Every home should have (more than) one: The Live Album to rule them all ...

uwe · March 11, 2014, 11:02:20 AM

An epic rerelease:

(And without any post-live studio trickery too, Rob!

)

nofi · March 12, 2014, 09:20:52 AM

wow, is this the rich lawyer edition.

didn't they do the same type of thing to the aqualung lp.

uwe · March 12, 2014, 10:33:07 AM

"rich lawyer edition"

There is of course the tried and trusted marketing concept of "reassuringly expensive" and "making the completist über-happy". It also plays (like any rerelease/remaster) on the nostalgia of people who heard this stuff first time around as adolescents when your weekly allowance would never enable you to buy all those albums you might find interesting (I had a sizeable tape collection, but it was never the same thing and those cassettes just wouldn't last).

Aqualung was a complete (Steve Wilson I believe) remix as was Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick. This is probably more along the lines of Humble Pie's Rockin' the Fillmore where they have now released all consecutive nights.

Anyway, back in the seventies, German teenage households that did not own Made in Japan or a tape thereof were rare. Most people knew that album better than Machine Head (from which most of the tracks were). And it had a mighty sound even back then, bordering a bit on the frantic as DP had been steeled into a compact unit via umpteenth tours back then, they could play that set list in their sleep, but were not yet going through the motions. Many people liked the urgency and passion of the MIJ recordings (plus Glover's overdriven Ric and Gillan's huskier than usual vocals, he just came from a bout of bronchitis), but I prefer the collectedness of the Machine Head "hotel room" recordings which some think sterile. At least in some markets (US among them) MIJ considerably outsold the Purple studio albums even though it was a double (albeit bargain priced). Blackmore, btw, fluffed the opening riff of Smoke on the Water on all nights but one, hard to believe their later signature song was viewed a bit as a throwaway track by them at the time and only found entry into the set list at the last minute, it therefore being a little underrehearsed. It was Warner Brothers USA which was adamant that it should be released as a single, the Purps acquiesced unenthusiastically.

gweimer · March 12, 2014, 11:17:44 AM

I picked up my Japanese import version (shiny cover, on the Purple record label) the day it was unpacked at Hotter Than Mother's Records. It was the album that made me hate "Smoke on the Water". One of the guys in my frat borrowed my copy and played that song every day for about 6 months. I finally went home for summer vacation, and guess what the hot song for the summer was?

uwe · March 12, 2014, 11:58:16 AM

Let me guess: A catchy pentatonic riff in fourth doublestops and a blue note/diminished fifth slide in it! Fingerplucked (not strummed with a pick, frequent mistake in guitar stores!) on the G and D string? With an elegant key shift in the chorus, changing from G minor/F major harmony to a C minor/G# major one with an interesting dissonant interval on the "wa-ter" where Ian Gillan sings a G to the G# root of the chord, generating anticipation for the band's releasing return to the G riff?

I could write a thesis on it.

Those signature fourth notes that made DP riffs sound nasty and became a trademark of Blackmore (eg: Smoke on the Water, Burn, Man on the Silver Mountain, Long live Rock'n'Roll, All Night Long, Knocking on your Back Door) took their inspiration from Oscar Peterson. A young Blackmore saw him in concert and liked what he heard.

I first heard Smoke on the Water on a Wurlitzer in a restaurant - I believe it was 1974. It sounded like nothing I had heard before, back then I wasn't even into hard rock yet. And the way the instruments came in one after another made for a dramatic effect. The guitar sound was already phat but got even phatter when Jon Lord joined with his Hammond mock guitar sound. And of course that feathery hi-hat, eventually accentuated by the snare until Glover's Ric climbs chromatically from E to G ... sheer bliss.

Mk II purists (I'm not one!) will never allow anything but the original, but I think Mk IV did the song justice here, granted that Bolin's groove in playing that "militaristic" riff was completely different to Blackers ...

Uncle Ted always said that his own Cat Scratch Fever riff came from playing around with the Stones' Honky Tonk Women, but I have my own theories ...

