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Alistair Tait wrote:

Often considered to be one of the best live albums from its era, I decided to have a re-listen to the great Made In Japan album last Saturday afternoon (between the Six Nations rugby matches!).

The album kicks off with a storming rendition of Highway Star. You can really hear the power of the band with this song. Everything is solid and it sounds hot! Ian Paice’s drumming is fantastically tight and he really makes the band work. The energy continues with Child In Time and Smoke On The Water – despite being taken from different concerts! Excellent stuff though all the same!

Down point number one however comes with Mr Paice’s drum solo in The Mule. Drum solos are so bloody boring it’s unreal! The beginning of the track is played well though with lots of power. Generally speaking though this isn’t a great song.

Normal service is resumed when Strange Kind Of Woman comes blasting through the speakers! A great song this, and brilliantly played on this album. The middle interplay bit is bizarre in that Ian Gillan does at times actually sound like a guitar!! There is a bluesy vibe here going on here which (with hindsight) gives us a little indication of what was to come in later years. The version of Lazy is absolutely brilliant here and possibly the best song on the album.

Space Truckin’ clocks in at an astonishingly long 19 minutes. I’m sure this is going to annoy a few people here, but I find this to be really, really, really boring! The organ and guitar solos are nothing special and overall it’s a poor way to finish a damn good live album. I’m not a big fan of extended solos of any kind (in general) and find that this album suffers from their inclusion. But that was the ‘70’s for ya. No wonder punk came along!

Disc 2 has the encores. I remember reading an article with Ian Paice saying something along the lines that he could really hear the differences between the album disc and the encore disc when it was remastered. He said that the latter is a lot looser in feel and you could tell they were enjoying themselves. Totally agree there! The band sound a lot more relaxed on Black Night (which is a kicking version), Speed King and Lucille. All good stuff.

Overall, a great album although that is a bit of an obvious statement to make on a Deep Purple fan forum! I am pretty critical of the way the band has went in the past 25 years, but this album really shows what a good band they once were. The only downsides are the extended solos which I for one could do without hearing again.

Food for thought… stick this on, and then have a listen to Nobody’s Perfect! Same set, some difference!!!

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doggone wrote:

I like long solo's in DP. RB and JL know how to keep them interesting, unlike most other bands who try to jam but can't. (LZ being a perfect example). This is what made Purple a notch above the rest IMHO.

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Gillans micstand wrote:

So Ali, you'd rather it were as they are today, in terms of more songs versus extended solo's?

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