Scandinavian Nights (Deep Purple, 1970)

The Deep Purple live show of the 1970's was undoubtedly an epic experience. For most fans, such as myself, the initial exposure came from one of the finest live albums by any band, Made In Japan, released in the glow of their best-selling album Machine Head, and featuring live versions of fan favorites like "Highway Star", "Space Trucking" and of course "Smoke on the Water". Every song was stretched well beyond its studio running length, resulting in an experience that at time was more jazz than rock.

Scandinavian Nights didn't get a proper release until the 1990's and features a slightly younger band. Since the "new" Deep Purple had only released a single album, the set list is quite different from Made In Japan. For those who delighted in the expansion of their studio songs, this show took things to near-ridiculous extremes, to the point where it's hard to recommend to the casual fan. The two lingering numbers from the original lineup, "Wring That Neck" and "Mandrake Root", are each blown out to nearly half an hour each, a full ten minutes over anything Made In Japan delivered. The tracks even dwarf the chronologically closer first disc of Deep Purple In Concert, released in 1980.

With songs like "Speed King" taken about as heavy as they could go, I can understand why the next album Fireball was a letdown to many. At that point it was becoming clear that the band on stage and the band in the studio were becoming two different animals altogether. The live show would scale back a little in the ensuing years, though always more adventurous than any setlist the band has done since the mid-1980's. "Speed King" would be replaced by "Highway Star" and moved to the encores, while "Child In Time" stayed as long as Ian Gillan was in the band. "Into the Fire", the shortest track here (yet two minutes above the studio length) vanished quickly to the likes of "Fireball" and "Strange Kind of Woman". "Wring That Neck" would ultimately be replaced by "Lazy", while "Mandrake Root" was dropped for "Space Trucking", although the ending 15 or so minutes wouldn't change (and by dropping these songs, Rod Evans and Nick Simper would no longer have their names in the credits...naturally). The instrumental version of "Paint It Black", basically just a vehicle for an Ian Paice drum solo, would be replaced by a similarly-structured, band-authored "The Mule", though very different from the Fireball version.