Customer Reviews

This Time Around: Live in Tokyo

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Anyone who has ever heard the infamous album LAST CONCERT IN JAPAN must listen to this brand-new 2 CD set. It is a true eye-opener to hear this complete Deep Purple show, recorded with the Mark IV lineup including Tommy Bolin in Tokyo on December 15, 1975. Received wisdom has long held that Bolin's playing was severely hampered this evening due to a drug overdose or sleeping on his arm funny--take your pick. As a result (the story goes), he could only play basic chords while Jon Lord held down the sonic fort on a painfully abbreviated set list. Listening to LAST CONCERT IN JAPAN would seem to bear this out, but this new album shows that LCIJ was a heavily edited, at times misleading affair.
No, this is not a superior Purple performance, or even a great one. Still, the band played a full set that night, with a fairly frantic energy level and seemingly good spirits. Bolin played well enough that evening, although arguably his performance on the King Biscuit CD (recorded 2 months later) is better from a technical standpoint. His guitar is louder in the mix here than on LCIJ (and yes, he did actually play the main riff to "Burn"), and his solos are often quite exciting (especially on "Gettin' Tighter" and "I Need Love.") In fact, it can be argued that Bolin always sounded good on his own material from COME TASTE THE BAND, while the earlier Blackmore stuff was treated with a much more tentative hand. It doesn't help that Bolin had ostensibly no background in classical music, unlike Ritchie "I had classical training for a year when I was 11" Blackmore.
The others turn in decent performances for the most part. Paice is incapable of a bad night, it would seem; Lord never fails to impress; Hughes--although occasionally in need of a muzzle--is a vastly underrated bassist with a robust sound. Coverdale does not deliver one of his penultimate performances, but he carries a lot of conviction throughout, and his stage introductions are often a hoot. And no one will ever hear as many "Domo Arigato, Tokyo's" in one place ever again!
Other pluses include the packaging and the liner notes, although the latter seem to be missing a chunk of the story for the earlier parts of the 1975-76 tour.

this cd is a double remix of the original LP who had appeared in warner bros Japan 1977.
Long ago the original LP Last concert in japan was rushed out very quickly, and the Japanese record company put out the songs on the LP not correct. The set had an errors, and many good songs such as lazy, Stormbringer, This time around and owed to G also Drifter were hacked.
This new double remixed cd is now presenting the whole Deep purple mk IV set from the beginning until finish.
You can checkt out from a thundering Burn until the great anthem Highway star. And Deep purple featuring Tommy Bolin on guitar was not a weak line up. This previous line up was short, but the legendary is still alive.

Being one of the hugest concert acts of the 70s, Deep Purple had set a high standard for itself, which is why many DP live sets without the title "Made In Japan" often go unclaimed. But the rambunctious performance of "This Time Around" captures a blaze of musical and emotional fire, and also serves as a time capsule for this particular period of the band; Deep Purple had been put through a slow and agonizing series of line-up changes, when they hit the jackpot with their best line-up (the so-called MkII line-up); Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice. But the ultimate cliche of rock and roll unravelled as both Gillan and Glover exited, followed soon by Blackmore (after he completed work on 1974's "Stormbringer"). In them, Deep Purple had lost a great frontman, bassist/arranger, and a guitar hero, respectively. Paice and Lord (both of whom have always been brilliant even on their own) kept the band together and recorded three respectable albums and keeping itself alive by connecting to audiences in lifehouses captured here on "This Time Around."
Fever-burning, blistering, trademark Purple attacks on many songs from their post-MkII's success era give them a whole new breath of life. Anyone who complains that the recordings on the 1974-75 albums lack spark should definitely hear "This Time Around"; it will give them a chance to hear those "need-improvement" versions brought back to life and beyond, such as 'Burn,' 'Stormbringer,' 'Drifter,' and 'You Keep On Moving.' And it's always nice to hear any live version of 'Smoke on the Water' and 'Highway Star,' while Deep Purple never forgets to boggle the musical senses with complex solo spotlights. It's hard to ignore the fact that these, some of Deep Purple's last concerts before splintering for nearly a decade, are marred by the personal state of the band; drugs and a heavy schedule took their toll, but not before DP had one last punch.

MK 4 line up deep purple were at that time on the japanese stage.
the line up seemed to be like exhausted band at that time the group hit JAPAN in 1975. But Deep purple members still had the capabilities on their instruments........JON LORD played the solo keyboard TOCCATA d minor of J.S BACH very excellent, Ian PAICE solo drums was totally incredible (no other drummer can do quick drumming style like him.) Tommy bolin was not in good condition at that night, but he tried to do his best solo guitar and his WILD DOGS SONG. Glenn Hughes was in the good mood,....but Coverdale sang and screamed all the time (this only make me feel a bit confused.) The re-made in Japan 1975 was also good as Made in JAPAN 1972. But this MK IV musical direction moved the Deep purple sound a litlle bit more Jazz/bluesier than their predecessor MK III OR II. It doesn't matter Deep purple fans can do any harm.......

