I can't really add much to what has already been said in the other reviews here, with one exception. No one seems to have noticed that the liner notes in the accompanying booklet (which was otherwise nicely done with some great photos) gets all kinds of facts wrong. This is not mere nitpicking, as there are literally too many mistakes to list in this review. As Rhino needed to work with Simon Robinson (founder of the UK-based Deep Purple Appreciation Society and writer for all of DP's remastered album booklets) to get many of these tracks, one wonders why they didn't ask him to write the historical essay. Considering that this long-overdue boxed set is otherwise lavish and packed with tracks previously unavailable in the USA, the thoroughly misleading essay is a garish oversight.

Well this band has been coming at us for over thiry years and this box set is an excellent synopsis of that 30 yr period. Not only do they do a great job at selecting the songs, but it is well organized and produced along with a nice book included to read about the band while you listen to the songs.

You get to see what a great live band they are in this set. An example of this is a top notch extended jam of "Lazy" on the third disc from the infamous Tokyo 72 shows. We also see what a great studio band they were with many examples, some highlights being "Perfect Strangers," "Bad Attitude" and the afformentioned "No One Came."

You have songs included from their entire career with different members, but the bulk being by the Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Richie Blackmore and Ian Gillan fivesome. You get to see the good times they had together on tracks such as "Space Trucking and "Knocking at your Back Door." On the flip side of the coin, you also see the strained relationship at times between these five (specifically Gillan and Blackmore) in such songs as "Smooth Dancer."

I actually gave this collection 4 1/2 stars. The only knock being that I would have liked a few more rarities, but there are many on here still to enjoy. There are tracks just pulled from the vault and dusted off like "Shadows," "Love Help Me," and "Son of Alerik." I also would have liked more pictures from these times these five were in the band.

There are also some great songs from the times that Glover and Gillan were not in the band, like the rocker "Burn" featuring David Coverdale on vocals prior to his Whitesnake days and "Sail Away."

Deep Purple is a band that was never appreciated enough in this country always bigger over in the eastern hemisphere. Well, this is one American fan who definately appreciates them and this box set has everything that many other box sets fail have a solid summary of a bands entire career.

During their halcyon days Deep Purple challenged the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as kings of the British hard rock throne. They were formed in late sixties by guitar ace Ritchie Blackmore, along with underrated organist Jon Lord and the great Ian Paice on drums. The first incarnation of the band featured Rod Evans on vocals and Nick Simper on bass. This early incarnation of the band favored cover versions and their biggest hits were covers like "Hush", "Kentucky Woman" and "River Deep Mountain High" "Help" and "Hey Joe". This incarnation of the band is featured on the first disk. Eventually Blackmore, Lord, and Paice decided to take a less psychedelic and a more progressive/hard rock direction. Bassist Roger Glover and vocalist Ian Gillan were added and the band enjoyed their greatest popularity. Highlights from this era which included the release of their masterpiece "Machine Head" are included on the first, second, and third disk. Classic songs like "Smoke On The Water", "Highway Star", "Black Night", "Space Truckin'" and "Woman From Tokyo" pit the classic riffing of Blackmore against the more progressive organ of Jon Lord. Ian Gillan demonstrated incredible vocal range. Later, a personality clash between Blackmore and Gillan caused the latter to leave the band along with solid bassist Roger Glover. They were replaced by the unknown David Coverdale (later of Whitesnake) and Glenn Hughes from Trapeze on bass and vocals. This period of the band is featured on the third disk. The band's music became more funk oriented with songs like "Might Just Take Your Life" and "Hold On". Blackmore bailed out with this change of direction to be replaced for one album by the excellent but tragic Tommy Bolin from the James Gang. Bolin died of a heroin overdose and the band folded. Disk four contains the some of the subsequent reformations of the band. The classic line up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, and Paice reformed successfully during the eighties. Eventually Gillan and Blackmore grew apart and Gillan was replaced by Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow. The current line up features Gillan, Glover, Lord, Paice, and Steve Morse from the Dixie Dregs and Kansas on guitar.

The sound is excellent and the song by song notes in the booklet are informative. The set features a number of non-lp single sides, unreleased tracks, alternate takes, and live tracks. Tracks like "Cry Free", "Demon's Eye", "Freedom", "Painted Horse" and others are just as strong as the album tracks from this period. The set also spotlights lesser known gems like "No No No" "Into The Fire", "Never Before" and "Sail Away". My only regret is that two of the best original tracks and concert favorites from the early line up "Wring That Neck" and "Mandrake Root" were omitted. Other tracks I miss are "The Mule" and "Maybe I'm A Leo" from the classic line up and tracks like "You Fool No One", "Mistreated", "Solder Of Fortune", "Drifter" and "Lady Luck" from the funkier edition of the band. The Bolin line up is especially shortchanged with only two songs included. Some of the songs on the 4th disk could have been omitted to allow for my suggestions. A disk of unissued live tracks featuring the band's improvisational skills would have been a great addition. However, this is probably the most representative anthology of Deep Purple which will be compiled. If you like progressive British hard rock with especially good guitar and organ interplay this is essential!

Clearly this collection has been long overdue. For years Deep Purple fans have been subjected to inferior "Best Of" collections which recycle the same tracks over and over, but only ever skimmed the surface of the back catalog.
Now, at last, we get a true "Best Of" collection spread over four CDs tracing the career of the band from "Hush" to "Abandon", and finally giving a home to those tracks which didn't make the final cut the first time around.
What is most remarkable about this set is being able to listen to those outtakes and realize just how much quality control the band employed. If these tracks didn't make it, then the ones that did had to be special!
A total of 62 tracks spanning 30 years including many which have never made it onto CD before, this has to be the best value for money for any Purple fan. Even the so-called 'weak' albums get good representation here, although it is strange that "You Keep On Moving" was left off, especially as it was released as a single in many countries.
But for those fans who would say that their favorite track has been left off let me ask you a question -- take a good look down the running order and then ask yourself which track you would take off to put your favorite on?
If you only buy one "Best Of" collection - buy this one, you won't be disappointed.

What could perhaps be better than an album by DP? A compilation of albums by DP! Rather than squeezing all the hits onto a "one-hour tape", this compilation rather features a step-by-step tracing of the band's history... Disk One includes mainly out-takes and album songs of the remarkable 1968-1970 era with Rod Evans on vocals. Songs like Anthem and Emaretta portray very closely that time period of Deep Purple.

Here comes "Hallelujah" with the diversion in style: vocals. Ian Gillan replaces Evans with his roaring voice, which after so many years still sounds incredible. Some of the songs included here were never released on any albums, yet most of them are stil quite popular: "When a blind man cries" along "Strange kind of woman". And what could be a better idea than including "Lazy" and "Into the fire" in their live version?

Then Mark III and IV come across on Disk 3 with Coverdale and Hughes. Not as breathtaking as the Blackmore-Glover-GIllan-Lord-Paice era, however still with its own funky signature sound. The last disk features the most recent perturbations within the band combining awesome tunes of "Perfect Strangers" with the confusion of "Slaves and Masters". Only very few tracks are included from "Abandon" and "Purpendicular".

Overall, definitely a 5 star album!