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Between Black Country and West Coast
The Dead Daisies have successfully made it across the pond and are now touring the UK. Maximum Volume Music has a positively glowing review of the tour opening gig at the O2 Institute in Birmingham on October 30.
Of course, if the support band is that good, then the main band has got to be top notch, right? Well yes and The Dead Daisies are just about as good as it gets right now.
So, let’s get right to it and say this: “Holy Ground” – the album they put out earlier in the year – is a masterpiece. The only question remaining was this: how good would it sound live? Well, to answer with the barest minimum of hyperbole, it might well be that The Dead Daisies are the finest band of their type on planet earth right now.
As Glenn Hughes puts it later in the set, “we are a new band again”. And the additions of the Cannock legend (and listening to him split his accent between Black Country and West Coast USA is truly something) and drummer Tommy Clufetos have moved them into the Premier League. They know it too, you can tell, from the moment they start with “Unspoken”.
Read more in Maximum Volume Music.
Thanks to Yvonne for the heads up and to Vincenzo Nardelli for the video.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
One of the things that I don’t understand about the history of Deep Purple is how do you have a band with Hughes & Coverdale and have Coverdale do most of the singing. It’s not that Coverdale was bad, but Hughes voice is special.
November 5th, 2021 at 03:24@ 1 – Blackmore wanted a blues based lead vocalist, not a funky soul whoop & holler lead vocalist. Hughes is a fine vocalist if he shuts up, well that is one way of putting it. He is his own worse enemy in that aspect. Well to some he is, me included, but to others, he is ok. Cheers.
November 5th, 2021 at 09:06@ 2 indeed..
November 5th, 2021 at 22:07Simply put Blackmore liked Coverdale’s voice better.
November 6th, 2021 at 03:05@2 I agree. Glenn has a good voice but has a tendency to oversing (as demonstrated in this live rendition of ‘Mistreated’). Just too much screaming these days. I still think THE best vocalist to tackle ‘Mistreated’ is Ronnie James Dio with Rainbow, just sublime.
November 6th, 2021 at 17:05Dio had absolutely no sex and no hurt machismo (on which the song is based) when he sang Mistreated – he might as well have been singing about the demise of his pet dragon! : – )
Dio was a great singer, but once he was on his fantastical lyric trip, not one to convey “boy meets girl”- or “girl leaves boy”-stories credibly. Not wanting to do love- or break-up-songs, led to his departure from Rainbow after all.
November 7th, 2021 at 22:07@#6: Uwe, I fully disagree with you. Some months ago you explained why – in your mind – Coverdale’s version is supposed to be so much better than Dio’s. All your arguments were valid – but I did simply interpret them in exactly the opposite way than you did.
November 8th, 2021 at 09:54Dio shows a vulnerability, which to me reflects a hurt soul. So no, the song is not necessarily built on hurt machismo but about being hurt in general.
Coverdale, however comes across as a Vollproll (to non-German speakers: a bigmouth prole being full of himself) which I don’t find too appealing.
At the same time, I was never a die hard fan of Mk III as I neither dug Coverdale’s roaring voice nor Hughes’ too often high-pitched screaming.
It’s nice to see Glenn solo (haven’t seen him with DD) and he has a remarkable voice – but not my favourite voice.
Coverdale at his peak had natural authority in his voice, warmth and volume (not in the sense of loudness, but in the sense of filling a space). Yes, he was a “Vollproll”, but one with charm.
In those three departments, he had the edge on Glenn, if you want to compare. But Glenn had/has much more ambitious rhythmic accentuation, a greater range and unlimited dynamics, a turbo-charged voice. David was vocally a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, Glenn a Mustang fighter interceptor. And like those two warbirds, they were together quite a formidable match!
Technically, Glenn can sing circles around David (which the latter was/is always first to admit), but Coverdale’s voice has a quality that touches more people though David does a lot less with it.
It’s amazing how well Glenn’s pipes have held up, he’s a true wonder of nature. Even Rob Halford – once in Glenn’s league as regards the sheer dynamics of his voice – has to compromise these days. Glenn is still effortlessly agile. I’ve heard him sing with a bad cold and he could still do about 80% of what he usually does. Which is about double what most rock singers can deliver.
November 8th, 2021 at 22:22To me the best version is Whitesnake Hammersmith 1978. Coverdale at his best.
November 17th, 2021 at 22:21