The 100 Best Live Recordings - No. 89: Made In Japan
No. 89 - Deep Purple - Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition)
A Brief Introduction
While this review bears a faint glancing verisimilitude to my earlier article The 25 Best Live Rock Recordings - No. 14: Made In Japan, I am doubling down with this one. Made in Japan celebrated its chronological golden anniversary in 2022 and its aural one in 2025 with the release of Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition). This release is definitive because it includes all the concerts that provided the material for the original release. This is much to the credit of Rhino Record. It disciplined what had been an unruly Warner Bros. re-release program that included three remixed sets1.
What new does the Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition) provide the starved Baby Boomer that they could not have gotten from the 2014 Box Set Edition?
The three complete shows from which the original and subsequent releases derived.
A beautifully designed 40-page booklet, replica concert poster, and new remixes by engineer of the 21st century Steve Wilson and Richard Digby Smith
Ensconced in an attractive box, 14.5 x 19.5 x 4.5 cm.
How did we get here?
Success often comes down to perfect timing and exceptional talent. Deep Purple achieved their classic five-piece formation with lead vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Richie Blackmore, bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice during the experimental Concerto for Group and Orchestra (Tetragrammaton, 1969). With that ambitious project behind them, they delivered the critically acclaimed Deep Purple in Rock (Warner Bros, 1970) and Fireball (Harvest, 1971). Before recording their watershed Machine Head (Purple, 1972), the band had toured relentlessly, with In Rock and Fireball being recorded between live appearances.
As a break from the hectic pace of touring and recording catch-as-catch-can, the band desired a different approach for what would become Machine Head. Dissatisfied with their recent sterile studio experiences, they sought an alternative to conventional soundproofed environments. They settled on the Montreux Casino in Switzerland, anticipating an extended period without touring obligations. Thanks to Claude Nobs, they would use the casino location with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio for recording. The plan called for the band to arrive after the season's last concert, giving them exclusive access to the venue. In exchange, Deep Purple would perform a show at the casino.
December 1971 brought the season's last performance: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. During that show, while Deep Purple dined at a distant restaurant, an audience member fired a flare into the venue's roof, igniting the infamous fire documented in "Smoke On The Water"—the centerpiece of what would become Machine Head and the band’s place in radio classic rock.
This incident derailed the band's carefully laid plans. Nobs moved the band to a local theater called the Pavillon, which proved acoustically inadequate for recording. From the Pavillon, Deep Purple eventually moved to the empty Grand Hotel on the city's outskirts. After positioning the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at the building's entrance, the band established themselves in a hallway next to the main lobby. In this elegantly improvised hardship, they recorded their masterpiece—not unlike how the Rolling Stones created their own masterwork, Exile On Main St. (Rolling Stones, 1972), under similarly unconventional circumstances.
Deep Purple recorded "Machine Head" between December 6 and 21, 1971, and released it on March 25, 1972. The band immediately returned to touring, beginning with Hamburg, Germany, on January 5, 1972. This marked the start of a world tour supporting Machine Head, taking the band through the United States, Europe, Canada, and England before reaching the Far East. The band performed three nights in Japan: August 15-16, 1972, at the Koseinenkin Kaikan in Osaka, and August 17, 1972, at the Koseinenkin Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. These concerts provided the source material for Made in Japan.
The original Made in Japan has always been a sleeping giant among other entries on best live recordings lists. Over the past 50 years, the recording was re-released, but each time in a form less than adequate for the cause. The Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition) package finally brings the most complete and satisfactory experience of the concerts leading to the released live recording.
"Made in Japan" stands as one of hard rock's greatest concert recordings, capturing the Mk II lineup during their creative zenith. Originally released in 1972, the album featured expansive live interpretations of studio material, demonstrating the band's unbridled energy and technical mastery.
The performances were extraordinary across the board. Keyboardist Jon Lord delivered a memorable jazzy introduction to "Lazy," while guitarist Richie Blackmore unleashed experimental solos that pushed boundaries. Even with Ian Gillan battling bronchitis, his vocals remained intense and deeply passionate throughout.
