WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE

I bought this album on the strength of their "Machine Head" success. My first impression of the music after I listened to the album was that it wasn't very good. The only song to really grab me at all was "Rat Bat Blue." It was and still is a very good tune. I wasn't that all impressed with "Woman from Tokyo." It had some nice special effects though. I just thought for as long a tune as it was, there should have been more stuff going on than there was. All in all it is one of the better tunes anyway. "Mary Long" is the biggest mistake the Purple ever made in their career, as far as I am concerned. This is the one song to really make the band look bad. No matter if a man physically or verbally beats up on a woman, it is shameful! Ian Gillan ought to be ashamed of himself for verbally smashing a woman, no matter how justified he seemed to be in his own eyes. The band could have found a more tasteful way of dealing with Mary Long. As it is, this song just ruined the whole album for me at that time. "Super Trooper" is the sleeper song on the album. I can hear elements of the first line up, when Deep Purple was doing that experimental stuff. It is a good tune. I love the solo part. "Smooth Dancer" is also a very good tune and it is catchy too! They should have made a 45 out of it also. "Rat Bat Blue" is a killer tune! It has all the ingredients of earlier Purple in it, and Jon Lord does some crazy soloing on this. "Place in Line" is also a good blues tune that was my 2nd choice after "Rat Bat Blue." It starts off great, but when Gillan starts singing "Don't cha think we're gonna make it," I thought, 'Man, this part has been done a thousand times. They need to do something different here!' Other than that part, the song is killer. I loved the way Ian Gillan sang with the deep soulful voice. It was absolutely great! "Our Lady" should never have been recorded at all. I never could get into it all. It is just a bad song for the Purple to have recorded. Up until I listened to the anniversary edition I would have given this 2 stars at best. Since I have heard "First Day Jam" and "Painted Horse", I have changed my mind. "First Day Jam" was done without Blackmore's contribution. I love it as it is. Jon Lord just does it for me here and Roger Glover is right there with some tasty bass lines. Ian Paice is also kicking everybody down on this tune. It is some good 3 man jazz to me no matter how you slice it! "Painted Horse" has some good harp on it and it should have been used instead of "Our Lady", as far as I'm concerned. It is on the strength of "First Day Jam" though that I am giving this album 3 stars. If anybody listens to this album and is able to delete "Mary Long" and "Our Lady" they might start enjoying the music here.