The Last Days of Deep Purple MK2 ! The Making of Who Do We Think We Are (1973) - Documentary 

Fantastic as all JCM products are.He could do a documentary on Air Supply and make it awesome.

Great review for an underrated album! So good to hear an in depth review of a Purple album other than Machine Head. 👏👍

No band on Earth is as mysterious and exciting as Deep Purple.

This is a great underrated album that follows 3 stone cold classic studio albums and preceded another great album in Burn, it sort of went forgotten outside of Woman From Tokyo. Glad this album finally got a deep dive.

A terribly underated album but defining a new genre: smooth metal with heavy undertow. Its just relentlessly heavy but smooth to listen to. Whenever Im waiting in line for something I may start singing Place in Line. Every track is a powerhouse. Love the sound fx on Oue Lady ofthe Skies. Purple & Zepplin. I prefer Purple by a hair, more consistent live, both laid down the laws of improvising. Marshall Majors rule!! When Ivw playefvthrough one of these Beasts the walls shake & plaster falls! Who do We think We Are , brings back many childhood memories. Thanks for this rare treat.

My favorite Deep Purple album I don't care what anyone says including Deep Purple!!!

Saw Deep Purple about 6 months before Covid........what an awesome show!

Sorry Robert and others😩Ian Gillan is the undeniable undisputed champion of male rock vocalist 💪🏻nice change of content Jose☝🏼

Absolutely love this album. I never understood why it was criticized so much, but I think it's one of their best

My favorite Deep Purple album...and the one that got it all started for me DP wise was Fireball. And then...it was Made in Japan

Deep Purple what is the band in my neighborhood that everybody loved?.. the first album I ever bought when I was 10 or 11 years old was come taste the band, and then I worked myself back from there and discovered Richie Blackmore… I’ve got to meet the band, with Joe Lynn Turner, and once with IAN Guillen at a sports bar in Longwood Florida in the early 90s when they were recording slaves and masters They were all very nice.. but John Lord was the one that I sat with and I bought him drinks and he told me stories for two hours about the beginnings of the band, he told me Phil Collins lives right down the street from him.. the more Heineken’s that I bought the more stories he told When I was a kid, they were my heroes had to get to meet them like that was an awesome experience

I’ve never understood the hate this album gets. Sure, if you compare it to In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head and Made in Japan, then yes? It’s the ginger stepchild of the 70’s MK2 discography, but it’s far from bad. Some VERY strong songs on this album and I’ve always loved it.

Deep Purple ,best Heavy Rock Band ever.5 Genius in a Band,superp.

Great and rare praise for Deep Purple .. incredibly .. the most underrated band of all time. Evidence ? I just saw the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine titled “Greatest rock bands of the 70’s” DEEP PURPLE WERE NOT FEATURED .. AT ALL .. ZERO save for perversely, “Who do we think we are” being around No 40 in the top 100 albums feature. On RU-vid there is a video of Dave Gilmore sitting next to Ian Gillan, Deep Purple’s singer Dave says words to the effect ... “We didn’t have a real singer in Floyd ... like Ian Gillan” Ian Gillan, the brilliant rock singer (last Purple album 4 years ago got 10/10 and 5 star reviews) .. but few rock fans would rate it. Ritchie Blackmore the genius guitarist that no one talks about (except Brian May ... and only all the time) . Purple the best live rock band ever ... IMO .... NO ONE (almost) agrees. Metallica do. Deep Purple, insulted by being inaugurated into the R&R Hall of nonsense (long after Jon Lord’s death) ... 50 years after being the only band who could put out albums of the quality of Deep Purple in Rock and Concerto for group and Orchestra within a few months of each other (1969). Not forgetting Machine Head and dare I mention ... Burn, Come Taste the Band, Perfect Strangers and Purpindicular. Deep Purple will be re-evaluated one day. The band who broke up in the same year 1973 ... when they out sold every artist on the planet (No 1 in US Billboard chart 1973-74) probably due to exhaustion... 6 US tours in one year. All “people” know is ... Smoke on the (friggin’) water. It will however, probably be the only hard rock song widely known in 200 years time. Come on! Listen to Purple’s 22 studio albums and in particular the live ... “Made in Japan” album. There is no rock album that beats that IMO but few in the music industry would agree. Why is that? They fell down the crack between Zeppelin and Sabbath and they were the equal of both and were better players IMO and many others. Purple were just too deeply and widely musical/virtuosic to appeal to straight ahead rock fans. One day!

