Made in Japan

And it's from the...

What do they have in common with Buck Owens? Buck Owens made a song called Made in Japan.

And they made a great live album, Made in Japan.

Yeah.

But it's a cover from that album, and it's Lucille.

I've never heard him do that.

I've never heard that.

I mean, it had to be on one of the – Updated Made in Japan albums.

I had UFO's Strangers in the Night.

And I had Deep Purple's Made in Japan.

All amazing, brilliant live albums.

And this one joined those ranks.

I don't know where that guy is today, but Hey, thanks again.

This is also a little parallel, which is that I read that the first CD or not CD album you ever bought was deep purple made in Japan.

Right.

And what you may not know is that it ties to another drummer.

is that Phil Collin from Def Leppard, his first concert was Deep Purple, right? But that Deep Purple Made in Japan cover, the back of it with all the people cheering, is from the UK.

So he has himself, he's in the front.

So Phil Collin has a picture of himself at his first concert, and it's on the back of that Deep Purple record.

Made in Japan.

Jimmy Page's guitar transcends the pieces, being both the prescient and the stable rhythm mixed into one.

The bass lines from John Paul Jones also become a booming beacon within these opening tracks.

Robert Plant's vocals mix themselves between what he performed on the studio versions and what he offers for the live environment.

Some people rile against him not attempting to hit the heights from the opening strains of the opening track, Rock and Roll.

It is the first of the songs here that offers the quiet interlude in the middle of the track that offers the other side of the band's music after the opening rollicking three numbers.

On to the second LP, where the four long-form tracks come one after the other.

The use of keys in no quarter from Jones and the slower tempo to suit drags the mystical qualities of the track further into the sound, with visions of plants swaying on stage as he croons along.

This is followed by the classic version of Stairway to Heaven that has been the mainstay go-to live version over the past 50 years.

Big in Japan.

But Made in Japan was our Bible.

Aren't you named after

Made in Europe, the Deep Purple

album? We listened to Made in Japan.

That was our Bible.

Oh, that's such a good album.

His stereo and multi-channel remixes restored the lush, pastoral warmth of Todd Rundgren's original production, bringing newfound clarity to the album's complex vocal arrangements and acoustic textures.

Steven Wilson's recent remixing of Deep Purple's landmark 1972 live album, Made in Japan, stands alongside any other titles in his restoration catalog.

Released in August 2025 as part of the official 50th anniversary deluxe celebrations, Wilson took on the task of revisiting what is widely regarded as one of heavy rock's most celebrated live recordings.

Recorded over three nights in Osaka and Tokyo in August 1972, the Mark II lineup of Deep Purple, comprising Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover, and Ian Paice, captured a pinnacle of improvisational, high-energy hard rock performance.

But like many live multi-track recordings of that era, it contained natural acoustic bleeding across open stage microphones, dense mid-range buildup, and frequency compromises imposed by 1970s vinyl cutting limitations.

For his 50th anniversary remix, Wilson returned to the original multi-track tapes, transferring them into high-resolution digital audio formats to reconstruct the album's mix from the individual multi-tracks up rather than simply tweaking the original two-track master.

Wilson approached Made in Japan with his signature engineering philosophy: absolute transparency, dynamic fidelity, and deep respect for the historical performance.

One of the primary technical challenges of live hard rock recordings from this era is cleanly separating the instruments.