The Coverdale controversy continues...

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Thanks for the news, Uwe, altho for a fan you are awfully harsh.
Just wrote him a message sendin' good vibes for a speedy & thorough recovery.
May he soon get back the ability to perform his legendary vocal gymnastics!!!

...& HEADLINE again!!!

[uwe]

I'm so harsh because his voice used to be among my favorite male rock voices. I loved it when he sang a simple melody soulfully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHdUp-CXJ6Y&feature=related

Without any vocal histrionics which I don't go for. I never understood the excitement about Robert Plant who in my opinion uses his voice as if he were the second lead guitar in Led Zep (which is his charm I guess), not as a means of communicating content or emotion. Is anybody ever touched, amused or inspired by Led Zep lyrics? This with all due respect to Herr Plant who has a one of a kind voice, but it doesn't really need or transport lyrics. Now slaughter me, Led Zep fans, I can't help myself.

[Highlander]

Uwe... beware of causing too much unrest with the natives; they are likely to attack when you least expect it, probably on the Purple flank; unlikely to try an assault on your massed ranks of Gibsons, too well respected, my dear boy... Now, where did I put my gin and my copy of the Times...?

I followed the early lineup all over the place, took hundreds of pics, even had a couple in one of the tour programmes (one shot was DC holding a copy of the "Lovehunter" tour programme which he had just signed for me, but now lives in Japan (sold at a record fair, along with my rather faded '76 DP tour shirt) and was in a collage in the "come and get it" prog, IIRC; took a pic of a drumming friend shaking hands with Paice which I had blown up to poster size for his 21st); saw them at the Lyceum pre Paice, the Hammy O (did I take pics at these shows, I was front (2nd?) row, must have done, must check) for both the nights they released recordings (right in front of the "stage right" audience mike, so I know I'm on the Hammersmith Choir" for "Ain't No Love...", at the Rainbow (John Lord gifted me the tickets - a true Gent, if ever there was one - the Rainbow Anniversary week, that's where I sold a batch of pics direct to DC, which he paid for from a "look at my wad" roll of twenties he took out of his pocket!, also part of JL's favour to me; he went out of his way and I believe he "payed" to make sure myself and my drumming buddy got seats... on his way back in before the gig, he instructed us to wait by the stage door, which we did, and as they were going in, with the usual horde of fans, he did an "excuse me, excuse me", took the pair of us aside, and handed me an envelope with 2 reasonable seats, and made the comment, "They'll probably think I'm making a drugs deal, enjoy the show lads, and thanks again..."), Monsters of Rock (distant pics, with the Slade ones, but yet to locate), St Albans (lots of pics), even Dusseldorf (more pics), and so it goes... still got my autographed "Snakebite" white ep (2 I think), and a single from the first solo LP (purple label iirc, somewhere lost in the loft) I think... even used to see Mick Moody play on Sunday lunchtimes with a pick-up band at the Red Lion, in Brentford (called Fast-Buck, singer Ed Hamilton wrote a little ditty called "Night Games" which was a hit for some band or other, name escapes me  only other noteworthy thing with them was Scott Gorham played with them pre T'in Lizzy). stopped seeing them during my attempts to go pro, post '81, which obviously did not work out...

I've been rambling again... just done a 500 mile drive... (yawn...)

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

David Coverdale had big shoes to fill from the beginning of his career & it wasn't Plant as much as Ian Gillan who he needed to measure up to.
Personally, I prefer the Mach II Deep Purple!!
David did well but like Blackmore I am not particularly fond of the direction the band took with Coverdale & Hughes. It's ok & there are some magical moments but in my humble opinion Highway Star, Space Truckin', Perfect Strangers & Woman From Tokyo were the Ultimate Purple Songs!!! ...& this one charted at #2 in the UK:



Blackmore's Night have been known to boogie on that riff!

So anyway David got his shrieking style original from Gillan.
Listen to that WS line "Don't run for cover----- I'm gonna show you what I've learned"
That is pure Gillan.
You can't blame DC for stretching the limits of his talent to increase his vocal range.
That's what singers do! That's how they're evaluated, innit it?
"So & so's got a 7 octave range"
Right?
Of course he had to pull out all of the stops when working with Page.
He'd done the vocal tracks for CP but by the time Page was done with his parts the vocals sounded weak. So DC rose to the challenge & pushed his voice to the limits which I think is fantastic!
As I said before early on in this thread, he ACES Plant with his upper register wailing & sings like a real man which Plant can only dream of doing.
Much as I love Zep & Robert's songwriting skills--Yes, he does stir emotions & stimulate the ol' thot processes as well as providing early Rockers with the most popular songs to have sex to--& appreciate the fact that the most popular (Pop) songs are ones that girls can sing along to, Plant's voice from time to time grates on my nerves & I've had to "fast" from Zep, sometimes for years.
I've never grown tired of Coverdale's great singing tho & when Plant was going in some odd directions in the 80s with his solo career David was refreshingly as Blues based as Zep & even more testosterone charged!!!
We Wish You Well, Mr. C! Your legacy is amazing!!!

[uwe]

Ok, class, ready for a little Purploid trivia excursion again?!  

While DC was with the Purps he never sounded like Gillan (Mk III DP only ever played three Mk II songs: Smoke, Highway Star and Space Trucking, Mk IV dusted off Lazy live with Bolin giving the song a totally different feel). Or was asked to. He never did attempt Child in Time or the screechy call and response of vocs and guitar in the MiJ version of Strange Kind of Woman, Purple wanted him to have his own identity (in fact Jon Lord has repeatedly lamented how Coverdale pushed up his register over the years for no good reason other than perhaps athletic relish).

