Made In Japan

While I liked the metal wailing vocals, all the reasons I don't like live albums came shining forth during this listen: the songs jam on for far too long, drum solos are not actually fun, and I'm listening to someone else cheer for a band I can't see.

This album has everything you could possibly want from a 70's hard rock band: drum solos, guitar solos, vocal gymnastics by the one and only Ian Gillan, organ from outer space, noisy ending, amusing patter, Ian Paice... what more do you want. Best live album ever?

Good Live album. The songs are still good. I'm usually not big on Live albums but this sounded really good.

I’m at a 5. Honestly, I don’t have that much to say. It’s Deep Purple doing their job really fucking well; everyone is on point, Ian Gillan’s live vocals are incredible, and the myriad of solos from every instrumental (including the 6 minute drum solo on “The Mule”) are all performed with the precision of a studio recording. I simply don’t know how some of these bands do it outside of intense practice, and even then, to do it in a way that still sounds this good is usually mesmerizing to me. It’s not quite as dazzling as say, the Allman Brothers Band, but still. Deep Purple sounds great here, and the crowd helps lift their energy up too. If I have any complaints, it’s towards the site for giving us this before “Machine Head”, and towards the band for being just a little self-indulgent, especially on “Space Truckin’”. I get it; you have to find ways to make fun on tours where you’re repeating the same setlist pretty often, but I think a few solos went a little long & I’m not so sure that the finale had to go 20 whole minutes. Everything else is fun though, including the unique guitar / vocal back & forth during “Strange Kind of Woman”. “Child in Time” sounds just as good live as I was hoping it would, by the way. Overall, it’s an enjoyable 76 minutes, and while you can definitely feel that length bearing down by the end, I think it’s too technically sound & too entertaining to not give it a 5.

It's a bit strange that the album generator gave us the live album before the group's most famous studio album, but oh well. Anyways, this is just a damn fine piece of hard rock. Solid 5 Stars.

One of the best albums in history.

Bornât the beginning of the sixties, I was listening if t’en to music groups like Deep Purple, The Doors, Pink Floyd and so on. And how could I forget « Smoke on the water ». But the background for this song with this unforgettable « mega cool » riffs and deap - high sounds

Hell yeah I listened to this shit so much when I was 14 guitar solos ROCK

This is great, this is fantastic, and, oh, this is Deep Purple, and the reason why I love them. This album is both, a great live and so well recorded. It feels immersive and even you lose the feeling of being listening to a live performance (or, live performances) at all. It is virtuous, and so fun to listen to, so interesting, so energetic, so focused on details. I love how everything in this album is simply outstanding, not just the most famous tracks, but the whole itself. And it is just because all the songs flow so well, even when they flow from a more hard rock sound to psychedelic sounds. It is delicious. And it is great (and something that also characterises a lot of live albums) that there is place for every single member of the band, for every instrument. For sure, Ritchie Blackmore's guitars are delightful, wonderful, so powerful and full of emotion, but every instrument in here has a place, a strong place, and has the time to be heard and appreciated. And what an appreciation with such great musicians. This album is surely not just one of the best live albums I've ever listened to, but also one fantastic album itself.

Fantastic album by a fantastic band! I reckon it's the gold standard for rock music. There!

Tedious noodling for ten minutes a song.

This is o.k. I feel it's pretty mediocre dude rock though, not much of a flavour of it's own to it. Smoke on the Water, has an ok riff but it's pretty simple and been done to death, sludgy.

Great live record

The real album is rough and long, but the fact that this site linked to an album that had the same 2 songs performed live 3 nights in a row was absolutely heinous. I cannot find my usual positivity. Too long. Too British. Pass

Why are the same songs on multiple times? Let me guess, they did different jams each time. I’m guessing because I did not listen to Black Night 3 times.

This is an unpleasant listening experience.

6/10 - some really good long riffs, not what I was expecting

YES COME ON! COME ON! COME ON! LET'S GO SPACE TRUCKIN'!

