ON THE ROAD

This a sort of Deep Purple live anthology, but all tracks featured on this album are now available which makes this compilation rather obsolete by now (altough having them in this format is quite handy).

If you do not feel like reading the whole of this review (which is a bit extended, I admit), here is my advise. If you belong to the majority that only owns "Made In Japan" and maybe ""Come Hell Or High Water" and would like to discover more live tracks for this hard-rock band, this might well be an interesting purchase.

You can buy it for less than 30 US $ (in a "used - like new" format on the Am..on market place). A new one will cost you a mere 60 bucks. The conclusion of this review might also be useful to you.

Actually, there will be two tracks that are stil unreleased under Purple's name. A version of "Highway Star" and onother one of "No, No, No". Both are released on an obscure Ritchie Blackmore compilation album called "Rock Profile Volume 1". These version sit on the first CD and in the case of "Highway Star" it is a total disaster. A true massacre of one of my top three fave from the band.

The great instrumental intro is not too bad, but what is absolutely disgusting are the vocals. Truely horrible. As if it was not sufficient, the track will end in a fading out after less than five minutes.

The treatment for ""No, No, No" is almost similar although most of it is not as catastrophic as "Highway Star" (but still, the vocals. Gosh!). It is also faded out, incomprehensively, at the end. Still, to my knowledge it is the only live version available of this good track coming out of "Fireball".

I guess that these two tracks were featured to make it more appealing to Purple maniacs who would buy this set, but they are totally unworthy. Peanuts, really.

So now, the real Purple work.

Since this compilation works in terms of "Marks" and that both Mark II & V are considered as one (do you follow me?), the whole is not presented in a chronological order which makes it a bit difficult for a non-Purple die-hard fan.

CD one starts with a version of "Hush". This version was available on "Powerhouse" and was also later released on the remastered and double CD version of their "Concerto For Group And Orchestra".

From the fantastic "In Concert" which was a double CD recorded for the BBC. Both "Child In Time" and "Wring That Neck" comes from this album (the first CD was recorded in 1970). IMO, this was the best live album ever released from Deep Purple. The second CD from "In Concert" was an overview of their new album to be released two weeks after this live appearance. Almost the whole of "Machine Head" was played. This was far much better (and I really mean it) than all the versions available on MIJ. But, unfortunately, almost unknown.

This version of "Child In Time" is the best live one available. Fantastic rendition of one of the greatest hard-rock anthems. About "Wring That Neck", I have expressed my opinion several times. The only good point of this version is that it is substantially shorter than the ones the band will be used to play in the early days of Mark II (up to thirty-two minutes !). On this one, it will only clock at 18'45" ! This full instrumental piece is totally inspired by "Vanilla Fudge" and is not at all my cup of tea.

A less known number from the fabulous "In Rock" will be "Into The Fire" (it is still played by the band nowadays. I have just seen them last week in Antwerp). Their hit- single "Black Night" as well is coming out of "Scandinavian Nights".

If the former is a good and faithfull rendition, the latter will be played in a rather extended version (just over seven minutes). Since Mark II did not have sufficient new material to play during concerts (although two of their greatest songs from "In Rock" will never be played live : "Hard Loving Man" and "Flight Of The Rat"), Purple will extend most of their number exaggeratedly.

Except for this version of "Black Night" It is more based on the extended one from the remastered "In Rock" with a longer guitar solo towards the traditional end of the song. After this, it will feature some fabulous "call & response" between Blackmore and Gilan which will be one of the greatest moments of a track like "Strange Kind Of Woman" (in its MIJ format). This excercise will only be superseded by Page & Plant. One of the highlight of CD one (together with "Child..." of course).

Disc two opens on "Speed King". It comes out "Scandinavian Nights". Although it clocks at 10'22", the incredible intro has been cut. I really wonder why. It should have brilliantly replaced some lenghty solo or useless vocal part performed in the middle of this great song. There is still another great "call & response" featured here. But this time it is between Ritchie & Jon (very rare).

The most interesting part of this second CD are three songs coming out of a concert performed in Denmark and available in a video / DVD format under the same name "Scandinavian Nights" but were filmed by the Danish television in black & white.

