the decision was made following a night of heavy drinking between Gillan, Geezer Butler, and Tony Iommi). The "Deep Sabbath" or "Black Purple" era only lasted a few months, as Gillan quickly realized, as did the rest of the band, that he was laughably out of place. Having already sniffed around the idea of bringing back Purple a couple years earlier, Gillan was ready.
So here you have it, the merging of about three different elements to reform a classic band. Perfect Strangers was an excellent beginning to the reunion era (now 30 years old and counting!) and features the band at their 1980's best. For at least a few days they were able to recapture some of the magic of the early Deep Purple days, and the new-found cohesiveness shows in their live performances of the time. The title track, even with NSFW modified vocals by Gillan, absolutely shined when performed at Knebworth in 1985. Even in the Morse era, the track still resonates as a live number in a way the studio version just doesn't quite capture. Other tracks deliver impressive energy and quality solos, harkening back to the glory days, with "Knocking at Your Back Door" becoming an instant hit. Two bonus tracks appear on current pressings, "Not Responsible" and "Son of Alerik", although my copy is so old that the second track, a ten-minute rehearsal jam, is missing.
The reunion era got stormy soon after this album, resulting in Gillan's firing after the second album, Blackmore's stormy departure after the fourth, and Jon Lord's retirement after the sixth. However the waters have been fairly smooth since 1994 without Blackmore around to stir the pot. "Knocking at Your Back Door" and "Perfect Strangers" remain in the setlist to this day (the only two Blackmore-reunion-era songs), while Gillan threw in "Wasted Sunsets" into his solo shows while supporting "Gillan's Inn". No other album with Blackmore has songs in anyone's live set these days, though "The Battle Rages On" made a surprise appearance a few years back, and I think Blackmore's Night does some folky version of "Anya".
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