Setlists for these three performances were virtually identical except for the encores (not included on the original double-LP set, but later featured on Made in Japan, The Deluxe Edition (Rhino Entertainment, 2014)). The August 15th and 17th shows featured "Black Night" and "Speed King" as encores, while the August 16 show included "Black Night" and "Lucille." The release follows the original setlist order with one notable exception: "Smoke On The Water" and "Child In Time" switched positions, presumably for dramatic effect and to build tension in the listening experience.
The music arrived as if specially ordered and delivered precisely on schedule. While the Rolling Stones were codifying American music on Exile On Main Street, Led Zeppelin was ascending to legendary status with Led Zeppelin IV (Atlantic, 1971), and the Who was defining rock music for an entire generation on Who's Next (Decca, 1971), Deep Purple was obliterating expectations with music designed purely as an overwhelming display of heavy metal power—when such displays still carried profound meaning.
The opening "Highway Star" from "Machine Head" emerges from the band's pre-concert warm-up, with Jon Lord’s organ suggesting a baroque sonata setting up Ian Paice's snare drum establishing a dramatic prelude to Richie Blackmore's signature high-volume string slides. As Ian Gillan introduces the song, Paice shifts into the half-time snare, propelling the song into rock history. Where Jimmy Page represented studio precision and stage authenticity, Blackmore played like Franz Liszt channeling Niccolò Paganini, positioning the artist as supreme master over the music. This recording belonged to Blackmore and organist Jon Lord, who commanded the stage equally alongside Ian Gillan.
They established a menacing atmosphere for Gillan on "Child In Time" (from "Deep Purple In Rock") and anchored the driving rhythm of "Strange Kind Of Woman" (from "Fireball"). Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover showed their prowess on "The Mule" (from "Fireball"), which served as a preparation for the concert's climax: the molten blues of "Lazy."
On "Lazy," Jon Lord extracted the essential soul of organ rock from Keith Emerson's influence, transforming it into a churning convulsion of deliberately confused musical history. He quoted both "Louie, Louie" and "C-Jam Blues" in the same breath before stepping back to allow Blackmore his moment. The familiar melody followed, then seething blues-rock intensity. Blackmore engaged the compressor, metaphorically kicking open doors, making "Smoke On The Water" feel almost like an afterthought. "Space Truckin'" provided twenty minutes of pure indulgence to conclude this definitive live rock statement.
This recording captures Deep Purple at their absolute peak—a band that had mastered both the technical aspects of their craft and the raw emotional power that made rock music a revolutionary force. Made in Japan remains not just a live album, but a document of rock history at its most electrifying moment. It is only proper that the release receives its golden moment.
I have always contended that “record companies” possess exactly zero qualms when releasing just “one more edition” of a beloved album (if necessary, more often than the latter). Aging Baby Boomers simply cannot help themselves, dropping the last of their pension for what is sure to be a “complete” release. Here is the disgraceful release history of Made in Japan:
1972 - Original 2LP release.
1988 - First CD release.
1993 - Live in Japan 3CD set. Remixed by Darron Godwin; contained performances from Osaka, 15 & 16 August 1972 and Tokyo, 17 August 1972. Contains five performances released on the original Made in Japan: “Highway Star,” “Child in Time,” “Strange Kind of Woman,” and “Space Truckin’” from the 16 August Osaka show and “Lazy” from the 17 August Tokyo show.
1997 - 25th Anniversary 2CD Remastered Edition. Included “Black Night” and “Speed King” from the 17 August Tokyo show and “Lucille” from the 16 August Osaka show.
2014 - Box Set Edition remixed and remastered by Martin Pullan, detailing all three shows in five CDs and one DVD.
2014 - the 2014 2CD Edition derived from the box set with Kevin Shirley 2013 remixes and 2014 Martin Pullan remix from the box set.
And this is courtesy of Wikipedia: to, Contributors. “1972 Live Album by Deep Purple.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., March 4, 2004. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Japan_(Deep_Purple_album).