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THIS TIME AROUND: LIVE IN TOKYO '75

Deep Purple

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Deep Purple This Time Around: Live in Tokyo '75 album cover
2.61 | 32 ratings | 2 reviews | 19% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Live, released in 2000

Songs / Tracks Listing

CD1
1. Burn (8:38)
2. Lady Luck (3:31)
3. Love Child (5:00)
4. Gettin' Tighter (16:52)
5. Smoke on the water / Georgia on My Mind (10:14)
6. Wild Dogs (6:05)

Total time 50:25


CD2
1. I Need Love (5:47)
2. Soldier of Fortune (1:47)
3. Jon Lord Solo (9:43)
4. Lazy / Drum Solo (13:34)
5. This Time Around (3:38)
6. Owed to G (3:29)
7. Tommy Bolin Guitar Solo (7:09)
8. Drifter (5:55)
9. You Keep on Moving (6:38)
10. Stormbringer (10:08)
11. Highway Star (7:29)

Total time 75:25

Line-up / Musicians

- Tommy Bolin / lead guitar & vocals
- David Coverdale / vocals
- Glenn Hughes / bass guitar & vocals
- Jon Lord / keyboards
- Ian Paice / drums

Releases information

2CD Purple Records PUR 321D (2000)

Thanks to chipiron for the addition
and to NotAProghead for the last updates
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DEEP PURPLE This Time Around: Live in Tokyo '75 ratings distribution


2.61
(32 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(19%)
19%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(25%)
25%
Good, but non-essential (28%)
28%
Collectors/fans only (28%)
28%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

DEEP PURPLE This Time Around: Live in Tokyo '75 reviews


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Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars So this is a first review for a the second time I am posting for Purple work (first one being for "Days May Come And Days May Go "). I understand nobody reviewed them before. They do not belong at all to the best of their repertoire, but since I am a die-hard Purple fan (you might have noticed this already), here we are.

This was the last Mark IV concert in Japan. There are two versions for this live album. A short version called " Last Concert In Japan" and an extended one called "This Time Around". The concert was recorded at the mytical Budo-Kan hall in Tokyo (on December 15th, 1975). The difference being that "This Time Around" will feature the entire Tokyo concert while "Last Concert In Japan" will only render half of the performance. Needless to say that the love story between Purple and the Japaneese audience was at its peak after the glorious and memorable MIJ. Coverdale saluting the audience with some Japaneese words which is always nice and a proof of respect.

The opener is still "Burn". Don't get confused : although the timing shows 8'38" for the track, the band fine tunes his equipment for more than two minutes, so the live version has the same lenght as the studio one. This version is excellent. Tommy being really good. Out of the seventeen tracks, seven come from "Come Taste The Band".

This is just normal since it was their last studio album at the time. However, there are some very lenghtly renditions like "Gettin' Tighter" which will last for about seventeen minutes (FYI, the original is 3'35" long) and quite boring actually. "Smoke" version is one of the best ever recorded by the Purple (at least during the offical track). The last four minutes though are a cover for "Georgia Of My Mind" and I have never understood why they needed to append a blues song to "Smoke" (we all know of course that Glenn is a great blues singer but still...).

Next track is a Tommy Bolin song from his solo album "Wild Dogs". Not bad, not great. The Tribute to Bolin goes on, but this time with a very good song of his within the Purple configuration : "I Need Love".

You'd better skip the next track "Soldier Of Fortune" and go straight to "Lazy". This bluesy track has never reached such power. Although it was a Jon's highlight during the Made In Japan tour (I saw them live in March 1973 in Belgium), we get here an Ian drum solo (not on par with his great ones from the MIJ era, but still good). The traditional drum solo switching from numbers according the Marks : "The Mule" for Mark II, "You Fool No One" for Mark III, and "Lazy" for Mark IV. The mini suite "This Time Around / Owed to G" was a weak track from "Come Taste The Band" and could have been skipped from this tour. Next one is a Bolin guitar solo like Purple's audience wanted to hear. Again, it might be great if you are in the audience, but if you are not they are quite boring and useless (IMO).

After those seven solo minutes, the band comes together for "Drifter" : a quite decent blues song from Hughes/Coverdale. Another highlight of these concerts was of course "You Keep On Moving". The best track from the Mark IV era (as far as I am concerned). In the spoken intro, David thanks the audience about the way Japaneese people has received them. This version is great. Next track is "Stormbringer" with a live rendition of more than ten minutes (the original being just over four). This is not at all a highlight.

