Deep Purple’s finest hour. Original lineup of Blackmore,Gillan,Lord and Paice at the peak of their powers. Considered the best version ever, better than the studio version.
An embryonic, prototype, unpolished etc version of Highway Star performed at Beat Club, apparently in September 1971, while Deep Purple were on their way to Switzerland to record Machine Head, where Highway Star is the opening track, released March 1972.
Apparently, an even rawer version was performed during the “In Rock” tour of 1970.