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Knocking at Your Back Door

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"Knocking at Your Back Door" is a song by the British hard rock band Deep Purple, the first track of the album "Perfect Strangers", which was released in September 1984. Song is written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.

The lyrics of the song have sexual content and their purpose was to look at what level can reach a song whose lyrics can be censored. The track has seen success and was widely broadcast by the media of that time.

Ian Gillan said about this song: "There's this guy named Redbeard, from a radio station down in Texas. He phoned me up after it had been played on every radio station in America and said, 'Is this what I think it's about?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'It's amazing, every radio station in America is playing a song written about anal sex and they don't even realize what's going on.' And I was like, well it's not in-your-face anal sex, it's just a joke. It just came about with the lyrics. It's no big deal. But it's a humorous thing and not meant to be offensive. And I think it was just an afterthought. It certainly wasn't what inspired the song".[1]

The song, released on 7" vinyl and CD with "Perfect Strangers" on the second side, in October 1984.[2] In Canada, the second side of the singles was the instrumental "Son of Alerik",[3] while in Japan,[4] Spain[5] and the United States[6] released a version with "Wasted Sunsets".

The Knocking at your Back Door was included as a permanent part of the live performances of the band until 1994 and from then on the back at times. Recorded Live discs which include the track, are as follows: Nobody's Perfect (1988), In the Absence of Pink (1991), Come Hell or High Water (DVD, 1994), Live in Europe 1993 (2007), Live at Montreux 2011 (2011)

Charts

Year Single Nation Chart Position
1984 "Knocking at Your Back Door" United States Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[7] 7
United States Billboard Hot 100 61
UK Top 75 Singles 65

References

  1. ^ Martin Popoff The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time, p. 319, at Google Books
  2. ^ http://www.discogs.com/Deep-Purple-Knocking-At-Your-Back-Door-Perfect-Strangers/release/1958588
  3. ^ http://www.discogs.com/Deep-Purple-Knocking-At-Your-Back-Door-Son-Of-Alerik/release/4520201
  4. ^ http://www.discogs.com/Deep-Purple-Knocking-At-Your-Back-Door/release/6978426
  5. ^ http://www.discogs.com/Deep-Purple-Knocking-At-Your-Back-Door-Llamando-A-Tu-Puerta-Trasera/release/4530464
  6. ^ http://www.discogs.com/Deep-Purple-Knocking-At-Your-Back-Door/release/3192097
  7. ^ "Billboard singles chart history-Deep Purple". Retrieved 21 February 2009.