Episode 332 – Made in Japan (Steven Wilson Remix)

Link to video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ZigsyT1jY

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Nate on CNN

Discussing the Made in Japan Remix, Stranger Things, and the upcoming Rapture of the Deep Remix.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/16/entertainment/video/hollywood-entertainment-music-podcasts-stranger-things-deep-purple-made-in-japan-rapture-of-the-deep-reissues

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History:

Press Release

(June 18, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA) On August 15, 1972, Deep Purple took the stage in Japan for the first of three shows that would give rise to one of rock’s most celebrated live albums, Made in Japan. Today, Warner announces a new Super Deluxe Edition of the landmark release, due out August 15—exactly 53 years after the first performance was recorded.

Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition) features new stereo and Dolby ATMOS mixes of the original by acclaimed producer Steven Wilson, all three concerts newly remixed by Richard Digby Smith, and several rare single edits. It will be released as a 5CD/Blu-ray set at retailers nationwide, and a 10LP black vinyl edition, available exclusively from www.deeppurple.com and Rhino.com. Pre-order HERE.

A 2LP black vinyl version of Steven Wilson remixes will be available on August 15 and October 3 in the U.S., Canada, and Japan at select independent record stores. The digital companion will be available everywhere on August 15.

Originally intended as a Japan-only release, this double live album became a surprise global phenomenon. Released in the U.K. in December 1972 and in the U.S. the following March, Made in Japan went platinum in America and several European countries.

Singer Ian Gillan, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboardist Jon Lord, bassist Roger Glover, and drummer Ian Paice—Deep Purple’s famed Mk II lineup—turned studio staples like “Smoke On The Water,” “Highway Star,” and “Space Truckin’” into explosive live statements. “We came halfway around the world and found the audience singing every word. It was magical,” Glover recalls in the collection’s liner notes.

The band enlisted engineer Martin Birch—who had worked on several of their best-known studio albums—to record the shows to eight-track tape at Festival Hall in Osaka and the Budokan in Tokyo. The performances on Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition) capture Deep Purple at full throttle, powering through songs from their then-new album Machine Head, along with fan favorites like “Child In Time,” “Strange Kind Of Woman,” and “Speed King.” The collection also includes rare single edits, like the German version of “Black Night” and the Mexican edit of “Space Truckin’.”

The live album garnered widespread critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone declaring it “Purple’s definitive metal monster, a spark-filled execution of the typical Purple style.” This recognition led to its impressive ranking at No. 6 on their “Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Live Albums of All Time.” AllMusic also praised the album, stating that “Deep Purple pushed its music into the kind of deliberate excess that made heavy metal what it became.” Additionally, the album achieved commercial success, landing at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Wilson harnesses the raw energy of the original tapes in his new stereo and Atmos mixes. “It’s all completely as it happened on the night,” he says. “The album has a power and sense of abandon that they never quite captured in the studio. Hopefully this new mix makes it feel even more like you’re there.”

(MANDATORY CREDIT Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images) Deep Purple at Nippon Budokan, August 17th, 1972. (Photo by Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images)

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Setlist

  • Highway Star
  • Smoke on the Water
  • Child in Time
  • The Mule
  • Strange Kind of Woman
  • Lazy
  • Space Truckin’
  • Encores varying by night

August 15, 1972

August 16, 1972

August 17, 1972

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Episode 331 – Ian Gillan at 80

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  • Ralphie goes TRANSATLANTIC??

Influences and Early Years

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Reception and Charts:

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Episode 330 – Dio – Sacred Heart

Link to video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGEtg1O0ZK0

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Postcards From The Edge . . . OF CONNECTICUT!

  • Ralphie Round Up

History:

  • Of the album Ronnie said, “I think musically we’ve certainly progressed, and I know we’re all very proud of what we’ve done. To me, it’s taken what we’ve achieved on the first two albums to a new level.”
  • “We live in a world that’s got enough bad situations happening,” he said. “Do people want to be reminded of what’s wrong in their lives through the lyrics to a song? I don’t believe so. So, my words have a lot to do with the imagination, and offer escapism.”

