So, what have you been listening to lately?

[gearHed289]

That first Blue Murder album really showed that Whitesnake 1987 was more a Sykes album than a Coverdale album.
All the nonsense that the Coverdale camp said about Sykes's guitar parts being out of tune and not good for the songs. Some even claimed Dan Huff had to be called to the rescue to re-do all the guitar parts.
The album has Sykes written all over it (nobody was as "pinch harmonies happy" as Sykes back then (yet))

I do like the Blue Murder album better.
It is more playful and fun.
Even if the lyrics are a bit questionable here and there (Jelly Roll, Sex Child... )

I hadn't heard that stuff about Sykes' guitar parts. Sounds like BS to me. He strikes me as a bit of a perfectionist, and is a very capable player.

I revisited Blue Murder a couple of years ago, and what struck me was the terrible lyrics, LOL! Cool stuff though. Love Tony Franklin.

[uwe]

Keith Olsen mentioned that Coverdale had issues pitching due to Sykes heaping so many harmonized overdubs on his guitar tracks that the slight off-tuning threw DC off. Now that might be, but it can hardly have posed a technical problem - all you need to do is then single out one pure guitar signal as the guide track and pull the faders down on the others and have Coverdale sing to that. I guess by then Coverdale and Sykes, the two alpha males had fallen out of love so little things like that turned into big drama.

Sykes has complained that some of his guitar overdubs were erased in the final mix, but I would dare to say: There is quite enough guitar on 1987 - your guitar, John -, thank you!

Unlike bass (guitar). Most of what you hear as bass guitar on 1987 is Don Airey on synth. He also "played bass" on quite a few Judas Priest albums. Remember this was the 80ies, not everything you heard as bass guitar was actually the real thing just as this here wasn't:

[uwe]

Why waste time listening to Quiet Riot, Free and Van Halen consecutively when you can have it all in one go ... 




Whoever does these things, is brilliant! 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJXe_i7j5o&list=PL0B7qPkUvn7f_LABzeR-D6qkBfzqEAPO6

[uwe]

Pleasure has never felt more guilty, big hair & grand mustaches, grate on the cheeeeze pleeeeze ...



There was no getting away from that song (well, two songs actually) in 1988, we had rented a white Ford Taurus and were driving around in California ...

[uwe]

Gene has always been my favorite balladeer ...

[Dave W]

A rarity from Shel Silverstein.

[uwe]

That sounds so Dr. Hook, I can just envisage them doing it. He really was their sixth or eighth (depending on the line-up) member.

I liked his melancholic songs too.







A great American songwriter whose body of work has received real shoddy  treatment regarding availability today.

[Dave W]

Covered first by Johnny Cash



And of course he wrote A Boy Named Sue

Don't forget these two he wrote for Loretta Lynn

[uwe]

Don't laugh, I'm only now discovering Curtis Mayfield. How criminal is that. 

That Live! album from The Bitter End is unbelievable. But so is the Superfly Soundtrack. Working my way through six CDs right now.

[Basvarken]

Better late than never

[morrow]

His early stuff with the Impressions just floors me .

[uwe]

The sound of Van Halen Mk I. I knew his backing vocals were key for their sound, but even his lead voice sounds like the original ...



Makes you wonder whether he did the guide leads vocals on that debut and DLR just sang over it trying to match him.

[Dave W]

[uwe]

Those two guys at 1:45, don't think they're really singing the song ...



I always liked the track though, have a penchant for that type of spoofy 12-bar rock'n'roll:






Excuse the wow & flutter, but there's a Ripper in there!

[westen44]

April Art's new single.