Disco de Deep Purple: “Who Do We Do We Think We Are?”

Made in EU in 2000, Serial# 5-21607-2, Playing Time 72:33

This is the last album of the 70's recorded by the Mark II line-up, and this remastered version includes extra stuff not available on the regular edition.

A portion of the liner notes were written by Glover, and that makes for an interesting story. Most of you reading this probably have the "regular version", so I'll focus my comments on the 7 bonus tracks.

Track 8, the remix of "Woman From Tokyo" is astounding, and gives a great alternative to an already great track.

Track 9 is an alternate bridge to the song, where the energy tones down; in this case, no vocals, just a quiet snippet of 1:26. I would have preferred it if they would have remixed the whole track and include this bridge, in order to get the full feeling for the song.

Track 10 is an out-take originally released in the UK on 1977's "Powerhouse" album, and later re-released in Japan on 1980's "New, Live And Rare". Closer to the "In Rock" sound, and features Gillan on harmonica.

Track 11 is a remix of "Our Lady", and once again, demonstrates how a mix can change the overall sound of a song.

Track 12 is a 0:57 snippet that catches the band in the writing process of my favorite song on WDWTWA, "Rat Bat Blue". No vocals as the tape was rolling, and this segment has no real purpose and dare I say, no value.

Track 13 is a remix of the full song, with a longer outro, and Blackmore using a somewhat different ending. A real bonus!

Track 14 represents the most interesting un-released portion of this edition: an 11:27 instrumental jam recorded during the first day of the recording sessions. Based on his own story, Glover got lost on his way to the studio, and the trio of Paice, Lord and Blackmore were "testing out" the sounds. There is no guitar on this track as Blackmore plays BASS (and quite adeptly).

Overall, this edition makes the "regular" version obsolete; the sound quality is much improved, and most of the additional 38 minutes of music is significantly worthwhile.

If for no other reason, get this cd for "Woman from Tokyo". The opening riff is both Jon Lord hammering on his Hammond and Ritchie Blackmore's power chords in unison. Gillan is nothing less than a man posessed: the man was at his peak! He belts out the melody till he gets to the bridge and the song is suddenly like a lullaby till the power chords return to bring the song back to the way it started.

If you haven't discovered Deep Purple, I'd have to suggest the Machine Head album as the place to start, if only for the familiarity of Smoke On The Water.

"Who Do We Think We Are" is for me though the best by a whisker of all their albums. The thing that makes Deep Purple unique has always been the strong organ sound to balance the lead guitar. On this album that balance is great.

The remaster also includes "Painted Horse", left off the original album through a band disagreement and not available on CD outside a Japan only compilation release.

The biggest thing wrong with the album is the ommission at the last minute of two frivolous outakes (one of which was titled "I've got a smelly bot"!). But at least the real music is there.

A MUST FOR A PURPLE FAN. EXCELLENT REMASTER AND REMIXES IT'S WORTH IT JUST FOR THE FIRST DAY JAM 11 MIN. WITH BLACKMORE ON BASS ALL I CAN SAY IT'S GREAT!

Another excellent remastered CD from Deep Purple. Although "Who Do We Think We Are" never achieved such high status as "Machine Head" or "In Rock", it is a CD that is NOT to be ignored. All the songs within have the same classic feel of the best Deep Purple line up. Although this line up was to break up shortly after the release of this album due to personal conflicts, the quality of the music seemed only to get better. It's great to hear all the songs remastered, and the extra tracks are very interesting to say the least. The alternate bridge to Woman From Tokyo, a writing session for Rat Bat Blue (an extremely underrated Purple song), plus assorted remixed songs from the album and a great jam involving Paice, Lord, and Blackmore - on bass! Finally, equally as good as the music on this CD is the literature and rare pictures within the booklet. An excellent mini biography of the time is writen within by Simon Robinson from "Darker Than Blue" magazine - and a personal account of the time by Roger Glover is obviously a fascinating read as well. This CD is NOT for completists only. It's a valuable CD for anyone. Deep Purple are much more than the band who released Machine Head and In Rock. This CD proves it.