Core Band:

Technical:

Album Art & Booklet Review

  • Artwork [Original Concept] – Ronnie Dio*, Wendy Dio
  • Design – Jeri McManus
    • https://www.smogdesign.com/
    • Has done work on over 300 album covers including Ric Ocasic, Chaka Kahn, Paul Simon, The Time, Madonna, and many, many more.
  • Design – Steve J. Gerdes*
    • http://www.stevegerdes.com/
    • Worked on covers for Depeche Mode, Rough Cutt, Black Sabbath (Seventh Star), Smashing Pumpkins, Janet Jackson, and many more.
  • Illustration – Robert Florczak
    • Only a few other album covers including mostly classical releases.
  • Photography By – Gene Kirkland
  • Photography By – P.G. Brunelli
    • Did photos for Iron Maiden (Number of the Beast), Samson, Thin Lizzy, Yngwie Malmsteen, and more.
  • Typography [Hand-lettering] – Margo Chase
  • The inscription around the border is Latin reading:FINIS PER SOMNIVM REPERIO TIBI SACRA COR VENEFICVS OSTIVM AVRVM
    • This could translate as:
      • Along the borders of dreams I found for you the sacred poisonous heart and golden door
      • comes the end by sleep I will prepare the sacred heart which is the magic that opens upon the altar
  • Booklet is divided into three sections:
    • Those who created
    • Those who labored
    • Those who supported

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Album Tracks:

Side One:

  1. King of Rock and Roll (Dio, Appice, Bain, Campbell)
    • Recorded in the studio with audience effects added after.
    • The liner notes in the 2012 release say that the “King of Rock and Roll” was written about Ozzy Osbourne.
  2. Sacred Heart (Dio, Appice, Bain, Campbell)
  3. Another Lie (Dio)
  4. Rock ‘n’ Roll Children (Dio)

Side Two:

  1. Hungry for Heaven (Dio, Bain)
  2. Like the Beat of a Heart (Dio, Bain)
  3. Just Another Day (Dio, Campbell)
  4. Fallen Angels (Dio, Appice, Bain, Campbell)
  5. Shoot Shoot (Dio, Appice, Bain, Campbell)

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Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

Reception and Charts:

  • The album was released in August of 1985.
  • The album earned gold certification on October 15, 1985. It was the last Dio album proper to receive a gold ranking. Later the compilation “The Very Beast of Dio” would earn gold in 2009.
  • Reached number 29 in the US charts selling 500,000 copies.
  • The first three albums were re-released as special editions in March of 2012 with bonus tracks.
  • Of the album Appice said, “I don’t think the songs were as heavy on the previous two records. But that said, it still was a great record.

Reviews

  • The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 198
    • 1 star (out of 5)

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Episode 329 – The Flower Pot Men

Link to video episode on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7YqUnbIa-A

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  • Ralphie, Ralphie, Ralphie

History:

  • The band was formed in 1967 after recording the hit single “Let’s Go To San Francisco.”
  • John Carter and Ken Lewis of The Ivy League formed the group.
  • In the summer of 1966 Brian Wilson decided to stop touring with The Beach Boys to focus on studio work. The Beatles made the same decision. John Carter decided to do the same.
  • The new bandleader for The Ivy League decided to replace several members so John Carter recruited them into his new project The Flower Pot Men.
  • John Carter partnered with other songwriters on a project called The Ministry of Sound which wrote the song “Time and Motion Man” later recorded by Episode Six.
  • With Lewis Carter decided to write “Let’s Go To San Francisco” after reading about so much of the bands from the West Coast of the United States along with the whole scene that was developing at that time.
  • The single for “Let’s Go To San Francisco” was released in August of 1967 and had to be split over two sides of the single. The single reached #4 in the UK charts.
  • To be played in the US the band had to be called The Flower Pots to avoid the reference to drug use.
  • At the time there was a lot of controversy over The Monkees not performing on their own albums so attention was put on The Flower Pot Men who had really recorded it as members of The Ivy League.
  • John had been lead singer on the track but refused to do any live performances. Live the singers included Tony Burrows, Neil Landon, Robin Shaw, and Peter Nelson.
  • Backing the singers was a band called The Sundial which consisted of Jon Lord, Nick Simper, Ged Peck, and Carlo Little.
  • “The eight of us soon gelled into a slick, confident act, with each show being better than the last”, claims Simper. “The opening song was always The Four Seasons’ ‘Let’s Hang On’, with Tony Burrows hitting Frankie Valli’s high notes with ease, followed by various songs by The Four Tops, The Beach Boys and Wilson Pickett. Of course, the hit song ‘Let’s Go To San Francisco’ was always a showstopper.”
  • This lineup recorded a couple of the sessions for the newly branded Radio 1 featuring this lineup.
  • Nick Simper and Jon Lord’s first gig with The Flower Pot Men – 22 September 1967 –  Broken Wheel, Retford (Derbyshire Times/Retford Times) (FIRST DOCUMENTED)

The Flower Pot Men: Midsummer Dreaming – An Anthology 1967-1970, 3CD Digipak

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Band & Tracks

Let’s Go To San Francisco Parts 1 and 2 (original mono version) 

The single that started it all.

The following are 5 tracks recorded live on the BBC featuring Jon Lord, Nick Simper, Carlo Little, and Ged Peck.

The Sundial featuring Ged Peck, Carlo Little, Jon Lord, and Nick Simper

13 Let’s Go To San Francisco* BBC session

14 California Dreamin’* BBC session

Mamas and The Papas

15 Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall* BBC session

Simon & Garfunkel Cover

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_Never_Bend_with_the_Rainfall

16 Don’t Worry Baby* BBC session

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Worry_Baby

Beach Boys Cover

17 A Walk In The Sky* BBC session

Original song written by John and Ken as the follow up to “Let’s Go To San Francisco”

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Reception and Charts:

  • February 24, 1968 – Nick Simper and Jon Lord’s last gig with The Flower Pot Men (??) California Ballroom, Dunstable (LAST DOCUMENTED). Less than two months later they’d be playing their first live show with Deep Purple billed as Roundabout in Denmark.
  • John Carter had written the song “Beach Baby” with his wife Gillian Shakespeare and recorded it with his group First Class.
    • “Now on American Top 40, I have that song that was launched by a criminal act, an act that could have cost the owner of a British record company at least a stiff fine [sic]. He’s also a recording artist, Jonathan King. He’s known to Americans as the guy who hit back in 1965 with ‘Everyone’s Gone to the Moon‘, remember? Well, since then he’s become a successful producer in England, and he started his own label a couple of years ago. Last year, during the United Kingdom’s severe energy crisis, a songwriter came to Jonathan’s house with a master tape of a new song that he’d just recorded, but he’d come on a bad day of the week. You see, it was a day when Britons were prohibited from using electricity because of the power shortage. But something told King to take a chance. He invited the artist to come in, and, in a room lit only by candles, keeping the volume turned way down, he listened to that tape, and he knew he’d bought a hit song. Here it is, up to #25 this week, ‘Beach Baby’ by First Class.”
    • The song contained two instrumental passages, the first from the composer Sibelius, the second a direct quote from “Let’s Go To San Francisco.”
    • The single version of the song was almost 5 minutes long so most stations faded it out before the instrumental break in order to shorten it and to avoid the legal action that was being taken against Carter from the Sibelius family which would end up giving half of the proceeds from the song to the estate.
  • Beach Baby
  • https://open.spotify.com/track/5J74pF4Nn86qyLQihpkXq4

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