I LOVE DEEP PURPLE!! 💜💜💜💜💜

Both Made in Japan and Who do we think we are are always in my library. Great albums. Back in the 70's Deep Purple always stood out to me as a great pioneering rock band. I've commented before my admiration for Blackmore influential guitar playing. By the way I saw the burn tour at the release of that album at Madison square garden. I'm not shy to say Dave Coverdale never really did it for me. I've also heard some of the criticism for who Do We Think we are and can only believe the people criticizing it are death, commercial minded music listener's that can't appreciate progressive rock. I have these 3 albums in vinyl in mint condition with that poster of the band in the Burn album.

Fireball, Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are, were are and always will be my 3 most important Deep Purple albums. Thanks for giving this album a mention 👍

A perpetually underrated and undervalued album.

I remember walking into a record store late in 1973 and swooping up who do we think we are, made in Japan, Brain Salad Surgery and Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon all-in-one clean Suite. I spent a good deal of change that day but it was worth it😅

Can’t wait for this,Jose! Love every Deep Purple album from Rod Evans through to Come Taste the Band with Bolan on leads. I was lucky enough to see Purple live in 1984 on the Perfect Stranger tour in Toronto. It was incredible concert. Cheers

Thanks for this! I've never understood why WDWTWA isn't more appreciated - I'm not mad about "Mary Long" and agree that "Painted Horse" would have been a nice addition, but it's still a great album. A few points. I don't have any actual quotes handy, but I'm pretty sure Gillan himself has said that "Smooth Dancer" was about his frustrated attempts to get along with Blackmore. That awkward "you're black" lyric was just a reference to Ritchie's "black" moods, as well as a play on his name (none more black). Speaking of Blackmore's moods: there are no guitars in the solo section of "Rat Bat Blue" (yes, there's a lot of double-speed keyboards)... because Ritchie flatly refused to play a solo on the song. Also, "Super Trouper" was a popular brand of stage lighting at the time.

Thanks for making a deep purple doc. Looking forward to everything you put out

Place in Line. Possibly the greatest unknown DP song of all.

This is an incredible video . Thank you , for this .

Wow this was a great one please do more purple they had more of an effect on Europe while zeppelin had the bigger effect on America with Sabbath there the big 3 that started it all. lol Blackmore is such an enigma you could do episodes just in him anyway great work as always

Yes I am in agreement with you that this album ‘ Who do we think we are’ is a great album and it is my all time favourite. Place in line, just love the groove.

Love this as Purple is my favorite band. Please do Perfect Strangers.

I love all of their albums, but Burn is my favorite because that's the first Purple show I ever saw. Love what you do, brother!

Your channel and docus are top notch, excellent research and presentation. Band histories are so interesting I can watch them about almost any band, even ones who's music I'm not even into, especially when they are as well made as your content.

Woman From Tokyo is such an amazing song!!!!!! ❤️❤️ So many beautiful sections (middle) and killer crunch guitar & organ riffs! It gets played allot here in Michigan ❤️

love this album..my first intro to D.P. is the best of all...This never gets the love, Thank you!

Fantastic work, JCM. You put these together so well. I love Zeppelin, but Purple are my favourite band, so this was a very welcome surprise. Regarding the lyrics to Smooth Dancer, I can only think that Gillan tried not to make the meaning of his lyrics too direct about Blackmore, but veiled the Lyrics a little too much in places - Your case in point. I must say I'm a huge MK3 and MK4 fan as well, but I see why MK2 is still recognised as Deep Purple. Made In Japan I think cemented that status. Would love to see you do something solely on Made In Japan, as you said, an unrivalled live album, which I feel hasn't had enough attention from filmmakers, critics and the like. Great work though, JCM. Look forward to your next project.

This is album is very much underrated!

The best and one of most creative and experimental rock bands

First time I heard Woman from Tokyo was in Rome in 1973. I was on a summer foreign studies trip.....I was 15. I bought the album on my return to Southern California. It was different, but to me, it is THE Deep Purple album.

I appreciate your videos so much, because like me, you're interested in albums by popular artists that no one talks about, and I want to know what makes them tick, or why those albums were unpopular. So many albums like Led Zeppelin 4. Abraxas, and Machine Head get explained and over-explained way too much. Everyone wants to talk about Exile on Main Street, but I want to know more about Goats Head Soup! I didn't even know about this album by Deep Purple, because whenever anyone talks about their history, they gloss right over this one and go straight from Machine Head to Burn! But there was this little album between those two that almost never gets discussed, and I so appreciate your deep dives into the "forgotten" albums. I'm now Subscribed!

