Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Deep Purple
Deep Purple tabs Deep Purple discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Deep Purple guitar tabs

CD reviews

Made in Japan

Deep Purple - Made in Japan Audio CD

A fair review of the Deep Purple "Made in Japan" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Deep Purple reviews here, or go back to the Deep Purple tabs.

Band: Deep Purple
Title: Made in Japan
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Highway Star 2: Child in Time 3: Smoke on the Water 4: Mule (Drum Solo) 5: Strange Kind of Woman 6: Lazy 7: Space Truckin'

Superb live album from the best rock band
(Later incarnations of the band simply do not reach the musicianship on display here). Made in Japan captures Purple at the height of the Mark II success. The playing is frenetic. Highway Star is played at such breakneck speed as to take your breath away. It contains the now classic solos from Jon and Ritchie. Jon's solo is based on a Bach progression and Ritchie's on a Mozart sequence. The playing is precise. Glover and Paice are in my opinion the best ever rhythm section in all of rock. Ritchie Blackmore displays throughout the album why he is one of the best if not the best ever rock guitarist. (His playing is leagues above Jimmy Page's). From superb precise fast playing to tasteful solos. His solos on Strange Kind of Woman is one of his finest-the note selection, phrasing is wonderful to hear. To the young players-it isn't always about playing the fastest scales. The version of Smoke on the Water is in my opinion THE definitive version of this song (and I have heard well over 300 in my life). Lazy is superb-I love Jon Lord's intro-getting those sounds out of the Hammond and then going into a jazzy bit. Ritchie's spontaneity where he breaks into Swedish Rhapsody is priceless. Space Truckin' is fun. The Mule showcases Paice's drumming abilities and shows why he is one of the best. Child in Time is really good. It is always amazing to hear how Lord and Blackmore play all those fast notes together. They really did bring out the best in each other. What is truly amazing about this album is that what you hear is what happened. There is no going back to the studio and fix something, overdub something, etc. The tapes were simply mixed and the power on display is evident.

Another superb live album from Purple is Live in Stockholm - 1970. This comes from the period where Purple was still pretty much an underground band and had not had the critical success that would come in a few years. However, some of the shows they did from this era are some of the most exciting they were to ever do. The version of Child in TIme here is in my opinion their best. Ritchie's solo is mind blowing. During this time period, they did some incredible improvisational segments (going anywhere from 20-40 minutes in length!) and as a result their shows would run well over 2. 5 hours! Chekc out Wring that Neck - some incredible improvs. Purple had the ability to do rock, jazz, classical, blues and it is all demonstrated here. Mandrake Root was the lengthy show closer (replaced by Space Truckin' later on) complete with strobe light sequence. There is a version of Black nIght on here which is one of my favorites as Gillan and Blackmore duel it out at the end.

To sum, Deep Purple were best on stage. They are all superb musicians. Their live shows/albums are better than the studio versions. In my opinion, the two best ever rock bands were Deep Purple and ELP. Why? - those two bands have the best ever musicians and gave superb concerts. (I am a keyboard player myself and Jon Lord and Keith Emerson were the two I tried to emulate the most). It is interesting how Led Zeppelin gets all the accolades. While a good band, they really do not compare to Purple. (I was at the concert that became The Song Remains the Same - it was an okay performance). Purple deserves to be in the Rock Hall of Fame. If you are not familiar with Deep Purple, Made in Japan is an excellent introduction.
.

Deep Purple "Made In Japan"
Seven great songs, it does not get any better than that. What can you say the loudest rock and roll band upto that date. With the exception that I bought them on double 8-track for a $1. 50 and worn them out.
Deep Purple has no match they stand alone.

Monumental
It is still a monumental rock live album. I just picked this up on vinyl again - hadn't listened to it in 20 years. It's heavy and it never lets up. . . pure rock genius. The album highlights all the creativity and excess of pure rock-n-roll - extended drum solos, wailing guitars, etc. And it all works.

To those who think the drum solos should have been edited out to allow more songs to be included: yes, and if the band had only sung the first verse, imagine how many more songs could have been included. In fact, if they'd played everything like the Minutemen, they could have included their whole catalog. That completely misses the point of the album; cutting the drums or guitars or whatever would ruin it.

So, go buy this now. And turn it up.
.

