Who Do We Think They Are?

Forthcoming, October 2025

In 1973, Deep Purple were the most successful, top-grossing, stadium-touring heavy rock band on the planet; a position confirmed by the virtuoso performances captured on the double live album, Made in Japan  (1972), and the Billboard  chart success of the double A-side Live/Studio single ‘Smoke on the Water,’ and in that year Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice released a fourth studio album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), which turned out to be the last that line-up (Mk2) would produce.

Yet, despite their commercial success, and like their contemporaries, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, their music was frequently and contemptuously described as "heavy metal" by the press which more often focused on the equipment smashing finales of their live performances rather than the quality and innovative aspects of their music and musicianship.

In this volume leading metal music scholars explore the reasons for the band's enduring legacy, which over the years has led to Purple being recognized as epitomizing classic heavy metal. This, it is argued, was the result of their success in communicating – over the course of a series of ground-breaking studio albums and especially in live performance – with a new, younger rock audience which helped them forge a lasting bond amidst the controversies which surrounded metal's rise.

The title of the 1973 album was apparently the band's response to typically negative opinions voiced in the press and by some disgruntled fans. While this volume may not provide the final word on the question of who Deep Purple are, the contributors agree on the magnitude of Purple's artistic and musical influences on subsequent metal bands, metal musicians and metal sub-genre styles.