RIP John Sykes

[Dave W]

I'm fascinated that so many of you know minute details about someone I never heard of. Then again, I know plenty about rockabilly and country guys who you've never heard.

[morrow]

I completely missed out on the rock stuff too. I was lost in the shuffle. Heck , I even missed Led Zep.

[uwe]

Whitesnake's 1987 (on which he played and which he co-wrote)



was commercially a huge album in the latish 80s, Dave:

"Titled Whitesnake in the US and Canada, the album was released on 23 March 1987. After entering the Billboard 200 chart at 72 on 18 April, it reached Top 10 on 9 May and Top 5 on 30 May. Having peaked at number 2, the album hovered at or near its peak position over the course of seven months from 13 June 1987 to 23 January 1988, spending in total more weeks inside the top five than any other album in 1987 and charting for 76 weeks in total. It was barred from the top spot for 10 non-consecutive weeks by three different albums, including U2's The Joshua Tree, Whitney Houston's Whitney and mostly Michael Jackson's Bad."

"It sold four million copies in all and as such was certified four-times Platinum by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 2 December 1987, and five-times Platinum on 7 January 1988. By October 1989, the album had sold nine million copies worldwide and six million copies alone in the United States (before being certified for six million on 24 July 1992). The last RIAA certification was eight-times Platinum on 10 February 1995, for sales of over 8,000,000. Reported total sales worldwide between 1990 and 2017 were more than 10-15 million. By 2025, the album has sold 25 million copies worldwide."

And John Sykes was of course an 80s guitarslinger pin-up/wet dream with his glorious looks

and OTT guitar playing. He was adored by guitar hero nerds like EvH, Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen were.

Geffen A&R svengali John Kalodner



deemed him David Coverdale's stepping stone to finally conquer America, something Whitesnake had failed to do up to then.

Because John Sykes and David Coverdale fell out during the recording of the album, Sykes never toured it, Coverdale creating a new band from scratch (with inter alia a Dutch guitarist not unsimilar to John in appearance ...). So you hear John here, but you don't see him:

That vid was deemed iconic at the time, an instant MTV classic. But with the exception of David Coverdale as the singer, not a single one from the guys playing in the vid featured on the recording. The Whitesnake line-up in 1987 was a completely manufactured product for a one time video appearance, yet the vid became so popular with Tawny Kitaen strutting and Sykes-replacement Adrian Vandenberg wielding a bow at 03:52 - though nothing of the sort was used for the recording  (with Jimmy Page taking offense when he saw it) - that the vid 'actors' subsequently became the actual touring band. Of course, John Sykes saw himself robbed of the fruits of his labor. And WS, with that now different line-up, never managed to repeat the commercial impact of 1987. One moment in time ...

[Basvarken]

And Coverdale has tried to come up with a 1987 part II album in the three decades that followed. But never managed to catch that magic that he and Sykes created despite of all the tensions between them.

[Son of Dave W]

Then again, I know plenty about rockabilly and country guys who you've never heard.

And I like it that way 

[uwe]

Coverdale was a control freak after he had seen Deep Purple Mk IV (a multi-million Dollar business) ignominiously fall apart in 1975/76 - with no one really taking responsibility for the band. So he said: Never again and I'm not going back to Redcar selling trousers in a men's boutique. He had also looked over Ritchie Blackmore's shoulders a few times too often and picked up exactly the wrong things from him about handling people.

And John Sykes was a very talented young gun (eight years Coverdale's junior) who bedazzled people (bit of a Tommy Bolin effect there) and at one point - as young men are prone to do - became full of himself and started to believe all the hype around him. He envisaged becoming to Coverdale what Keith Richards is to Jagger or Joe Perry to Steven Tyler, a co-head. But Coverdale didn't have the security to let that happen and share control for the benefit of the end-product.

John Kalodner was wary of their split (and eventually proven right that it would harm them both). He and Geffen tried again and again to force the two charged protons together against their respective electric ego repulsion, but neither Coverdale nor Sykes could forgive and forget at the time. So Coverdale spent the rest of his career trying to find a second John Sykes (he never did) and Sykes, once he had his solo band, finding a vocalist as expressive as Coverdale to sing his songs (he failed in that too). Over the schism "pleeze, bring Sykes back/no, keep him the hell out", Coverdale's relationship with Kalodner soured. And Kalodner was the man who had basically invented US Whitesnake and the original Coverdale/Sykes tandem.

[uwe]

And I like it that way 

You now go back to your room and listen to that
squeaky-voiced & strange-metered Canuck trio
of yours, young man!

[Dave W]

Never heard of Coverdale or Whitesnake until Here I Go Again, which was played ad nauseam.

[uwe]

Never heard of Coverdale or Whitesnake ... ad nauseam.

See, David Coverdale (DC) thought that a problem too and 1987 (the album) changed all that, it was the 7th WS studio album that finally cracked them in the States (after the 6th one - Slide It In - had already gained them some recognition), and John Sykes' guitar contributions were instrumental for it.

