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94. 'Made In Japan' - Deep Purple (1972)
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Following the triumphant reception of ‘Machine Head’ in Japan, Deep Purple embarked on a tour, culminating in performances at Osaka and Tokyo. Though initially recorded with casual disregard for its potential, the resulting live album, ‘Made In Japan’, would cement the band's legendary Rock status. It perfectly captures the raw energy of their live performances and brought fans closer to the band than ever before. Despite initial self-criticism from band members regarding their individual performances and concerns about the recording's quality, ‘Made In Japan’ stands as an indisputable pinnacle of live 1970s rock music.
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#DeepPurple #MadeInJapan #LiveRockAlbum #RockMusic #HighwayStar #ChildInTime
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Transcript
The Unexpected Success of 'Made in Japan'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. After the worldwide success of Machine Head, Deep Purple took their live show to Osaka and Tokyo and delivered a non-calant performance, not ever realising the potential this live album could bring. However, Made in Japan was a huge success, bringing fans and audiences closer to the band and their energetic live shows. With no overdubs,
00:00:24
Speaker
members critical of their own performances and doubts about the recording quality made in Japan, surprisingly stands as one of Rock's greatest ever live albums. To discuss this with me is my co-host,
Meet the Co-host: Felipe Amarin
00:00:35
Speaker
Mr. Felipe Amarin. How are you doing, bro? I'm great as usual, and you, man. good ya Yeah, very good. It's a Deep Purple episode, so how can you not be good? Got a Deep Purple shirt. There you go. I love it. You got a story about that that you can tell us in a second, right? um So just as normal, guys, welcome
Introduction to 'Made in Japan'
00:00:49
Speaker
to the show. We have a few little terms and conditions. If you're joining us for the first time,
00:00:52
Speaker
not serious you don't actually have to do anything but I would do us a massive favour listen to the show if you like it if you're on Apple or Spotify scroll down give us a review hit five stars and it means we get seen by more people if you're on watching us on YouTube hit like and subscribe so you stay up to date with our new episodes and latest content so without further ado Made in Japan by Deep Purple the live album from 1972 As usual, here are some quick album details. So it was released on the 8th of December, 1972 and recorded across a three night period in Japan in August of 1972.
Genre and Production Details
00:01:26
Speaker
The venues were the Festival Hall in Osaka and the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The genre has been classed as Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, which we'll discuss later. ah The length is one hour, 16 minutes, and it was released through Purple, which is Deep Purple's own record label, and produced by Roger Glover and Ian Pace. And the engineer for the gig was Martin Birch, who has done work with bands like Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden.
00:01:51
Speaker
Cool. So before we get into the album, why don't you give us your story about the Deep Purple t-shirt you're wearing. You said there was one there. Yeah, this is my first rock t-shirt from the first concert I've ever been to. So 1999 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I went to a Deep Purple gig. That was my first ever gig in my life. I've seen Deep Purple another three times after that, including last year, like in November.
00:02:18
Speaker
And yeah, they were phenomenal. Of course, there was like, I think the first or second tour with Steve Morrison guitar, I guess at the time. And um yeah, John Lord was still alive. So I got to see him live with them. like those was Oh man, that man. when not And when I saw him on stage, i like the first image that came to my mind was the the the cover of Made in Japan. I said, wow, is that guy, right? Is that same guy? He's still around. He's still rocking. And yeah, great. So he still got the shirt. He used to fit a bit better. I don't know. I think he got smaller with time. How many years ago was that?
00:02:55
Speaker
We're talking about 1999, so 26 years ago. Wow, bro. That's impressive that the shirt still fits. Come on. you Yeah, that's the app. Well done. You're getting applause for that. You're getting applause for that. But yeah, anyway.
Deep Purple's Japan Tour and Recording Conditions
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, I was fat at the time. Congratulations. It still fits now. Yeah, perfect. Excellent. explanation Cool. ah Right, we're just going to talk a bit about the background of the album. so uh follow like as i said in the opening thing following the success of machine head which we've done i think it's episode 16 so i will link it in the video um machine head was a resounding success around the world but more so not more so but actually surprisingly it it succeeded in japan and they loved it there So the Japanese... um Spinal top thing, isn't it? Yeah. what What have we got to go to Japan?
00:03:45
Speaker
the um ah Because of this success, Deep Purple then organized a world tour, touring Machine Head and obviously the other songs as well. And they organized a set of shows in Japan. And this was across three nights, ah the 15th, 16th and 17th of August, 1972 in Osaka and Tokyo. And these shows sold out immediately.
00:04:07
Speaker
I mean, then that goes to show you know how coveted the tickets were. Well, remember that was before the Internet, right? Exactly. And that that's brilliant. So how people like on the other side of the world listening to what you do and ah it's just it's really brilliant. It's 1972, right? They'd have been cute they'd have queued up at the venue. Am I right? Yeah. they No phones, calls. So you had sold out immediately. So that's going to be what? Thousands of Japanese fans queuing up at these venues to get tickets for Deep Purple. God, that makes you this. Yeah, it's great.
00:04:38
Speaker
um So, following the the sellout of these shows, the Japanese arm of Warner Brothers wanted to record the show. Now, Deep Purple were really, really hesitant about doing this. I don't know why. I haven't looked deeper into the exact reasons each member didn't want to, but they were very hesitant and reluctant to do it. They agreed to it eventually on the condition that they had to okay the equipment being used. They wanted to use their own producer, so they got Martin Birch in for that.
00:05:07
Speaker
And they wanted to have the final say in, you know, that even if all even if all the recording and filming got done, and there's nothing wrong with them, even if Deep Purple listened to that album and like, no, we don't want to put it out, they weren't going to put it out. So that was on like, that was on contract, probably something like that. Yeah. yeah specialized We're not going to release it if we don't like it. Yeah. So the interesting thing, and this is what ah for for me, and in my in my part of the show, the majority of my points are going to be about The band were uninterested in the final result. They didn't care about the show. They were like, OK, well, you know, they thought it was only going to be released in Japan. They didn't want it released to the rest of the world. So they were like, well, screw if this is only going out in Japan. Yeah, well, we're not going to put a lot of effort in.
Why 'Made in Japan' is a Heavy Metal Album
00:05:55
Speaker
And so this album really did capture, as we're going to talk about, the spontaneity, the interplay of the band.
00:06:02
Speaker
the random little musical moments we get halfway through a song. And because of that, this is where I think the album succeeded so well. So this is just my opinion. Well, it does make a lot of sense, man, because I think um um it it's got the energy of a live album, but it doesn't have the tension of a live album. Any musician out there would know that if you're playing live and you're aware that you've you're being recorded,
00:06:29
Speaker
ah you You normally get a little bit tense and you maybe don't perform with the same level of improvisation and, you know, looseness. You just don't want to just don't want to do a mistake. And I think they're clearly not ah not concerned about doing mistakes. There's more mistakes here and there. I mean, if you can call it mistakes.