NOTE: This site links to the Deluxe/Remastered version on Spotify, but there's also just a regular remastered version of the original album available if you look in their album listings. It's only seven tracks and I think that's a better experience. Your life will not be greatly enhanced by listening to three different version of "Black Night" or two versions of "Speed King". I encourage you to always look for the original album whenever this site links you to a deluxe/bonus/extended edition of an album. Anyways... "Child In Time" is one of the best examples of early 70s (late 60s) rock & roll out there. Period. The vocals, the organ, all of it. It should get talked about a lot more than it does. Even the studio version sounds like it should be live, so it's important that the live version deliver on that promise... and it does. The rest of the album also proves that Deep Purple was a powerhouse live band in this era and should get more accolades for their work beyond "Smoke On The Water". If I have a complaint it's that the jamming gets a little carried away - specifically I'm thinking about "Space Truckin'". Twenty minutes is unnecessary. If I knew that was the show closer, I would have packed up my blanket and started heading to the parking lot before it was over. Avoiding traffic is an important part of truckin' anywhere.

A highly irritating album. Seems like an electric organ type of player met a drummer with half a drum kit and they thought that if they just play fast rubbish music for ten minutes then that's a great song. Vocalist? Just slap some electronic filtering on the mic, get him to stand a foot away and say some almost incoherent lyrics. I listened to the live version as well so got to listen to him having a guitar battle with the guitarist using his voice to screech some noises. Add in a harmonica here and there to make sure we get another horrible element in there. Would have rated this two stars but other than the tempo, I disliked almost everything. Knew Smoke on the Water, but even then, can't say that it's a good song despite the iconic, beginner-level intro riff.

rock

In the third part of "Back to the Future", Doc tells Marty: "No wonder this circuit failed. It says 'Made in Japan'." At the time, the "Made in Japan" label was synonymous with cheap, flimsy goods. Deep Purple chose this title for their live album simply because they viewed the project as a bit of a lark — back then, neither record labels nor bands had much faith in live albums. It was the Japanese promoters who requested the recording, which naturally took place during shows in Japan. As it turned out, this "lark" became one of the most technically accomplished, best-selling, and arguably greatest live albums in history. It’s said that absolutely nothing was overdubbed in the studio — and I, for one, believe it; the band was in peak form at the time, having just released Machine Head. The hits from that record — along with other tracks — were interspersed with solid, high-quality jams. Since then, a live album has become a staple in any band’s discography, yet almost no one has ever managed to surpass this one.

Terrible. Why is this on the list?

I’m a sucker for live albums. In this case solos went too long in too many spots. And not a big fan of the heavy metal screamer style of singing. I could see putting this on as background music but not something I’d listen to intentionally. 3/5

First song started of great. And still like the general vibe of the songs. But something feels of in the songs. I think it is the pacing from some of the songs. I feel very conflicted on how to rate this. Some songs are really good but other lack the feeling for me. So I guess it is in the middle. This just sounds like your average jam session honestly 3.3/5

3.0

Muy largo. Demasiada improvisación

The cows are home. You can stop soloing now. This is literally just a few Deep Purple songs and a lot of jamming and messing around in between. Probably 38 minutes of music and 1 hour of solos. Honestly I didn’t mind the music, but there was no reason for all the solos. I stopped the album after the original track listing so before all the encores. I had enough of the solo fest.

The only thing that could make a live album worse is if it were a double live album. Put a Deep Purple studio record on the list in place of this garbage.

I enjoyed some of the songs…

Not a huge fan of Live albums. This one sounds good, but there is a lot of wanking going on, something enjoyable at a concert, not so much on a record.

I just can't get behind this music, didn't click with me at all. If they didn't have such long solos then maybe it would have had a chance with me.

Rate: 9/10.

Not a fan of live album. Why would I want non optimal recording? For a nice take or tweak of something I'm not experiencing live? That being said I quite like the instrumental tracks and some classic are still good.

Maybe I'm in the wrong mood for an album like this, but all I could hear was musical masturbation. Song after song full of irritating screechy vocals and unnecessary guitar histrionics. The worst was the 7-minute drum solo... or maybe it was the random keyboard noodling of unrelated songs? It felt like Led Zeppelin without any good tunes. I could only take it in small doses and it took me a few days to get through. Not good.

