KING BISCUIT FLOWER HOUR PRESENTS DEEP PURPLE IN CONCERT

Confusion again with this live album. Two titles for an identical work : "Live in California 1976: On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat" and "King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents : Deep Purple In Concert". Since, "Live In California" received a rating of five stars (which means that this album is a masterpiece !), but with no comments (that should not be allowed in my opinion). So, here we go for the first review for "King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents : Deep Purple In Concert".

The King Biscuit Flower Hour is a US radio show. The project was to record a live concert with Purple. They first did so in Springfield on January 26th, 1976. However, this was considered unsuitable for release. Another concert was recorded a month later (on February 27th, 1976) in Long Beach. The latter concert was released, with a couple of bonus tracks added from the first date. It was recorded two months later than "This Time Around - Live In Tokyo". Tracklists are almost identical. This live album, released almost thirty years after the concerts is just to make use of the cash machine. There are two bands that have used extensively the fans'addiction : Deep Purple and Yes. They put so many live acts, compilations with rare / unreleased tracks (?) and DVD's on the market that it is really a costly stuff if you want to get hold of these "original" works. From time to time, it is well worth the money though.

For this specific case, it is not. These concerts do not add anything great to the Purple live renditions released so far. Extremely long and useless version for "Gettin' Tighter" (almost forteen minutes while the original reaches about 3'30"), inpredictable medleys combining classic Purple tracks with some standards of the music industry ("Smoke On The Water" with "Georgia On My Mind", or "Highway Star" with "Not Fade Away").

The Purple classics are poorly rendered (specially "Smoke"), "Lazy" is toooooooooo much extended. The track called "The Grind" is a jam of the whole band (actually it is an instrumental from Bolin's studio album "Teaser" called "Homeward Strut". Then Coverdale will announce : "We will leave you in the capable hands of Mister Tommy Bolin, and bang ! Another ten minutes guitar solo which is also quite boring (on "This Time around it "only" lasted for seven minutes) . A classic like "Stormbringer" will also be combined with a cover of the funky track "Thank You" (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again" from Sly & The Family Stone. This one will also be covered later by the new wave band "Magazine" (a great band by the way).

There are a couple of "bonus" tracks from the first concert in Springfield : "I'm Going Down", "Highway Star" (traditional version) and "Smoke+ Georgia On My Mind". On this release, we escape from the suite "This Time Around - Owed To G". A good track from "Come Taste The Band": "Drifter" is missing and there are no performance of "You Keep In Moving" which is quite strange since it is by far the best song of Mark IV !

If you find this one for 5 ?, you might consider to buy it. Otherwise, keep your money for better live stuff (and believe me, the Purple has produced quite a lot of them). The announcements, comments after the songs are also a bit "too much" : bands should be aware that most of the audience do not care about religion; so, please stop with your "God Bless You", "Love" etc. (I refer here to Purple, but Yes and Santana did (do) the same). Two stars.