00:06:50
Speaker
ah You can't just can call them mistakes and I will i will refer to them as mistakes yeah but just to this is not a negative and I'll make this clear as the episode goes on. And then they just go with the flow and changing the structures of the songs as they go along and I think that's just brilliant the fact that you capture that and in this age of AI where a computer can write a song for you, I think live music is something really special to actually watch a band playing live not knowing where they're going with the song, not even the band knows what's going to happen. So that is very it's just amazing. And it's good. It's good because they like individually really, really accomplished musicians. they ah you know They are masters of their craft, so there's no way
00:07:35
Speaker
whatever they played live wouldn't sound great. And I would dare to say that they probably rock's best live band ever. That is my opinion on Deep Purple because I've seen them live a million times and they sounded better every time. Even as they got older, they they just sounded better. They just got, ah you know, ah new tricks they could play live. Even with the lineup changes, there's something about Deep Purple and and the live audience in front of them that no one else can do like them. There's something beautiful about it and they are my favorite live band. There's an energy to them that as good as Led Zeppelin's song remains the same is, as good as all the other live albums of that era which we'll talk about later. There is an energy there and this is actually why I think, do you know what, there's no there's no room to talk about what I want to talk about in our section so I'll talk about it now. The debate, again and it's not a debate really but it's just his his historically
00:08:30
Speaker
What makes, why would some people consider this live album a heavy metal album? And as a heavy metal fanatic, I'm sat there going, well, it's not really heavy metal, but let's analyze why people think it. The tone of the guitars, the deep, deep, I don't know how to describe it, that the thunderous sound of John Lord's keyboards, Ian Gillan's screams, the energy, the pace, Ian Pace's drum fills,
00:08:57
Speaker
yeah And I kind of, you know, I love Deep Purple. And so when I saw this album and did my research and people calling it Heavy Metal, I was like, well, you know, really? Or is it just because it's Deep Purple? But after listening to it, I'm not sat here saying it's a Heavy Metal live album. It's not. But I can completely see the energy, the tone, the screams, the thunderous sounds. It really does. It's it's the heaviest live album I've heard from the 70s.
00:09:22
Speaker
makes sense and I would say like on space tracking the last track ah it's like and we're talking about the original release because there's like a double album version of this which we can talk about as well but um that that that take of ah space tracking which is about 19 minutes
Ian Gillan's Vocal Prowess
00:09:41
Speaker
long something like that it's insane and the riff is so heavy that's where my opinion that's where they they they touch the heavy metal line is there like they just cross the line uh on that song it gets really really heavy but what normally i don't say normally because i don't know heavy metal that well what normally heavy metal bands don't do is to over improvise they normally stick to their structures all right they play a song
00:10:07
Speaker
roughly the same length as the studio with the same sections and this song just goes on and on and on and they improvise and they go up and down so I think it has the ah power of heavy metal in it but it's got more dynamics and that's a word I'm going to say a lot today because the dynamics is what makes this album what it is in and in many ways and as you said improvisation which as yeah is not a cornerstone in heavy metal at all yeah um even if even if we look at two of the big heavy metal heavy metal bands of the 70s, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. What was the one thing that really split them? As you said, if Black Sabbath wanted to play a show, Tony Iommi would most likely play the same solo, or he would play sections of the solo and then followed by the first 16 bars like the studio, then he might jam for a bit, and then the NCC bars. But normally the band keeps the same structure as the record, so they don't change the song itself. It might improvise a solo, but not the song. Whereas Deep Purple and Zeppelin we've seen expand songs lives. Yeah, I think that's obvious. Excellent. Well, I mean, it's a live album. So we don't really have anything to talk about in terms of what was going on at the time, what recording techniques were used. So we want to focus primarily on the performances because it's a live album. And I think it's safe to say each member absolutely shines here. So let's start off with Ian Gillan.
00:11:27
Speaker
from my side sublime performance and the thing that sticks out for me is his ability to switch between his low soft vocals to his high screen number one effortlessly and number two so quickly. yeah When I hear Highway Star and he goes and it's lovely and smooth his voice and the dragon down big fat eyes of everything and then like the next second yeah within a second he's gone up to that high scream and it's perfect it's just so good man they still open their shows of that song oh i like that i hope they never stop because it is just the perfect hard rock song and i hope it forever is the opening song of a deep purple show
00:12:11
Speaker
It's just like, yeah, I think um if talking about Gillan got to talk about traveling time. Is that song like the thing with that is like um you would listen to the album. And if you guys are familiar with the song, we know what I'm talking about. That song is about the vocals. It's about the lyrics of the vocals. Just a second, just to let the listeners and viewers know that we have a dedicated playlist for every episode in the playlist. You see it in the show notes or in the description below. Click the Spotify playlist and all the songs from the album are going to be in there as well as any other songs we mentioned.
00:12:44
Speaker
so that whilst're whilst you're watching us and we talk about a specific song, you can go to the Spotify playlist and have a listen and you see what we're talking about. Please continue Felipe. Well, so ah that that vocal performance...
00:12:56
Speaker
We know that in studio you can do and redo stuff and you can try different takes. The thing with studio recordings is, even back in the day when the money was maybe tight for the record and the tapes were expensive, so you couldn't really just keep redoing stuff over and over, that would cost a lot of money. But if you do a vocal take that you don't like, go and do it again. Or even the whole band can go and do it again.
00:13:20
Speaker
Now, ah I don't know how many takes he had to do to get that perfect studio version of Childing Time done, but When you do it live, you have one take, you have one chance. And especially that was that was probably not a really long tour, and they only recorded two shows, that it? Three. So let's say he had two chances of doing a great performance of that song. And I actually think the live one is even better than the studio. as as I agree. with so yeah So you can listen to the studio one, listen to the live one, and he gonna and as he keeps going higher and higher with the vocals, you're like, no, he's not going to make it to the last one. It's it's just like, no, no one can humanly do that. yeah It's not possible. And it does it. And if you see videos, I don't know if there's an official video of this show. I never found it. But there is a I had a VHS tape. That's old. This one, not this one was then playing Denmark at the same time, same time. And he did that song like, and I see it's not struggling to do it. It's like, yeah, I can do this. And as he's got total control of the his of his vocal technique.
00:14:26
Speaker
And you've got to consider one special thing, which is the monitoring wasn't that good. So the musicians couldn't hear themselves with the same technology we have nowadays with like in-ears and stuff. So we have these, what we call them wedges, these amps on stage where the whole sound of the band is coming.
