DEEP PURPLE'S MADE IN JAPAN (ROCK MILESTONES)

It looks or I am one of the few who likes to review these DVD docu's, what a pity because in my opinion many are at least interesting and contain lots of exciting live footage. Take for example this DVD docu about the seminal Heavy Prog band Deep Purple and their highly acclaimed live double album Made In Japan.

In fact this DVD is the story of the classic Mark II line up, from Concerto For Group And Orchestra in 1970 (named "an odd hybrid") until Who Do We Think We Are from 1973 with of course the emphasis on the legendary Made In Japan (1972). Some quotes point at the progressive sound: "Deep Purple incorporated baroque, classical, folk and jazz in their rock sound" and "Deep Purple played like a jazz big band" (by known music journalist Chris Welch). This DVD gives a good look at the leading role of Ritchie Blackmore ("he was constantly giving hand signals", about "Blackmore his eye contact" and "he was teasing the others to follow the conductor") and the competition between Gillan and Blackmore that started friendly but turned into more and more animosity. During interviews we see Blackmore delivering quite sarcastic comments on Gillan and Gillan names Deep Purple "Ritchie Blackmore his backing band". This is described as "the battle to the death between vocals and guitar". It's interesting to hear that Made In Japan had to fill the gap between the very succesfull and acclaimed Machine Head album from 1972 (Chris Welch: "it inspired the heavy metal movement") and the follow up. The reason was that the auditions for the new album didn't work out because of the intense tour schedule. At first Made In Japan was only released in Japan but soon also worldwide because the band was very pleased with the recordings ("a real live album with no overtakes") and commercial sales. About Made In Japan: "Made In Japan had all the tracks you wanted to hear and better than on the original", "they really play for each other and feeding each other", "Highway Star relentlessly rocks on", "Highway Star sums up the whole essence of Deep Purple", Child In Time has a trademark organ solo", "Smoke On The Water has a guitar riff master extra-ordinary", "Lazy is Deep Purple their most complex song" and "Because of the long running time of Space Truckin the band had left stage favorites like Speed King and Fireball". We can enjoy great live footage featuring excellent work by all the band members, especially Blackmore (obviously inspired by Jimi Hendrix his stage antics) and Jon Lord on the Hammond organ with those mesmerizing drawbars.

Highly recommended if you are up to DVD docu's!