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Actually I don't know the exact shows but when Coverdale first joined Purple live he sang much more naturally and didn't have all the

bizarre baggage that really started creeping in with the Whitesnake album Slide It In. Too bad, he is one of the the best examples

around of someone with a very good voice ruining it with stupid mannerisms. Like I said , track down his live Purple stuff, IMO he

really is pretty good. Forget CP2, I know many liked the first, but many also hated it, besides Page and the guitar army returning.

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Here's a video of Coverdale with DP back in 1974.

In that respect, Glenn Hughes still sounds much much better than Coverdale does now. He still sounds great singing "Medusa" 35 years later.

Back on track, there are so many routes an aging rocker can go, it's unfortunate that Coverdale ends up having to act pathetic on stage instead of being more about the music and less about the show.

Edited by lcondo123
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It's important to remember that production values represent and document the era in which they were used. It really is unfair to compare them to other eras. I guarantee that the values that you don't like will be in vogue again in the future. There was a time when the whole psychedelic era fell from vogue, and people scoffed at fuzz guitar and such, but now that era of music lives in perpetual infamy. Every era is what it is, and although you may not be fond of it, you should try to view it as a snapshot in time, and enjoy it for what it is. It really is unfair to compare the styles and values of one musical era against another era. It's a bit like blaming someone for aging and being less effective than a younger counterpart. These are things that are beyond control. Acceptance of era styles and values allows for albums like ITTOD to be loved as a documentary of its time. It was cutting edge when it came out, and as you know, I still love it. Same with Coverdale Page. I get the issues that you refer to, but I accept them, look deeper than the superficial, and move quickly toward appreciation of the prowess behind the music.

Okay, whipper snapper? :)

To be fair Dark Lord while I agree with most of what you say here I think the C/P album already sounded dated when it came out. I remember buying it on it's release date and cringing while I listened to some of the lyrics. Whilst I'd always been impressed with Jimmy's previous recordings of the acoustic guitar, this time He appeared to have gone for that 'fizzy' mid eighties, ovation direct injected into the desk without a mic in sight, tone. My toes curled even more when the cheesy keyboard orchestra came in on "whites of winter"

I really didn't like it at all, it became one of those records I was embarrassed to own. At the time I was 17 and music had been through quite a change in the 3 or 4 years ( although not quite the sea change the critics and and record books would have us believe) In the Uk we had the Indie groups and Rave culture, from the states we'd had first Janes Addiction and then Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Lenny Kravitz Are you Gonna Go My Way was played everywhere, the Levelers were really popular with the Grebos and Crusties (but the hardcore were listening to the Ozrics or digging out their parents Gong albums), loads of "ambient" bands sprang up, the Orb and Orbital bridged the gap between the Grebos and the Ravers (as would soon the Prodigy) and you couldn't walk down the street without seeing someone wearing a Carter USM 30 something T shirt! A lot of groups were moving away from the pristine production values of the 80's and embracing a bit of dirt, then along came this album that sounded like it had been hiding in a cupboard since 1989.

Now to be honest with you I haven't listened to the Album in a long, long time and maybe I might seek it out again and give it another spin. But at the time it came out the above is how I felt.

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To be fair Dark Lord while I agree with most of what you say here I think the C/P album already sounded dated when it came out. I remember buying it on it's release date and cringing while I listened to some of the lyrics. Whilst I'd always been impressed with Jimmy's previous recordings of the acoustic guitar, this time He appeared to have gone for that 'fizzy' mid eighties, ovation direct injected into the desk without a mic in sight, tone. My toes curled even more when the cheesy keyboard orchestra came in on "whites of winter"

I really didn't like it at all, it became one of those records I was embarrassed to own. At the time I was 17 and music had been through quite a change in the 3 or 4 years ( although not quite the sea change the critics and and record books would have us believe) In the Uk we had the Indie groups and Rave culture, from the states we'd had first Janes Addiction and then Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Lenny Kravitz Are you Gonna Go My Way was played everywhere, the Levelers were really popular with the Grebos and Crusties (but the hardcore were listening to the Ozrics or digging out their parents Gong albums), loads of "ambient" bands sprang up, the Orb and Orbital bridged the gap between the Grebos and the Ravers (as would soon the Prodigy) and you couldn't walk down the street without seeing someone wearing a Carter USM 30 something T shirt! A lot of groups were moving away from the pristine production values of the 80's and embracing a bit of dirt, then along came this album that sounded like it had been hiding in a cupboard since 1989.

Now to be honest with you I haven't listened to the Album in a long, long time and maybe I might seek it out again and give it another spin. But at the time it came out the above is how I felt.

I understand. I wasn't fond of it either when it came out. What you say makes perfect sense.

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I've been listening to Black Country Communion a lot lately, especially live shows and it's a shame that they disbanded, great stuff.

There must have been something Coverdale did right because he wouldn't end up in Deep Purple otherwise and he was good enough,
he had big shoes to fill, but I can't judge him like post 1984 never happened. It's hard to believe how he changed musically and visually
during MTV era.
govt_Tonstage.jpg


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The stuff I heard live with Coverdale in Purple was with Tommy Bolin on guitar, and perhaps I am aurally hallucinated, but I don't remember

those weird soul vocals. The stuff was much more bluesy and rockish, probably from 76'. But even the 74' stuff posted Coverdale has the

basic ability, if even then not the best taste. As all his subsequent stuff and with Page, a lack of restraint and inability to tone down the

totally overwrought sexual hysterics does Coverdale in.

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The stuff I heard live with Coverdale in Purple was with Tommy Bolin on guitar, and perhaps I am aurally hallucinated, but I don't remember

those weird soul vocals. The stuff was much more bluesy and rockish, probably from 76'. But even the 74' stuff posted Coverdale has the

basic ability, if even then not the best taste. As all his subsequent stuff and with Page, a lack of restraint and inability to tone down the

totally overwrought sexual hysterics does Coverdale in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNc5jZHkK_s

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNc5jZHkK_s

Excellent post, Mr. White. It's plain and simple that some people get David and some don't. For those that don't, it's their loss, because the man has provided us with an amazing catalog of music over the years, from "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City," which is a cover that David actually credited those who wrote it and didn't claim that he wrote it, like some people have been known to do. Other songs like "Time And Again," "Northwinds," "Blindman," "Time On My Side," "River Song," "Love Is Blind" as well as the songs he's most known for and the album with Jimmy, show that he brings an excellent ability to sing and since his time with Jimmy is the most documented about his creativity... the man inspired the heck out of Jimmy and to this day they remain friends.

This is a Zeppelin board and there are going to be folks who just won't give him any chance at all. Like I said... their loss.

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If the 55 year old me could travel back in time to 1978, I would give the young David Coverdale the following advice:

"You are a rare baritone in a sea of tenors. You are one of the few men in rock who can sing the really low notes with authority. Use the lower part of your range for dramatic emphasis and leave the high-pitched shrieking to the likes of Robert Plant and Glenn Hughes. As a woman, I will tell you there is nothing sexier or more primal than a deep-voiced man singing in the lower part of his range. So work those low notes baby! You've got the vocal chops, you're a handsome bloke and you have presence. You don't need to resort to cheesy mannerisms to grab audiences' attention."

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If the 55 year old me could travel back in time to 1978, I would give the young David Coverdale the following advice:

"You are a rare baritone in a sea of tenors. You are one of the few men in rock who can sing the really low notes with authority. Use the lower part of your range for dramatic emphasis and leave the high-pitched shrieking to the likes of Robert Plant and Glenn Hughes. As a woman, I will tell you there is nothing sexier or more primal than a deep-voiced man singing in the lower part of his range. So work those low notes baby! You've got the vocal chops, you're a handsome bloke and you have presence. You don't need to resort to cheesy mannerisms to grab audiences' attention."

Coverdale didn't "resort" to being cheesy, those mannerisms are all him, it's his natural persona.

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The stuff I heard live with Coverdale in Purple was with Tommy Bolin on guitar, and perhaps I am aurally hallucinated, but I don't remember

those weird soul vocals. The stuff was much more bluesy and rockish, probably from 76'. But even the 74' stuff posted Coverdale has the

basic ability, if even then not the best taste. As all his subsequent stuff and with Page, a lack of restraint and inability to tone down the

totally overwrought sexual hysterics does Coverdale in.

By "weird soul" vocals are you referring to the recitative or the "Baby, baby" near the end of Mistreated at the California Jam? I like both, but then I grew up listening to Motown and Philly soul groups.

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If the 55 year old me could travel back in time to 1978, I would give the young David Coverdale the following advice:

"You are a rare baritone in a sea of tenors. You are one of the few men in rock who can sing the really low notes with authority. Use the lower part of your range for dramatic emphasis and leave the high-pitched shrieking to the likes of Robert Plant and Glenn Hughes. As a woman, I will tell you there is nothing sexier or more primal than a deep-voiced man singing in the lower part of his range. So work those low notes baby! You've got the vocal chops, you're a handsome bloke and you have presence. You don't need to resort to cheesy mannerisms to grab audiences' attention."

True that, after all Barry White & Jim Morrison come to mind. Morrison in his prime was / is considered the epitome of male sexuality in music. Not even Robert had that raw masculine allure of Morrison in his prime, so yes Disco, when it comes to the ladies, the baritones rule.

I have to say I like Coverdale and admire his professionalism. Even though he has this "persona" he took great care to protect his voice, which Robert never did. The man quit smoking young, was not a party animal on the road, and even stayed away from weed and excess liquor during tours (according to him at least). I think Coverdale is one of those insecure guys who goes all histrionic and obnoxious as a mask, but in the end he was a great singer and very professional as a musician, though I agree he is a horrible lyricist.

I wonder if the reason CP only did a Japanese tour was because Coverdale was a bit like Paul Rogers on the road and Jimmy did not have anyone to party with...Poor Jimmy.

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One can mask insecurities with a pose for some time but 45 years? He have a big ego. He named his band Whitesnake for gods sake and joked that
"if I was from Africa it would be Blacksnake"... It's beyond corny, who would like to be in a band named after lead singers dick? Not me.
-Hey what are you up to? -Oh hey, I'm playing with David Coverdale's Whitesnake -...

What abut all those band members replacements? Immediately after any band member grow any ego (or David finds new puppet) they are kicked out. John Sykes (Thin Lizzy) who co-wrote their biggest album 1987 got kicked out by phone couple days before the tour started, along with bassist, drummer and producer, without any warning. Same with Vivian Campbell, who wrote Dio's biggest songs. It's always about David. In his mind, people he worked with should forever be grateful that he gave them career but he can treat them as session players, whom he owe nothing to. That is not very professional in my book.

I refuse to base my judgement on a singer by how much their voice deteriorated because it's not really up to them, it depends on material they were singing, genes, how long the setlists were, how many gigs they played in a row, how often they got ill (and singers get ill all the time), surgeries etc. Glenn Hughes was never an angel, he was drug addict and alcoholic yet he still have a great voice. Why can everybody in band have fun except singer who should be sober, clean, non-smoker and go to bed before midnight? It's not really a fair expectation. What they sung shall forever be their achievement just as riffs or solos are to guitarists. But If you combine cliche, obnoxious lyrics, overtly-sexual stage presence, attitude towards bandmates, I can't get over all these to enjoy his voice.

Edited by Gabrielle
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The reasons why they only toured Japan, IpMan, were the ticket sales for the U.S. Tour were poor, so it was canceled, and then Jimmy got the invite from Robert to play with his band for the mtv special. It sucked because we had 3rd row seats for the C/P show here and Vince Neil was supposed to open too.

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... What abut all those band members replacements? Immediately after any band member grow any ego (or David finds new puppet) they are kicked out. John Sykes (Thin Lizzy) who co-wrote their biggest album 1987 got kicked out by phone couple days before the tour started...

If you can believe John Kalodner, Whitesnake's A&R man during the 1980's, Coverdale had good reason to fire John Sykes. Sykes got antsy while Coverdale was recovering from vocal chord problems and approached Kalodner with the idea that they hire another singer to record the songs he and Coverdale wrote together. As for the rest, the music industry seems to be full of jerks so I don't find that a sufficient reason to dislike someone's musical output.

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It's one side of the story, John's side:

"Me and David, we wrote the songs between us, We went to France, wrote the songs, then took the whole thing over to Los Angeles, which is where we found Aynsley Dunbar, the drummer. We started recording up in Vancouver with Mike Stone at Little Mountain Studios, and as the closing part of the drum stuff was getting finished, Aynsley comes to me and says he's been fired. I thought that was kind of strange, because David hadn't really talked to any of the band members about it. We couldn't really figure it out. So Neil Murray, the bassist finished up his parts, and he got fired. This is over a period of months. And then, I was just wrapping up guitars, Mike Stone phoned up his office and he found out that he'd been fired."

Sykes, needless to say, freaked. Fearing that he was on the losing end of a game of musical chairs, he tried calling Coverdale, who was in Los Angeles. But the singer neither answered the phone nor returned calls. Desperate, Sykes called John Kalodner, the Geffen Records executive in charge of the project.

"I'd realized that everybody who's finished up their job is history, so I said to John: 'Look, I'm kind of wondering what's going on. I can't get ahold of David, and I'm starting to wonder if I've been fired.' And he said, 'Well, it's kind of looking that way.'

My option was to quit right then and not finish the guitars, but obviously that would mean he'd get someone else in to do guitars - and I didn't want that to happen, seeing as I'd written most of it with him. So I finished up the guitar leads". Sykes found out where Coverdale was mixing the album and flew out for a final confrontation. "I went into the studio and caught him, and it got into a little bit of a shouting match, one thing led to another, and he wound up locking himself in his car, shrugging his hands like 'It wasn't my choice.' Then he just drove off."

And from different interview:

Whitesnake. Can I swear in front of you John?…..David Coverdale.
Oh yeah. I don't think anything which way on it. (laughs) That's so old, almost like a lifetime ago.

1987 is such a phenomenal album.
Well, its funny people still till this day come up to me and ask me when I'm going to get back with Whitesnake. When are we going to see you and David together? I have.
Although we did some great work together and everything else he kinda has to get off his high horse a bit if we are ever going to work together again.

There are two things that I have read in interview that David has said I'll run past you to see what you think. The first was 'You and him recreated rock history inside 5 day when you wrote this album, recreated the hard rock sound."
I think it might have been longer that 5 days but I think he might be right. You know when that album came out I think it definitely made a few people sit up and listen. But the thing is I just can't understand why he killed it so quickly. I think one of the reasons people sort of got disappointed by the Whitesanke band, is that 9 times out of 10 when people buy a record they want to see the people that played on the product perform the product. Not David Coverdale the voice and then a backing band form the local bar or pub. They want to see the real deal. He sort of robbed people of that opportunity and I think it's a real shame.

There was such a great line up on there.
I think it was very short sighted of him to do that, although he probably made a killing to start with.
In the long run I think it's probably hurt the whole thing.

Who or what got in his ear and convinced him that he needed a new band?
I can't really say cause I don't really know.
I mean if it had been just one person, fired me or just one of the band member's cause they'd had a little tiff or tizzy or something you could understand it. But he fired everybody. The drummer, bass, me, the producer. It was like he was just cleaning shop and the only reason I could imagine that would be for is so he could have a lot more control of things, certainly in the financial department.

I mean the record that followed that he even stiffed his guitarist Vandenberg to bring in Steve Vai.
Well the thing is if he needs a blues based guitar player - he's not a blues player.

The record was ok but it didn't suit the whole feel of his voice at all.
It was almost like it wasn't believable anymore. It was like these semi rock/pop songs.
There wasn't really a whole lot of depth to it I felt.

I don't think any of his records match that sound, because of the guitar sound, the rhythm section.
Well actually David's just used my bass player on his record, Marco Mendoza.

I was going to ask you about that. Did you feel betrayed by Marco?
Well I wasn't too pleased about it and I did give him a good chewing up about it.
I know Marco has to make a living. He said to me it was basically just a cheque to him, which is fair enough. It's just a session to me. Initially I felt a bit betrayed by him but after talking to him he has assured me it was only money to him. I've got to be a big enough man to take it and get on with things.

The other thing that Coverdale said and for me this just sums him up. ' You and Robert Plant should go off and form a band called the Anti Christ's.'
Me and Robert Plant?!! The Anti Christ's?!
Hahahaha!! Him and Plant aren't real good buddies.
Dearie me, he's still all upset.

This is about 5 years ago.
I did talk to Robert once. Later I got a call from one of his personal assistants to go check out his show. I went down and met with him briefly but nothing ever came of it.
That makes me laugh. Anti Christ's, not a bad idea.
David may have felt a bit threatened by Robert, with all his years in the business. With me, I pretty much say what's on my mind. Especially when it comes to creative things. Sometimes it like you just say your thing, not a big deal. But if somebody constantly want you to kiss their arse and you don't do that. It becomes something some people can' t handle too much. I'm just not an arse kisser.

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Yeah after Purple Coverdale must have shifted at least 30 or more(guessing) band members out, back in, in for a month, blah blah.

Typically a sign of some heavy issues. And the comments about Coverdale with his baritone voice, totally true. David displayed

this not often enough, and he sort of screwed up a bit by not emphasizing this enough, instead doing all the other things he

Was not that great at.

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Yeah after Purple Coverdale must have shifted at least 30 or more(guessing) band members out, back in, in for a month, blah blah.

Actually, if you check the Wikipedia timeline for Whitesnake, it's 40 people (minus Coverdale) that have been through the band since 1979. The oldest current band member of Whitesnake (besides Coverdale) joined the band in 2001.

Check this out!

52d4a137dd1d0e8045ca3e02e6df8979.png

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wow, I've never seen/heard it... and I thought that Kashmir was bad.
They must have rehearsed this before show, just... nobody will persuade me this sounds good.

I don't think that remastered C/P will come in near future (depending on definition of 'near'). Whitesnake just done Purple Album so David will probably promote this and tour until december and then they plan new all original album in 2016 followed by tour so maybe after that? Releasing new album along with re-releasing C/P could steal attention from the newer one.
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wow, I've never seen/heard it... and I thought that Kashmir was bad.

They must have rehearsed this before show, just... nobody will persuade me this sounds good.

I don't think that remastered C/P will come in near future (depending on definition of 'near'). Whitesnake just done Purple Album so David will probably promote this and tour until december and then they plan new all original album in 2016 followed by tour so maybe after that? Releasing new album along with re-releasing C/P could steal attention from the newer one.

I have some sound check recordings from the Japanese tour. David was not normally present for them.

No chance for a remastered or expanded C/P album because there's no demand.

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