00:14:43
Speaker
or towards the musician so they can hear what's going on. But you also have the actual sound of the band and the drums behind you. You can see the stages, like we're not that big. The stage is where they were playing. So the drums are really close to the vocal. So it's a mess. There's a really nice part. I want to get the right words here because there's a really funny moment in the album. I think I was going to reference that. I don't remember which song was that, but at the end of the song Gillen says like, can I have everything louder than everything else? He's talking about the monitors.
00:15:12
Speaker
he can't hear anything, like can I just have everything louder, but everything louder than anything. I think ironically it happens after child in time, um so he's gone the whole 12 minutes.
00:15:24
Speaker
nailing every note and then been at the end like, yes, it's still not good enough for me, the monitoring. Can I have more, please? Even though he's just nailed child in time. i I think there's something about him. He doesn't take himself too seriously. He's always making jokes and he's such a great character to watch live. He's the perfect frontman. My next point feels like one of the band and not the lead singer. You never hear or see him trying to show off or take the limelight. When it's his time, when he's doing those screens in Child in Time, fair enough, like take the front of the stage. But I think you see, you see things now where singers feel like they have to occupy the microphone. I feel like and when i so when I say now, I'm mainly sort of talking, let's say from, I don't know, from the 90s to now. I get the impression that some people think
00:16:20
Speaker
playing music, only music to an audience without vocals, unless you go and see a prog band of course, is going to be boring. So you have singers sat there doing like ooh into the mic or trying to harmonize something a guitar's doing. Guillenew, this time's the band's time. This is Blackmore's time to do his service. This is John Lord's time. My time's going to come after this six minute solo, but he didn't try and impose himself on the performance because he's the lead singer. And for me, that's such a massive deal because, as I just said, you see singers do it so much in the last half many decades. There was a perfect time in the 70s where singers were equally important as the bass player, as the guitarist, as the drummer.
00:17:09
Speaker
And now, in the last 30 years, they're elevated a little bit more. I'm not having to go to singers. what But to the point that most people know the names of lead singers, they don't know the names of the rest of the band. That's that's very common, isn't it? Exactly. and i just You like name a band, you know who the singer is, you don't know who the bassist or the drummer is.
00:17:25
Speaker
uh you know and that means in a way that you're listening to the vocals and maybe the lyrics more than the music itself. Yeah and I just feel that like I said Gillan, Gillan knows his place. It just blends with the band so well. Anything else on Gillan? Well I could talk about him a whole day. Who else do you want to talk about now? All of them. All of them. Okay I'm gonna talk about the unsung hero of this band you know who I'm talking about.
Roger Glover and Ian Pace's Instrumental Impact
00:17:53
Speaker
Roger Glover, right? Isn't he the unsung hero of Deep Purple? Because everyone, um as you said, there's there's a ah place for everyone, but everyone's got this like huge stage ah personality and you can see them putting all the energy into it. And everyone plays a lot of notes, you know, there's a lot of playing going on. And the bass lines are mostly very simple. And i I always use this word in music, never easy.
00:18:21
Speaker
There's no such a thing as easy in music, you know, cause like, ive that's the famous last words when someone says, oh, playing the bass in the song is just easy. And then they mess up. So it's very simple bass lines compared to the overall style of the band. But here's that glue that holds the band together. Cause like without his solid bass line and really steady rhythm, no one could play around as they do, right?
00:18:47
Speaker
My notes here does the best job a bass player can do, holding the groove, linking with pace, giving guitars, keys and vocals their space, whilst also flourishing and showing off a tiny bit. And do you know where he does it? His fills. He'll play, he listens to Highway Star, he does his simple and then go to the next section you'll hear a
00:19:08
Speaker
And yeah as bass players, that is our bread and bar. we love We know our job. We know that you just want us to sit on the root note, keep the rhythm going, play the harmony that the guitar is playing, link it with the rhythm that the drums playing and hold the beat. That's fine. But you've got to give us our little four beats to get to the next section where we flourish and do something special. No, seriously, man Roger Glover, um an absolute beast of a bass player.
00:19:30
Speaker
yeah um And again, I'm going to criticise him now, but it's just to the overall extent of why mistakes are good in this scenario. He does a solo in space trucking that is just really bad. It's just one note. He holds one note and it's and it's a high note and it's... And it's just like, I'm like, come on, man.
00:19:57
Speaker
And again, just to reiterate. love Like he can do better than that. Yeah, but on that night... That's the thing, I saw him doing solos live and he's great. The thing with that is like, maybe he just didn't want it. Exactly. And on that night... Don't give me a solo, I just sort of grew. but Perfectly, yeah. And maybe on that night he didn't fancy it and that's okay. Maybe the next night he smashed a solo out of the park. I don't care. The point is this one was bad and I'm not even criticising that. I'm saying that they gave us the performance.
00:20:25
Speaker
I want to bring Roger Glover to this show. I hope you guys are going to spend 15 minutes discussing that one note solo. right I see you played some inverted triplets here, Roger, yeah.
00:20:37
Speaker
but My point is I'm emphasizing that it was a bad solo because they didn't go back and fix it. They didn't listen back to it and go, oh, Roger, do you want to go? Why don't you redo that solo tonight in Denmark? And we'll put that, no, no. Give us the show how it was. That's all I want from a live album. That's all I want. I want to know what it was like to be there that night and mistakes like this or not mistakes. Okay. Maybe, maybe some people think it's a great base solo for me.
00:21:05
Speaker
a not great solo like this, being in there, shows the authenticity of it, shows me that we got what they got that night. Do you know what that sounds like? to it's like ah Good live music is is like a conversation. You don't necessarily know where you're going with it. yeah You know the topic?
00:21:24
Speaker
and you take it from there and you know you you you don't have control of what other people are going to say, even if it's trying really hard, you can't control them. yeah So basically it's like me saying, Lars, can you talk about this? And you say, no, I don't want to talk about this. Let's move on to another subject. That's pretty much what I did. No, I don't want to do this.
00:21:44
Speaker
I didn't even I didn't even perceive that as a solo because when he said this is a solo this is that one yeah I don't know what you call it yeah but anyway I mean the the let it's almost like the less just quick funny story when we were at uni remember we had those performance lessons the best ah the best um uh feedback I ever got about one of my performances was oh lads I forgot I forgot you were there And i went I went, oh, I was really disheartened. I was like, oh, that's a shame. He said, no, no, no. That's a huge compliment for bassists and drummers. There you go. As a bass player, he said, you played it so well. You were perfectly in with the drums. Your volume was fine. Your playing was fine.
