I can’t help but think of Spinal Tap, yet again, and how that film ends with them having a successful tour of Japan. I suspect Tap’s keyboardist Viv Savage has a bit of Jon Lord in his inspiration, but also I wonder if the “big in Japan” element was inspired by this album?
Be that as it may, this is a live album made from performances in Tokyo and Osaka, largely featuring songs from Machine Head (Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Lazy, and Space Truckin’) with one from ...In Rock (Child Of Time), and two from Fireball (The Mule and Strange Kind Of Woman). It’s kind of an "official bootleg" – it was intended as a live recording but the band didn’t think that the recording equipment was adequate and treated the show as if it wasn’t being recorded. Only Glover and Paice showed up to mix it, and the band thought it was only going to be released in Japan, not worldwide.
As it’s live, the album versions of the songs are stretched out a few more minutes (or, in the case of Space Truckin’, forever) with solo jamming sections but it’s one of those live albums where the live version is generally better, with more energy and power than the studio versions. Glover’s bass on Smoke On The Water, for example, comes in with a deep thunder, the kind that hurts your chest when you’re actually there. Lord adds superlative Hammond elements to it. The Mule was, apparently, a fixture of live shows that enabled my old neighbour Paice to indulge in a drum solo. But before you groan, this one is a pretty damn impressive display of technical skill and manages to have a good structure to it. There’s some great call and response on Lazy between Blackmore’s guitar and Gillan’s vocal, sounding like Blackmore is trolling Gillan with some of his high and baroque licks. It has to be said, however, that towards the end my attention began to wane, saturated with rock jams, especially in the 18-minute Space Truckin’.
Every time a live album turns up on this list I revisit my question about how well they capture a time and a place – in this case, very well, I think. The energy of a live performance is abundant and, despite the band’s misgivings, the recording quality is really good. My other note on live albums is if they are simply an acceptable form of Best Of.... In this case, it’s more like Machine Head live, but the quality of the performances surpasses the studio versions every time.
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