MADE IN JAPAN

Many people have come to the conclusion that this is probably the best live album ever recorded. Its hard for me to ever say that any album is the best of any category as things often change for me according to the mood of the day, but I can go so far as to say that it is definitely one of the best live albums ever put together.

This double album captures Deep Purple at the height of creativity and popularity. Sure, most of their music is blues- based rock, but it is the way the band was able to perform and create around that foundation that made them one of the best in that style. The members are considered the classic Deep Purple line-up, or Mark II as many refer to them, with the amazing Ian Gillan on vocals, Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on keys, Roger Glover on bass and Ian Paice on drums, all of which are well represented on this album. Everyone of them have dozens of opportunities to shine, and they do just that.

The other thing that makes this album so great is because it is DP doing what they did best, mixing tight song structures and looser improvised passages in everyone of the 7 extended tracks on the album. The album kicks off with the adrenaline-inducing rocker "Highway Star" and follows with the manic "Child in Time", the latter of which contains some longer instrumental and vocal sections than the original. The famous "Smoke on the Water" gets a live version that almost everyone is familiar with, and for many, is their favorite version of the song. Then, a long version of "The Mule" with a long drum solo follows this. For me, this track is the least engaging since drum solos never seem to transfer well to recorded music. The best way to experience a drum solo is to watch it live, so it always seems to weaken an album that retains a live drum solo when you can't actually see what goes into the solo.

"Strange Kind of Woman" follows in yet another extended version with more instrumental interplay, which is what DP is the best at. Then we get "Lazy", the one with the long, awesome instrumental introduction, which is even longer here and also probably the most varied version from the studio version on "Machine Head". I love both versions and it is great to hear such a varied version of this track that stays somewhat true to the original yet does it in a new and exciting way. Finally, the last track is the real show piece here, and that is a 20 minute version of "Space Truckin". When I first saw this album many years ago, I was leery of owning it because I had assumed that this was going track was going to feature a never-ending drum solo, because of how the original track was structured. It just always sounded like a set up for a live drum solo showpiece. But when I finally heard this, I realized that I was so wrong. The band moves through the familiar sound of the song, but then switches to this long, improvised (almost) set of space jams, psychedelic wanderings and crazy instrumental effects that proves that this is where their true love and strengths reside. If the rest of the album was mediocre, this track alone would be worth the price, but since the entire album is great, this only caps everything off with more greatness.

This was the peak of the band's career, coming off the major sales and exposure received worldwide from their masterpiece "Machine Head" and then to follow up with an excellent tour playing music they were always meant to play. Without the time limits of the usual album formats and label pressure to keep things abbreviated, the band was able to show what they were best at, the reason why they were such a great band in the first place by expanding their songs and displaying their talents better than they had ever been able to. DP had gotten better and better as they released each album and their growth is quite evident in the first several albums of their discography, even with line- up changes. The band was slowly adjusted until it reached the pinnacle of this time in their career. Unfortunately, after this album and the pressure of touring and recording, fissures started appearing in the band line-up. This would be quite evident in the next album "Who Do We Thing We Are?", which feels rushed, forced and much less inspired, let alone the fact that egos were really getting in their way. They were starting to feel like a group of individuals and less like an entire group working together. At least this amazing live recording is there to show us a snapshot of the band at it's best. It might not be up high in progressive rock elements, but it does touch on them, especially in the suite of styles and improvisation that make up the last track, but it is an essential live recording that should work as a standard as to what live recordings should sound and be like.