A few years back I had a
hankering to go see my first eve live experience again. That band is Whitesnake
obviously; otherwise it would be in a different write-up. Supporting or should
I say equal to Def Leppard on the bill at the Liverpool Arena, I had not seen
such a poor gig since Schenker’s issue supporting the Scorps a couple of years
earlier. Coverdale was poor at best. He redeemed himself more recently on the
Journey bill in Manchester where a much improved (?) and hopefully not enhanced
version was witnessed.
Over to Coverdale…“People have been asking me
for many years to revisit Purple songs like ‘MISTREATED’ & ‘SOLDIER OF
FORTUNE’ with WHITESNAKE, but I always felt like I should be writing new, fresh
WHITESNAKE songs for the fans.”
“In 2012 I was told by a representative of the old
PURPLE management that keyboard maestro Jon Lord, who had worked with me in WHITESNAKE,
too, had been diagnosed in with cancer and that Jon’s wish on his recovery
would be that we put together a PURPLE reunion of sorts. I agreed to be there
for him. As we all know, sadly he didn’t recover. After Jon passed away, I felt
it necessary to reach out to Ritchie Blackmore to express the grief at Jon’s
loss and to hopefully bury any unpleasant hatchets we’d been throwing at other
for decades. It was during our reconnect that we discussed the possibility of
some kind of a PURPLE reunion or a ‘BLACKMORE/COVERDALE’ project. During the
time we were talking, I started listening to our old albums and began working
on ideas & new approaches to suggest, rearranging some of our original
works.” Unfortunately, our ideas on the reunion aspect didn’t quite gel, so I
respectfully withdrew from further discussions, though I am happy to say we did
bury old animosities and we have thankfully stayed in touch.
It was Coverdale’s wife, Cindy who suggested that he
take his ideas & make a new WHITESNAKE studio album celebrating his legacy
from his time with DEEP PURPLE. “And that’s how it all happened. I
discussed the idea with my musicians & our record company & everyone
was very positive. So it was all systems go for ‘The PURPLE Album’.
In
writing (in theory), a proposed reunion would have been awesome. Problem is,
Ritchie Blackmore is too far into his mandolin-induced coma to snap out of it and
do something worthwhile (some members of Rainbow have been trying for years).
I
like the idea of revisiting old classics, but lets face it, THEY ARE CLASSICS!
So why tamper with the evidence. I suppose if anyone has a right to cover these
songs then it should be Coverdale. ‘Burn’ (the album) is my favourite of all
the Purple albums, and my son has his orders to play ‘Burn’ (the song) at my
cremation! Me and Mk3 (and a little bit of Mk4) Deep Purple go back a long way
you see, so is it a loving recreation, a twist on classics, or an unmitigated
disaster??
Thankfully
it’s not a disaster, but its not exactly fantastic either. I suspect a lot of
these songs will be wheeled out later in the year on the UK tour, and that for
me alone will be a last chance to bask in Coverdale’s glory and legacy. The
album though is a different proposition. When WS metalled up ‘Cryin In The
Rain’ and ‘Here I Go Again’ I wasn’t over the moon initially. Yes they grew on
me, but the originals outstripped the new pretty much as they do here today.
Burn
is almost true to the original, thank God. Beach and Hoekstra combine to fill
in the gaps that a twin guitar attack can do. Coverdale’s voice is slightly
whiney, but lets be clear here, the bloke is well into his 60s. The Glenn
Hughes vocals are obviously missing, but you don’t realize that much to be fair. The opening few bars of ‘You Fool No One’
(slightly apt) sound as if it’s being covered by Blackfoot. ‘Love Child’ is
almost wrong to cover. The vocals are somewhat strained, in part feels like
Barry Gibb is covering the song. As I suspected from recent gigs that Coverdale’s
vocals are best served on the lower register songs – ‘Sail Away’ & ‘Soldier
Of Fortune’ show that the great man can still kick it. ‘Sail Away’ in
particular has a nice slant on the original, a stripped back acoustical version
which very much suits the 21st Century version of Coverdale and Whitesnake.
He doesn’t go for the screaming of the original, keeping it held back and
restrained and is a pleasant surprise. ‘The Gypsy’ is one of the best on the
album, and the sound is superb, doesn’t star too far from the ‘Stormbringer’
original. This song alone justifies the re-working, its that good.
Where The
Gypsy represents one of the strongest songs, Lady Double Dealer does the
opposite. Then there’s the biggie…’Mistreated’. The song musically is very
good. I love the original, the Rainbow version with Dio was stunning, and the
Live In The Heart Of The City version is great, but the vocals on the 2015
version are a long way from the original. Coverdale even tackles the Hughes
sung ‘Holy Man’. Glenn Hughes could most likely sing this better than the
original, so Coverdale’s a brave man for taking on the one of the other big voices
of rock. Similarly to ‘The Gypsy’, DC goes for a more acoustic version, before
it builds very nicely and to be fair, is another cracking version – one I
didn’t expect. ‘ Might Just Take Your Like’ takes on a southern blues style
with slide geetar, and when Coverdale doesn’t try to do ‘Still of the Night’
with his voice, is where these songs work best. ‘You Keep On Moving’ is a song
that without Hughes, he will always struggle, but the Hughes part is actually
filled in nicely – good job done by all methinks. ‘Lay Down, Stay Down’ is
another favourite from Burn and sees Coverdale handle all the Hughes parts as
well (mostly) and it’s a decent effort. Finally we get to the other biggie,
‘Stormbringer’. This has Coverdale sounding probably as better as he has in
years and is a truly fitting way to conclude The Purple Album
Now
if Glenn Hughes had been asked to contribute, this would have been a different
outcome I suspect…? I think I’m being too critical based purely on where the
originals sit with me. Then again, if you’re going to cover classic songs then
be prepared for some criticism. Its not all bad, its not all great either.
I’ll leave the final word for
Coverdale….“There
was absolutely no intention to compete, or compare with the original
recordings. We just wanted to play these songs the best we could and this is
how we wanted to play them,“ says Coverdale.
Do
you know what, he’s 100% spot on. I just hope I can afford the money for the
tour in Dec as its not cheap!
Score
– 75/100
Whitesnake are -
David Coverdale
Reb Beach – Guitars
Joel Hoekstra – Guitars
Michael Devin – Bass
Tommy Aldridge – Drums
Tracklisting -
Burn
You Fool No One
Love Child
Sail Away
The Gypsy
Lady Double Dealer
Mistreated
Holy Man
Might Just Take Your Life
You Keep On Moving
Soldier Of Fortune
Lay Down, Stay Down
Stormbringer
The EP is back to old skool proportions, 4
tracks, an in yer face as a rock band should be. Christ some bands EPs are
longer than albums were in the 70s and 80s. Not the case here. Überkill go for the KISS method – keep it simple stupid!
‘Two Timin’ Woman’ kicks off like a
hurricane. Überkill have four
chances to grab you by the ears and make you beg and listen, this is achieved
less than a minute in, with Blackheart sounding as if he has all the tools of a
future thoroughbred rock star. ‘Sex On A Leash’ picks up seamlessly and its
like The Hives, crossed with ‘The Ramones’ and has a swagger that only a
‘cock-rock’ tune can do. ‘Feel So Good’ is more groove-laden than the rest and
it shows the lads in full flow, full of confidence. ‘Just One Thing,’ has me
wanting to rip thru my record collection, as it’s a ringer for something I cant
put my finger on. One thing is certain, it has a blistering guitar solo that
will have you reaching for your real or imaginary air guitar and I sware you
will be pulling off windmills, and deep knee bends in no time.
