Deep Purple "Abandon (Holland, EMI, 7243 4 95306 2 1)"

Abandon is the sixteenth studio album by the British hard rock band Deep Purple, released in the Spring of 1998. It was Deep Purple's second album with Steve Morse on guitar and the last album to feature founding member Jon Lord prior to his departure in 2002.

The album was followed by a successful 1998/1999 world tour which brought Deep Purple to Australia for the first time in 15 years. In 1999 a live album and DVD Total Abandon: Australia '99 recorded in Melbourne on 20 April 1999 was released.

The album title is actually a pun from Ian Gillan – "A Band On" – and the album was followed by the "A Band on Tour". Uniquely for a Deep Purple studio album, it features a reworking of a previously recorded song -"Bloodsucker" from Deep Purple in Rock (here re-titled "Bludsucker"). "Don't Make Me Happy" was mistakenly mastered in mono, and not amended on the final release. One of the two versions of the song released on promo single was, however, mastered in stereo.

"Any Fule Kno That" is the first song on Abandon. Vocalist Ian Gillan takes a spoken word approach in the verses to the song, comparable to rapping. The title is a popular phrase from the Nigel Molesworth books. "Any Fule Kno That" became the band's last charting single in the US, as it peaked at No. 25 on Billboard's Heritage Rock Chart.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Steve Morse, Ian Paice, except where noted.

1. "Any Fule Kno That" 4:29
2. "Almost Human" 4:26
3. "Don't Make Me Happy" 4:56
4. "Seventh Heaven" 5:25
5. "Watching the Sky" 5:26
6. "Fingers to the Bone" 4:47
7. "Jack Ruby" 3:48
8. "She Was" 4:19
9. "Whatsername" 4:26
10. "'69" 4:59
11. "Evil Louie" 4:56
12. "Bludsucker" (Ritchie Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, Paice) 4:27

Time: 57:05

The last album with Jon Lord and the MK VII.

The album title is stylized as "A.Band.On".

"Bludsucker" is a re-recording of the song "Bloodsucker" that appears on the album Deep Purple in Rock (1970).

Recording information:

Recorded at Greg Rike Studios, Altamonte Springs, Florida, USA in 1997/98.

Mixed at Platinum Post Studios, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Mastered at Masterdisk, New York City, New York, USA.

Produced by Deep Purple/Roger Glover

Engineered by Darren Schneider

Additional engineering by Keith Andrews

Mixed at Platinum Post Studios, Orlando, Florida by Darren Schneider

Assistant engineer – Kent Huffnagle with Shannon Brady

Mastered at Masterdisk, New York by Greg Calbi