I went in expecting a rocking good time of hard rock. But this was just waaaaaay too many long solos going on forever. Its fun to expand on the song in a live setting, but these songs just lose their identity halfway. Space trucking being 20min longs and unrecognisable by the end was the nail in the coffer. An unfortante 3 stars, Thin Lizzy did the live album better.

Good stuff

a long album! lots of weird things going on. no more live albums required!

7/10

fine, but not special

Bra spilling. Langdryg

I get the appeal, but I didn’t care for listening to this one all that much. My interest simply could not be held.

My team of researchers tell me that four of the seven tracks on this live album are from Machine Head, which is also on this list. So this shouldn't be on here. And we should have Year Of The Cat by Al Stewart instead.

I think this would have been an immense concert live, but as I didn't know the songs I didn't feel it translated into an album so well. They're clearly very talented but it didn't quite match the 9am listening party I had with myself.

Album beaucoup trop long avec des bridge de 10 minutes non nécessaire.

DAMN!!! How the hell was he hitting the drum that fast?!

not a fan

3/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/deep-purple/made-in-japan/ While I can recognize Deep Purple as a good and solid live band on this record, I cannot recognize why this should be an essential album. In all fairness, I think that's the case for most live albums, with some clear exceptions. These exceptions, however, all do something markedly different from the recorded versions of the songs. Made in Japan doesn't, really, unless you count the overlong instrumental solo's and improvs. I don't count those, so I don't really care much for this album. It's good, but it's not one of the greats.

Nope! The two most annoying things about this book are how over represented Deep Purple is, and how many super long, not-better-than-the-studio live records there are. Cripes!

Gillan earns an extra star.

I tend not to be a fan of that sort of meandering rock with overly extended guitar and drum solos, but I have to say, these guys can play. It wasn't that bad.

Wait this is lowk crazy

This album hits 2 of my list pet peeves: albums over 1.5 hours long, and live albums. For that reason, it's a no from me. It's not a 1 because the hour I did listen to had some fun parts but you CANNOT force me to listen to this whole shit, OAAD.

Quite enjoyed this. Very good live album. Does get a bit self indulgent in places, but with songs as strong as Smoke on the Water who cares?

Don't usually like live albums, but this is good, very good, in fact I bought this album back in the day.

This is so not my thing.

I don't know if this is a quintessential recording or something, but my initial reaction to seeing this was, "A Deep Purple live album?! Fuck off!" So I'm just going to go with that sentiment.

Oh, sweet Jesus, what did I do to deserve this? I made it to The Mule and, in the middle of the drum solo, when I found myself thinking to myself, "You know, those guys in Iron Butterfly had a really light touch in their solos," I realized that I needed to turn this off and never look back. So I did.

I like the album versions of Highways Star and Space Truckin'. Deep Purple is a good, tight unit. These bloated version don't add anything to the experience and my reaction is probably in part of having higher expectations and being disappointed. Putting a 12 minute version of Child in Time second on this record is a catastrophic choice. If you haven't heard every rock n roll live band cliche in the first couple of songs, I'm surprised. Just wait, though, the next song probably has it.

Really glad to see Deep Purple on here, even if I'd have picked Machine Head over this. But it's great. Highway Star is the standout. Blackmore's slide after the third chord kills me. (And I admit Child in Time is kind of a clunker. I remember being bored by this one even when I saw them play it live, ~1985. And most of the songs are too long. But, I'm standing on 5.) (Edit after listening to the whole thing: No I'm not.)

1/5 - Wow, did I hate this self-indulgent, meandering mess of real live Spinal Tap. I can turn in my hard rock badge at the door if this is required listening. Mercy.

Not a huge fan of live albums but I like deep purple, many songs not available in Spotify

Really felt like I was there! Too jam sessiony for me though

I like the normal versions of some of these songs

I like this but djdnt add any so csnt rate it higher lowkey

hooting and hollering

The remastered mix is exceptional. I don’t know if I needed that much technical guitar soloing (not a big fan of the navel gazing fast for the sake of being fast noise solos), but it’s the genre and of a time.

u stvari dosta neloše, glazbeno zna bit jako zanimljivo, ali malo prebumerski za moj ukus, pogotovo kad vokal krešti. evo trojke, neka

Live albums are money grabs.

