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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: 1998-11-17
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' 8: Black Night 9: Speed King 10: Lucille

fly by night
i have this albem on all the release format back in the day yea i show my aged but this is still one of the best from DP ever.

Ranks with the best of live rock albums
DP was hitting their peak with the lineup that made them legendary (known as the Mk II lineup). With The Band's "Rock of Ages" and The Allman Brothers "At Fillmore East" double live albums, it's only fitting to capture another stellar live band in their prime. With the success of their biggest selling album "Machine Head", the boys embarked on an extensive tour culminating with these performances in Japan.

The octane level of these performances is simply immeasurable. No slouchers here at all! Blackmore's guitar just pierces right through your ear. Lord's Hammond organ gives so much weight to the sound, it'll knock your feet off the floor. Glover's bass playing matches both of them easily. As a drummer myself, Paice has always been the bee's-knees for me with his fast and powerful execution. And Gillan's voice just soars to the stratosphere.

This was a time when Rock bands actually played live and NOT just simply duplicate the studio versions of the songs like they do today. Almost all the songs here are extended to double, triple and even five times the length of their studio counterparts! This type of musicianship is getting more scarce than ever today.

I'm not going to go over all the cuts here but highlights are: The opener Highway Star that just doesn't let up. Paice's drum solo on The Mule. Lord's opening Hammond segment on Lazy making you think it's Jimi on keyboards. Gillan and Blackmore's voice/guitar exchange on Strange Kind of Woman and the 20 min. workout on Space Truckin'. And with the newly added bonus tracks of Speed King, Lucille and their earlier hit Black Night, we now have a more complete concert.

MIJ certainly ranks with the previous said albums along with The Who's "Live at Leeds", Yes' "Yessongs", ELP's "Welcome Back. . . ", King Crimson's "USA", Little Feat's "Waiting for Colombus" and the countless Grateful Dead live albums. Now if the mindless punks of today would just pay attention to this!.

If you are a Mark III DP fan, this is a required!
The Mark III line-up was the actual Deep Purple as we know them today. Made in Japan may be the best live album recorded during the early 1970's. The early versions with Nic Simper and Rod Evans, along with the later Mark IV version with Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale were competent and produced good music with a few classics, but Deep Purple was Ian Gillan, Richie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover, and Ian Paice. This album is a tribute to how good musicians once were, how well they could learn to play together, and they defined what a band must do to be established as a great live band. All of this during a time where the group grappled with extreme personality clashes amongst themselves.

Starting with the brilliant and understated opening of Highway Star, you know within a few minutes that this is a great CD. The guitar solo in this cut actually involves Blackmore playing through one passage with his hand above the neck which left young impressionable guitarists gasping in awe for those lucky enough to have seen it. Gillan, with his very unique and sometimes totally annoying voice is as much a part of the DP sound as Jon Lord's Marshall driven keyboards. The stolid talent of Roger Glover and Ian Paice's "Buddy Rich does hard rock chops" all contributed to the overall sound which is captured authentically on this CD.

Although all the cuts on this album are worthy of listening over and over, the standouts are the inventive version of the overplayed Smoke on the Water, and the crowning achievment Child in Time. The latter, once you get through Gillan's oddly engaging screaming, treats the listener to a short but effective keyboard solo, and then ascends into one of the single most brilliant instrumentals ever played during the rock era. It is doubtful that any of the garage bands turned mega-stars could manage to cover this tune, much less duplicate the original musicality. The guitar solo is absolutely brilliant, soaring time and time again to where it is almost physically unimaginable, shows why to this day no great guitarist lists are complete without Blackmore. Underneath it is a very solid and understated Jon Lord and the incredible drive of Paice and Glover playing in a style reminiscent of a hard rock version of one of the 1940's swing bands. Just to listen to this one instrumental, which at the conclusion leaves the audience silently awe-struck is worth owning the CD.
Neither of the encores are really much to mention, but the added treat of the lively Strange Kind of Woman makes this CD one of the best rock albums ever recorded. If there was a band that could compete with the Mark III line-up of Deep Purple, I must have missed them as none come to mind. This group clearly paved the way for ELP, Kansas, Rush, and the other major concert bands who followed.

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Hard Rock to Beat

The atmosphere on this album is electric throughout. This is one of the best, if not THE best live album by any 70's rock band. Listen to the start of Highway Star, the band changes gear a couple of times and delivers a stunning performance - the whole place is rocking.
The sign of a great live album is that some of the versions on Live In Japan are better than the studio originals. One such track being the overplayed Smoke on the Water.
The mk II line-up of Deep Purple was fantastic. Blackmore and Lord repeatedly deliver brilliant solos, Gillan's voice is amazing and Ian Paice still remains one of the best rock drummers (playing with McCartney in the late 1990's).
The set has subsequently become a greatest hits album by default.
The 2nd CD contains 3 encore tracks which are a bit of a mixed bag. I had a far better version of Lucille on an LP many years ago, but this is a minor quibble as overall this album represents a great band at its peak.
.

Everything louder than everything else...
Calling KISS's landmark lp 'Alive' metal's first live album was grossly inaccurate as Deep Purple, an genre innovator whose contributions to metal seem to be neglected by revisonists, actually released THE first heavy metal live record in December of 1972. Last May, VH1 did a special on the history of heavy metal which was broadcast over four nights and while it was enjoyable it was also remarkable who they had elected to omit and who they included. 'Made in Japan' can not only lay claim to being one of the first warts and all live documents of super heavy music but it also one of the genre's finest early momunments and the shining jewel in the Purple catalogue. Though they were falling apart at the seams internally, the Mark II lineup was in its fabulous glory and totally unified on the stages of Osaka and Tokyo during August of '72. The band was playing the greatest versions of their best songs which is always the mark of a great line record, historically relevant and outdoing what was recorded in the studio. The epic length of such cuts as "Child in Time", "Strange Kind of Woman", "The Mule", "Lazy" and closer "Space Truckin'" feature not one wasted note. Gillan proves his worth as emcee of the loudest and most exciting live band in the world and his performance is magnificent ("Child in Time" - scary good, "Strange"- virtoistic and funny at the same time). Blackmore is the master! ("Highway Star", "Strange" and of course "Child in Time" - just the best in the business at playing lead guitar). Lord, organist supreme and causing pain and pleasure during "Lazy" and "Space Truckin'". Paice shows he may have been John Bonham's biggest rival as he shreds during "The Mule". Glover's bass raises goosebumps as he enters "Smoke on the Water" - for many the definitive version of that song, though you could say the same for all seven cuts. Bonus CD is emmense with "Black Night", "Speed King" and "Lucille" contributing to the sonic celebration. Deep Purple may not be respected much today in the heavy metal annals but they are right up there with Zeppelin and Sabbath in my humble opinion. Neither one of those bands created a lasting live document during their peak years (though we waited 30 years for 'West Was One'!). Purple should be in the insanely stupid hall of fame for many reasons but maybe because of what happened on three nights in the Far East most of all. .

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.