This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
It’s their last performance in Japan, available again. For the first time. Yeah, I know; it made no sense to me either.
Here’s the deal: In 1975, the fourth version of Deep Purple — with Tommy Bolin on guitar and David Coverdale on vocals — played in Japan. A few months later, they broke up. Then Bolin died, and this gig was cut up, resequenced and issued as the crappy cash-in Last Concert in Japan (not to be confused with the earlier release Live in Japan). End of story — until now. This Time Around, assembled by Bolin archivists, is the full, undoctored recording of the same show, with all the songs in proper order and nothing cut out. Sometimes this is cool — you get tunes like Lazy and Stormbringer that got left off the first time. Sometimes this is not cool — Jon Lord’s 10-minute organ solo makes you reach for the fast-forward. But mostly, it just rocks — you can’t listen to Burn, Highway Star and Smoke on the Water without playing air guitar and dancing around in your underwear … or so I’ve been told.
