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A stop gap that changed history
In anticipation of the upcoming reissue, powers-that-be are teaspoon feeding us what Roger Glover and Ian Paice have to say about Made in Japan. This post will be updated if and when further chunks are released, which will bump it in the News in brief column on our front page.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Which goes to show: Always listen to your Japanese record company, the Emperor knows best!
Domo arigato dear business suits of the rising sun, without you this album wouldn’t exist.
July 16th, 2025 at 02:43Well, who needs coffee when one can listen to this 😃🤩
July 16th, 2025 at 04:41Just listened to ‘Strange kind of woman’, from the improved MiJ
Ohhh boy! 🤩🤩
July 16th, 2025 at 05:17for me it´s still the best live-album ever and next to the golden Made In Japan is the original of the silver Made In Europe LP, cause it has an unbelievable energie in the playing, also. But i still use my old 70s-versions, for me that´s enough sound.
Rainbows On Stage and DP Live in Long Beach 1976 are the two also important live-albums from the DP-family.
I wish that “live in Stuttgart 1993” would be on vinyl (4LP) this was an unbelievable gig, too and it was much better than “Bombay Calling” which has no good sound, for me.
July 16th, 2025 at 08:49@4
Oh yes, of Bombay Calling I was disappointed. It has a pirate sound, and the Fireball (opener) isn’t included. Disappointing.
July 16th, 2025 at 09:37@ 2 Hu Karin, how did you get your – without a doubt – very lovely hands on a copy of that improved MiJ set?
Apart frrom getting a divorce, a change of name or whatever online the kingdom of Denmark seems to be ahead of its time in many aspects.
July 16th, 2025 at 09:56And for me Abandon live in Australia live is one of the worst sounding Deep Purple live albums.
July 16th, 2025 at 11:49#1: Well, their Japanese record company also insisted that they release The Last Concert In Japan, so they don’t always know best. But as for MIJ? Absolutely!
July 16th, 2025 at 12:41This is it!! This is where it was at and still is after all these years.. the best hard rock album ever..nothing comes even close..
especially not the MK III and MK IV live albums… This is it!!!
Cheers!!!
July 16th, 2025 at 15:16If the Japanese hadn’t been so adamant/persistent in wanting a live recording for their own market, we might today be without a proper eight track recording of Mk II at its peak in the post-Machine Head phase. The BBC Concert and the one in Denmark were still relatively insecure with the new material, they were coming to grips with it and testing it out, not yet the well-oiled machine playing with the controlled frenzy of the summer of 1972. And whether in the absence of the MIJ recording, Mk II would have recorded something as strong in sound and quality in the last year of their existence is at least doubtful, Ritchie and Ian would have likely not been exuberant about the prospect and Mk II’s inner morale began to decay pretty swiftly after the first Japan tour.
Looking at it today, one tends to be baffled about Purple’s reluctance to record themselves live. In their very own perception, they were a better live than studio band and always attempted to make their studio albums sound as live as possible, yet no one ever thought about taking a whole step and recording the band truly live?
And it’s not like pre-MIJ all live albums by rock bands had been quick cash-in rubbish and lesser releases: Both Humble Pie’s Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore and Rare Earth In Concert, both released in latish 1971, had been very successful double albums in the US – actually the best-selling records of these bands. Before that The Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Yas Out had gone to #1 in the UK charts in 1970 (around the time of the release of In Rock), preceded by no less than The Who’s Live At Leeds which had gone to #3 and #4 in the UK and US charts respectively also in 1970. So the realization that a good live album can immeasurably promote and boost record sales of a good live act (at very low production costs) was really common knowledge by 1972. The Japanese weren’t just idly throwing rice balls against the wall to see what sticks, they – TORA, TORA, TORA! –
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had a sound plan and commercial nous.
So DP weren’t really the first or even among the first to realize the commercial potency of a good live album, but – rather the opposite – shuffled their feet quite a bit and jumped belatedly on the gravy train.
But with legendary results!
July 16th, 2025 at 15:18@6
Well, thanks ☺️
I get my crooked hands on the notification I got from YouTube that ‘Strange kind of Woman’ was ready to listen to 😄
And you’re completely right:p! Denmark is a happening country! (Except for summer time…)
July 16th, 2025 at 18:03Let’s not forget the influence that the late great Martin Birch played in recording MIJ. Plus could not agree more with Wiktor!
July 16th, 2025 at 19:50Wiktor @9: And especially not Rainbow’s lame On Stage which to anyone who had actually seen Rainbow live in the era 1975-78 was an extreme disappointment, they really did pick lackluster performances for it, even Cozy agreed with that undiplomatically when promoting Rainbow On Stage in 1977.
July 16th, 2025 at 19:53Guys…
https://www.loudersound.com/news/hard-rock-song-soundtrack-stranger-things-season-five-trailer-2025
July 16th, 2025 at 21:02@ 10 – Uwe, what about Grand Funk Railroad, Live album. That was 1970 and rather popular from what we read. My older cousin’s record collection had that in it when I was introduced to all this evil music, along with MIJ of course. Bloody hippies everywhere with their long hair and tattered jeans. Why didn’t they choose a ‘normal’ career is beyond me. Cheers.
July 16th, 2025 at 22:08Martin Birch with only 8 tracks (unthinkable even at the time of Nobody’s Perfect!!) recorded the best live album in the history of Rock, distant sounds, reverberated, with too much panpot, but tremendously powerful!
luckily Martin has unloaded the mid frequencies (I always believe that for equal-tone curves an album, especially a live one, should always have less mid frequencies than high or low frequencies).
and then the incredible acoustics of the Budokan and the Festival Hall greatly favored Martin’s work!
if I remember correctly, just one overdub at the beginning of SKOW because Gillan made a noise when he tripped over the microphone stand!
The other interesting anecdote was that Ritchie broke his guitar at the end of ST, threw it into the audience and the audience threw it back at him at least twice on stage with Ritchie himself incredulous that the Japanese didn’t understand and were so “correct”!
July 16th, 2025 at 22:09The Mark II Purple really had no idea about what would work, other than how to make great music. They thought “Never Before” would be the hit track on Machine Head, despite classics like Highway Star, Smoke on the Water and Space Truckin’, plus underrated tunes like Pictures of Home and Maybe I’m a Leo, not to mention When a Blind Man Cries. They didn’t think a live album would sell. Gillan didn’t realize it wasn’t a good idea to take his marbles and go home when the band was at its zenith. Blackmore was looking to replace Gillan.
July 17th, 2025 at 01:09John @8: I know this is controversial, but to me Mk IV’s Last Concert In Japan is an important document how that line-up prevailed against all odds that night, with Tommy still heavily compromised because of his arm. You could hear a band working hard and there are musically magical moments on that album with Lady Lick, Love Child, Wild Dogs, the organ version of Soldier of Fortune and You Keep On Moving.
Last Concert shows a flawed Purple giving their best. I prefer it to Made In Europe, which is professional, well-played stadium rock, but rendered somewhat soulless, with a withdrawn Ritchie phoning in his solos.
July 17th, 2025 at 04:58Live at Leeds from The Who was one of the absolut first live Vinyls who came out and for me it´s at the same level as MIJ. The Who was earlier…
July 17th, 2025 at 08:47