But you had likely heard David Coverdale before without realizing. Smoke On The Water which went to #4 of the Billboard Charts (and still featured DC's predecessor Ian Gillan) was a belated hit. By the time it became ubiquitous in the summer of 1973, Gillan had already left DP and DC had joined as the new lead vocalist. The first album he sang on was Burn released in early 1974 with the classic rock staples Burn and Mistreated as songs. It is more than likely you heard those at one point and also perhaps caught the likewise in 1974 nationally televised ABC feature of the California Jam, at that point the largest rock open air ever, featuring Deep Purple and ELP as co-headliners with Black Sabbath, Eagles, Seals & Crofts, Earth Wind & Fire, Rare Earth and Black Oak Arkansas all in tow on the bill.





That was already DC singing.

In 1973, DP had been the top-selling rock act in the US, albeit with a different line-up than the one at Cal Jam, where the new line-up (Mk III in DP lingo) reaped the rewards of Mk II's previous ground work.

There was no escaping DP, Dave, it was always in your destiny, you didn't even have to get to know me.

Keith, reveal yourself, did you ever play DP to dad? Vee haff ze vvays tö mäke you tälk!

[Son of Dave W]

Keith, reveal yourself, did you ever play DP to dad? Vee haff ze vvays tö mäke you tälk!

Nein, Herr Uwekrautenschnitzelburgenhofenstein, ze Alte Mann und I had ze different musical tastes to some extent.  DP was a bit before my time in their popularity.  I was too busy in my room listening to squeaky-voiced Canadian power trios, you know.

[uwe]

Well, you still turned out pretty alright against all odds and predicaments.

[uwe]

Re dads, sons, music and such ...

Mid 70s in Kinshasa, I was playing In Rock (a Deep Purple album, Dave) full blast, first side with Child in Time and all those Ian Gillan screams in the living room (we only had one record player at the time). My dad - who basically only liked Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Easy Listening orchestras à la James Last and Bert Kaempfert - comes in, reads something, taps his foot occasionally, doesn't ask me to turn down (even though I was expecting it) and at the end of side one gets up and says: "That wasn't that bad. Those guys can actually play."

Fast forward several years, still the living room, but that is meanwhile located in Germany, I did have an own record player by then, but that was in repair, so I am listening to Rainbow's On Stage live album, side four with the extended version of the Yardbirds chestnut Still I'm Sad, the one with long organ and synth solo. Pretty much the same thing happens, I'm not asked to turn down, but my dad says at the very end of it "For once, that wasn't awful! You could actually listen to it."

Several decades later, still the (same) living room, but a CD player by now. My dad is in his late 70s, I've long since moved out, started a family. I'm visiting him on a Sunday, a hell of a racket is going on. The little nerdy neighbor kid to which he has taken a shine is proudly playing a Slipknot album to him (his parents can't bear to listen to it at his home). My father, patiently, sits through it all, giving the kid nodding affirmation once in a while. I sit there listening to Slipknot for the first time in my life. At one point the CD is thankfully over. My dad beams at me and quips: "Kinda what you used to listen to, don't you think?"



For a second I was tempted to go into a lengthy and profound explanation why Deep Purple and Rainbow are not much at all like Slipknot, but then, defeated, thought better of it and just managed a meek "Kind of, yes dad." 

[Ken]

Re dads, sons, music and such ...

Mid 70s in Kinshasa, I was playing In Rock (a Deep Purple album, Dave) full blast, first side with Child in Time and all those Ian Gillan screams in the living room (we only had one record player at the time). My dad - who basically only liked Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Easy Listening orchestras à la James Last and Bert Kaempfert - comes in, reads something, taps his foot occasionally, doesn't ask me to turn down (even though I was expecting it) and at the end of side one gets up and says: "That wasn't that bad. Those guys can actually play."

Fast forward several years, still the living room, but that is meanwhile located in Germany, I did have an own record player by then, but that was in repair, so I am listening to Rainbow's On Stage live album, side four with the extended version of the Yardbirds chestnut Still I'm Sad, the one with long organ and synth solo. Pretty much the same thing happens, I'm not asked to turn down, but my dad says at the very end of it "For once, that wasn't awful! You could actually listen to it."

Several decades later, still the (same) living room, but a CD player by now. My dad is in his late 70s, I've long since moved out, started a family. I'm visiting him on a Sunday, a hell of a racket is going on. The little nerdy neighbor kid to which he has taken a shine is proudly playing a Slipknot album to him (his parents can't bear to listen to it at his home). My father, patiently, sits through it all, giving the kid nodding affirmation once in a while. I sit there listening to Slipknot for the first time in my life. At one point the CD is thankfully over. My dad beams at me and quips: "Kinda what you used to listen to, don't you think?"



For a second I was tempted to go into a lengthy and profound explanation why Deep Purple and Rainbow are not much at all like Slipknot, but then, defeated, thought better of it and just managed a meek "Kind of, yes dad."

Great story!