It was around the date of release of "Machine Head" and is really a piece of anthology. These are "Strange Kind Of Woman" (immortalized on MIJ), "Lazy" (a jazzy song even featuring some prog elements) and "Fireball". This is an extraordinary rhythmy number. It has been said that during this track, Ian Paice was the fastest drummer in the world on stage (but don't ask me how one can measure this). Fantastic.

These three songs still belong to the current Purple setlist in 2007 and I am more than happy to be able to listen to these great tracks more than thirty-five years after their release.

Four songs will come out "Nobody's Perfect". While "Perfect Strangers" is brilliant, the rendition of the next trio of songs is very interesting because they were only available on a special edition of which is difficult to find. So, it is complimentary to this work. This is a full sequence of the concert.

"Space Truckin" is by far the best one. This track was usually extended to anything between fifteen to thirty minutes. The version featured here is closer to the original. It is rocking like hell throughout 5'42". One of the best version available of this song.

The other two original songs came from the very average album "The House Of Blue Light" released in 1987. But at least it was two of the few good songs out of it. These were "Bad Attitude" (a good rock song) and "Dead Or Alive" extremely violent and fantastically played here. Jon is particularly effective here, but Ian Paice's drumming is incredible. Another highlight.

The fabulous version of "Anya" available on "Come Hell Or High Water" is featured here as well. This song was a good studio one, but in this live act, it really reached another dimension. Close to the very best Purple song, really.

We'll switch to Mark III with the third CD.

The excellent "Burn" and "Mistreated" come from "Live In London" recorded in 1974 but only released in 1982. IMO, these are the two greatest songs from that period. "Burn" is absolutely fabulous and this version of "Mistreated" is phenomenal. Extended to 11'35", it will featured an extraordinary Ritchie solo. They were the two highlights of this average live album. So, it is a great choice to have them both here.

The other three numbers come out "MK3, The Final Concerts". Not their best live album, actually. This version of "Smoke" really sucks. It has never been a fave of mine, but here, it is rather pityful. Poor intro (what happended, Ritchie ?), good body song but the final part will be mixed with a vocal blues section combined with a few notes from Joe Cocker' s wonderful cover for "With A Little Help From My Friends". Not really necessary in the context of "Smoke".

"Going Down" from Don Nix is the poorest one of the whole probably. "You Fool No One" will start with a bit of "La Marseillaise". This version is an alternate version of this track from this live album and is only interesting as such. The standard release featured this song in a nineteen minutes format. Here, it will clock at just over thirteen and includes the traditional drum solo (but not as great as usual, I must say).

As one could imagine when reading the track list, the fourth CD is by far the least interesting one. Most of the songs come out the album "On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat" and was recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show on February 27th, 1976.

It was one of of the poorest live effort from Purple (all Marks). One has to admit that it was not really the best period of the band. "Lady Luck" and "Love Child" will be the only few tracks that deserve to sit on this live complilation.

A number like "Getting Tighter" will be extended to over useless thirteen minutes (while the original song was just over three minutes). "This Time Around" is the sole contribution from Jon Lord in this Mark. It is combined with "Owed To G" and is very much dispensible.

"Wild Dogs" is a Bolin composition and therefore should not sit on a Purple compilation (unless it is considered as a tribute to this great guitar player - RIP Tommy). A very good guitar exercise indeed to highlight his great skills.

The only great number of that era (which is fortunately featured) is "You Keep On Moving". Really brilliant. It comes from the album known as "Last Concert In Japan" recorded on December 1975 (15). The other number coming from this album is "Stormbringer". A Mark III number. This version is, again, uselessly extended. Over ten minutes. Absolutely not necessary.

As a conclusion, I would say that this is a very good live anthology. The problems being :

1. I would have hoped to have unrealeased recordings. I guess that during their long career, Purple must have still plenty of live material that has not been released so far (but maybe I am wrong).

2. Mark IV is over-exposed.

3. There are some very poor renditions of "Highway Star", "Strombringer" and "Smoke".

4. Three tracks shouldn't have been here (the two "jewels" from Ritchie and the Tommy's one).

Apart from these remarks, this compilation will please any Purple fan because it holds some versions difficult to grab. For the average fan, it is a good occasion to discover the band's live history.

Four stars.