MADE IN JAPAN

IMO, in the sixties and in the seventies Rock bands worked harder. They were expected to release at least one studio album per year, and a live album was almost "an obligation". The seventies in particular was the time when great live albums were released, and they were almost always recorded and released when most of the bands were at their peak, musically speaking (with a few exceptions). This album was released in December 1972, after their "Machine Head" album. Unfortunately, by then there were "personality clashes" between the members of the band, particularly between Blackmore and Gillan, who wanted to leave the band before recording their next studio album, but was persuaded to not do it. Unfortunately, he and Glover left the band in mid 1973, and Deep Purple was never the same without them. But fortunately, this is a very good live album which demonstrates the very good "chemistry", at least at the musical level, which this band had in the early seventies.

These live albums from the seventies also showed some excesses, very characteristic of Rock music in general in those years. The excess in this album is demonstrated by some songs which had a very long duration played in concert, IMO, but despite these excesses, almost all the songs shine, particularly "Highway Star" (more energetic than the studio version), "Smoke on the Water", "Child in Time" (with Gillan shining in his vocals), "The Mule" (great drums solo) and "Strange Kind of Woman" (one of their best songs, IMO).It was also another "obligation" to include dums solos in live albums then!

In conclusion: one of the best Rock music live albums of all time. I only wish that many of the new Rock bands of this 21st century could make very good music and to play with more feeling like the "old Rock bands fom the past century". I think that this is the reason why many young people in the present look for older albums recorded by old bands. Bands like Coldplay are good, but they lack something in their music, like playing with more energy and feeling like the old bands did, IMO.