According to Wikipedia, Who Do We Think We Are was released in the States on 12 January 1973. In the liner notes to the 2000 remastered edition, Simon Robinson wrote:
In America, where live sets were always hated by major labels, Warners insisted on getting “Who Do We Think We Are” out first. Back in Europe everyone was happy for the live release to precede it and the new studio album was released in March 1973.
While Discogs says that the first UK issue (TPSA 7508) was in February 1973. In absence of more precise information — why not mid-February then. Happy arbitrary Birthday, WDWTWA!
 |
 |
 |
As a curiosity, the title of the album on the original LP label as well as the cassettes includes the exclamation mark which is absent on the sleeve and on subsequent CD releases. Go figure. Personally, I like the “exclamation” version (as an answer to “Who do they think they are?”) more. If it was up to me, I’d put there another (inverted) one, as they do in Spanish: ¡Who Do We Think We Are!
I first heard the album in its entirety in the early 1980s. From the catchy opener Woman from Tokyo to the psychedelic-era-Beatles-inspired finale of Our Lady, I loved it all. Machine Head it wasn’t — it was so much more interesting. Especially Jon’s crazy keys on Rat Bat Blue and slow (at first) blues of Place In Line. So fresh. So different. But what about Mary Long? That song rang a certain bell. Where could I hear it before?
Some days or weeks or months later, rummaging through our “collection” — well, a big dusty heap — of flexidiscs, I found it. This patently weird compilation simply entitled «Вокально-инструментальные ансамбли», that is, “Vocal-Instrumental Ensembles”. No names of the bands VIAs, no songwriter credits, no nothing. Just a note «на английском языке» (“in English”, in case the listener has any doubt). Typical. The A for America side had And When I Die by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Someday by Chicago, the latter inexplicably translated as «Борьба», i.e. “Struggle”. (The class struggle maybe?) The B for Britain side: bingo! Mary Long and another song from WDWTWA, Super Trouper. How? Why? Who? Most likely we’ll never know. Godawful cover design, atrocious sound quality; all yours for 60 kopecks.
|
The bonus tracks to my 2000 remastered edition (Amazon still remembers that I bought it 20 years ago!) include a splendid outtake Painted Horse (which would end up on the album if Ritchie hadn’t hated it) and First Day Jam “with Ritchie on bass and Roger on the Autobahn”, as The Highway Star put it. Indeed, on the first day of recording sessions in Waldorf Nord, Germany (October 1972), Roger Glover, in his own words, “had taken a wrong turn <on the Autobahn> and was desperately looking for a way back”. 50 years later, perhaps the most underrated album of the classic Mark II line-up still rocks.
No comments:
Post a Comment