LIVE IN JAPAN

Wow ! This is a 3 CD set which contains all three gigs in Japan in August 1972. From these three gigs, the best of the best was made into the best ever live album; Made In Japan.

The set lists is more or less the same as Made In Japan, with the inclusion of Black Night as an encore on the first night (CD 1) and Speed King as an encore on the final third night (CD 3) as the only differences from Made In Japan. .........And you get the same tracks three times. Hence, this is quite a mouthful of an album.

Deep Purple was at their peak on these three gigs. They were a fully fledged monster that swept everything aside. The quality of these recordings is outstanding. Absolute outstanding. This album was released as a documentation of how Made In Japan was made though and not as a serious live album. Three times Child In Time on one album becomes a bit too much, as you can imagine. The Mule twice is also a bit too much for me. Hence the withdrawal of half a star. But everyone who loves Deep Purple and/or Made In Japan should get Live In Japan. Which explains why one copy has found it's way to my castle. The booklet is also great and Live In Japan is the ultimate Made In Japan worship. Not to mention that this is also the ultimate live albums worship.

4.5 stars

This remixed recording has so much potential, and yet falls so miserably. The good: you get to hear the shows mostly in the order that they were performed (a few songs were cut in order to keep the length to 3 CDs), including the onstage banter - mostly Ian Gillan offering explanations of the songs. The bad: the bass guitar sound has been ruined. All you can hear are the sub-bass frequencies, there is no high end or midrange. I haven't listened to Made in Japan (the classic album that was culled from the three shows represented on Live in Japan) in decades, so I thought maybe my memory was faulty, but it just couldn't sound like this! So I bought the cheapo original CD release, and there was the glorious bass sound of Roger Glover!

I think I know what happened - when they went to remix the original tapes, they heard that the bass was distorted and must have tried to "fix" it. But to me, that distorted bass sound is what was so cool! That's what bass sounded like in the early '70s! It may not be the ideal bass sound if you expect it to be clean, but nowadays people spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to try and get that sound (think Orange amps and Darkglass Electronics effects, for example). They really really messed up on this one. I bought my copy used, I've heard it, and it's getting sold right back to Amoeba Records. Completely unlistenable to me. I'm going to keep my classic cheap original master CD and enjoy that. Apparently the deluxe single CD release from 2013(?) has the original Made in Japan track listing but also includes the encores and is remastered from the 1972 mix I might spring for that but I would have to listen to the 2013 remix before buying in case they screwed it up again.

BACK TO THE FUTURE with an OMNI in D like DEEP PURPLE and a legendary concert, yes the P's will be waiting! In short I come across an album that I am advised to review, so I start ..; live on it, yes I do with the means at hand, I keep repeating it!, are you ready? a hidden chronicle!!!

1 'Highway Star' mixed applause, surprised to attend one of the most beautiful live concerts transcribed on an album before the hour; an announcing, premonitory title; everything is Jon's organ, Ian's minimal but oh so important drums, the bass don't forget Roger, he's the roar in the speakers, good Ritchie almost in the background and Ian still with his voice; yes, the hard rock group...progressive which has the intro, the riff, the chorus and the solo...all the same with that sacred Ritchie which distills it, which smothers it in all winds; it was just diabolical and so present in your memory that you still murmur.... or that you hoarse during this chorus, the unstoppable introduction whatever one says about it 2 'Child In Time' paf I was talking about entry, take a look at this intro, what you don't know, you're trying to make me cry, the Kenzo ad is her, finally it's them, phew you me frightened; you see the low-cut dress, the color of the roses, Ian's cry, the walk on the tower, the sensuality of this perfume... no, the cry, this cry, this unacknowledged fantasy of this woman's orgasm, no you see this galloping horse, a white horse, no, it's Ritchie who lets loose, who shows the way of the superhero, look how he mistreats the handle; that's Nirvana, who hasn't secretly done the sovereign wiggle while brandishing the neck of the phantom guitar? Who? well we calm down there at 7'49 and not 7'43 which is hurting us at this singular political moment, so we calm down, this blank becomes music before resuming with notes; a roll of drums and let's go for the second phase, for those who have fallen into a trance, you have a second chance; climb, screams, violence, rape of instruments; say that I was talking about ecstasy this second rise is stronger, more sensual, we can even guess the emerging breast under the too perfect dress, we can guess that this piece will be able to appear on TV on MTV or in advertising, a shame. 3 'Smoke On The Water' represents the most famous minute of the rock era, if the riff that kills, name me a person who has never tried to do it; the very fat organ which says that the sound can be better with this... ah I no longer remember the name of this instrument with keys... help me; the bass Roger showed that the bass was an important bridge in a hard rock band, good the frenzied solos as the evolution of .... ah I forgot to name 'Smoke, smoke on something, the lake , the fire, true not true, this piece is unique, not orgasmic, just unique in the musical universe, one of those to keep in his coffin for a possible trip to hell. 4 'The Mule' still struggled with following a punched pouch in a friend's stomach at the airport; the title which leaves strangely like in the middle of another and then quickly, too quickly but the trap was there, Ian's solo direct without warning you and it's on, you won't see it again, you're just going to explore each corner of his threshing house, with cash register, bearings, Tournapull (yes the one that we saw small when creating the highway, the one that abraded the hills, the one that I dream of buying in a Majorette shop... c is for your grandson, I'm doing a gift package, no it's for me, vicious goes!!) and other cymbals; a moment that goes crescendo, with a few small tendrils and which also allows you to adjust your speakers; the guitar-organ return becomes almost a detail of musical history passing well after this epic moment, which was peed on while waiting for the end which did not come, in short this piece will establish the solos live.

