DEEP PURPLE : LONG BEACH 1976

 

Disc One (64:17)

  1. Intro
  2. Burn
  3. Lady Luck
  4. Getting Tighter
  5. Love Child
  6. Smoke On The Water / Georgia On My Mind
  7. Lazy
  8. Homeward Strut

Disc Two (60:34)

  1. This Time Around
  2. Owed To G
  3. Guitar Solo Tommy Bolin
  4. Stormbringer
  5. Highway Star
    Bonus (Springfield 1976) :
  6. Smoke On The Water / Georgia On My Mind
  7. Going Down
  8. Higway Star

Label : Ear Music

Venue : Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California, USA

Recording Date : February 27, 1976

Release Date : 2014

Review (Louder Sound) : From tapes recorded for the syndicated US radio series King Biscuit Flower Hour, this album delivers the full 90-plus-minute set from February 27, 1976 (plus three songs from Springfield, MA, a month earlier). It is, then, from Deep Purple Mark IV’s lone US tour in support of the line-up’s sole studio album, Come Taste The Band. This repackages the tapes for a third official release but remains valid because while the band are held together by the eternal brilliance of Jon Lord and Ian Paice, it’s the jazzier stylings of ex-James Gang member and Billy Cobham sideman Tommy Bolin that steal the show. This despite the bluesy presence of David Coverdale (back when he could really sing, although his high notes here are sometimes strained) and Glenn Hughes. The toppermost pitch of the then cocaine-addicted Hughes is technically impressive but 40 years on, we should admit that so too is the impact of a dentist’s drill on a polished wooden surface. So let’s accentuate the positives… That chiefly means Bolin – an American controversially replacing Ritchie Blackmore, and who would die of a drug overdose seven months later – and a radical setlist. After Burn, Purple play half the new album and just three from the Mark II heyday. Although they take up a third of the running time, much has changed. Smoke On The Water segues into Hughes singing Georgia On My Mind, the soul classic made famous by Ray Charles. How un-Purple is that?! Lazy showcases Lord’s evergreen Hammond work, but is uncharacteristically marred by synth updates. Even the encore Highway Star is only vaguely like the Made In Japan version. More importantly, Bolin really stretches out, painting everything with his unique flourishes, unconcerned by what hardcore Purple fans might expect. After Paice’s stunning solo, he leads the band though Homeward Strut, an instrumental from his own album Teaser, and prior to a thunderous set-closing Stormbringer delivers – with the merest smattering of support from Paice – a panoptic 10-and-a-half-minute solo that could bend spoons. He’s more subtle on This Time Around/Owed To G (a lovely change of pace dedicated by Hughes to “a friend, Stevie Wonder”) but turns stylishly brutal again by covering blues standard Going Down. True, Purple are usually better with Gillan but, as Steve Morse has shown, not always with Blackmore. This album proves that when Bolin was on top of his game, they were very special too.

Review (AllMusic) : One of the more intriguing Purple eras from over the years was their "Mark IV" lineup, which was comprised of David Coverdale (vocals), Glenn Hughes (vocals, bass), Tommy Bolin (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards), and Ian Paice (drums). The reason being that there was no Ritchie Blackmore in their ranks, and this lineup only managed a single studio album, the oft-overlooked Come Taste the Band, and a year after disbanding in 1976, a subpar live album, Last Concert in Japan. Due to an arm injury to Bolin, his guitar playing is not even close to what he would sound like at full-strength on the aforementioned Last Concert in Japan. But this problem was justified once and for all with the arrival of 2009's Live at Long Beach 76. Originally recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show, this double-disc set has been issued several times over the years (including under such titles as On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat, among others), but far surpasses the aforementioned Last Concert in Japan. The most obvious reason for the "improvement" being Bolin's improved playing, and a far lengthier set list. Reflecting the era when arena rock was at its most indulgent and bombastic, quite a few of the tracks here feature mind-numbingly long solos or jams; case in point, extended renditions of such Purple classics as "Smoke on the Water" and "Highway Star." But the biggest culprit here is an over-20-minute version of "Lazy," which manages to incorporate parts of the solo Bolin track "Homeward Strut" (which was often incorrectly listed as "The Grind" on previously released versions of this show). And while this non-Ritchie Blackmore lineup was able to pull off the expected nuggets admirably, it's the renditions of the rarely performed Come Taste the Band material that will be of interest to longtime fans, including "Lady Luck," "Love Child," "This Time Around," and "Gettin' Tighter," the latter of which falls victim once more to the "extended jam virus." Behind Made in Japan (considered one of hard rock's finest live albums of all time), Live at Long Beach 76 is certainly one of Purple's finest live sets.