Nice change 😊 I've always loved this deep purple album, probably my favorite. Looking forward to this deep dive and your thoughts especially what's the story behind Mary long 😅

This is a great turn into a new direction for a deep dive into Deep Purple! It would be great if you could cover the recording of Machine Head! And after Deep Purple, maybe Ozzy era Black Sabbath!

I think what Gillan was saying in Smooth Dancer was he didn't understand Blackmore's thinking towards him and the way he treated him and wanted to get into his mind to see.

Awesome Review of an often Overlooked Album!

WOW! Genuinely surprised in a good way that you covered Deep Purple :) I still can't get into this album but I admire your passion and honesty. BURN is a great album but Coverdale, to me, will always be an also-ran (though he had some voice back in his day!)

What Ian Paice plays at the end of Mary long is very underrated. Superb drumming.

It was interesting, learned a few things. 👍 Deep Purple were such good musicians

Excellent vid! I always loved the sound and recording quality on wdwtwa. Jon lord really shinned on this album, with some great solos.

Esse disco do Deep Purple é muito bom... Na verdade os 4 discos com Ian Gillan são excelentes de 1970 à 1973 discos e músicas muito boas melhor formação DP

Great stuff Jose!! Deep Purple and Zeppelin are my musical universe, and to be honest in the last 15 years or so, I actually play (guitar) and listen to more DP than LZ..... Excellent you chose Who Do We Think We Are, I think its a massively epic album... Rat Bat Blue is my fav track on this album, even though there is no guitar (virtuoso) solo in the song, its a brilliant riff and well constructed song, I really like the groove through the solo.........I could talk for hours about DP, Blackmore fascinates me. I have a lot of respect for his craft and his approach...he is often misunderstood in my opinion.

Agree 100% There are other songs from 71 also underrated like fools, No One Came, etc. with great jamming sections.

Happy to see you're treating the Deep Purple stuff, JCM! Great stuff!

Deep Purple Who do we think we are album was my 1st. Deep Purple album. I got it for the song Woman in Tokyo. I saw them in 1973 Mk 2 when they were touring Made in Japan. Another favorite of mine on the albums is Place in the Sun; although I saw a doc on them and Ritchie Blackmore didn't say very flattering things about playing the blues calling it "shoe shine music" as a Black fan I took offense to that especially since he played those blues riffs so great. Hey you just showed their concert in Italy on my 16th birthday.

Mary Long has forever been my favorite Purple song Rat Bat Blue my favorite riff

I love this record! It's basically a fusion record. The best technical band for the time bar none! A very underrated record!

Well done! Great documentary

Good job, Jose! I love Deep Purple!

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication, Jose. JCM is known for quality :)

Great video, big dp fan but moreover a Gillan fan / friend.. Still meet up from time to time.

Great job on this project and my belief at the time was that it was a step forward and a sign of even more great material for the upcoming live shows and I refused to believe they were replacing my favorite bass player and vocalist although I liked burn on the California jam but hated them trying to cover smoke on the water

Thanks JCM! We always enjoy your Zep docs... and really glad you picked Deep Purple...

Mark II was my band through this album. I bought it upon release in the US when I was 10 and have loved it ever since. Upon hearing Burn and Stormbringer, I was out. I hated Glenn Hughes' voice and still do to this day. By 1974, I was a full on Led Zeppelin fanatic, and got to see them at Madison Square Garden in June 1977. All I can say is WOW!!!

Thank you, JCM! Another fine video about a band I grew up listening to during my teens in the early 80's. It's great to see you branching out into new territory. Cheers

Lord’s solo in Rat Bat Blue was played back at double speed. In other words, he played it at half speed. It wasn’t meant to cover up a lack of skill, it was an effect.

This was excellent JCM!!! I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot of things I didn’t know!!! Keep the 🔥🔥🔥coming sir!!!!

Great doco mate. DP are IMO the best of the big 3 British Heavy Rock behemoths. Without peer live. Great band and underrated. Album. Woman from Tokyo and Rat Bat Blue are some of their best tracks. Look forward to hopefully more DP docos.

Wow, this just popped up on my feed as I was walking out the door, can't wait to watch it when I get home!

This album is grossly underrated within Purple's catalog, even by the band, probably due to the problematic circumstances under which it was made. However, there is no filler on this album and Smooth Dancer surely has one of Purple's best guitar riffs! Also, it's definitely Mark 2's best produced album.

