Made in Japan is a double live album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded during their first tour of Japan in August 1972. It was originally released on 8 December 1972 in Japan, with a US release on 30 March 1973, and became a critical and commercial success.

The band were well known for their strong stage act, and had privately recorded several shows, or broadcast them on radio, but were unenthusiastic about recording a live album until their Japanese record company decided it would be good for publicity. They insisted on supervising the live production, including using Martin Birch, who had previously collaborated with the band as a studio engineer, and were not particularly interested in the album's release, even after recording. The tour was successful, with strong media interest and a positive response from fans.

The album was an immediate commercial success, particularly in the US, where it was accompanied by the top five hit "Smoke on the Water", and became a steady seller throughout the 1970s. A three-CD set of most of the tour's performances was released in 1993, while a remastered edition of the album with a CD of extra tracks was released in 1998. In 2014, a deluxe edition was announced with further bonus material. The album received a strong critical reception and continues to attract praise. A Rolling Stone readers' poll in 2012 ranked Made in Japan the sixth best live album of all time.

Background and live bootlegs

Deep Purple "Mk II" formed in July 1969 when founding members, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, organist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice, recruited singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover to progress from their earlier pop and psychedelic rock sound towards hard rock. They began touring extensively, becoming a well received live band, and had recorded several shows either to broadcast on the radio or listen to privately. However, they had rejected the idea of releasing a live album commercially as they believed it would be impossible to reproduce the quality and experience of their stage act on an LP.

Consequently, there was a demand for bootleg recordings of the band. The most notorious of these was an LP entitled H Bomb, recorded at Aachen on 11 July 1970, which led to a subsequent court case when Virgin Records' Richard Branson was prosecuted for selling it. An article in Melody Maker that examined the bootleg phenomenon claimed that H Bomb was the best selling one at that time.

thumb|right|The band's favourite gig of the tour was at the [[Nippon Budokan on 17 August 1972]]

The band arrived in Japan on 9 August, a week before the tour started, to a warm reception, and were greeted with gifts and flowers. Birch was not confident that the recording quality would be satisfactory, since the equipment supplied by Warner Bros. did not have any balance control and that the recorder's size did not appear big enough on sight to capture a commercial quality recording. The band were uninterested in the result, concentrating on simply being able to deliver a good show. Subsequently, Lord noted that he felt this attitude meant the spontaneity of the performances and interplay between the band members was captured well.

The second gig in Osaka was considered to be the stronger of the two, and indeed this show made up the bulk of the released LP. Only one song, "Smoke on the Water" from 15 August show was used, and this may simply have been because it was the only gig that Blackmore played the song's opening riff as per the studio album.

The band considered the gig at Tokyo on 17 August to be the best of the tour. Glover remembered "twelve or thirteen thousand Japanese kids were singing along to 'Child in Time and considered it a career highlight, as did Gillan. At the venue, a row of bodyguards manned the front of the stage. When Blackmore smashed his guitar during the end of "Space Truckin and threw it into the audience, several of them clambered past fans to try and retrieve it. Blackmore was annoyed, but the rest of the band found the incident amusing. The gig was not as well recorded as the Osaka shows, although "The Mule" and "Lazy" were considered of sufficient quality to make the final release.

There were no overdubs on the album. Lord claimed once in a magazine interview that a line from "Strange Kind of Woman" had to be redubbed from a different show after Gillan had tripped over his microphone cable, but no direct evidence of this was found when the multitrack tapes were examined. According to Lord, the total budget for the recording was only $3,000 ( or ).

Release

| title2 = Child in Time

| extra2 = Osaka on 16 August

| length2 = 12:25

Live in Japan 3CD set

1993 Remix by Darron Godwin, assisted by Simon Robinson. Remaster by Peter Mew.<br>Titles already released on Made in Japan are in bold.

  • Recorded in Osaka on 15 August 1972
  • "Smoke on the Water" from the 15th is not included here but is available on the original album
  • The encore "Speed King" from the 15th is not included here on CD1 but is available on CD3
  • Recorded in Osaka on 16 August 1972
  • The two encores "Black Night" and "Lucille" from the 16th are not included here but "Black Night" has been released on compilations and "Lucille" is available on the 1998 reissue of Made in Japan on CD 2.
  • Recorded in Tokyo on 17 August 1972
  • "The Mule" from the 17th is not included here but is available on the main album
  • The two encores "Black Night" and "Speed King" from the 17th are not included here but are available on the 1998 reissue disc 2
  • "Speed King" on CD3 is from the 15th

25th Anniversary remastered edition (2CD)

2014 Box Set Edition

;

2014 2CD Edition

Personnel

Taken from the sleeve notes:

;Deep Purple

  • Ian Gillan&nbsp;– vocals, harmonica, percussion
  • Ritchie Blackmore&nbsp;– guitars
  • Roger Glover&nbsp;– bass guitar
  • Jon Lord&nbsp;– organ, piano
  • Ian Paice&nbsp;– drums

;Recording unit:

  • Co-ordination&nbsp;– Warner Pioneer
  • Engineering&nbsp;– Martin Birch
  • Equipment&nbsp;– Ian Hansford, Rob Cooksey, Colin Hart, Ron Quinton
  • Marshall Engineer&nbsp;– K Flegg
  • Promoters&nbsp;– Universal Orient Promotions
  • Produced by Deep Purple
  • Mixed by Roger Glover, Ian Paice
  • Cover Design&nbsp;– Roger Glover
  • Photography – Fin Costello
  • Remastered by Peter Mew (1998)

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

|-

! Chart (1972–1973)

! Peak<br/>position

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"|Danish Albums Chart

|align="center"|8

|-

|-

! scope="row"| Finland (The Official Finnish Charts)

| align="center"| 4

|-

!scope="row"| French Albums (SNEP)

| align="center"| 3

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)

| align="center"| 7

|-

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

| align="center"| 14

|-

|-

|-

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! Chart (2014–2025)

! Peak<br/>position

|-

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"| German Rock & Metal Albums (Offizielle Top 100)

| 2

|-

! scope="row"| Hungarian Physical Albums (MAHASZ)

| 26

|-

! scope="row"| Japanese Rock Albums (Oricon)

| 11

|-

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col" | Chart (1973)

! scope="col" | Position

|-

! scope="row" | German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)

| 2

|}

Certifications and sales

Accolades

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Publication

! Country

! Accolade

! Year

! style="text-align:center;"|Rank

|-

| Kerrang!

| United Kingdom

| "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time"

| 1989

| 75

|-

| New Musical Express

| United Kingdom

| "50 Best Live Albums"

| 2011

| 13

|-

| Rolling Stone reader's poll

| U.S.

| "10 Best Live Albums"

| 2020

| 1

|-

|}

References

;Footnotes

;Citations

;Books