The 2nd CD or the 1st side of the 2nd LP, you follow 1 'Strange Kind Of Woman' for one of the fastest intros on the market and you have a composition that does not look like much; a jerky, frantic rhythm, a devilishly adapted voice, soft, which can rise, which will rise, which hoots; a solo by Ritchie, perhaps, surely one of the most beautiful, the organ behind which already reminds you that there will be an internal squabble, musical rather between the progueux and those who listen to the zik; the zik is the one there, the one that piles up musical notes; shh, it's time for this manu manu between Ian and Ritchie, this fight, listen, u u uh uu uuh uuuhuuu!; how many times I got up, put the sapphire back just a little before to attend this Homeric duel; the moment I said to myself, well, you'll have to go to a concert, well, that's a change from studio LPs and K7s; in short my 1st live after the 'Life' of GENESIS it was him, aaaahhhhhh aaaaahhhhhhhh I love you. It's over.... no this cry again and again heyy, heeeyyyy, heeyyyyyyyyyyyy, ah how many times my father could shout after me on these fabulous 'notes'! 2 'Lazy' to rest, lazy and lazy little bands; the piece that I don't like; yes we can have an imperfect OMNI, like the very spatial intro, cinematic before its time, it looks like 'Flash'; well settle down, it's going to take off, whoever likes YES must have come here for this organ variation without toccata; it jams, it jerks, it grooves, it zik anyway; Was Jon a good keyboard player, I ask the question; bam we find ourselves in the middle of the title and it twirls everywhere, jazzy? ,bluesy?; purpleian certainly; 6 minutes and Ian intervenes on the voice, when I think of those who say that James from DREAM THEATER must bother during the improvised solos... or not it makes me laugh, come on a little harmonica, I feel the air of the cacti and the thorns of the road on the 66, oh there the rubber of the ZZ TOPmobile which will pass by there... a little later; John and Ritchie in battle there, it's going to rock, nay, this laughable tune that has gone around the world, a magnificent musical snub and the finale à la 'Woody Woodpecker', immense 3 'Space Truckin' ' or when I was talking about OMNI, there we have the title, we have the atmosphere, we have the pinnacle, the cream of the crop, this rhythm-riff, this intro which heats up; the long track that made me want to listen to 'Six Degrees' in one go when it was released; yes DEEP PURPLE represents the archetypal proto metal prog, come on, come on!! Yes there I'm going to let go, yes there I'm just going to re-re-listen to this over- boosted live where Roger shows the musical framework, where Ian throws his cymbals at whoever wants, hold a roll of pads for you; hold Ritchie over here, hold Ian with his belched voice, yes he knows how to shout, moreover that's what was declared in the cottages, no but you hear how he shouts, how Ritchie mistreats his guitar, it can't be program; good oriental break that comes suddenly, I had forgotten it, do you remember there yes when we are in the desert, a caravan passes, we are afraid that it is a mirage, we run after .... there you go Jon made me think of that, it's crazy huh! When I was young, I thought it was improvised, that it was easy to do, to reproduce; novice now I know that you have to have passed through the stars to grab the score without smoking the devil's weed and the little smoke; spatial, irrespectable, fusional sound; I'll let you listen to the end silently, it's free and so dreamlike that everyone has made their own story on it, right there yes after this battery decrescendo, shhh. Well you swooned over this dreamlike destructured crescendo, good. Well you needed an OMNI, start with 'Space Truckin' you will have the signature, you needed a live, the thing that you don't comment on, that you live, it will be you 'made in Japan' oh yes, we don't refuse ourselves anything ; DEEP PURPLE, LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH are the 3 prog hard metal udders that should have their footprints on Zik Boulevard, without them nada no surfing, without them no explosion in concert, no innovative joy, just rehearsals; no DEEP PURPLE created and for having been in the stars, I had to give them back this trifle, Come On!!