MADE IN JAPAN

Yes, this album was one of rock albums that colored my childhood. When this live album was released, I kept playing the cassette everyday especially "Strange Kind of Woman" because I like the improvisation part when Ritchie Blackmore's guitar screams in adjacent to Ian Gillan's. It's so powerful, so captivating and so memorable. In fact, when I got the CD version, I always repeat this track whenever I play this CD. Oh so long that I have never played this CD anymore - because I have a bunch of great prog CDs in recent years. Sometimes I got lazy to spin the classic CD like this because to me it brings me to "Living In The Past" nuances. We need to move forward in life, don't we? But it's OK to spin this CD for this review as this album can be considered as masterpiece of classic rock live album.

"Highway Star" (6:42) is well suited as album opener. It demonstrates how powerful Ian Gillan's vocal combined with stunning guitar and pulsating organ work of Jon Lord. (Hmm . how come we have not considered Jon Lord's albums which most of them are prog at this site?). "Child In Time" (12:18) and "Smoke On The Water" (7:47) are classic tracks which were performed excellently by the band. Another favorite of mine is the concluding track "Space Truckin'" (19:53) which was performed much longer than the original version. What I don't favor is "Lazy" as it has too long organ effects and it never got landed smoothly at my ears.

It's an excellent hard rock live album which has now become a legendary one.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW