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BunsenBurner

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Everything posted by BunsenBurner

  1. Wow. So, today's the day. 30 years ago today I walked into the local branch of Woolworths and bought a copy of Coverdale Page on its day of release. I'd heard Pride and Joy on an advance sampler that came with Q Magazine, so I felt confident that I was in for a treat. And so it proved, as the first seconds of Page shaking his tree shot out of the speakers, followed by such treats as the solo on Don't Leave Me This Way, the crunch guitar in the last minutes of Whisper a Prayer for the Dying and the slightly ethereal Easy Does It were to follow. It was a landmark listening experience for me then, and it remains a favourite now. Wonderful stuff, showcasing some of the best guitar from Page since, ooh, at least Spirit of Love by The Firm, and some of the best vocals from Coverdale - two of my favourite artists. Has anyone heard anything more about an anniversay reissue?
  2. Hello friends. I've been dipping in and out of this forum for more years than I care to remember, just for the simple pleasure of hearing fellow Zep fans exchanging thoughts, opinions, knowledge, discoveries and memories. Occasionally, I have thought about leaving a comment, but I have always been content to listen and let others do the talking. Now, though, I have had enough of the Coverdale-bashing in which so many Zep fans seem to mindlessly follow the childish example of Robert Plant. I was 16 years old, and just two years a Zep fan, in 1992 when I first read that Page was working with David Coverdale. These were still early days in my musical life, and all I knew of Coverdale came from a review of the re-release of an album called Burn, by Deep Purple, a few years before. I went and got hold of a cassette copy of Burn from my uncle to hear who this guy was, and started borrowing Whitesnake CDs from the local library (true!) to get up to speed on his style and output. As I listened and read books and magazine articles, I learned about Coverdale's struggle to 'make it', and about his trouser-selling days in Saltburn, his instant elevation to stardom when recruited into Purple, the challenges he faced in going - literally overnight - from playing boozers in Saltburn-by-the-Sea and Redcar to standing on a stage in front of a quarter-of-a-million people at the 1974 Cal Jam, the galling descent towards Purple's breakup that followed, his struggle to find his feet and to re-establish himself in the changed musical environment after Purple, the early years and debts of Whitesnake, the pressure to sell more, the subsequent and blatant 'Americanisation' of Whitesnake, Coverdale-Page, and all the years of latter-day Whitesnake that have followed since. I consider myself a fan of Zep, Purple and Whitesnake, in equal measure. I love all three bands in different ways. They each mean something to me. They have similarities, differences, strong points and weaknesses, and I appreciate, enjoy and sympathise with them all for that. The individuals involved have all produced some great music over the years - individually and in bands - and they have all produced some dross too. Inevitably. My respect for the band that everyone here loves, or, at least, for its singer, dropped dramatically, however, when he started making derogatory comments about Coverdale when he was doing the round of promotional interviews that followed the release of Fate of Nations. It wasn't that I felt in any way protective of Coverdale or his music; it was more (to start with, at least) that I felt revolted by the nasty comments Plant was making. To this day, the sight of him and his hired hands laughing and making fun of Coverdale in the interview below sticks in my mind. Francis Dunnery (who, incidentally, as a guitarist, I love) starts off the unpleasant chiding, but then they all join in with the laughing, ridiculing and mocking. They're like a bunch of playground bullies. It's fine for them to have their opinions - they're entitled to them - but, little boys, don't mock and degrade in a way that demeans you so badly and which would no doubt have upset the target of their derision. Now, listen, I know that might make me sound like some kind of Coverdale protector or apologist, but I'm not. The man has, in my opinion, made errors of judgement at certain points in his career, and he could have acted with a little more class and decorum at times. He's not an imaginative lyricist, his creative integrity has sometimes seemed a little suspect, and I don't feel that he always tells the truth when asked about the twists and turns of his career. He has faults. We all do. Plant certainly does. But let me state this straight: Coverdale is not and never has been a Plant copyist. I do not even understand why so many people blindly regurgitate Plant's 'Cover-version' line. People say it's because Coverdale "emulated Plant's look, delivery and stage moves". Really? The blonde hair? OK, I'll give you that one, but what else? Hair aside, Plant and Coverdale look nothing like each other - not in the 70s, not in the 80s, and not now. Their physiques are different. Their fashion choices are different. Whilst Plant was waltzing around in blouses, Coverdale was on the prowl in denim jackets and trousers. While Plant would bare his chest at a moment's notice, Coverdale wore long-sleeved t-shirts. Later, when Plant was in jumpsuits, tie-died tops and open-fronted waistcoats (see the FoN era), Coverdale was in vests, shirts or glam-era leather outfits. Stage moves? Again, I don't see it. Plant was always slinky, with lots of hand movements etc. Coverdale tended to stride the stage and make suggestive poses with his mic stand. He also interacted with the audience more than Plant did. How about the crucial one - the singing? Again, how exactly is Coverdale copying Plant? I presume that eople must be referring to the screams in songs like Still of the Night and comparing them to something like Immigrant Song or How Many More Times. Really? As if Plant and Coverdale are the only ones to have done that, and as if their voices sound remotely similar when they do it. Singing in a higher register? Coverdale did not suddenly start doing that in 1987. He was could do it and did do it back in the mid-70s - listen to something like Love Child; he sounds nothing like Plant. Equally, that was not all he did in 1987 - listen to Is This Love. That's mostly lower-register stuff. The two men's voices, and the ways they use them, are not remotely similar. Plant is a tenor; Coverdale a baritone. Plant is a born improviser, joyously unpredictable, varied and changeable, but less technically competent or consistent; Coverdale limits himself more, stylistically, but is (or was) more technically gifted and more consistently impressive. For Plant at his very best, vocally, listen to things like Since I've Been Loving You, How Many More Times, Stairway to Heaven, Road to the Sun, If I Ever Get Lucky, Tin Pan Valley. For Coverdale at his, move away from your tired preconceptions, please, and ditch 1987 and Slip of the Tongue. You can even ditch Coverdale/Page if you want. For Coverdale in his prime, listen to Hole In the Sky, Soldier of Fortune, You Keep on Moving, Blindman, Northwinds, Say You Love Me, Mistreated, Sailing Ships, Don't Lie to Me, Steal Your Heart Away. Now tell me how alike they sound. You might even surprise yourself by reconsidering your notions about who is better. The music? A "weak pastiche of Zeppelin"? Really? Again, listen to stuff like Comin' Home, Celebration, You Can't Do It Right, Black and Blue, Belgian Tom's Hat Trick, Carry Your Load, Wherever You May Go - even take a listen to Give Me All Your Love and Slow Poke Music for chrissakes. How does any of that sound like Zeppelin? Sure, there are some similarities in stuff like Judgement Day - they're both rock bands, there are going to be occasional similarities - but in other songs where comparisons are often made, such as Slow An' Easy and Crying in the Rain, be honest - can you really imagine Plant singing "Take me down, SLOW AN' EASY!" to its stomping backbeat or Jimmy Page doing the wailing, Hendrixy- guitar figures in Crying in the Rain? I can't. As for the charge of copying, I need not even go there. I'm sure that everyone on this forum is more than familiar with the charges against Zeppelin on that front. Robert - people in glass houses should not throw stones. They really shouldn't. Personally, the only ways in which I can see that Coverdale took inspiration or borrowed from Plant or Zeppelin are in the Still of the Night video (the violin bow, specifically) and song (its spacey middle section). That's quite clear. It's blatantly derivative. But then so is Plant's borrowing from Steve Marriott in Whole Lotta Love. It's blatant. Plant doesn't even try to disguise it. An earlier poster cited the quote where Plant suggested it was OK for him to ape Elvis Presley because they were so remote from each other and not from the same generation. Has anyone ever bothered to take Plant to task about his own Steve Marriott 'cover version'? I could go on. As one previous poster said, I like Robert. I really do. It is thanks to his televised performance at Knebworth '90 that I got seriously into music in the first place, and both his vocals and his restless spirit have continued to entertain and inspire me ever since, as they have done for countless others. He deserves his success and much of the critical praise that has come his way in recent years after a somewhat patchy solo career. His influence on modern music certainly is unquestionable. But he badly let himself down with his Coverdale-bashing. The relentlessness of his onslaught for many years has, unfortunately, inspired many Zeppelin fans to ape his approach, and, consequently, David Coverdale gets a tough time from the Zep community to this day, despite having collaborated with Page on what was arguably the latter's finest work since 1976. But, as I've been trying my best to explain, the reality is far removed from how most people imagine it. There are as many similarities and overlaps between Plant and Coverdale as there are between Plant and Presley or Plant and Marriott, just as there are between Coverdale and Rogers, and so on. True. But Coverdale is (or was, in his heyday) a damned fine vocalist. Just listen to some of the songs I've mentioned, especially to Hole in the Sky and Northwinds. Listen. And drop your borrowed preconceptions. The singing is exceptional, and absolutely nothing like Robert Plant. If you need any more encouragement, as I mentioned above, watch this video at the 2:20 mark and be appalled by the ridiculing of the little boys in the playground. I'm sorry that it had to be something negative that prompted me to make my first post here. I think you're all great, and I love reading all your exchanges on here. All that I hope to achieve by having posted this is not to get anyone's back up, but to hopefully encourage a more balanced and honest reappraisal of Coverdale and a rapprochement between two of the greatest vocalists ever to have come from the shores of this island.
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