Deep Purple - Made In Japan
Year of Release: 1972
Genres: Hard Rock | Heavy Metal
Length: 98:02 [2CD version]
Ian Gillan - Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore - Guitar
Roger Glover - Synthesizer, Bass, Mixing
Jon Lord - Organ, Piano, Keyboards
Ian Paice - Drums
Original album engineered by Martin Birch
and produced by Deep Purple.
Tracks: Highway Star (6:42) / Child In Time (12:18) / Smoke On The Water (7:37) / The Mule (9:28) / Strange Kind Of Woman (9:52) / Lazy (10:27) / Space Truckin' (19:53) // Black Night* (6:17) / Speed King* (7:25) / Lucille* (8:03)
- All tracks composed by Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice,
except "Lucille", by Collins/Penniman
* Additional Bonus Tracks on the 2-CD "remastered edition" only.
Buy:
Deep Purple - Made In Japan: 25th Anniversary Edition
[IMPORT] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Deep Purple - Made In Japan
Deep Purple - Made In Japan
The Greatest Live Album of all time!? Quite possibly! I would definitely say that "Made in Japan" is one of the best albums (live or not) ever released! As far as I'm concerned it even beats out two other Heavy Metal live albums that are close to flawless, Judas Priest's "Unleashed In The East" (1979) and Iron Maiden's "Live After Death" (1985)!
According to some, the ultimate album from the '70's, the era of double-vinyl live albums, "Made In Japan" features extended versions of some of Deep Purple's most popular songs. Several of the songs are drawn out to ten and even nearly twenty minutes, yet not becoming boring for one second! This is one of the things that make many live albums from the '70's so great, in my opinion. There are not many bands who do this today, but in the '70's many of the greats, such as Deep Purple, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow and Led Zeppelin, often indulged themselves in lengthy solos and jam sections, making the songs something more than just uninteresting copies of the studio originals! (ALSOS, anyone? ;)
This album features the band at the peak of their career. After recording a couple of albums in more of a pop/rock vein in '60's ("Shades of Deep Purple", "Deep Purple" and "The Book of Taliesyn") and performing with an orchestra for Jon Lord's experiment of fusing rock with classical music (1969's "Concerto for Group and Orchestra"), the band begun the 1970's with three fantastic hard rock (metal?) albums!
"Deep Purple in Rock" (1970), "Fireball" (1971) and their biggest success, "Machine Head" (1972), were all to become hugely influential on hard rock/metal to come, and has proved to inspire many artists though the years (notably guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen, a devoted Blackmore fan). It's also from these three that most of the selections on "Made In Japan" were taken, and mostly then from their latest studio album, "Machine Head".
The album, recorded during three concerts in Japan in August of 1972, starts with the crowd pleasing rocker "Highway Star." As always Lord's raging organ play a central part and already in the first song Blackmore treats us with a nice speedy solo. On the second track, the beautiful and moody epic "Child In Time" from "In Rock", Ian Gillan is given the chance to truly prove why he will always be considered one of the best singers ever! One word: Fantastic! No wonder Gillan was asked to sing in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," what a voice!
Next up is "Smoke On The Water", a track I'm sure needs no introduction. I've always considered "Smoke..." way overrated, considering how many songs the band has recorded that are much better. Still, it would have felt odd, had not their biggest hit been included.
Following the song with the worlds most memorable riff is "The Mule", featuring a lengthy and impressive drum solo from mr Paice. I usually tend to find drum solos very boring, but this one actually works quite well!
Next up is another song off of the "Fireball" album, "Strange Kind Of Woman." Another very good song! I love how Gillan goes from the beautiful soft "oooohhh"-part to doing his trademark scream! Some very taste guitar playing too!
Coming up next is one of my personal favorites from the "Machine Head" album, "Lazy"! A jazzy experimental tune. This live version starts out with some random noise before moving into a slow and gentle jazzy part. After a while Blackmore's guitar enter and the song take a turn towards a sound closer to rock again. The songs shifts several times between hard rock, jazz and blues (some nice harmonica!). Some awesome organ/guitar jamming in this song, with Paice and Glover keeping it all together as the dynamic rhythm section that they are.
