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Deep Purple - Knocking At Your Back Door: The Best Of Deep Purple In The 80s CD (album) cover

KNOCKING AT YOUR BACK DOOR: THE BEST OF DEEP PURPLE IN THE 80S

Deep Purple

 

Proto-Prog

2.87 | 20 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
3 stars For a short while, this was essential

This compilation sources its tracks from just three Deep Purple albums. All three feature the celebrated mark 2 line up of Gillan, Glover, Blackmore, Lord and Paice, but as the title suggests it is their 1980's albums which are featured.

The group's first two reunion albums, "Perfect strangers" and "The house of blue light" supply 3 tracks each. The title track from "Perfect strangers" and the title track of this compilation ("Knocking on your back door") from the same album are two of the band's finest songs in many a year. While "Nobody's home" may not quite match them, it too demonstrates what a strong album their comeback was. It would be churlish to bemoan the omission of say "Wasted sunsets" when there was such a wealth of material to choose from.

"House of blue light" was by comparison less impressive, but the three tracks included here are admittedly among the better ones on it. All three are very much in the traditional Deep Purple mould.

Four of the tracks are live versions of old songs, although there is no indication on the sleeve that they are live recordings other than the "80's" reference. All four are from the "Nobody's perfect" live album, which I personally rated highly, but which receives mixed reviews. "Black night", "Space truckin'" and inevitably "Smoke on the water" all come from the classic era of the band in the early 70's, and are clearly included here to boost sales! The fourth track, "Hush" is a cover of a Joe South song from the pre Gillan/Glover era, but the rendition here brings the song up to date nicely.

Of great interest to fans of the band when this compilation was released in Europe is the inclusion of "Son of Alerik". (The song was omitted from the US version of this compilation.) This 10 minute instrumental written by Ritchie was recorded during the "Perfect strangers" sessions, but omitted from the album. It has since been added as a bonus track on re-issues of the CD, but for a while it made this compilation very alluring to the Deep Purple faithful.

In all, a good if rather superficial summary of three of the band's albums from the mid 1980's.

Easy Livin | 3/5 |

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