COME HELL OR HIGH WATER

I got this one from my brother somewhere in 2001. It had been a very long time ago since I had listened to the Purple any more (I will change my mind though in 2003). My first feeling was : whow ! One of the band I loved the most in my youth (back to '70- 73) had produced another great live album (in the meantime, I have discovered about another fifteen of those).

Honestly the more you listen to it, the more you notice its defects : some of their gigantic songs are not very well played here : "Highway Star" and "Black Night" for instance : I just hate the audience responding with their oh, oh ; oh, oh to Ritchie's riff ; this is a reminiscence of my "No More Heroes" period which I still very much use as a guideline nowadays. So, when I go and see them, I am always suffering.

This tour was supporting their last studio album, so we get "A Twist In The Tale" and more interesting "Anya" which is IMO, the best track of this live album. Quite extended version, great keys : the Purple as we like : all mighty and harmonious at the same time.

The clash between Ritchie and Ian was rising again : this time, Ian will get rid of Ritchie (I guess he was so impossible to live with, than the other members of the band could hardly go into another direction). Ritchie's rendition in "Highway Star" is pretty weak. His traditionally fabulous guitar solo in "Child In Time" is cut down here. There are a few organ breaks from Jon that are totally out of purpose in the context of the song (don't get me wrong : I have always appreciate Jon's work, but this is not the Child In Time we all want to hear). Gillan is great though.

"Speed King" starts with "God Save The ... King" I guess; then skips the wonderful noisy intro of the studio album to enter straight into the track. The band then develops an average jam and suddenly play the "Burn" intro for 15 seconds ... A bit too much of a mixing for me.

A two minutes almost classical guitar intro will lead to "Smoke". This one was not at all my favorite on "Machine Head" but turned to be a Purple anthem after their MIJ adventure. This version is great (till 6'30" when Gillan asked the audience participation and is quite useless from then on).

There is a Japanese / US version of this live effort with three additional tracks Lazy (4'18"), Space truckin' (2'39") and Woman From Tokyo (1'53"). Since I only have access to the European version I can only be suspicious about these "bonus tracks" : the Purple used to play over twenty minutes gig for "Space Truckin", so a bit more than two minutes sounds a bit strange. They will be used to a very short format for "Woman" unfortunately. This album is quite average and I would rate it 5 out of 10. Since I am biased with the band, I will upgrade it to three stars.

If you really want to get hold on their best live album (IMO), you should grab their "In Concert" from the BBC (double CD : one from the "In Rock" era the other one from "Machine Head") : this has never ever been achieved again (you can read my review of this one for a ... deeper description).