Having already heard, and even bought at great expense the notorious "Last Concert in Japan" set, I was somewhat dubious about this one. However, it is not necessarily as bad as it seems. While undoubtedly Tommy Bolin was a great guitarist, there is also no doubt that he was not a great Deep Purple guitarist. And there is also something not quite right about David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes singing "Lazy".
There are some good moments on this album. Tommy's "Wild Dogs" has always been a favorite of mine, and Jon Lord's keyboard solo is as impeccable as ever.
But, unfortunately, the low points somewhat outweigh the highs. The riff to "Lazy" being played mainly on keyboards, Glenn Hughes' hoops'n'hollers, and I for one am getting tired of hearing Coverdale saying "it's a rock'n'roll song" (which the songs on "Come Taste The Band" clearly weren't!
This is infinitely better than "Last Concert In Japan" however, all the way down to the packaging, and it is nice to hear a lot more of the "Come Taste The Band" tracks getting a live airing. I would really have liked to hear "Comin' Home" though, as that was always one of the high points of that particular album.
Three months later the band were gone, and based on some of the live albums we have been hearing lately, it is not too surprising. This was not the same band that recorded "Machine Head" or even "Burn".
I'll lay good money on the fact that if there are any tapes of Liverpool in March 1976, they will never be released!! Buy this for completeness.

Originally released as the much-maligned Last Concert in Japan, this release finally restores the original concert to it's intended state. The original tapes were, for want of a better word, butchered together to make the LCIJ album, which led to outcries from the fans, which also led to the US and UK markets not releasing the album. I first heard two of these tracks - You Keep On Movin' and Wild Dogs - on the Tommy Bolin Ultimate box set, and I was impressed with the sound of the songs. About two years ago I finally managed to locate a copy of LCIJ as a Japanese import. In my opinion, overall the sound quality is good. It's just the editing of the thing that I don't care for. And the album came out as sort of an epitaph to the Deep Purple band, as it had broken up the year before, but in comparison to their earlier works, LCIJ doesn't stand up as well.
This new release finally puts it in a new light. The whole show is present - no fade outs between songs, the running order of songs is corrected, solos left intact, etc. The LCIJ album was like reading only a few chapters of a book. This Time Around is like having the whole novel to read.
Along with the King Biscuit CD, this is a great document of the Tommy Bolin era of Deep Purple.

Some years ago I bought the LP "Last Concert In Japan", and was amazed at how bad it sounded. I couldn't believe that this was the Deep Purple I have "fallen in love with" (in the summer of '81).

Well, now they have finally released the whole show on double CD, and I have to say that I am very surprised. This is in fact, all in all, a great Purple concert. There are weaknesses here that you don't find in the MKII and MKIII line-ups, but you have to remember that this is "MKIV on drugs"... Deep Purple were always a drinking band, but with MKIV the drugs entered through Bolin and Hughes. Drugs always brings out weaknesses in a band, and Purple was no exception to the rule.

The best songs are the songs written by MKIV. During those numbers they really ROCKS, but the afore mentioned weaknesses comes through in the "older" MKII and MKIII numbers. It sounds like they didn't fit Tommy Bolins way of playing the guitar, and Glenns vocals are...errr...well, you have to buy the record.

I wonder where Purple would have gone if not for the drugs...??

All in all, it's worth buying, and if you are one of those who only have heard the awful LP-version- BUY IT!!!

I've listened to Tommy Bolin playing with Zephyr, The James Gang,
Billy Cobham, his solo-band and of course Deep Purple. My conclusion is that Tommy was a god in the studio, but when performing live he was never on the same level. Of course this had a lot to do with his heroin problem. In a studio you can do your solos over and over again until it works, but on stage you only get one chance. With Deep Purple there was a second problem: Tommy wasn't interested in their older material. When I listen to "Burn", "Highway Star" or "Smoke on the water" I get the impression that Tommy's just jamming the time away and is trying to hide himself or the fact that he didn't rehearse properly.
This caused a lot of tension in the band. Furthermore, Coverdale & co started to realize that Tommy and his partner in crime - Glenn Hughes- were just using Deep Purple for their future solo-projects. "Come taste the band" may be one of my favourite Purple albums, but at this stage the band was no longer a tight-playing live-act. Coverdale had enough of Hughes' trying to take his place and this competition between the two singers was not favourable for the vocal parts, as you can hear on this record.
"On the wings of a Russian Foxbat", the double live CD recorded in the U.S. by Deep Purple Mark IV, is a better buy than this one. But "Live in Tokyo" has got that fantastic version of Tommy's song "Wild Dogs" , so I just had to add this album to my collection.

this double cd is a remastered version of the long ago Last concert in japan Lp, who rushed out in 1977. The LP mix was at that time very poor and had a low quality.
And today the purple record has released again in a double cd set with the whole unrealased materials which were not appeared in the old lp.
A must of Purple fans,...David coverdale & co were in the top form at that time. You can also call this one as a Tommy bolin remade in japan 1975

Much anticipated remaster/remix of Deep Purple's final concert on the Japanese leg of thier 1975 tour delivers mixed results, depending on your expectations. As a Tommy Bolin fan, it is painfully ironic to have his drug-addled fumblings showcased in such crystal clarity (there are definite pros and cons regarding "dry" soundboard mixes). It is difficult to listen to Bolin here without the saddening and nagging thought that this was Near The End. There are also strong aruguments for judicious editing...witness vocalist David Coverdale, who demonstrates a somewhat limited imagination when it comes to onstage banter (even allowing for the language barrier). That being said, the performances are energetic and overall sonic quality is quite good. Speaking purely as a collector, I would say "This Time Around" has more value as an historic item (the outstanding "Come Taste The Band" is how I would prefer to remember Deep Purple MK IV).