Ending what made up the original double-LP is an extremely extended version of "Space Truckin'", a great rocker in which Gillan screams his lungs out! "Come on, come on, let's go Space Truckin'!!!" Lots of jamming going on in this one!
As I said, this is where the album used to end. However, on the remastered "25th Anniversary Edition" of album, released in 1998, a second disc has been added, adding more than 20 minutes of encores! These songs are "Black Night," previously released only as a European B-side, and versions of "Speed King" and Little Richard's "Lucille" that were previously unreleased. For those of you who already own the original album, you should probably consider getting the "25th Anniversary Edition" for these three!
"Black Night" is one of Deep Purple's best song ever, an absolutely essential classic, and "Speed King", a tribute to their roots in '50's rock n' roll of sorts, just flat out "rocks"!
A truly classic album indeed! Unfortunately "Made In Japan" also put an end to an era of sorts. Deep Purple Mk II (Blackmore - Gillan - Glover - Lord - Paice) did record one more studio album together, "Who Do We Think We Are" (1973), but few would argue that it was as good as the three that preceded it. I don't. In that aspect I see "Made In Japan" as the end of the greatest era of Deep Purple.
After "Who Do We Think We Are", Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were forced to leave the band, two members who had also joined the band at the same time, prior to "Concerto for Group and Orchestra." Enter David Coverdale (later to form Whitesnake) and vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes. These two were awesome singers, but personally I consider Gillan to be the only "real" Purple-singer, even though they've had several others through the years. Coverdale/Hughes recorded three very good studio albums with Deep Purple, "Burn" (1974), "Stormbringer" (1974) and "Come Taste the Band" (1975). The latter does not feature Richie Blackmore. Blackmore left the band for his own project, Rainbow, with whom he released some fantastic albums, with master vocalist Ronnie James Dio, before going into a more commercial direction. Deep Purple, on the other hand, stopped existing after "Come Taste The Band", but reunited with the classic Mk II-lineup for 1984's "Perfect Strangers." Deep Purple still exists today and has released several more album to date, with varying band lineups.
Still one of the worlds greatest live bands, they have released many live albums (probably one of the bands with the most live albums released ever) after "Made In Japan," but none with the status of this one. There's a reason this is regarded by many as one of hard rock's cornerstone live recordings!
I end this edition of "The Webmaster's Pick" by quoting one of the customer reviews for this album that I saw at Amazon.com: "Deep Purple's studio stuff is good, but it pales in comparison to this scorching slab of rock and roll fury. This is a huge-sounding, thunderous, feedback-drenched, distorted psychedelic organ feast of ear-splitting noise." Who can argue with that?
// Cristoffer Eriksson. May 15, 2002
AMG Review: Recorded over three nights in August 1972, Deep Purple's Made in Japan was the record that brought the band to headliner status in the U.S. and elsewhere, and it remains a landmark in the history of heavy metal music. Since reorganizing with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover in 1969, Deep Purple had recorded three important albums — Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, and Machine Head — and used the material to build a fierce live show. Made in Japan, its selections drawn from those albums, documented that show, in which songs were drawn out to ten and even nearly 20 minutes with no less intensity, as guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and organist Jon Lord soloed extensively and Gillan sang in a screech that became the envy of all metal bands to follow. The signature song, of course, was "Smoke on the Water," with its memorable riff, which went on to become an American hit single. But those extended workouts, particularly the moody "Child in Time," with Gillan's haunting falsetto wail and Blackmore's amazingly fast playing, and "Space Truckin'," with Lord's organ effects, maintained the onslaught, making this a definitive treatment of the band's catalog and its most impressive album. By stretching out and going to extremes, Deep Purple pushed its music into the kind of deliberate excess that made heavy metal what it became, and their audience recognized the breakthrough, propelling the original double LP into the U.S. Top Ten and sales over a million copies. On November 17, 1998, Warner Archives/Rhino issued "the remastered edition" of the album, a two-CD set that added more than 20 minutes of encores on a second disc that contained "Black Night," previously released only as a European B-side, and versions of "Speed King" and Little Richard's "Lucille" that were previously unreleased. — William Ruhlmann (All Music Guide)