What Are The Best Deep Purple Live And Studio Albums?

This page has two readers polls to find the:

  • best Deep Purple live album
  • best Deep Purple studio album.

What is the best Deep Purple live album?

The obvious answer is Made In Japan when the mark II band were in their prime promoting the legendary Machine Head LP.

But do the Deep Purple fans agree?

I thought I’d put together a poll to find out but because Made In Japan is the odds on favourite and there are plenty of other Purple live albums, I’m letting you to vote for your three favourites.

What Are The THREE Best Deep Purple Live Albums? (Click on the links to go to the reviews)

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

It’s going to take some time to get meaningful results for this live Deep Purple album poll but every vote cast is one closer to getting a definitive answer on the best live albums to focus on.

My Thoughts On The Results Of The Poll To Find  The Best Live Albums By Deep Purple

Some of these polls have surprising results but this one is obvious.

Yes, Made In Japan from 1972 is #1.

Deep Purple Made In Japan

It has been selected by 77% and another 14% have opted for Live In Japan (at #5 in its own right) which has nearly all the tracks recorded on these three nights in Japan. The album is also doing very well in the hard rock and heavy metal poll. This live album and the studio albums In Rock and Machine Head mean that the legacy of Mark II Deep Purple will live on.

Even though voters have brrn given three choices of live albums in the poll, there is much less consensus on the rankings below #1.

The various versions of the band have produced many very good live albums but only one classic. Sadly the band have been reluctant to vary the setlist from night to night o  tour so there has been little range of songs covered.

At #2 is the first live album Mark III released,  Made In Europe from 1975, the last tour before star guitarist Ritchie  Blackmore left to firm Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio.

Deep Purple Made In Europe 1975

I had this album as a teenager when it was first released and Burn, Stormbringer and Mistreated are songs worthy of Made In Japan.

Two more Mark III live albums are fighting for the third and fourth positions.

Live In London from the 1974 Burn tour is fourth at the moment.

Deep Purple Live In London

This gives us live versions of Burn, Might Just Take Your Life, Lay Down, Stay Down, Mistreated and  You  Fool No One from their current album plus the inevitable Smoke On The Water and a 31 minute version of Space Truckin’.

At #4 is Live In Paris from the 1975 Stormbringer tour.

Deep Purple Live In Paris

On this we get Stormbringer, The Gypsy and Lady Double Dealer plus more Coverdale-Coverdale-Hughes songs from Burn and Smoke On The Water, Space Truckin’ and Highway Star from the Mark II era.

I’ve always felt that Mark III  and Mark IV versions of the band are underrated and prefer both these to the longstanding Made In Europe. The character of the band was different but they were still a very effective hard rock outfit.

Deep Purple have done a good job of opening up their live archives and the other albums from the 1970s are worth investigating.

I’m a bit surprised that no album from the reunion tours has escaped the pack. The band has continued releasing live albums that include the new studio releases and revive Mark II tunes.

I have no hesitation to say that Made In Japan is the place to start and nor have the voters in the poll.

What Are The Best Deep Purple Studio Albums?

I believe the best live albums and studio albums are often linked in time. Made In Japan is great because it was able to pulls songs from Deep Purple In Rock, Fireball and Machine Head.

Again you can vote for more than one.

What Are The Three Best Deep Purple Studio Albums?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Results of the poll to find the best Deep Purple studio albums

No surprise again that Machine Head and In Rock dominate the votes. These are genuine hard rock classics underlining the importance of Mark II.

Third is Burn and Fireball is fourth. Fifth is a reunion album, Perfect Strangers.

What Are the Best Live Albums Of All Time?

Please help me find the best live albums by voting in my other readers polls:

Made In Japan is getting a lot of votes in the best heavy metal albums poll.

Other heavy metal polls

Click on the links to vote and to see the results so far.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.