Who Do We Think We Are! (Deep Purple, 1973)

I was about to wonder aloud why Deep Purple doesn't turn up here too often, but it would appear this is the twelfth post where they are in fact the main event. I think the reason is that this is the first of their ten "classic era" studio albums that has shown up here. Among those ten it's one of four releases by the classic "Mark II" lineup featuring Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. And among those four it is typically the most poorly reviewed, unfortunately.

Albums released in the shadow of any band's "greatest" album tend to suffer from not meeting expectations, something the previous album never really had to worry much about. Although Deep Purple was making quite a bit of noise, primarily in the UK, since 1970, Machine Head and its surprise transatlantic hit "Smoke on the Water" catapulted the band to new heights. While this heightened fame would largely carry them through 1976, it was obscuring the fact that deep down this band was falling apart at the seams. In fact, before the release of this album, Ian Gillan had already decided he was leaving, and not just the band, but music altogether (a decision that lasted less than a year, thankfully).

Who Do We Think We Are! (a sly titling to address letters from the haters demanding to know who they thought they were) starts off strong enough, with classic rock staple "Woman From Tokyo", sporting a repeated riff that's more than a little "Smoke"-esque, though the song structure is far different. In fact, it was never played live in its entirety until the late 1990's, well into the Morse era. The following songs are a mixed bag: angry songs with hazy focus ("Mary Long", "Smooth Dancer"), and experiments that don't really catch fire ("Our Lady", "Super Trouper", "Place in Line"), and the jammy but shallow "Rat Bat Blue". In a lot of ways it suffers from the same disease as Fireball, an album prone to more experiments while sacrificing some heaviness and a lot of direction. The belated 25th anniversary edition adds on the so-so "Painted Horse" and something simply called "First Day Jam" which is just drums, organ, and bass (played by Ritchie Blackmore instead of Roger).

As intended, Ian Gillan split after some final tour dates in Japan and Roger Glover was politely offered the choice of quitting or being fired. Ritchie had gained so much control over the band that the management bent to his whims. Not long after, Deep Purple would be in the awkward position of being at the top of their game, but doing it with two new members, one barely known and the other a complete unknown, and nobody knowing that the band was less than three years away from a complete meltdown. That, of course, is another story for another album.