“Space Truckin'” is the final song on most releases of Machine Head. The concept of the song came about when Ritchie Blackmore proposed the idea of combining concepts of space travel with late 1960’s comic Keep On Truckin'.

When performed live, this song would often turn into very extended jams, with the original recording of the song on the album only being four and a half minutes in length, these jams would often reach upwards of 15 minutes, with the version recorded for Made in Japan being nearly 20 minutes long.

Perhaps the most notable live performance of “Space Truckin'” came from Deep Purple’s performance at the 1974 California Jam. Due to miscommunication with concert organizers, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had become extremely upset. During the extended jam, Blackmore destroyed multiple guitars, smashed a camera with a guitar, and had his guitar amp doused in gasoline and lit on fire, causing it to explode.