Published on May 24, 1998
After successfully reuniting in 1984 to record
Perfect Strangers and following it up with a solid effort in
The House Of Blue Light, one wondered what possessed Deep
Purple to put out a double live album.
Sure, it had been over 15 years since the Mk. II lineup of Ian
Gillen, Ritchir Blackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Ian Paice had
graced the world with
Made In Japan, still one of the finest live albums I’ve ever
heard. And sure, they probably wanted to put out something that the
new generation of Deep Purple fans would cherish for years to
come.
It is therefore ironic that they chose to title their 1988 live
release
Nobody’s Perfect, ’cause this album is far from that.
The bulk of the album is made up of tracks that the older Deep
Purple fans grew up with: “Space Truckin’,” “Smoke On The Water,”
“Strange Kind Of Woman”. However, seeing that Blackmore and crew
had been playing these songs for the better part of two decades, it
was almost as if they could play them in their sleep – and
sometimes, that’s exactly how these live versions sound. The
album’s opener, “Highway Star,” features Deep Purple blazing
through the track, leaving a sloppy trail along the way. I would
have much rather had them play it at a normal tempo and had
Blackmore actually work on providing a cleaner guitar solo. (And
quite frankly, I would have rather heard the
full version of “Woman From Tokyo,” thank you very
little!)
And no matter how much screaming he does on stage, Gillen is not
the same young singer he was in 1971, and his voice is definitely
showing the signs of age. Those high registers he used to hit with
no effort now sound strained – the band even drops the key of
“Knocking At Your Back Door” a step or two, as if to make it more
accessible for Gillen.
Still, the newer material does shine on
Nobody’s Perfect. The live rendition of “Perfect Strangers”
isn’t quite as strong as the studio version, but this will do fine
nonetheless. “Bad Attitude” also provides a strong showing for Deep
Purple, and even though the key in “Knocking At Your Back Door” is
knocked a little lower, it’s still an enjoyable song. The keyboard
riffs from Lord to open the track show he hasn’t lost anything over
the years.
The album concludes with a bit of a surprise: a re-recording of
“Hush,” finally with Gillen on vocals. (The original version on
1968 was sung by Rod Evans.) I remember the first time I heard this
version, I cringed in pain, and shoved this album way to the back
of the Pierce Archives. Well, as time ahs passed, it’s proven
itself to be a halfway decent version of the song, but nothing will
ever take the place of the original.
Nobody’s Perfect possibly shows the signs of a band in
turmoil; Gillen left Deep Purple one year later, and was replaced
by Joe Lynn Turner for all of one album. (Gillen returned to the
fold again in 1993.) If this was indeed the case, then maybe this
album was put out just in case the members never worked together
again. Either that, or this was a “contractual obligation” album,
seeing that
Slaves And Masters, the album with Turner, was released on
RCA. (Contractual obligation albums always seem to suck pretty
bad.)
Nobody’s Perfect has occasional moments that show the old
fire of the classic Deep Purple lineup, but for the most part, this
is a tired record that sounds uninspired. You want to hear live
Deep Purple, spend your money on
Made In Japan, then come back to this if there’s any cash
left.