4stringer77 · March 12, 2014, 12:54:38 PM

Isn't Sam Jones great? Ray is everybody's darling but Sam held his own. Love work song. (Nat Adderley wrote it but I always think of Sam's bass) Dude could play a mean Jazz cello too.

uwe · March 12, 2014, 01:01:23 PM

I wouldn't rule that out as a source of inspiration. Blackmore wasn't jazz-averse in his listening tastes as a young man. And DP were never above swiping riffs with style - unlike Led Zep they got away with it!

4stringer77 · March 12, 2014, 01:14:23 PM

Sorry, to jump off subject. I figured I might as well throw some love Sam's way while I had the chance. Back to the subject, are there nine vinyl records in this new release? There is that much unreleased recorded material from those dates?

Highlander · March 12, 2014, 04:34:19 PM

Without digging for info, could someone advise me, if I've got the triple CD Live In Japan and the reissue double CD Made In Japan, what's new musically, and don't give me that "it's been sonically cleaned and purged from the master tapes" nonsense... I've still got the original as a Jap vinyl...

uwe · March 13, 2014, 06:55:51 AM

Quote from: 4stringer77 on March 12, 2014, 01:14:23 PM
Sorry, to jump off subject. I figured I might as well throw some love Sam's way while I had the chance. Back to the subject, are there nine vinyl records in this new release? There is that much unreleased recorded material from those dates?

Didn't see that as jumping at all, I heard traces of the Smoke on the Water riff in it! They recorded three dates in Japan at the time, they are now releasing them completely (full set and encores). Made in Japan was already a double (with long running times, not great for quality, especially the bass frequencies), but not a complete set and no encores - so that makes up the third album for each of the dates.

uwe · March 13, 2014, 07:29:29 AM

Quote from: CAR-54 on March 12, 2014, 04:34:19 PM
Without digging for info, could someone advise me, if I've got the triple CD Live In Japan and the reissue double CD Made In Japan, what's new musically, and don't give me that "it's been sonically cleaned and purged from the master tapes" nonsense... I've still got the original as a Jap vinyl...

Complete set plus all encores of all three gigs. The old triple set's remaster has gotten some stick for favoring Ritchie over Roger too much (there was a time when Purple rereleases attempted to mimic the Rainbow sound - Blackmore loudest, but if there was something conspicious to DP's sound then it was the fact that Jon Lord was overly loud, not Ritchie). And then there is the old trainspotting discussion whether Ritchie's guitar should be left channel (as it was accidentally on the original MIJ release) or right channel (as he was mixed live in line with his position on stage).

Highlander · March 13, 2014, 05:56:08 PM

Unless the lottery comes in this weekend, I might pass...

Still trying to persuade myself that that BOC box-set is a must (which I know it is, but Jackie will think otherwise)

Pekka · March 14, 2014, 01:51:02 AM

I'll pass and save my money for the forthcoming Zeppelin boxes, Max Webster book (yes!) and I have a sneakin' suspicion that "The Road To Red" wasn't the last of what Robert has in store for us King Crimson freaks. Plus all the new stuff released.

I have "Made In Japan" on vinyl (80's German reissue IIRC) and can't really remember the last time it was played. When I play Gillan era Purple, it's usually "Fireball" or "Who Do We Think We Are".

gweimer · March 14, 2014, 08:16:42 AM

Quote from: Pekka on March 14, 2014, 01:51:02 AM
I'll pass and save my money for the forthcoming Zeppelin boxes, Max Webster book (yes!) and I have a sneakin' suspicion that "The Road To Red" wasn't the last of what Robert has in store for us King Crimson freaks. Plus all the new stuff released.

I have "Made In Japan" on vinyl (80's German reissue IIRC) and can't really remember the last time it was played. When I play Gillan era Purple, it's usually "Fireball" or "Who Do We Think We Are".

Ears perking up. I need to check that out. I've got more King Crimson in my collection than any other artist, including a few of the Collector's Club releases and the live Level Five. Their upcoming tour may be the only show I see this year...or next.

My two favorite DP albums are Fireball and Burn.

Highlander · March 14, 2014, 05:57:54 PM

Ah...! the answer to the question of the meaning of life, the Universe, and everything... it fits...!