Yes! Love this underrated album. 🫧

Wow! Unexpectedly!☺️

Wonderful exploration JCM. I recall my former self placing 'Machine Head' on my father's 'stereogram' at the time of the album's release, a master-work of high energy and ability. As to 'WDWTWA' there was an appetite, from a non-internet fan base who'd been captivated by 'MH' and needed more. It did not deliver in that sense, very much a curiosity, had the feel of a project stitched together, perhaps lacking a cohesive integrity, but there was something else. I think Purple had played their card, driven the Rolling Stones mobile recording truck down a musical cul-de-sac, the identity, motifs, textures and sounds had been so indelibly stamped upon music fans that, apart from 'Woman in Tokyo' the rest of 'WDWTWA' seemed a tired regurgitation. There's an irony there, given they were hailed as 'progressive'. To me Deep Purple became something of a fossil, trapped in the amber of their finest album, and in 1973 they were easily forgotten as Zeppelin released the magnificent 'Houses of the Holy' and Floyd took possession of the musical year with 'Dark Side of the Moon'!

My favorite DP album as well. Very good indeed.

Stoked for this one! I've always thought this album is so overlooked.

Great Deep Purple album. Warner Bros was the label here in the States and decided to release Who Do We Think We Are? first and it backfired as Made in Japan was selling huge as an import and was released and overshadowed WDWTWA and went to #6 while Machine Head reversed momentum and shot to #7 and Who Do We Think We Are just missed the Top 10 (Houses of the Holy, Dark Side of the Moon, Billion Dollar Babies, A Passion Play, Living In the Material World, Red Rose Speedway, Chicago 6 were among the rock albums all anchored in the Top 10 in the States at the time). I first heard Woman From Tokyo via the Deepest Purple best of in 1985 which was my intro to pre-Perfect Strangers and was (yes) a Warner Bros copy as I am a Yankee and I was 9 in 1985. Then Deepest was my first DP CD (simultaneously with It's Hard by The Who on CD) then got Machine Head and Made in Japan with High School Graduation money in June, 1994 (along with Quadrophenia and Who Are You, all on CD) and I grabbed Who Do We Think We Are? simultaneously with The Who By Numbers on CD. In 1994, I was 18 and not a Grunge fan so I went further into the Blackmore rabbit hole which began with Rainbow (via Ronnie James Dio as I was a Dio/Sabbath freak).

loved your video, fresh ad original

Saw them in 85..Fantastique

I love our lady. I think it's perfect.

I love seeing you do a Deep Purple album...and you picked MY FAVORITE DEEP PURPLE ALBUM!!! (I also absolutely treasure BURN.) I have never understood why so many people call this one of DP's worst albums. I love every song on it so much (except for PLACE IN LINE). My favorite track is MARY LONG...but SUPER TROUPER, WOMAN FROM TOKYO, RAT BAT BLUE, OUR LADY, SMOOTH DANCER...great album. Awesome work, my friend!

Very good, as usual! Thanks a lot!

You've done a good job talking about one of the Deep Purple albums I play least. I do find most of the material lacklustre, particularly on side 2. I think, when Ian Gillan is singing about in Smooth Dancer is wanting to understand what is going on inside Ritchie Blackmore's head, and why is he such an enigma, like a black box.

Top three rock bands in the world easily. Deep Durple 130M LPS SOLD. In nineteen seventy three , the biggest band in the world in gate receipts sell out tours and lps sold.

Great album. Fantastic sounding. Along with Beethovens 4th, this platter is the poster child for Underrated.

Great video. Keep up with some more purple preferably concierto

Thinking about this and you doing Deep Purple makes me think how awesome it would for you to do Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac & Peter Green himself.. another guitar hero of mine and so much behind him and his music…but again thanks for the Deep Purple and really enjoyed this🤘🏻🎸🤘🏻

Great job man!!! My favorite DP lp. How about the house of blue light next?!

