"Woman from Tokyo" is a song by the English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

. It was first released on their 1973 album ''

Who Do We Think We Are ''Who Do We Think We Are'' is the seventh studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1973. It was Deep Purple's last album with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover until 1984’s '' Perfect Strangers''. Musically ...

'', and later as a single. The song was featured on the 2011 DVD Deep Purple with Orchestra - Live in Montreux where Deep Purple Mk 8 (Gillan - Paice - Glover - Morse - Airey) with a full symphony orchestra conducted by Stephen Bentley-Klein.

Background

Deep Purple was one of the first rock bands to perform in Japan in the early 1970s. As a tribute, the band wrote the song "Woman from Tokyo." It was one of the final songs to feature singer

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is a British singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan ...

, who departed in 1973 to pursue a solo career. The song features Japanese imagery such as "the rising sun" and "an Eastern dream," and its lyrics are about a Japanese woman whose charms fascinate the narrator. "Woman from Tokyo" grew to be one of the band's most popular songs and received heavy radio airplay. Despite this, the band did not include the song into their live-set at the time, and only began playing it when they reformed in 1984. The admiration of Deep Purple for

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

is reflected in the long dreamy break that occupies the middle of the track. This break appears only on the album version and is missing from the single, which explains the sharp difference in duration between the versions.

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called the song "that super driving rocker that everyone will jump on immediately." "Woman from Tokyo" was ranked at number 3 on

Ultimate Classic Rock Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

's list of Top 10

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Ro ...

songs. Eduardo Rivadavia of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

said that "Woman from Tokyo" along with "Rat Bat Blue" were the only songs from ''Who Do We Think We Are'' that were good. It stated that the song "hinted at glories past with its signature Ritchie Blackmore riff." On the other hand, Alex Henderson of AllMusic writes of the excellence of ''Machine Head'' and ''Who Do We Think We Are'' when describing ''

Stormbringer Stormbringer is a magic sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. It is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes, created by the forces of Chaos with its own will. It is wielded by the doo ...

''. ''

'' described it as a "super charged rocker performed with great energy by the kings of electric rock."

Chart performance

"Woman from Tokyo" was a hit, as it reached No. 6 on the Dutch MegaCharts. The song peaked at 16 in Germany and 23 in Belgium. It was a modest success in the U.S., reaching no. 60 on the charts there. In Canada, the song reached no. 62 on May 12, and made a re-appearance in October, reaching no. 64 on the 20.

References

{{Authority control 1973 songs Deep Purple songs Songs written by Ritchie Blackmore Songs written by Ian Gillan Songs written by Roger Glover Songs written by Jon Lord Songs written by Ian Paice Songs about Japan Songs about Tokyo Songs about East Asian people Japan in non-Japanese culture Warner Records singles