A real tight band but some of it feels too much if you’re not a bit Deep Purple fan.

It is the first live album I get here and it is truly a different experience. While most reviews here say it has no point since you are not there, for me it’s different, because I have never been to a band concert. Mostly because I’m in my 20s now in this horrendous age, and also from a place that at the time of this concert all you could hope for was a pirated Pink Floyd cassette, and that was very underground too, far from mainstream . So for me it was actually good to imagine what it was like, enjoy the crafted instrumentals and even enjoy some tracks more than the studio version, like somehow Smoke on The Water, and Child in Time has so much power, it blew me away. But it was something else I admit, and sometimes I even day dream about drumming so this was a plus too, but I can see how these being so long can bore most people. I will wait for the studio albums to rate the tracks properly, but this was overall a cool thing to listen too, much better than a lot of the albums here At least this age has the advantage to have the technology to let one indulge in so much music , even a concert recorded more than 50 years ago, perfectly entombed in servers, even ai data centres maybe, but at least I get to listen to these masterpieces, unlike most of my bloodline

Okayy

27/09/2026 It was long... very long. It had all the classics though so I can't really complain. Spotify listeners: 6.9 million

Uno de los discos en vivo por excelencia, que no habría existido sin el Live at Leeds de The Who y el Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! de los Stones in Concert. Es un grandes éxitos, con una energía y calidad apabullante.

3.5 - pretty good

Landmark album

I don’t enjoy really long albums. I think this should’ve been split up. I also find the vocals to be a bit ear grating. I’m just not a fan. This was dreg to get through.

I hate concert albums. Every excess a band can perpetrate on the captive audience, you get. I'm glad I could skip over those parts. But that doesn't help with some 70s rock bands. They will spend 10 minutes on some crappy keyboard, drum solos. This sucked. 2 "please move on to better music" stars.

A band that, presumably, Spinal Tap took a lot of inspiration from, and the grandaddies of metal too, apparently. Hard to hear too much of that in here apart from the occasional noisy moment. Otherwise it's heavy on the prog with songs typically on the lengthy side. For me, they don't do enough metal nor is their prog (relatively speaking) that interesting. I must concede I did go into this one with a certain amount of trepidation and I didn't hear much to change my mind. It's a one and done for me.

Felt like this could be quite good; and it is in the brief moments when the band get their heads down and actually play, together. Unfortunately though, they never pass up even the most tenuous opportunity to launch into grossly over-extended, self-indulgent solo twiddling. Ghastly. Shortest track is over six mins and feels twice that. Would almost be funny if it wasn't such hard work to get through.

A classic live album containing some fabulous versions of Deep Purple staples — Highway Star, Child in Time, Smoke on the Water and Strange Kind of Woman in particular. But it could all be so much tighter. This isn’t an album I could listen to over and over again without skipping some of the extended solos, particularly The Mule drum solo, which I don’t even think is a particularly good one. There are parts of Made in Japan that are nailed-on 5/5 material, but there are also sections I’d rate as low as a 2. As a document of Deep Purple as a live band at their pompous zenith, it’s a must-have album. But, like quite a few live albums, I only really want to dip regularly into about half of it. 3½

If I were at this concert, I would have loved this set. But something about live albums annoys me.

Interesting. Very loud, but interesting

Maybe I missed something...why is this on the list?

There’s lots of great Deep Purple but I mostly hate live albums

Live albums are a weird choice for a list like this. Usually a band best known for their live shows like The Grateful Dead or maybe a live album with original songs like Jane’s Addiction’s first album or Rust Never Sleeps by Neil Young. Otherwise, if it’s any show, even a particularly good one, it’s going to have some deep cuts and you really have to be familiar with the act or you might miss greatness. I am not familiar with Deep Purple, except for one of Classic Rock’s greatest riffs from “Smoke on the Water.” But man this must have been a great show.

