Disc 1, Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA - May 24th, 1973:  Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Strange Kind Of Woman, Child In Time, Lazy / drum solo / The Mule

Disc 2:  Space Truckin', Lucille

Disc 3, Münsterlandhalle, Münster, Germany - January 23rd, 1973:  Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Strange Kind Of Woman, Mary Long, Space Truckin', Black Night

Definitive 1973 is a collection of two recently surfaced and circulated tape sources from Deep Purple's Mark II line up.  The first two discs cover the entire May 24th show at the Boston Music Hall.  This was one of the first tapes posted on Dime A Dozen from the Joe Maloney archive (#9) and is a complete document.  Like other tapes from this archive it is a good to very good and enjoyable sounding tape.  It is a distance from the stage and picks up a lot of echo and contains some distortion in the higher frequencies with an overall flat sound to it.  This is an issue with many tapes made at the Boston Music Hall and makes me wonder if it wasn't conducive for rock concerts. 

Despite that this is a wonderful recording of a show which hasn't had any documentation until now.  Boston was several days before their Hofstra University appearance that was video taped for the "In Concert" telecast and has the same kind of of vibe going on.  The performance is very tight.  "Nice to see you again.  The last time we were here we had a good time..." Gillan says before going into the "Smoke On The Water" story about the Casino burning down in Montreux.  "Strange Kind Of Woman" is introduced as a song about "evil people who deserve each other".  John Lord gets into Beethoven's  Für Elise and the Mexican hat dance during "Lazy".  "Space Truckin'" lasts more than twenty minutes and sounds a lot like ELP's "Rondo", and the encore is a cover of Little Richard's "Lucille". 

The third disc presents another new tape.  This comes from Münster on their first of two European tours that year.  Like with Boston, no other tape source has circulated before for this date.  It is more distant than the Boston tape, thin sounding and distorted but still listenable.  There is a big gap in the middle of the show eliminating almost all of "Mary Long".  Only Gillan's intro and the first couple of seconds of the song is present where he says it's from the new album and talks about Mary Whitehouse.  "Lazy/drum solo/The Mule", which would follow is absent.  It picks up during the "Rondo" section of "Space Truckin'" and runs (complete with audience noise) to the first encore "Black Night".  The second encore "Lucillle", if played, is missing.  It's a shame the tape is so fragmentary since this is a very strong show to a wild audience.  Gillan has to calm them down before the band even plays a note.  This is a nice bonus but the focus is upon the Boston show and this title comes very recommended.