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›Paul Rediscovers: Deep Purple – Made In Japan
Now I am sure that many of you own at least one live album. A record that captures a moment in time when a band were (mostly) at their peak or in the case of Heaven and Hell last year, to prove that time is no reason to doubt a bands ability. I can safely say that it was a live album (Rock in Rio – Iron Maiden) that introduced me to metal! Although it was this month’s rediscovered album that first gave me a taste for the sound of a real band playing real instruments.
Deep Purple are a band which are responsible for ‘the’ riff of all time, one that whilst being overplayed to death still gets the fists waving I am of course referring to the infamous intro to ‘Smoke On The Water’ a song which was written in the word of Ian Gillian on the live album ‘this is a song about the time we, recorded it, and it all went wrong when we did it’ yes the song is amongst the eight original tracks that appeared on the LP release in 1972 (three bonus tracks were also available on the CD reissue known as ‘The Encores’ in 1998). It is also worth noting at this point that the album was not, unlike many live albums released today, a single concert but was in fact comprised of three shows and the details of these appeared on the original album sleeve. In 1993 all three concerts were released in their entirety as the ‘Live in Japan’ boxset. This album is not only the best example of the band at the height of their career on the ‘Machine Head’ tour but it also changed live albums forever. Before they had been little more that a roadie standing at the side of the stage with a reel to reel tape player which produced a sound rather like a bootleg. ‘Made in Japan’ featured more specific recording of each instrument but did have any studio ‘tweaking’ or overdubs.
It can safely be said that without this there would be no ‘Live After Death’ (Iron Maiden) or ‘Live Shit: Binge and Purge’ (Metallica). Bruce Dickinson has compared the significance of ‘Live in Japan’ to live albums to the significance of the ‘Live After Death’ video’s significance for live video recordings. Very important then. Not only is this album significant in its impact upon recorded music it is also one of the best showcases of Deep Purple’s best material. The fact that five or six of the songs from this album remain in the bands setlist to this day should be some clue.
I strongly recommend this album to anyone who does not own it or has not yet experienced the magic that is Deep Purple! If you do own then GET IT OUT AND LISTEN TO IT! And bathe in it unparalleled glory! That’s all for now so till next month..Rock on!
Paul
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