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Deep Purple - California Jamming CD (album) cover

CALIFORNIA JAMMING

Deep Purple

Proto-Prog


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Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars This line-up of Deep Purple i.e. David Coverdale on vocal and Glenn Hughes on bass guitar (and vocals) was at first under-rated by most rock fans and Deep Purple maniac. Some people even said that without Blackmore or without Gillan is actually NOT a Deep Purple. I think they are all wrong. Okay okay .. don't just look at the studio albums, try this "California Jamming" when Gillan was not in the band. You can see the true sound of Deep Purple without Gillan even in attractive live recording. I even had a chance to watch the VCD version of this concert - it's excellent. I could also see how Glenn Hughes did excellent vocal job in addition to David Coverdale. "Burn" has always been an interesting track to play live and it was positioned to pen the show. "Might Just Take Yor Life" become much powerfiul being performed live. The line-up also successfully played the Gillan's era songs: "Smoke On The Water" and the captivating "Space Truckin'". Oh man .. it's an interesting live CD that rockesr should have in their collection.You wanna hear how Coverdale sings Gillan's parts? Get this CD! Keep on rockin' man ....!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Report this review (#95515)
Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 | Review Permalink
2 stars Well, having heard the masterpiece and one of the best and powerful live albums ever, "Made In Japan", I thought this could be so much better. In addition, I had some expectations to hear how Coverdale sings Gillan songs, and how is Hughes bass playing and contributions with vocals during the show. I found some problems while listening this, first of all, the bad quality sound, it seems like a bad bootleg, confusing sounds and a low guitar sound (except during the Riff of Smoke On The Water), anyway the sound got less confusing and better when I used headphones, but not that better to say the sound is good, sadly; the other one was the extensive and no direction jamming, it's sad to say this, but it seems like a noisy jam ... in difference to "Made In Japan", which was the complete opposite. The CD contains six tracks: it starts with "Burn", which I think it's a very good version, but I can't hear the genius guitar solo (there's an organ solo, in difference to the studio version); then go "Might Just Take Your Life" and the blues "Mistreated", two 'new' songs, but the sound is so confusing I can't really enjoy them; then goes "Smoke On The Water", which is surprisingly played (during the intro) in E instead of G, then Blackmore 'fixes' the problem (obviously he did it in purpose), oh rockers, what a strange moment ! This one is very well sang by Coverdale, but the guitar solo is veeeery different, seems like Ritchie was drunk while playing it, sadly; then goes another 'new' song, "No Fool On Me", which has extensive jamming and a good demostration to show Coverdale's vocal habilities (and Glenn too), this version is so much longer because then goes the wild drum solo on "The Mule", once again, Ian Paice doing an excellent job; to finish we've "Spacetruckin' ", which has again a long, long and noisy jam with a guitar solo in the middle, but not as enjoyable or rocker as on the previous live album ...

Maybe I was expecting too much, while comparing it to "Made In Japan", but the songs go unnecesary long, and the sound quality is not the best, so this is for collectors or Deep Purple fans (like me) only.

Rating: 2.0/5

Report this review (#96145)
Posted Sunday, October 29, 2006 | Review Permalink
ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This California Jamming is best experienced in the video/DVD format.

IMO, this is the second best Mark of the Purple. They really performed well on stage and the duo Coverdale / Hughes is really performing.

Their album "Burn" is one of the central piece of this set featuring three songs of which the title track and "Mistreated" are of course the highlights.

A special note for the very good "You Fooled No One / The Mule" before THE highlight of this set. A phenomenal version of "Space Truckin". It definitely deserves the title of a Californian Jam! Completely disjointed and wild. But you have to "see" it instead of listening to it.

The best thing to do is to get the Video / DVD of this performance to fully appreciate the cohesion of the band and to enjoy Ritchie total madness.

Four stars for this audio edition.

Report this review (#107402)
Posted Saturday, January 13, 2007 | Review Permalink

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