On December 22, 1972, I was in E.J. Korvettes , Springfield, Pa. I had several casettes by 1972, but the very noticable inferior pre dolby recording quality pushed me into buying records. My first album was Jethro Tull Living in the Past. The second album was supposed to have been Machine Head but that Christmas season- sold out! So Purple Passages was the choice- a reduced price double album, $4.99, featuring the best of the 3 Mark One Tetragramaton albums now out on Warners. So Ian Paice really became my favorite drummer due to that album. In 1973, a friend turned me onto WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE, and I really locked into Mary Long Rat Bat Blue, and my fave DP song Women from Tokyo! I saw Deep Purple Mark III BURN tour , March 15, 1974 in Philadelphia at the Spectrum. It was a general admission show what Philadelphia local concert promoter Electric Factory referred to as "Festival seating." "F" seating ( LOL) meant no floor seats, which meant, fighting to get in to get the best seating. Tucky Buzzard, Savoy Brown were the other bands. It was " Friday night Fights in Phila." All through the night fights would break out amongst the less interested drunken rabel concert goers! Deep Purple Mark III were only fair. Ian Paice's drumming and his drum solo during THE MULE carried their performance for me. Ritchie Blackmore easily wasted about 15-20 minutes of stage time smashing and mutilating his Strat- pathetic ! The song Burn was good; Women From Tokyo was alright, and Smoke on the Water, Mark III was also passable. I didn't see PURP again until 2011! In the 2011 line up, only one band member, Paicey, was at both of my DP gigs. That remastered / expanded WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE is worth every extra penny! 29:06

Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin being my guitar hero/ Ultimate band..you couldn’t pick another band to go for especially the albums with Ritchie Blackmore 🤘🏻🎸🤘🏻 then to follow Rainbow after he left Deep Purple are top notch.. awesome pick while surprising to see this but enjoyed it. Hopefully we get some more like this! Keep rocking🤘🏻🎸🤘🏻

My first real experience with Deep Purple was watching MKIII perform on the California Jam broadcasts. That led me to purchase "Made in Japan", which puzzled me more, since it was a different lineup, but an album I could not quit listening to, nonetheless. There's a strange irony with the MK I & MK II lineup. Both of their "breakup" albums were both very good and very ignored. Like "Who Do We Think We Are", the MKI swan song, "Deep Purple" (their third album) was highly underrated and hardly noticed on the charts, yet it contained some of Deep Purple's best songs from any of their lineups. I've always been puzzled by the poor reviews "WDWTWA" gets, but there's no accounting for taste.

Fiat 126...my childhood car ❤️ great job as usual

Really liked your story in the intro with your uncle and his friend. Reminds me of my owm uncle and his vinyl collection. I gave him a copy of Presence for Christmas.

Wow awesome!!!!

A top 3 Purple album for me. Those Ian Gillan lyrics in Smooth Dancer make perfect sense. He wants to be inside Blackmores head so he can understand him.

Watching for second time and wanted to say I clearly remember hearing "Woman From Tokyo" as a 14 yr old in the Summer of '82.I actually thought it was new VH from "Diver Down" which had been released a few months earlier.I thought Ian sounded like DLR.Soon heard "Highway Star" and dove in to the DP goldmine.

Oh, and not enough can be said about Made in Japan, it still remains to me, the most outstanding live rock recording ever, the band was on fire, nothing could touch them live, they excelled in the live improv arena, stunning recording, stunning playing, the way Jon Lord and Blackmore gel is beyond the beyond!!

Love this JCM

16:00: yeah it sounds weird… at first. But one could easily say that Page and Plant were ‘inside’ each other. That is, they knew each other’s spirit and could therefore truly synchronize musically. You can see and hear Gillan reaching for that time and again with Blackmore on Purple’s albums and live performances. Alas, getting inside of Ritchie was a fool’s errand. The moment anyone in either Purple or Rainbow got too close, either that person was booted or Ritchie himself left. By 1973, Blackmore had his own dressing room… in an era where no one had their own dressing room (so says Glenn Hughes, who is a first person source).

wuuuuuu!! jcm eres el mejor!! deep purple y led zepellin, page y blackmore me hicieron amar las 6 cuerdas , son mis mas grandes influencias! bien por tomar otro camino aparte de zep, este es uno de mis albums favoritos y a la vez de los pocos valorados, mary long, woman for tokyo, smooth dancer, rat bat blue de mis canciones favoritas, who do we think we are, el ocaso de la mark2 de los 70's , espero con ansias este video tuyo !!

Great breakdown. You claimed that Woman From Tokyo was actually played once live in 73? I've never seen nor heard it. Does it exist anywhere? It would be an awesome find.

I like Purple but I've not dived as deep as Zep. Great video.

Ahora sí me suscribo, querido. Purple no es cosa de jipis como esos del dirigible.

Nice job. Interesting and absorbing.

Led Purple ? Smoke on the stairway ? 😆 Looking forward to seeing it 👍

Saw Deep Purple in 1985. It was one of the LOUDEST concerts I've ever been to. My ears were still muffled the next day! The old sound systems were extreme. I think concerts nowadays aren't allowed to be that loud anymore and I think the technology has improved so it's not so damaging to your hearing.

I always liked the album.