00:22:25
Speaker
you sank so perfectly into the mix. I found myself hearing the other guitarists and the drummers and the singers more because they were making mistakes. They were doing this. You sat so perfectly there that I didn't notice you were there. And I was like, oh, OK. So in that vein, the less we say about Walter Glover, the better. Yeah, exactly. We didn't even notice him in a good way. and maybe you know It's impressive that they never left him behind on a van or something like that.
00:22:57
Speaker
He probably never noticed him in like 50 years or something. Anyway, shall we move on to his partner in crime, Mr. Ian Pace? You can talk majority about this. I just want to say a few things.
00:23:10
Speaker
There's one moment that stood out to me. okay and And again, i'm gonna I'm going to make one criticism just to reinforce the same point. In Child and Time, one of the fields he does really doesn't land. And there's one he does, it's like, oh, no. I know that one. You know the one. Jazz, man, it's jazz. It doesn't hit quite well. i don't He didn't make a mistake. It's not wrong. It played the phrase a bit too early, I guess. yeah so And it just rolls over and it doesn't land.
00:23:39
Speaker
Again, I'm just saying this to reiterate that I'm glad we got it and they didn't put an overdub over it. However, I've put this, 99% of his films in this gig are stunning. And having listened to this gig and paid attention as much as I have this week, I see where you get your chops from. Because listening to those films and listening to the intricacy of what he does And obviously having played with you on tour for five, six years, little bars he plays. I'm like, oh, Felipe did that when we covered War Pigs. I'm like, oh, Felipe did that in that song. What a drummer. And this, this show only exemplifies how, how perfect he was for this band. It's it's difficult to, um,
00:24:28
Speaker
should as As a musician, sometimes it's difficult to figure out where exactly your roots are because you know you listen to a lot of different stuff. But if you think about the very beginnings, what made you play an instrument that the The guy that made me a drummer is Ian Pace. The guy that made me go out and buy a pair of sticks and start start drumming away, that that was Ian Pace. Because Made in Japan was the first CD I ever bought in my life. Yeah, I bought two CDs on that, they had some money, so I went to the record shop, really old school stuff, and I go sorry mr ke i got CDs with various trades on Everest Street, which was a kind of a 90s, like a bit of a country album they did, the last studio album, and I got Made in Japan, two completely different CDs. When I got home and listened to Made in Japan and listened to the drumming on it, I was like,
00:25:22
Speaker
I want to be a drummer. At that time, my mum wanted to put me in the keyboard lesson. Oh, you're going to let the keyboards, you know, play, you're going to play jingle bells and stuff like that. And I was like, I want to be a drummer. I was just like, that's too big and noisy and expensive. I want to be a drummer. Mum, I want to be a drummer. I just imagine little 10 year old Felipe with a beard already. She's been like, Mum, I want to drum. ah Felipe, I've told you, you're going to learn Beethoven. No, Mum, I want a drum. So i wanted I really wanted to be a drummer because of that and because of the mule, that solo is great. um That solo, you see how musical, here's a drummer who would pick one phrase, one musical idea
00:25:59
Speaker
and play that in different levels, different speeds, different accents, like moving around and going back. So it's like having a a conversation with himself. He goes back to the theme and goes into it. So he plays a fairly long drum solo that is not boring by any means. yeah and but Even with that amazing drum solo in it, the drum solo is not the best part of the drumming overall in the album. right grave Everything he does is just so musical. There's something about him. He is the perfect blend of jazz and funk, but louder.
00:26:34
Speaker
So he's got he's got. Yeah. How so? Yeah. Could you elaborate a little bit? more Well, when you listen to a strange kind of woman, that's much more funky than than the other drummers at the time. And if you listen to Machini had the album. Yeah. ah Never before. yeah Never before. That sounds really funky. They'll be in the playlist. um ah There's another one that's really funky.
00:26:59
Speaker
I'm trying to remember the other one. is maybe i'm a leo Maybe I'm a Leo. That is so funky. That whole song. So he had that sort of a funk influence. I don't know where where he got it from.
00:27:11
Speaker
And jazz, of course, bo he was I think he was a big fan of of big band jazz. and and yeah So he it took all the ah the tradition of jazz into rock music in many ways. The jazz drummers, they would be looking for the hits, for the stabs, as we call it in music, when the whole band hits a certain note at the same time, he would go for those and double those phrases on the drums. That's like big band jazz.
00:27:36
Speaker
you know, like that is that sort of music and that and he he brings a lot of that into rock. So he's got some finesse, which is not that common and in in heavy rock drummers. Most of the heavy rock drummers, they heavy hit us all the time. Everything they do is loud. Ian Pace has got dynamics, he plays a lot of ghost notes, which means you're playing at a certain level, but there's some notes he plays on his neotrump ah much quieter than everything else those are the ghost notes or the quiet notes he plays and so he's got dynamics inside the groove and he really ah drives the band in terms of dynamics what is dynamics in music when you play loud and quiet is that contrast of of ah
00:28:17
Speaker
levels, and he is a master of that. So there's funk, there's jazz, there's blues, you know, he swings all the time. That's another characteristic of his drumming. ah Even when the band is playing kind of a straight rhythm, he's swinging on top of it. He's imposing that swing. yeah So he's always a little bit jazzy, in my opinion, and a bit funky.
00:28:37
Speaker
and bluesy as well so he's got like everything that came before rock drumming is part of his drumming and he sums it up really well it's just the way he does it it's just it's just amazing i think um uh everyone goes on about um you know john bonham as the Uh, probably the most influential drummer of all times, I would say, like, cause he influenced everyone who came after him and rock music became bigger than everything that existed but before rock music. But I would say Ian Pace is as good as John Bonham at least. So I think it's, it's, and his importance to to rock drumming is, in my opinion, at the same level.
00:29:18
Speaker
The more I listen to Deep Purple, the more I'm inclined to agree with you. And this is not taking anything away from Bonham, but pace. My God, man, the fills in this album, yeah unreal. So i don't I don't know how he got so many sort of snare hits. It's one of the child in time ones where the whole fill lasts like a bar. And it even just for a fill, it takes you on this journey where it starts off a little slow. I'm just going to make it up. It's something like,
00:29:49
Speaker
You know, it's a scream.