Nope. More grateful dead slash war jams. Never been a fan of these guys

don't think I MUST listen to this before I die. woulda been ok without it. I was kinda bored and then annoyed about listening to noise. didn't listen to more than 10 minutes total tbh

dude. DUDE. okay I’m trying to be more forgiving of my grouchy length complaints when it comes to live albums but come ON, man. just two hours of endless drum and guitar solos and “YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”s that I’m sure kicked ass to watch onstage but i am not at the concert so the mileage does indeed vary. sometimes I really like live albums for the insight you get into the artists and the variations on how they perform as opposed to record and their interactions with the audience but this was just interminable. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Speed King”

Dude I am getting so fucking tired of the sound of men doing that goddam yell, get me the FUCK out of here. i hope deep purple falls into a well along with rush and led zeppelin so they can all screech at each other in a place outside of my range of hearing. Best thing they did was make the base version of smoke on the water so senor coconut could cover it. Could not believe how utterly sauceless the original version of that song is. Kill me beat me drink my blood just don't make me listen to that again. Maybe they'd be good live with the solos or something man idk I could see a video of them being in the MIM but whatever. i dont care if they lezzed out!! first album i did not finish and dont really plan to! i had a big dinner and my tummy hurts and this did NOT HELP

blegh why is this on here. i tried but i can’t stand this shit i’m so sorry… got to the guitarist fucking up on smoke on the water and had to call it i just can’t handle this type of live album. highway star was kind of good i guess, idk. my first one star!!!

Not the biggest fan of Deep Purple, but you do get the sense from this that it was a seriously impressive gig to be at. But I wasn’t and the album format isn’t enough in this case to capture it. It’s impressive but it left me cold. 2

Live albums are mostly a miss for me, and Made in Japan unfortunately didn’t do much to change that. I appreciate Deep Purple and some of their most iconic songs, but I’d still much rather listen to the studio versions on the albums they came from, where there’s a more consistent sound and flow. I’m sure hearing the band banter, stretch songs out, and go into these massive solos was a blast if you were actually there. But as an audio-only experience, it just doesn’t translate the same way for me. There’s obviously a ton of talent on display, and the band brings plenty of energy, but after a while I started feeling the sameness from song to song. That also brings me to my biggest problem with live albums like this: they’re so freaking long. Made in Japan goes well over 70 minutes, and when some of these solos feel like they go on for ages, I’m sitting there thinking, “Okay… we can move on now.” By the second half, I was more than ready for it to be over. I can absolutely give the album credit for its energy, the musicianship, and a really solid live recording. I just don’t get much out of listening to this kind of concert experience as an album. Give me the studio records instead. 2 out of 5.

LIve album from 1972, basically extended versions of some of their biggest hits. Maybe a touch self-indulgent at times, and veering dangerously into noodling territory, but it went down well with the crowd, and you might find yourself in a forgiving mood to appreciate it. Or you might not.

Absolutely loved it. Just legends on their respective instruments going absolute ham. Absolutely a record I'd like to own and I will listen to it again.

An incredible live album. Deep Purple have an incredible power and energy that is still almost completely unmatched and they bring it over amazingly in this live album. Definitely an album I'll remember and will listen to again. Those two hours raced by while listening to this album.

I've never given Deep Purple any time. I know of their role as one of the forefathers of metal and that is about it. I'm not that up for a live album - but I have been proven wrong a couple of times already. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ah, I get it. I see the metal genesis. There are the foundations of power metal here (speed, virtuosity) and thrash (groves/riffs/drumming). I feel like I need to dig into their studio albums after this as I definitely need to give them a fair spin. This is an album of virtuosity, talent and drive - with powerful vocals soaring over fantastic guitars and rhythm. There's even my weakness - the organ adding fun licks in the background. For a live album the sound is incredible. You can pick out most of the instruments clearly - the drums in particular are fantastic sounding. The audience don't offer much to the mix - mostly just polite applause. Some aspects drag with overlong virtuoso noodling but otherwise this is a good ride.

Oh great. A live album. And a double album. Great

I don't normally enojy live albums, and this was no exception. Smoke on the water is great but other than that find this proto-metal to just be a bit screechy and annoying. Not a great album for me.

This is some of the finest musical w*nkery known to man and I bloody love it! Just gutted I wasn’t there!!!