Made in Japan liner notes

Of all the fan’s predictions of what classic album DT would cover next, I honestly don’t think anybody predicted Deep Purple’s Made In Japan. The previous albums we had covered (Metallica, Iron Maiden and Pink Floyd) were all a bit more “obvious” choices of bands that have been acknowledged as had collectively influenced Dream Theater. But after performing this classic album over two nights in Japan in 2006, I think it was obvious that my pick was indeed an inspired choice... (if I may humbly say so myself!) : )

Other than Yes, Deep Purple are probably the closest comparison to Dream Theater’s instrumentation that you could make of all our early 70’s influences. Their orchestration was the same as DT’s, and the diverse range of styles and influences was also similar. Drawing from influences ranging from classical, blues and jazz – they created a sound that was truly new at the time – bringing all of these elements together to create an almost freeform, jam-oriented progressive style.

But above all, they were RAW, LOUD and HEAVY.

Black Sabbath are always cited as the first “heavy metal” band, but an argument can surely be made that the distinction actually belongs to Deep Purple – their early albums pre-dating both Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

But coming back to the cover performance, why did I choose this album? To be honest, I initially thought DT’s classic album cover tradition would be strictly chosen from studio releases of our biggest influences. And to be honest, I even considered us covering Purple’s classic Machine Head when we were doing a 2-nighter in Japan in 2004 (only to find out that Deep Purple had just decided to do it themselves!) – but certain bands are truly defined by their live performances. And there are many live albums which I consider to be certain band’s greatest recorded releases... albums which truly defined the bands themselves: The Who’s Live At Leeds, UFO’s Strangers In The Night, Kiss Alive 1... even an album like Frampton Comes Alive out-sold and best represented what he was like better than any studio album ever did. I think Deep Purple’s Made In Japan is another great example of this and in my book, is one of the 3 greatest live albums of all time. (The first 2 examples listed above make up my other 2 choices...)

Of course, the other reason I thought of doing this particular album is because of the significance of where we were going to be doing the multiple night stands (which is the rule for this cover tradition). By sheer coincidence, our two multiple nighters were in Tokyo and Osaka... which is exactly the 2 cities that Made In Japan was recorded in back in August of 1972! So... it was a natural!

We did indeed record both performances (Tokyo on Jan 13th 2006 and Osaka on Jan 15th 2006), but rather than mixing up tracks from both shows as Purple did (oh how I really wanted to match their cities song for song!), it was obvious the better performance for us was the Osaka show, so that is the performance included here.

Often we are asked, why do we do these complete album covers? I think there are 3 reasons: First (and most selfishly), we have a lot of fun doing it. It breaks up the traditional touring setlists for us and gives us a chance to just have some fun paying tribute to the bands and the music we grew up with.

The second reason is for you – the fans. Although there are inevitably “fans” who complain about this tradition (they don’t want to sit through another band’s music, they didn’t like the choice of album, etc.), the majority’s reaction is that of enjoyment and excitement. (And the fact is, we ONLY do this on 2 night stands and at “Evening with” shows – so the fans are already getting many, many hours of DT music in addition to the classic album.)

But the third reason, and one that we did not initially anticipate, is that doing these albums have often been a great learning experience for us. Studying and playing other artists’ writing and performing styles has really given us the chance to try some different things and get inside these musician’s heads. With Metallica and Iron Maiden, it really gave Jordan the chance to see where a lot of DT’s metal influence came from and how the two guitar approach can be utilized with keyboards in DT. Doing Pink Floyd’s album was a true exercise in restraint and atmosphere for us. And doing this Deep Purple album was a major lesson in groove, improvisation and jamming! These elements are probably what made Deep Purple as awesome as they are... and once again, another reason why it took a live album to properly show them off.

Every song is loose and spontaneous. And it was a fun challenge to try and capture that vibe. From James’ scatty Ian Gillan improv in Strange Kind Of Woman to John’s reckless whammy-bar Ritchie Blackmore impersonations to Jordan’s over the top solo spots and Jon Lord tributes in Lazy and Space Truckin. And of course, my drum solo in The Mule, is not *me* at all... but my very best Ian Paice solo!

To top it all off, it is an absolute honor to have none other than Roger Glover mixing these tapes for us. Of course, in addition to Roger being the bass player and a key creative force behind Deep Purple for almost 40 years now, he also happens to be the man who mixed the original Made In Japan! So it is a great honor to have these tapes in the hands of the only man that could’ve possibly mixed this show for us.

(Thanks so much Roger!)

In closing, we had an absolute BLAST covering this album!

And we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did performing it...

MP

When I heard that Dream Theater had performed Made In Japan (in Osaka, the site of our recording thirty five years ago) I was somewhat skeptical that they could pull it off since it was a stage performance that included a lot of spontaneity, and how can you plan spontaneity? So, when Mike Portnoy contacted me and invited me to mix the recording, I was intrigued enough to agree.

I sat in the studio with Peter Denenberg, the sound engineer with whom I’ve worked for many years, and was amazed by what I heard. Not only had they captured the essence of the performance but had injected their own brand of fireworks into the process. It almost goes without saying that they are all top shelf musicians, but I’ll say it anyway because I was thoroughly impressed by their dedication and their obvious respect for the original show – they had picked up many of Deep Purple’s musical idiosyncrasies and reinvented them for Dream Theater. The energy of their performance is impressive and I felt honoured to be a part of it. I also thank them for tipping their hat to what was for us in Deep Purple one of the most important defining moments in our career.

Roger Glover, March 2007