00:29:52
Speaker
a but da da ba dagger daga ba that little bla' gonna go it and You're just like, hold on, you start here. You're like, okay, I get where this is at. And then it takes you to another level. And then there's like eight snares and you come back down and you're like,
00:30:07
Speaker
You know, that was just to take me to the next phrase. yeah It wasn't even like a drum fill to start the song. It's just to take me to the next section. And it's the album is filled with moments of drum fills where I'm sat there going, wow. yeah one the one The only other point I had to make about Ian Pace was, and this is what this is what to me signals the sign of his talent It's in space trucking and there's a section in the middle where it goes on for four or five minutes and he just keeps the snare going. I i can't even remember the rhythm. It's something like dung good then good gang good again the gudagger then gu again gu again something like that. And it's perfect. He doesn't ever waver off of that rhythm. There might be a symbol hit here, a symbol hit there, but he's just the snare. And that's the moment where I said, dude, you've
00:31:06
Speaker
knocked my you you've You've blown my brains with these fills. You can play really loud and really heavy when it's needed. You know, highway style, perfect example. You've done all the things that Felipe said, combined jazz elements, this, this, that, the other. But what's most sort of impressive is that you've done your job. You've held the beat and the rhythm.
00:31:27
Speaker
for four minutes, an extended period where you haven't changed what you're playing. He never sounds over the top. No, no. doesn't The point about that section is that he was just a true professional. yeah He just did it. But then when he just like yeah we said about Gillan, he shines when he needs to shine. When he's got those moments to put those fills in, trust me, he'll do them. But when he doesn't need to and when the other band are doing the thing, just like Roger Glover as well,
00:31:52
Speaker
He gives them the space they need because he's not the the lead guy. We know this. Yeah, but yeah exactly. Man, what a drummer. Anything else? he's He's the boss, right? He's the only member of the original lineup who's still in the band. He's the boss, man. There we go. else about Pace? Well, again, I could do a whole episode of it. So let's move on to John Lord.
John Lord and Ritchie Blackmore's Musical Contributions
00:32:16
Speaker
Every time we talk about John Lord, you know,
00:32:19
Speaker
there's There's always this debate going on about who's the best keyboard player in rock and I don't want to have that debate now because we don't need to and we can just appreciate everyone that doesn't really need to be a winner. Rick Wakeman always comes into the conversation. What's the E? Emerson? Keith Emerson? Keith Emerson. I just feel that John Lord has such a vibe to him.
00:32:46
Speaker
There is ah an element of groove that I'm not saying Rick or Keith don't. Again, whenm but we're not trying to compare here. I'm just saying that when I listen to this this this album, some of my vibe and groove will come only from what John Lord is doing. For example, in the first solo of Child in Time, when it sort of picks up the pace,
00:33:13
Speaker
he's ah he's doing the job of a rhythm guitarist on the keys. yeah And you hear it, that the beats are... done And you hear his keys go... But then after a few bars of that, he He just messes around with it. And it's just ever so slightly changing the rhythms that Glover and Pace are doing their thing.
00:33:40
Speaker
probably Glover's probably sticking on the same note, paces on the same beat, Blackmore soloing everywhere, Gillan's obviously not doing anything. How do you keep the music interesting when you play up an extended three or four minute jam? Tiny little rhythm changes that John Lord does throughout the album, but I just think it's most obviously shown in Child and Time. Playing the spaces, and playing the spaces figuring out what's not there that I can do without taking the attention away from Richie.
00:34:06
Speaker
yeah How am I going to keep interesting? Well, I'll do that for four bars and I'll switch up the rhythm a tiny bit. I'll just change one element. Instead of coming in on the beat, dad and I'll do off the beat. dinner you know like that just Just sit there.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, there's something about keyboards, like when unbelievable when you're the soloist in a band like so, there's two main soloists, so Richard Blackmore and him, but Blackmore has got the advantage of the guitar. It's a loud instrument, it's naturally ah the the solo instrument in a rock band. And so it's a tough competition, isn't it?
00:34:40
Speaker
ah Lots of rock bands don't even have a keyboard player to be a keyboard player in a band and to be able to rock as hard as the guitar player. that ah think that's ah i don't i don't know I don't know any other keyboard player who could do it as well as John Lord. And he had great knowledge of the instrument, of the technology of the instrument. So he could make it noisy enough when he wanted to. There's a lot of distorted stuff going on. Also, he's got the classical music background mixed with blues. So that's an interesting thing. When you listen to it, it's like, if you enter classical music, you know, that's really strict. You play things note by note. you said You've said two things that I want to to, can I just go back to one, just where you said about the the tone.
00:35:23
Speaker
several moments in the solos, especially Highway Star, I don't think you know whether it's him or Richie Blackmore that starts the solo because there's that opening note where it's like and you're like hold on is this Lorde on the keys or is it Blackmore holding like an open note and you just don't know because his tone is so good it's almost like he wants to sound like an electric guitar. It's like a second guitar in the band but not really because he got different you know different textures he can do with keyboards and guitar player couldn't do. Just like Child in Time we get the organ.
00:35:56
Speaker
I would say, shouting time, there's a brilliant moment, which is after, I think, the first ah round of the lyrics when the vocals get really high, on the song gets more and more intense and and builds up and leads to the solo. And I was expecting the guitar solo, right? Because it's just so intense, it's so loud, you got Ian Gillen shouting. you like and then Out of the blue, you have they have this keyboard coming in. It's like, wow. And he managed to make it work because the keyboard would never be as intense as those vocals or a guitar or a drum fill. It's just not as powerful and loud, yeah but he's so expressive. his His musical ideas are so great. They just works perfectly. He just knows perfectly how to find the right tone for the right song. Even the, as I've got here, sounds and effects choice is so good.
00:36:46
Speaker
the thickness of texture in that initial lazy riff, ah the song lazy, there's a moment where I think he's playing the riff in both hands. and whatever tone he's chosen is sublime because that is the most metal moment of the album. In a jazz song called Lazy, it's um it's it's that doo doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo. He's done something where he's doubled his hands, got a crazy effect going on, and doubled with Richie Blackmore's guitar, it sounds so thick and heavy that, as I've just said, for a jazz song, it's actually the most metal moment of the album in my opinion. um just Just sublime, just sublime.
00:37:26
Speaker
I wanted to, sorry, I did interrupt you because I just wanted to go back to his tone, but you were mentioning about classical music. Yeah, so classical music is normally too strict, isn't it? That's my point. It's normally really really strict. So you have, um if someone's got a classical music background and you want to write music, you normally go for um a composition where everything it's in in its place and he you play things note by note and that's not how he approaches music and not at least not when he's improvising so i can hear a lot of blues in his phrasing when he's improvising so there's a lot so when you think about yeah he's a classical he's classic trade isn't he yeah i'm not sure you know someone someone would be like oh he wasn't pleasantly great no he was he was really into classical music yeah Well, and let me just tell you this, so I don't want to sound like a snob because I do listen to a lot of classical music. In space trucking, in his section, there is a suite of music called Gustav Holst's The Planets.
