R.I.P. Bernie Marsden

Basvarken · August 25, 2023, 09:10:04 AM

Just saw Neil Murray post this on facebook:

QuoteSadly I have to pass on the dreadful news that my friend and colleague since 1974, Bernie Marsden, has passed away. So many great times with him, musically and personally. A great loss. RIP Bernie.

Rest In Peace Bernie Marsden.

I actually prefer his singing over what Coverdale has been doing to (t)his song for the last 20 years or so...

uwe · August 25, 2023, 10:30:15 AM

So sad. Best Whitesnake guitarist ever.

49 years ago, his first TV appearance.

So fluid and melodic ...

We wish you well, Bernie, what a player, singer and writer you were.

Basvarken · August 25, 2023, 10:35:21 AM

Quote from: uwe on August 25, 2023, 10:30:15 AM
Best Whitesnake guitarist ever.

Agreed!

doombass · August 25, 2023, 12:40:11 PM

That's sad. Not only a great guitarist, he seemed like really nice guy as well.

Dave W · August 25, 2023, 02:02:53 PM

RIP

From Jack's final studio album

westen44 · August 25, 2023, 04:33:15 PM

RIP Bernie Marsden. Wow, he sounded great on that Jack Bruce album. I'm going to have to go back and listen to that album again. He played guitar on tracks 9 and 10 I think.

uwe · August 25, 2023, 09:56:12 PM

Same fate as Jeff Beck: bacterial meningitis. And I thought that scourge hat been all but wiped out by antibiotics.

Highlander · August 26, 2023, 01:58:13 PM

I had the good fortune to see him play many times and meet him a few times too... rip, Bernie...

gearHed289 · August 28, 2023, 08:00:24 AM

Quote from: Basvarken on August 25, 2023, 09:10:04 AM
Just saw Neil Murray post this on facebook:

Rest In Peace Bernie Marsden.

I actually prefer his singing over what Coverdale has been doing to (t)his song for the last 20 years or so...

That's got to be the best version of that song that I've ever heard. RIP Bernie.

uwe · August 28, 2023, 10:39:45 AM

Shouldn't this be the best version, Tom, the original 1982 recording?

The vid is deceiving:

- you see Cozy Powell drumming, but you hear Ian Paice,

- you see Mel Galley playing the left hand lead guitar, but you hear Bernie Marsden, who wrote the song with DC,

- you see Colin Hodgkinson playing bass with a pick, but you hear Neil Murray playing with his fingers.

In other words: The only people you see in the vid that actually recorded the song in its original form are DC on vox, Micky Moody (with hat) on right hand lead guitar and Jon Lord (ex-Led Zeppelin) on Hammond.

The reason for the whole charade was that by late 1982 when the vid was filmed, DC had fired half the band, namely

- Bernie Marsden (for being too jokey on stage, not being hungry enough for the US market and for gaining too much weight),

- Neil Murray (for allegedly not being the right bassist to pair with Cozy Powell, a total misjudgment by DC given that Neil had played with Cozy's solo band before and that it was Colin Hodgkinson who couldn't adapt his style to Cozy's "Barbarians at the gate"-pummeling of the drum kit) &

- Ian Paice (for not being hungry enough to conquer the US market from the ground up - Little Ian said he had no intention of repeating for WS the grueling US touring schedule DP had committed to ten years before to break through),

yet had not (re)recorded anything with the new line-up yet - instead the new line-up was presented with the then not yet released last album recording of the disbanded old line-up.

Basvarken · August 28, 2023, 12:35:05 PM

Still there is a lot to be said in favor of Bernie singing that song. His singing sounds friendlier.
Not as affected as Coverdale.

uwe · August 28, 2023, 04:12:27 PM

Make no mistake, I love Bernie's voice, but it's a quintessential British pop voice, he wouldn't have found it hard getting a job with 10cc, Pilot, Badfinger or The Hollies (I dig all four). It's just not a rock voice, but then it doesn't have to be. On Lovehunter, an album which overall I found disappointing after the in my ears stronger Trouble, I thought (and still think) Bernie's Outlaw better than any track sung by DC:

The chorus is sublime and only Bernie could sing it like that (though you hear DC's backing vocals on the verses).

Jon Lord's synth solo is a cracker too. I love synth solos, they sounds so nicely fluid.

westen44 · August 29, 2023, 05:29:09 PM

I certainly have no argument with the album cover art. That's as good as or better than Frank Frazetta's artwork.

uwe · August 30, 2023, 08:27:17 AM

I thought the art was hi-gloss airbrush porn, I didn't really mind it, but it did Whitesnake no favors at the time (neither commercially nor with critics, it was even controversial within the band with everyone except DC rolling their eyes

) and was kinda dumb and lurid, not exactly light-handed. And the hand of the woman resting on the snake always looked weird-wrinkly to me. Is she aging faster because she has reptilian sex?

Zoologically, the snake makes no sense at all, there are no snakes with a frilled lizard head like that. Yes, things like that bug me, if you depict cross-species sex, details count!

I'm no prude, but if you're gonna be sexist do it with some style. The implied luminous dickhead underneath the woman-skeleton's chin on ELP's Brain Salad Surgery was ok in my book.

Courtesy of the guy who also did the Alien monster, H. R. Giger, who more often than not sprinkled sexual depictions in his SciFi "biomechanical" art:

****************************************

General Public Warning: Sex with snakes is dangerous to your health and should not be performed unattended by experienced and trained personnel!

https://www.9news.com.au/national/roundworm-parasite-found-in-brain-of-australian-woman/8c588f41-6a29-44ab-89a8-dbfa282a61e8#:~:text=The%20Ophidascaris%20robertsi%20roundworm%20was,surgery%2C%20still%20alive%20and%20wriggling.&text=Doctors%20suspected%20larvae%2C%20or%20juveniles,in%20the%20carpet%20python%20snake.

westen44 · August 30, 2023, 12:58:03 PM

When I was about 10 I started reading books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and continued at least into my teens. Frank Frazetta's art was often found in those books. The album cover art does remind me of what he did, although I don't remember him drawing any snakes. And I don't like snakes myself and agree that Whitesnake album cover could do without that. Overall, though, this art is similar to Frazetta's. Frazetta, to my knowledge, was never associated with porn but mostly just with fantasy/sci-fi. He is called the godfather of fantasy art and highly renowned. However, in my opinion, the artist who drew the Whitenake cover was also really good. If he had known more about this genre, I suppose, however, he would have left out the snake. It's obviously too late now. I read somewhere he never associated himself with a project like that again.