It's about time he retired

[uwe]

I can understand why they would want to do it, Free, Bad Company, DP Mk 3, (early) Whitesnake all have the Brit-Blues hard rock common vibe (Free was the professed role model for Bad Co, DP Mk 3 and Whitesnake). But why Vandenberg felt obligated to (1) mimic Kossoff's original solo and then (2) do it so appallingly bad, listless and underrehearsed, is beyond me.  I also don't like how he plays the second part of the riff (the D part if you play it in A), takes all the groove and joyousness out of the song. And the bass player doesn't really know what to do with that Fraser bass line during the solo either, the G and D doublestops need to be played up way high for them to really ring out.



Never mind how Kossoff has issues playing that D part too - it wasn't his idea in the first place, but one of Andy Fraser to play it the way you here on the studio version.

[Basvarken]

How to ruin a great rock song:

[uwe]

I don't think it's awful, maybe I'm being mild because they now have the Night Ranger guy with them and I like Night Ranger. That said, the solo is played by Reb Beach and I always preferred his style to Dough Aldrich's, so you can probably say I like Winger too!



I do miss Glenn's backing vocals (emulated in part) and funk bass though.

So WS does a Purple covers album - probably a wacky idea their Italian label Frontiers came up with.

My judgement is probably also tainted by the fact that I don't think Stormbringer was even originally such a hot song. By that time Blackmore was running out of ideas, stuck in a messy divorce and saving all his good ideas for the first Rainbow album. The Stormbringer riff sounds a bit throwawayish to me, like something Blackmore jammed to warm up. There is song material on Sormbringer (the album) that is much better than the title song (Holy Man, Gypsy, Soldier of Fortune and Hold ON, even Love Don't Mean a Thing come to mind). It's not a bad song, but not in the Burn or Sail Away "Mother of all Riffs"-category for me.

At least DC doesn't disown his Purple heritage anymore - around the time when he conquered America in the late 80ies, he acted and sang like he had never played with them, but with that other obscure Brit band, the Del Nileppez they were called, I believe.

[Highlander]

He's touring in support of it, so last chance to see, to coin an expression... I saw him sing most of the track listing in the last, first time round, if you get my meaning, and somehow, seeing him do it again now, almost forty years on, just doesn't work for me...

[uwe]

So Reb Beach is a Deep Purple nerd, I should have known, he certainly seems to take a more prominent role in the whole project than he did when Doug Aldrich was still DC's to-go-to songwriting sparring partner. Plus, look and behold, David disowns Aldrich's larger-than-life guitar sound (without naming him) which I always found too bombastic too, it gave new meaning to the term "processed".

And those few seconds of an acoustic version of Sail Away - probably my most favorite Deep Purple track ever - wet appetite. David even wears a tie with purple stripes, how befitting, little details count, the boy from Redcar has always been like that ...

[uwe]

Nice, but almost slavish in approach, the new ex-Night Ranger guy pays homage to Ritchie note for note (just without using a slide), there is even a mellotron effect, all very purploid:



40 years ago, he sang it like this:

[gearHed289]

40 years ago, he sang it like this

Three half steps lower now. That's less than one half step per decade! 

[uwe]

Alas!, young David Cocerdale left Purple proclaiming that he finally wanted to perform music "without screaming my balls off". To then proceed to pitch his voice higher and higher with Whitesnake until he had ruined it completely on those endless US tours. When I first heard the vocal histrionics on Still of the Night, I thought to myself: "How long is his rich baritone voice gonna last doing that?!" Not very long it did.

On the O2 live recording of the Zeppelinistas, the performances benefitted immensely from being downtuned to pitches Plant's voice was comfortable with today. I liked a lot of those versions better than the banshee wailing in the originals. I like his voice when he sings like that:



Did anybody call out "U2!"? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lBJDCB_MOg&list=RDhwfDX3lybu8&index=5

Which does open the opportunity to comment on Adam Clayton's bass playing capabilities, but let's not hurt the feelings of most cherished members here ... 

[ilan]

I have nothing to contribute here but I will still post this pic ;-)

[Highlander]

The advantages of being in journalism, I guess... Nice one, son... I can almost hear him say it...

Last time I met him was at the Rainbow Theatre in 81 or 82, iirc... voice was a bit better then... paid me for a set of pictures I took of them at a place near London called St Albans, from a rolled up wad of notes... comical really... the whole band were really approachable in those days, including DC...

[uwe]

I have nothing to contribute here but I will still post this pic ;-)

Ilan, you reckless tease!!!!  How was he in that interview? His usual "elder statesman of rock sounding like Roger Moore"?

[ilan]

Honestly I don't remember.

[uwe]

Ah, nostalgia!

[Highlander]

Ah yes... nostalgia indeed... 39 years ago... Wembley... still have the tour badge...

Slot head EB for a bonus as well...