00:38:23
Speaker
And this is a composer called Gustav Holst who wrote a suite of music for each planet. And he's ah he's attributed a personality to each planet. And it's it's stunning if you like classical music. I think that was a huge influence on John Williams who wrote the Star Wars soundtrack. Well in space trucking, take the word space,
00:38:43
Speaker
ah John Lord plays a little melody from one of Holst's planet's sweets. I think it's Jupiter. ah It's either Jupiter or Mars. It's the one that goes... do ah do do
00:38:57
Speaker
I think it's Mars or Jupiter. He does it. He just takes one little moment. But I just thought it's so clever, man, because it's really clever. John Lord is putting he's putting his he's playing in a blues rock band. So fine. He's going to have to improvise. He's going to have to play bluesy notes. But he's putting his own little homage to classical music. Not only has he done that,
00:39:18
Speaker
He's done it so appropriately, taken something for taken a melody from the planet's suites and put it into space trucking. It's just like so clever, just brilliant. So yeah, what a man, what a what a keyboard player. And then again, huge personality in a way. It's like you can see that it's just like Ian Gilly, he was always having fun on stage. So what a musician. And now we've got to talk about Yeah, just just for the listeners, I've put in the Mars and the Jupiter suites into the um playlist. I think it's Jupiter, but enjoy them both, have a listen. and They're both fantastic pieces of music. Yeah. Yes, go on. Next, we're going to talk about now, Richard Blackmoor, isn't he? The man, yeah. um
00:40:03
Speaker
complicated character, isn't it? Yeah, I kind of find it's just easy if we don't talk about him. yeah they know you got a taste that he We're not talking about anyone's personality. He's just a little controlling in places or whatever. but Yeah. and know the thing The thing with him was ah um ah he ultimately got kicked out of the band for for for his overall attitude, I guess, when Well, anyway, but that's ah what matters about him um in this album specifically is how I think in my opinion is the the one album where he really stretched his abilities. Excuse me. He took his guitar playing to like
00:40:43
Speaker
the highest level of improvisation that you can get without completely destroying a song. Let's put it like that. Because it you sometimes it goes so far. I'm like, where are you going now, mate? They're still playing a song. But it just works. right I'll give one one fine example of that. The intro of Smoke On The Water. So the most Yeah, probably. I don't know. It has to be on the top three of like most iconic riffs of all time, right? If it's not, I'm putting it there, I don't care. So he plays the riff once, and then he goes and changes it. Like, come on, you just released the song, it's a massive hit. And he changed the riff immediately, like on the second time around. He plays around with the rhythm, playing the same notes, but he changed the order of the notes and the way he phrases it.
00:41:32
Speaker
and it becomes another riff and then he goes back to it and the song actually starts so he is so free on stage like he's like not even the most uh strict thing you can have in a song which is the opening riff is the one thing you shouldn't change he goes on and changes it and it sounds good that is difficult he does it in lazy as well yeah he does that initial do did little do
00:41:57
Speaker
And he's like, oh, no, that's not what happened. But i' I've got that here on my notes and I've written this, so I kind of might have a bit different look at look at this on the new. He's teasing us with his playing. I think he knows that we want the riff just to be simple, sharp. But for Ritchie Blackmore was famous as we spoke about in in the Rainbow episode again, episode 76, Rainbow Rising. We spoke about his his love for classical music.
00:42:24
Speaker
And I think, as you can see from the Richie Blackmore timeline, the the the classical music starts creeping in more as the 70s go on. Here, as you said, classical music is very organized. You play things how you're meant to play it. And I think in ah in an album like Machine Head, where the blues is ah is a very yeah prevalent part of it,
00:42:50
Speaker
I think he's saying, hold on, no, we're not going to play this like like how it should be, because we're a blues band, we're a blues rock band. So I'm going to mess around a bit with a few things. um It's just teasing and flirting with the audience, really. But I think what it does is, especially in Lazy, when the moment hits and the rest of the band come in, it's almost a little sweeter. yeah I think we've heard the studio version and we know, okay, he's done the first lick, waiting for the second lick, and then the band come in.
00:43:19
Speaker
It's almost like the first lick happens. Hold on, he's throwing us off because we didn't get the second lick. What's going on? This isn't right. What's happening? Bang, the the whole band come in and it's back to normal. And you're like, oh yeah, that's that's hit quite nicely. um So yeah, the only other thing I'd say about Blackmore. Well, again, this goes to the non-calants of the album, like I was saying. That little polka jam in Lazy,
00:43:46
Speaker
before the finale, do you know what I mean?
The Band's On-stage Chemistry and Audience Interaction
00:43:48
Speaker
It's a bit of humor in it. It's weird, yeah, it is, but it's just, again, a little bit of humor. It just exemplifies the easygoing attitude of this album and the non-calants about it. They didn't care that this was going to go out. Well, yeah, they literally didn't care. They thought it was only going to go out in Japan. um Maybe that's that's one of the main reasons why the album's so good.
00:44:09
Speaker
If you're not 100% aware that this is going to become a recording that is going to still be listening to people like 40 years after the release, if you're not aware of that, there's no pressure. It's all about performing. And again, as I said at the beginning, the whole performance for me is like a conversation. They're just having fun. They're playing that little bit here and there.
00:44:30
Speaker
ah there's loads of like um guitar and keyboard battles and there's an amazing one with vocals and and guitar on strange kind of woman that's when Richard Blackmore is displaying his guitar licks and Ian Gillan proceeds to repeat the same phrase yeah and it's clearly not a phrase they rehearsed like note by note again it's improvised they're doing on the spot and Yeah, and i yeah I think Richard Blackmore, in a certain way for the improvisation side of it, he was kind of the leader in that sense. yeah He is the guy who's really pushing the boundaries. And I think modern guitar ah playing wouldn't be half as good as it is if he didn't exist, because he influenced every ah heavy metal guitar player from the 80s and everything that came after the Purple. So it's one of those.
00:45:20
Speaker
I think just ah for me to finish off on Richie Blackmore, um his guitar tones. I think it's easy for a live, especially in the 70s, it's easy for a guitarist to sort of just stick on the same tone for the guitar, especially when the energy of the songs, song after song stays the same. But we've got that really hard hitting distorted solo in oh and the sound in general in Highway Star, followed by the really soft, sweet, smooth solo, which is the the first strange kind of woman solo. It just has a different vibe to it.
