AtomicCrimsonRush
"The Universal Masters Collection", labelled here as "20th Century Masters", is the last Deep Purple compilation I am ever buying, as I have all their famous albums and enough compilations to sink a battleship. This one ended up in my clutches for two simple reasons; 1. It was relatively cheap, found at a reject shop, and 2. It did feature some tracks that I did not actually have. The tracks in question are Son of Alerik, a 10 minute track that was a bonus on "Perfect Strangers" CD remaster, but not included on my version, and the songs from "The House of Blue Light" that I never bothered with; Bad Attitude, The Unwritten Law, and Dead or Alive. My version with different packaging from China also featured The Spanish Archer from this album as a last track, so that was kind of a nice bonus. All of these are okay but I prefer the heavier proggier Mark 1 Line up any day.
It also features some of my all time favourites such as Knocking at Your Back Door and Perfect Strangers, the two best songs on "Perfect Strangers". As a bonus it features the brilliant live tracks Black Night, clocking just over 6 minutes, and classic live Child in Time (10:37) and a live Smoke on the Water (7:43). That is not a bad collection in essence and worth giving Chickenfeed the 10 dollars I shelled out for this.
The packaging is no frills, small fold out booklet with about 3 pictures and some information on Purple history, and mine has a different colour cover than the one pictured here, but I dare say this collection has ended up in many homes due to its cheapness and the track listing. I was very pleased to be able to add it to my collection.