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The House of Blue Light
Studio album by Deep Purple
Released	January 12, 1987
Recorded	1986, The Playhouse, Stowe, Vermont
Genre	Heavy metal, hard rock
Length	46:16 (Original LP) 50:38 (1987 CD edition)
Label	Polydor (UK) Mercury Records (US)
Producer	Roger Glover & Deep Purple
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Truemetal [1]
Deep Purple chronology
Perfect Strangers (1984) The House of Blue Light (1987) Slaves & Masters (1990)

The House of Blue Light is the twelfth studio album by Deep Purple, released in 1987. It is the second recording by the re-formed Mark II lineup.

The album's creation was an exceedingly long and difficult process, and Ritchie Blackmore has said much of it was re-recorded^[1]. Ian Gillan has remarked on how strained relations within the band compromised the album: "I look back at House Of Blue Light, there are some good songs on that record, but there’s something missing in the overall album. You can’t feel a spirit of the band, you can see or hear five professionals doing their best, but it’s like a football team, it’s not functioning. It’s like eleven superstars that are playing on the same field but are not connected by the heart or by the spirit"^[2].

Several tracks on the LP version are shorter than those of the original CD released in 1987. The 1999 CD remaster used the original vinyl master tapes, and so its running time is correspondingly shorter than the original CD version as well.

Track listing

All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, and Roger Glover; unless otherwise stated

1. "Bad Attitude" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Jon Lord) – 4:43 (5:04 on original release)
2. "The Unwritten Law" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Ian Paice) – 4:34 (4:54 on original release)
3. "Call of the Wild" (Gillan, Blackmore, Glover, Lord) – 4:50 (4:48 on original release)
4. "Mad Dog" – 4:29 (4:36 on original release)
5. "Black and White" (Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord) – 3:39 (4:39 on original release)
6. "Hard Lovin' Woman" – 3:24 (3:25 on original release)
7. "The Spanish Archer" – 4:56 (5:32 on original release)
8. "Strangeways" – 5:56 (7:35 on original release)
9. "Mitzi Dupree" – 5:03 (5:05 on original release)
10. "Dead or Alive" – 4:42 (5:01 on original release)

Personnel

• Ian Gillan - vocals, congas, harmonica
• Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
• Roger Glover - bass, synthesizer
• Jon Lord - organ, keyboards
• Ian Paice - drums

Additional personnel

• Produced by Roger Glover and Deep Purple
• Engineered by Nick Blagona

Charts

Album

Singles

Sales accomplishments

References

1. ^ DPAS Magazine Archive. Issue 33, January 1987
2. ^ Rockpages.gr Interview with Deep Purple singer, Ian Gillan
3. ^ "Billboard album chart history-Deep Purple". http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.chartFormatGroupName=Albums&model.vnuArtistId=4436&model.vnuAlbumId=802834. Retrieved February 21, 2009.  
4. ^ ^{a b} "Billboard singles chart history-Deep Purple". http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.chartFormatGroupName=Singles&model.vnuArtistId=4436&model.vnuAlbumId=802834. Retrieved February 21, 2009.  
5. ^ "BPI certified awards Silver". http://www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinumright.asp?rq=search_plat&r_id=22339. Retrieved February 21, 2009.  
6. ^ "CRIA certified awards". http://www.cria.ca/cert_db_search.php?page=1&wclause=WHERE+artist_name+like+%27%25pu%25%27+ORDER+BY+cert_date%2C+cert_award+&rcnt=63&csearch=20&nextprev=1. Retrieved February 21, 2009.