Japan Singles Like Never Before

A little while back I happened to pick up a couple of Japanese singles for Deep Purple. I mean I've been obsessing over Japanese records for a bit this year, but grabbing those two 7 inches really fueled me to get more. They looked so damn cool. I wanted to build a collection of them and set out to see what I could pick up from US sellers.

One of the cooler records that I was able to pick up was the single for Never Before. This is such a great and underrated Deep Purple song. I was kind of surprised to discover that this song was actually a single...especially coming from the Machine Head album, which had it's fair share of hits. I'm also a fan of that cover photo...just a shaggy bunch of young and loud brits for their time.

The b-side is the amazing When A Blind Man Cries, which didn't make the original pressing of Machine Head.

The next single that I added to the collection was the live version of Black Night, that appeared on the 24 Carat Purple compilation, and based on the cover photo from the single, it was obviously cut from the classic Made In Japan album. I wish they had used a different photo than the album, but it is still a good look.

I managed to find one more Deep Purple single from a US seller, and this time it was for the song Burn. This was the song that initially gave me an appreciation for David Coverdale, which completely surprised me, since I'd grown up with a passionate hatred for Whitesnake. This shit though, this got down to fucking business. An absolute killer of a song. Again, I wish that the single cover was different than the album, but at least the Japanese characters for the title "Burn" looks cool.