00:45:51
Speaker
And it's weird because it almost sounds like a different guitarist. And I think that's a compliment to to Blackmore. It's that he can sound like two different players. And then again, more little innovations. He's got that little violin effect towards the end of space trucking about 15 minutes in. Playing around with the volume knob. Yes. I did Google to see if he was using a bow like Jimmy Page did, but he's playing around basically for anyone who's not guitar savvy. There's a volume knob on the guitar and you can sort of pick a note and then pull the volume knob. I mean, I can sort of demonstrate it for anyone watching. So, um, if you've got the volume knob here,
00:46:25
Speaker
you can pick a note and then as soon as you play the note you turn the knob down turn the knob back up and slide it up and down like that and that way you're going to get this little effect that like it's swelling like a like that yeah and that's really cool as well almost makes the guitar sound like a violin isn't it yeah and then again look at what we spoke about in the last minute The similarities with Led Zeppelin's live performance, the long the massive drum solos, the call and response between the guitarist and the and the guitar player and the guitarist and the singer, and making your guitar try and sound not like a guitar. So I think that'd be another good conversation to have, you know not not necessarily who did it first, but where did these come from and you know why? Anyway, anything else about Richie Blackmont? I think, yeah, i just I think I've covered everything I wanted, yeah.
00:47:16
Speaker
Well, I'm just going to point out a mistake for the sake, again, of just proving that mistakes belong in live albums. The Highway Star guitar solo. I love it. I love it because you can tell he's focused on delivering the energy of the solo more than the correct note, because it's the part that goes... did didta do did did did do did dooo did do When he does it the second time, he completely fluffs it up because... that they did didta do but do But did they did the doo it just tells me that he's not sat there looking at his guitar trying to make. He's probably focused on the audience or like put his, you know, got his foot up on the monitor. And I love it, man. I love it. And and that solo, by the way, the highway style guitar solo. I think it deserves its own episode. And we might do that when we do this another solos episode. It's just stunning. yeah And the fact that both there's two solos in the song
00:48:13
Speaker
the guitar one has its own first half that's kind of does its own thing the keyboard one has its own first half but they both end the same way yeah the de deliverly deliberate the guitar one does it and then john lord does it in the second solo yes it's and it's an amazing ending look because i think it's it's a solo that tells a story normally when you um normally really good guitar solo has a great start and a great ending and that's enough yeah honestly that's enough but He tells the story on every single bar, every single note of the solo. He builds up that ending and it's one of those um scenarios where every note matters in the solo. Everything he's doing, it's it's actually, they can keep your, those guys, not only Richard Blackmore, those guys, they they can keep your attention with um
00:49:03
Speaker
with a long solo, a long song, you still like, you don't disconnect. You don't even notice that the song is lasting for 10 minutes or so. yeah it's ah It's brilliant. Also one more thing about the five of them. You know, when people come with, you know, what's, so if you could um ah create your own like dream band, like the dream lineup, pick five musicians, you know, keyboard, drums, bass, guitar and vocals.
00:49:30
Speaker
and and name you know your favorite rock musicians to to come up with that dream band. um I would do a seven-piece band and it would be this Deep Purple, that lineup, because you can't change it, it's just they work so well together. And you on tambourine and me on cowbell.
00:49:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think I think I'd like that as well. So yeah, that would be fine. Honestly, though, like, the yeah, it is. It is like there's no weak link in the band. Everyone does their job perfectly.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah. Stunning. Yeah. um ah Just a quick note on the production. Again, I think we've covered most of it in the sense of what I wanted to make note of. No overdubs, mistakes throughout the album. They left in the unnecessary interactions between the band members and it's great. Why not? Why not? Like I said, I want to so i want to ah want to listen to that show and imagine like I was there. And the other thing I just wanted to make at the end of Child in Time, the little wait, doesn't he talk to one of the audience members about their height?
00:50:32
Speaker
He's like, yeah, you're four foot six. Don't worry. There's two other people out there. And then the music goes on. He's like, oh, this is going to be someone who's a million stone heavier than you. It's just random. I don't know what he's talking about. I think he's away from the microphone as well, because it's really quiet. He's just having a chat with someone in the audience. It's so easy at that moment to look at the, they recorded it on an eight track and it's so easy at that moment to just say, oh, we don't need that. Turn the vocal track down for that part. They didn't.
00:51:00
Speaker
ah Just a quick shout out to the Japanese audience because I know it is within there there are so many quiet moments in in this album because of the dynamics, as you mentioned, like Child in Time. I can just imagine if that was in England or the USA, people probably shouting over it, whispering, and whispering whistling, shouting things. There is a general respect in the Japanese culture and tradition And I know this even from looking at videos of excuse me of jazz musicians playing, yeah the audience will sit there and take in the song and they won't sort of shout. you know I love it when people shout, oh, I love you, Ian.
00:51:38
Speaker
but There's just something that you get the impression from the lack of noise during the quiet section. Some people will be like, well, where the hell are the crowd? Why are the crowd not up there? You can hear their applause when they finish a song. You can hear they're there and they're really energetic. Exactly. They were being respectful. They were sat there taking in each 12 minute performance and clapping at the end madly. Towards the end of the album, you can hear Blackmore do little sections rhythmically and then you hear them
00:52:10
Speaker
start to clap because they're like oh do we clap now and they're like just clapping in time but yeah shout out to them. It's a perfect interaction like they they they interact when there's space for it and they listen and it's like maybe there's a reason why they decided to do this they decided to do this tour not only because the albums were selling well because they knew ah it was a good environment to record something maybe that the label whoever came up with the idea because you have you have the um the the audience participating without getting in the way of the performance. And that's really important. Great point. Yeah. Well, let's finish off with just a little discussion about, well, I suppose live albums of the 70s.
00:52:48
Speaker
Do you want me to talk about live album relevance? yeah so i Long ago, I read an article by one of those Brock journalists, I don't know which one, um but basically going on about, you know, live albums are not really relevant. Why would someone just release a live version of a song that we already know? And it's like, yeah, that is it is not relevant if you play note by note, as in the studio, if there's no changes or if you don't play it as well as the original one right if you can't execute that music live and make it better there's no point it's going to be better yeah right why would you re-release something saying right this is the product like next month we're going to do it again but it's just
00:53:36
Speaker
shit, but we're going to release it. It's not as good, you know, it's like you drink your Coca-Cola, cool, we're going to come up with, which actually they did, a new formula for Coca-Cola, and it's really shit, but you know, it's still, is too you should buy it, and then you go back to the original one, right? So,
00:53:54
Speaker
ah live albums tricky to do because like you've mentioned Led Zeppelin so just to compare like two of my other favorite bands maybe my top three bands would be in no particular order Deep Purple, Zeppelin and Pink Floyd but when you listen like Pink Floyd only came up with a proper live album in the 80s and it's like there's a there's a 10-piece band loads of like session musicians on stage with them and it's and they touched it up in studio, they you know improved some of the stuff, overdubbed stuff, although they probably would deny this, but you know it's it's the truth. And ah Led Zeppelin has the, you know now they they came up with ah better stuff like recently, but ah well recently like 15 years ago. so but
00:54:40
Speaker
uh but in the 70s the only thing that the only live uh recording they've released was the song remains the same which for me does not reflect how they were not even as a live band and they were not happy about it they were never happy about that album so i think we've agreed between us how the west was won is a nice that is yeah so so the purple has this like amazing moment in time where they without any expectation from anyone, without any um anticipation, without any um ridiculous preparation or or marketing or anything. They just say, let's record a live album. And it's interesting to notice that like the songs in the album are basically machine head. So that's them playing stuff they just ah wrote and released.