Some songs are great, but precious time is WASTED!
First the positives of this album; Great sound quality for the time this was released, excellent singing by Gillan, excellent guitar work by Blackmore. For those of you who cannot believe that I gave this three stars, please read on. The songs I enjoy the most on this were "Highway Star," "Child In Time," "Smoke On The Water," and "Strange Kind Of Woman. " Now the negative parts, which caused me to lower the rating by two stars. "Space Truckin' is a mind blowing song, FOR THE FIRST 6:00 or so. After that, we are treated to an endlessly repeating bass line, and a keyboard solo that is VERY boring and slow. The great keyboard players of the 70's such as Ken Hensley, Keith Emerson, and Rick Wakeman could have blown this keyboard solo away by playing with one finger. Listening to the last 14:00 of this song is torture, and it really needed to just be shortened to five or six minutes. It has a jazzy drum beat throughout the end of the song as well, which gets slow and drones towards the end. Speaking of the end, notice the crowd almost forgets to clap towards the end because they cannot tell if the song is over. They probably fell asleep. Aside from the negative aspects of that song, we also get the ever cliched five minute drum solo in "The Mule. " Don't get me wrong, Paice is great here, and personally being a drummer for 22 years, this drum solo is perfect, but I cannot stand record companies including a drum solo on a live record. It breaks the continuity of the album and wastes time that could have been used for other songs. This is not the best live album as one reviewer said. However, the remastered version includes "Speed King" and Fireball," which originally should have been released in place of the 20+ minute version of Space Truckin'. In saying this, I guess I would give the remasted version four stars, bt this ORIGINAL release gets three for me. .

an easy 5 star rating
In the top five live albums from the 70's, with Frampton Comes Alive and Kiss Alive being the only two albums to surpass it. I was told Made in Japan is considered the ultimate live album by a hard rock band from the 70's. Made in Japan is actually my favorite of the three. While it's not perfect, nothing is perfectly really, so that's hardly a reason to complain about the albums *very* few flaws.

Highway Star- probably an improvement over the Machine Head version, but only slightly. The extended keyboard and guitar solos are nice, but Ian's vocals were pushed somewhat in the back of the mix. The song packs the kind of excitement you'd expect in a live setting though.

Child In Time- probably the only song on the album NOT an improvement over the studio version. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the band members wanted to give this version more of a Japanese vibe. I can sense it in the vocals and keyboards. While that intense guitar solo from the studio version isn't quite as melodic here, it's still really really good. Who knows, maybe this version will grow on me with repeated listens, and one day I might end up actually preferring it over the In Rock version.

Smoke on the Water- A LOT better than the Machine Head version, because of extended guitar playing, a keyboard jam at the end, and the riff, you know, the MIGHTY POWERFUL GUITAR RIFF, has been changed slightly in the beginning, and it's pretty cool. My local radio stations in Baltimore and Philadelphia used to play this version about 10 years ago.

The Mule- It starts off with vocals and that dazzling guitar riff, before quickly turning into a drum solo. An extended drum solo at that, over 6 minutes long. At least it offers enough fills and energy to make it good enough to never become boring. You have to understand (all you young people out there) this is the kind of thing rock bands used to do quite often back in the day, especially live.

Strange Kind of Woman- It begins quite similar to the studio version we all know very well, before turning into a funky guitar jam that sounds MUCH different from anything I've ever heard the band attempt before. The vocals and guitar solos seem to be playing the same notes back and forth a few times. It's very interesting and I love it. Never knew the band would attempt something like this.

Lazy- Awesome version! There's keyboards, guitars, and harmonica jams scattered all over the place, and only a little bit of vocals. This is really a fantastic version.

Space Truckin'- Wow. A 20 minute track! The song sounds normal for the first several minutes, and you'll be singing along to the vocals and the riff if you're familiar with the song. Then it gets all adventurous and mysterious with the guitar jams that sound very unusual in places, and the keyboards that are played at lightning speed. I was thinking about Alaska and all the huge mountains up there while hearing some parts of the song.

I actually recommend you check out a band called Soft Machine and an album by theirs called "Third" if you like the jamming on this album. That band along with Deep Purple were both on the music scene around the same time, and share some similar ideas. Give it a shot. As for Made in Japan, YES, it's one of the best live albums from a hard rock 70's band.

UPDATE- June 29th, three days later. I originally said "Child In Time" wasn't as good as the studio version, but you know what? Just because this version isn't as melodic during the guitar jam doesn't mean it's any worse. The intensity is unbelievable, and I seriously wonder if the Mahavishnu Orchestra deserves the award for "heaviest 70's band" when Blackmore's guitar solo probably surpasses everything the MO ever did, in terms of sheer heaviness. .

You can see a complete list of all Deep Purple discography, or go back to the Deep Purple tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.