Deep Purple: Ten Strange Facts

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On October 29, 1984, the reunited Deep Purple Mk II line-up released comeback album Perfect Strangers. Here are 10 facts about it

* This was the first new studio album from Deep Purple Mk II since Who Do We Think We Are in 1973.

* Just prior to reuniting, Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover had been in Rainbow, Ian Gillan had fronted Black Sabbath, Jon Lord was with Whitesnake and Ian Paice was in Gary Moore’s band.

* The title track was about reincarnation, and is a conversation between one person in their past and present states.

* Knocking At Your Back Door deals with anal sex. It was apparently written as a joke. And the band never expected it to get radio play.

  • The band had two modest singles successes in America. Perfect Strangers got to number 48, while Knocking At Your Back Door reached number 61. The latter was also the only charting single from this album in the UK, where it peaked at number 65.

* The album only topped the charts in one country – Switzerland.

* In the UK, it got to number five, while in the US it reached number 17, selling over a million copies.

* The Perfect Strangers world tour began in Perth, Australia on November 27, 1984. It ended on August 24, 1985 in Dallas.

* The one UK date happened on June 22, 1985 at Knebworth Park. They headlined a bill also featuring the Scorpions, Meat Loaf, UFO, Blackfoot, Mama’s Boys, Mountain and Alaska.

  • The CD and cassette versions of the album featured a bonus song called Not Responsible. This is one of the few Purple songs to contain a swear word in the lyrics, namely ‘fucking’.

Read about the classic In Rock album

And read about when the next Purple album will be ready

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.