"Highway Star" closes the album. During Mark II & III it was the opener. From Mark IV onwards it will be the closer for most of their concerts, and this for the decades to come. As I have previously said, one of the best Purple song, EVER. But his version is far from being a good one. This album is too jam and too "Come Taste The Band" oriented (but again, since it is Mark IV's sole studio album I understand. It is just that this is not the one I prefer). Two stars for this rather weak live album.

Review by tarkus1980
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Ok, now this is just waaaaaaay too Spinal Tap-ish for comfort. If you're not familiar with the circumstances that led to the release of this particular album, allow me to fill you in. After Bolin died in 1976, effectively forcing the breakup of Deep Purple (they'd broken up well beforehand, but his death made them changing their mind pretty unlikely), somebody decided that a good posthumous cash-in would be a live album featuring this particular lineup. Since Made in Japan had been such a huge critical and commercial smash just a few years earlier, it was also decided that the title of such an album should include the word "Japan" in it. Thus Last Concert in Japan came into existence, and it would have been a reasonable inclusion into the Purple discography were it not for a few factors that have caused many hardcore Purple fans to consider it the band's all-time low point. As legend has it, Tommy Bolin took a fairly bad hit of heroin a little while before this concert, and as a result temporarily lost all feeling in his left (fretting) arm. He had regained some feeling by the time the concert began, but not all feeling. Needless to say, this had a bit of a negative effect on his guitar playing, and in turn brought down the quality of the whole band's performance. Add in the fact that the sound quality on the final release was regarded as absolutely terrible, and that those portions of the performance that made the final release were edited and arranged in a way that allowed for almost no decent flow, and you can see why this was (and is) considered a total disaster.

So naturally somebody decided that what the world needed was for one of the most poorly regarded live albums ever to be remastered and expanded. This Time Around is that 2-CD expansion, and while the sound quality is decent enough, it also shows quite clearly that the main problems weren't cosmetic, but rather the fact that the gig was mediocre at best. There are actually a few relatively high points, but there are so many embarrassing moments that I can't listen to most of this without fidgeting. In terms of Spinal Tap-level absurdity, I would be hardpressed to think of anything more absurd than the band's segue out of the funky "I Need Love" (from CTTB) into "Soldier of Fortune," which makes the latter just seem even more ridiculous than before. That said, a very close second would be the band following its (absolutely wretched) rendition of "Smoke on the Water" with Glenn singing "Georgia on my Mind."

And sheesh, if you thought there was a lot of wanking on Japan (where it was awesome), you'll be amazed at the amount here. Lessee, we have a 9:43 John Lord solo (in which he includes an instrumental version of "Woman from Tokyo," which is actually kinda cool). We have "Lazy" culminating in ANOTHER seven minute drum solo. We have seven minutes of a Tommy Bolin guitar solo, and given that he couldn't really feel his fretting hand, I'm sure you can imagine just how tedious that is.

And then there's David. Lessee, he tries to get the crowd going in the beginning with screams that show him trying to do an imitation of Gillan - a noble effort, and the crowd buys it, but I sure don't. He repeatedly says "Domo Arigato" to the crowd, which I know is probably some sort of Japanese greeting, but you'd better believe that my brain instantly thinks, "Mr. Roboto." He doesn't bother to sing the third verse of "Smoke." In "Highway Star," instead of, "She's got a moving mouth, body control and everything," he sings, "She's got big fat knockers, big fat knockers and everything." And, of course, there's the aforementioned "I Need Love"/"Soldier of Fortune" segue.

Still, for all of that, there are some positives to be found. "Burn" is a great opener as usual, despite Lord's organ being the loudest instrument when playing the glorious riff. "Stormbringer" also kicks as much ass as ever (just like on Made in Europe, it's helped by the keyboard tones not sucking like on the original), even though ten minutes is a bit excessive. Also, a lot of the "CTTB" band material is extremely likable here - "Love Child"'s opening phased riff is much more impressive here than before, and this 16:52 version of "Gettin' Tighter" is massively entertaining for at least 10 or so minutes of its running time. And hey, there's a Bolin solo composition, a guitar- heavy ballad called "Wild Dogs," with Bolin's vocals showing more real passion than Glenn or Dave ever showed in their time in Purple.

Overall, though, this is hardly an essential pickup for a Purple fan. I've seen more used copies of this than any other Purple album, and it's not hard for me to tell why. If you find it reeeeeeally cheap, get it for some of the highlights, but be prepared for some massive lows as well. Especially when David and Tommy end up butchering "Highway Star" at the end, arrgh.

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