By 1972, Blackmore had grown tired of Gillan's increasingly off-the-wall vocal melodies on new material. The two fell out not only over "Painted Horse", which Blackmore refused to have even released from the "Who do we think we are" sessions, but Blackmore also disliked Gillan's psychedelic singing on "Our Lady"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znumd9aXa_s&feature=related


and on "Place in Line" which sounded like Gillan was taking the piss on Blackmore's new-found love for more gravelly sounding singers:





Blackmore wanted someone with more of a blues feel. That is why he jammed with Lynott and that is why Paul Rodgers was approached as his first choice (Blackers had been singing the praises on Free in the press for a while and his comments that he rated Rodgers "the best British rock singer" had riled Gillan no doubt). But Rodgers bowed out of joining Deep Purple when the Purple management divulged the nascent talks with him to the press - enter Bad Company ... Listen here at 3.24 for how DP might have sounded with Herr Rodgers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5chZyRnK8dU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ethehighwaystar%2Ecom%2Fnews%2F2009%2F07%2F30%2Frock%2Daid%2Darmenia%2D20%2Dyears%2Dafter%2F&feature=player_embedded#t=207



Subsequently there were contacts to Jess Rhoden and Snips, the singer from Sharks which came to nothing. Another singer approached was Lucifer's Friend singer John Lawton (a man with a decidedly black and bluesy voice, later with Uriah Heep) who does not realize that Purple are looking to replace Gillan and turns down the offer "to jam" with them in favor of a paid gig with German MoR outfit Les Humphries Singers (watch for 0.57 in the following clip, I guess he could have actually matched Gillan's range).




He doesn't get a second invite from the Purps, silly boy! But Uriah Heep will remember him in the future (after Coverdale declines to join them after the Purple split in 76) ... and don't mind his balding pate and overt use of eye shadow:



In the meantime, the remaining members moan about having to wade through tapes of people trying to sound like Gillan. Glenn Hughes is then pulled on board who Blackmore liked for his bass playing and singing with Trapeze (plus his looks which were remotely like Gillan's, which was important to the management), but the Purple management makes it clear that Purple would also need a non-instrument playing lead singer as a frontman. Moreover, Blackmore rates Hughes' range, but wants someone "with a more manly voice" plus is interested in having harmony vocals within Purple (Gillan always sang alone live and harmonized comparatively little in the studio, preferring to simply doubletrack his voice without harmony most of the time), something he admired with Uriah Heep (nicknamed "You're all sheep" by Deep Purple Mk II members, who are to this day adamant that Heep stole ideas and sound from them back in the day when the two bands had adjacent rehearsal rooms).

And then Ian Paice listens to a bad audition tape from the "unknown boutique salesman from Redcar", gets goose bumps, calls Lord who likes what he hears too, Coverdale is invited, put on slimming pills (amphetamine), gets his cross-sight operated and the rest is history.  He's never ever pushed by Blackmore to sing any higher than his natural range (and Blackmore later on moves to Dio who is not a hi-note-hitter either).

It's only when Coverdale decided for his own ego that with Whitesnake he would have to eclipse DP's US success that he embarked on that silly quest to sing higher and higher. That and the ill-fated vocal chord and septum operation he had. In the liner notes to the new remaster of Slip of the Tongue he even admits himself that he got carried away and pushed the keys on that particular recording higher and higher (and had subsequently a hard time singing them live), I guess Steve Vai's widdlings were an unholy influence.

[Basvarken]

Interesting read Uwe!

Did you know that Phil Lynott (and the rest of Thin Lizzy) recorded an entire album of Deep Purple songs under the name Funky Junction in 1973?

[uwe]

Sure, even got the CD of it! Let's put it this way: He could not emulate Gillan which is why they brought in another (horrible) singer for most of those tracks. A curio both for Thin Lizzy and DP fans. The Baby Face demos he recorded with Blackmore and Paice (they wanted to form a power trio in the Experience mode) are still unreleased though. Blackmore liked Lynott's voice, but Paice found Lynott's bass playing still very raw back then.

[nofi]

once again a glimpse of the slimey underpinnings of the music biz. it's like a bunch of teenage girls arguing about who likes who more, make up, hair do and diet concerns. plus surgery. i love reading this stuff.

[gearHed289]

Without any vocal histrionics which I don't go for.

Didn't you just mention...

... that I like Justin Hawkins (falsetto squeals and all!)?

[uwe]

You caught me! Let's put it that way: Hawkins is fun and tongue in cheek, his voice is hilarious and I find it entertaining. It doesn't move me though. Coverdale, when he still had his act together, could have moved me even if he had sung the telephone book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWiJVv8O9E&feature=PlayList&p=F1007D902F838447&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=56

Listen to how the emotion almost cracks his voice at 2.40. Know what I mean now? When I write harsh stuff on him now, it really is the estranged lover in me. 

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

He turned into Joe Cocker at 2:40 haha

Cool history lesson. Uwe~ Do ya have Into The Light & Restless Heart??
Great solo albums!! 

He'll be back for more soon.....

[uwe]

I have everything Coverdale has ever sung on and everything he ever will. I might be disappointed, but I'm still faithful!

[lowend1]

I have everything Coverdale has ever sung on and everything he ever will. I might be disappointed, but I'm still faithful!

I'm sure you have The Butterfly Ball, right?

[uwe]

About four times in regular CD versions plus a bootleg of the live performance where Gillan sang Dio's parts (Dio being busy forming Rainbow with Blackers then). "Behind the smile" is a great performance of Coverdale though my favorites are "Old Blind Mole", the Heepish "Sir Maximus Mouse" sung by Eddie Hardin,the closing track with the childrens quire, the Lawton-sung "Little Chalk Blue" and of course "Love is all". Ok, ok, I pretty much love the whole album!!! 

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

For those who haven't seen the young bearded Coverdale sing Behind The Smile:



Excellent, eh?