00:55:29
Speaker
And they really into that, they're really passionate about that music. So there's seven songs in the album, right? And um if I'm not wrong, Machine Heads also got seven songs. And out of those seven songs, four are the same. So so basically, ah ah over half of what they do there is is Machine Head, is the whole album. So they got Child in Time in Rockwood, it's a great album. They've got The Mule from Fireball, and Strange Kind of Woman,
00:55:58
Speaker
is a single they released in between a couple of albums. So the rest of it is Machine Head. So imagine this like we we got this album so we basically just releasing it again but live and it is better and the album is already like a huge success like the probably the best selling album probably one of ah Rock's most iconic albums and then you go and do it live again. So it it just has to be better. There's no excuse why you'd release, just read re-release an album, which people do nowadays should get your money again. But like, oh, you know, you've bought this. Now this is a remixed version, which is pretty much the same, buy it again. But they're not doing that. They're just doing something. They're taking those songs to a completely different level. And you see, I think the fact that they pretty much played Machine Head Live in almost its entirety is
00:56:51
Speaker
ah It shows that they were really committed to the new music they were making and and the live performance is really passionate, is really um energetic. I love it. Yeah, great. I completely agree with you. And what all this album did actually is it elevated the live album as a format because sort of in that in that time, live albums, I think that they'd been they they'd be considered inferior or second to studio
Global Impact and Legacy of 'Made in Japan'
00:57:16
Speaker
albums. They might have been like a, I don't know, a contractual obligation or like a bootleg something or other. But the fact that they decided to release this live album with such high quality performances, with such high quality sound, it really kind of made the live album respectable format. And bands sort of took on after that, wow, we can do this to this level. As well as this, you know, the other impact the other impact that this album had,
00:57:41
Speaker
um I was reading, yeah, well, just just highlighting the global reach of rock music in the 70s. Because nowadays, you know, we've got a Black Label Society released, in oh no, Ozzy Osbourne released an album in Japan. So many live albums come from Japan, but in 1972, don't forget, Rock and Heavy Metal had not been around for that long at that point. yeah so And to show that a sold-out arena in Osaka and Tokyo were welcoming this kind of music,
00:58:07
Speaker
just showed you know the the the growing importance of of international markets and rock music. And and rock rock music became like universal. yeah It's not only UK and America anymore. That belongs to the world now. that massive massive Massive album. Excellent. Cool. Shall we finish off? Yes. Excellent. OK. Well, for new listeners and viewers, for every album we choose, for Lipay normally chooses one album, I choose the next one.
00:58:34
Speaker
And we'll do a little monologue at the end. Whoever chose the album does a little monologue at the end, just expressing their thoughts on the album. So this is mine, obviously. Every member of Deep Purple delivered something extraordinary and made in Japan, yet uniquely human. Ian Gillan's voice is incredible, effortlessly moving between tender lows and soaring highs, being the star when it's his time, but never hogging the spotlight, instead blending in seamlessly with the band and choosing his moments.
00:59:01
Speaker
Roger Glover holds the groove like a true pro, linking perfectly with Pace, while giving the guitars, keys and vocal space to shine. Ian Pace is pure precision and energy. The rolling snare I mentioned in space trucking is the definition of professionalism, doing so little, so perfectly for so long. Nearly every fill is immaculate. Meanwhile, John Lord blurs the lines between rhythm and lead. often intertwining with Blackmore's guitar, so seamlessly that you can't tell them apart. His thick textured sounds in Lazy and playfulness in all the solo and jam sections are just brilliant. Then there's Richie Blackmore, teasing the audience with fragments of riffs before delivering the big moments. His tone is stunning, shifting from the raw power of Highway Star to the smooth beauty of Strange Kinda Woman. Even his cheeky little polka jam in Lazy captures the band's easygoing confidence and non-calant attitude.
00:59:53
Speaker
The production makes this album truly timeless. No overdubs, no polishing, just raw unfiltered performances. You hear the mistakes, like a missed drum fill in Child in Time, or the banter with the audience left in the mix. These imperfections don't detract, they enhance the experience, making you feel like you're there in the room.
01:00:11
Speaker
Now don't mistake my insistence of non-calants and mistakes for laziness or carelessness. They care and they show it. But I sit wondering, if they had focused on making this show as good as it can be, or if they spent hours and hours rehearsing to record one perfect live album, would it have been as good?
Final Reflections on Live Performance Authenticity
01:00:27
Speaker
I think not. In a world full of perfect music where each drum beat and bass note is insisted upon to be precise and correct, let's remember and celebrate the moments captured in music history where the imperfections actually enhance the experience and bring us closer to what it would have been like to see these rock legends in their absolute prime.
01:00:47
Speaker
Amazing. What an album. Probably one of the first live albums I ever heard. My dad had it on CD and I remember even then just hearing Highway Star. I must have been 10 years old, maybe a bit younger, hearing Highway Star, not not knowing anything about the instruments, not knowing who anyone was, just hearing the energy and being like that. And when I liked it, my dad then took me on to Machine Head. And Machine Head was probably arguably one of the first rock albums I ever listened to.
01:01:14
Speaker
and still one of my favorites. It's great, but just as' there's a different energy to Made in Japan, isn't it? Those songs, stay they became something else live. And if for you watch Deep Purple Live, it's a different experience every time. yeah And it's just, they leave you with that feeling, which which is like, what watch's just what just happened here? It's really weird. It's so unpredictable and it's so much fun. and is i have I just have a feeling that they they are always, always having a good time when they perform live. And um yeah, it's a band that I had the pleasure to see live many times. And this album is just a masterpiece. Everyone should listen to it. It should be a school subject. Everyone should have this in school, just say.
01:02:01
Speaker
And on that note, we say thank you for joining us for another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. If you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify or Amazon, please scroll down, give us a review. It takes 20 seconds of your time, but does the world of good for us and shoots us up the charts to be seen by more people. If you're watching us on YouTube, share this video with your friends or other people who like Deep Purple. Like and subscribe to stay up to date with more content. Thank you and we'll see you next time. Yeah, thanks for being with us once again. Keep on rocking everyone and don't do anything I wouldn't do. And as usual guys, take care and long live rock and roll.