Uwe....your thoughts on the new Deep Purple Made In Japan box set sir?

[LoEndMaestro]

While I find it fantastic from a sonic standpoint, I think they really missed the mark with the packaging & such. A big book really full of nothing. Mk III pictures, quotes from people who really don't matter, a way dated Pete Frame family tree, etc...
Mine has a full size sticker on the back of the box, rumored to cover up a typo ("Somoke On The Water". Really?! Somoke?!). I am also missing the download card. I feel that if they would have involved Simon Robinson & the official Deep Purple fan club crew this could have been a home run. But in this day of budget minded labels I guess Rhino wanted to keep the overhead low.

But as stated before, it sounds fantastic which is really what matters I suppose. I've purchased this record four times now, I know I've paid for Ritchie's garden shed at this point.



Black night is a long way from home.....

[Highlander]

What could they possibly do that's new...?

I have the reissue double and the triple... that about covers it...

[uwe]

(Biting lip) How embarrassing is this gonna be?  I haven't given it the attention yet it deserves. I listened to one CD (Osaka 2) while we had guests for dinner (they wanted to hear it, I wasn't force-feeding them!), it sounded good to me (with my usual reservation that 1. Gillan had just had a bout of bronchitis before that Japan tour and you can still hear it, he sounds rougher than usual, 2. it's a little - always has been - frantic in places, DP were at their height as a live unit, a well-oiled machine and it led them to play some tracks a little too fast). A friend tells me that Glover's bass sounds louder on that remaster, but hardly clearer (it always sounded distorted - to his chagrin, Roger could never get a clear sound with the bass rigs of the time at the volumes Purple preferred, he is puzzled to this day that many people love that overdriven sound of his Ric on the MIJ album). The guitar is on the right as it should be (but wasn't on the original LP). I will listen to it more intently and report my findings, promise!!!

The packaging? "Somoke" is such a howler it's already cute again, the pic material is nice, but what I am supposed to to with the original Japanese tour brochure text is beyond me, domo arigato, Mistel Leleaso! The packaging isn't awful (remember how the original was both a budget release, budget-priced at the time and budget-packaged), but could have been better. Simon Robinson has somehow fallen a bit into disfavor with the various Purple organisations, unjustly me thinks, the man lives and  breathes DP, but is not a blind devotee and has humor. I haven't seen the DVD yet, but it's nice that all five of them gave fresh comments, Jon Lord's contribution must be somewhat older of course.

[TBird1958]

I wanted my Rick 4001 to sound like Roger's, it never did, even thru my old Ampeg V4

[lowend1]

I wanted my Rick 4001 to sound like Roger's, it never did, even thru my old Ampeg V4

Did yours have Jazz Bass pickups in it?
http://www.dawksound.com/bass.html

[uwe]

On Made in Japan, Roger still played - there was nothing else that was loud enough at the time - 200 Watt Marshall heads (trying vainly to compete with Jon's and Ritchie's volumes who were both looking for a distorted sound whereas he wanted a clean "American" one) with 4x15 and 4x12 cabs custom built for him by Marshall (they were deeper than their regular cabs), he very likely also used Martin bins in addition. I'm mot sure whether he already had the slanted JB pups on his Ric on the first Japan tour (from which MiJ stems), he certainly did on the (pre-split) 1973 Japan (farewell) tour though. Machine Head was still recorded with a stock Ric (and the Fender whose headstock/machine heads = tuners are pictured on the back cover of Machine Head wasn't used at all in the recording).

[TBird1958]

Did yours have Jazz Bass pickups in it?
http://www.dawksound.com/bass.html

At one point it had a DiMarzio J Bass pup in the bridge position.

[Highlander]

... there was nothing else that was loud enough at the time...

Now, what was that Gillan quote...? Everything that he wanted...?

[uwe]

"Can we have everything louder than everything else?" Saved for posterity on Made in Japan as one of his announcement quips.

[Highlander]

I hope that was an ironic post...

[uwe]

Well, you never know with these Americans, I tried to get the point across once and for all...

[uwe]

I am endlessly shamed, my brethren. The quote I always attributed to Gillan comes in fact - like, essentially, all good things (men's tights etc) - from the Man in Black, Gillan just nicked it!

"Darker Than Blue has very amusing recollections from Ken Flegg, a former Marshall engineer, who accompanied the band on the trip to Japan in August 1972:


The third gig at the Budokan in Tokyo on the 17th August went well with no significant problems, other than the acoustics of the hall could have been better. Possible because of this the subject of the monitors came up again and Ian Gillan asked over the mic before Strange Kind of Woman: "Yeah everything up here please. A bit more monitor if you've got it." Then Ritchie asks "Can I have everything louder than everything else?" which Ian Gillan repeats "Yeah, can he have everything louder than everything else?" This remained on the final master."

You can actually hear Blackers at 0.23 before Gillan repeats it into the mic at 0.24:

[Highlander]

I will listen to it more intently and report my findings, promise!!!

[Happy Face]

For a while I owned a rig that was said to have belonged to DP. A Marshall model 2003 head with no serial numbers, a deep cab with two 15 Sidewinders and an 18" folded horn.

The 2003 was said to have been built so that endorsers would not pine for an SVT.