Classical musician Amy Shafer (we’ve previously featured her take on Child in Time) listens to the Concerto for Group and Orchestra — well, the 3rd movement to be precise — and gives her analysis, praise, and critique of Jon’s opus. It is always interesting to see a fresh look on a familiar piece of music, particularly when it comes from a completely different angle than we’re used to. The things she liked most, and was disappointed in, will probably surprise you. We encourage you to view the analysis to the end before jumping to conclusions.
First listen/reaction:
In depth analysis:
The timings she mentions in the analysis refer to this clip, so here it is for your convenience:
Which made this editor to revisit the ’99 version of the Concerto to see if and how it differs from the original:
…as well as the 2012 version, which Jon himself regarded as the definitive:
David Coverdale recently appeared on That Rocks! podcast. He talks about flying in hairdressers, the future of Whitesnake, brutalist architecture, and the “nether region”, among other things. Some of which you may or may not have heard previously. The episode is over 1 hour and 20 minutes long, and David joins about halfway into it. Continue Reading »
A short, but sweet interview with Steve Morse in Beaver County Times on the occasion of a couple of upcoming SMB gigs in Pennsylvania.
I quit (Deep) Purple because the tours were too long and we had a health emergency in my family with my wife having Stage 4 cancer. I told those guys ‘I can’t do this’ and they were upset for like three to four seconds and then moved on. That’s life, I and I wish them well and they’re doing great. But back to me and this band. I had always been told that we couldn’t do weekends only. That it just wouldn’t be possible to pay everybody and not be paying out of pocket to play. However, when we did the math with three people it was possible in many cases to make it work.
Glenn Hughes will take his ‘Celebrating 50th anniversary of Burn‘ to the United States. The tour will start on August 16 in New Jersey and stretch into late September. The opening night in NJ and the Dallas show will be just Glenn and his band, while the rest of the tour is a double bill with Yngwie Malmsteen. There was no official word as to who goes on stage after whom, but several things hint to Yngwie closing, and Glenn performing before him.
Full details and ticket links are in our calendar.
David Coverdale spoke to the Metal Edge magazine, mostly about the ’87 self-titled Whitesnake album.
Coming out of Deep Purple, what was your vision for Whitesnake? And how have you expanded on that since the ’70s?
David Coverdale: It’s a buffet of all the sounds that I love. Some of the arrangements are symphonic because I adore classical music. You might not realize it, but concertos with three movements resemble a typical pop scenario. And having said that, I’ve always wanted Whitesnake to be like an orchestra. I never wanted it to be just one or two guitar players; I wanted an ensemble of people to facilitate the buffet of sounds I wanted to create.
You can work with great guitarists all day, can’t you? And, of course, I have. Just look at Jeff Beck, who could play amazing blues, but chose to make the guitar his own via his own identity. Jimi Hendrix and Edward Van Halen did so much with the guitar; I can’t imagine anyone doing what they did. So, I always sought to go after different sounds, and everyone who has been a part of Whitesnake has had their own identity and added that into the mix. It’s like, “Oh, here’s a nice six-pack of beer; I’ll have some of that,” or “Ah, some cheesecake; I’ll take some of that, too.”
Fans of Mark 3, rejoice! Glenn Hughes has opened his 50th anniversary of Burn tour with a couple of shows in Gothenburg, Sweden. Here is a video from the concert on May 6, 2023. Continue Reading »
A heavily augmented remix of Rainbow take on Since You’ve Been Gone is used in the Volume 3 of the Guardians of the Galaxyfairy tale superhero franchise. Continue Reading »
A pro shot video of an almost complete Deep Purple’s concert in Buenos Aires on April 28, 2023, appeared on YouTube. It looks like the feed that is shown on the giant video monitors during the show, so the editing and the sound can be a bit iffy at times. It is still a couple of steps above the usual smartphone fare. The video has been already taken down at least once by the copyright police and appeared back, so hurry up, as it may disappear for good any time now.
Set list:
1. Intro
2. Pictures of Home
3. 7:35 – No Need to Shout
4. 10:48 – Into the Fire
5. 14:40 – Uncommon Man
6. 24:30 – Lazy
7. 33:22 – When a Blind Man Cries
8. 38:30 – Anya
9. 43:16 – Keyboard solo
10. 47:40 – Perfect Strangers
11. 54:20 – Space Truckin’
12. 1:00:00 – Smoke on the Water
13. 1:07:24 – Hush
14. 1:14:35 – Bass solo
15. 1:16:36 – Black Night
Thanks to Tobias Janaschke, Juan Flier, and janbl for the heads-up.
Metal Edge magazine has an in depth retrospective interview with Geezer Butler, touching, among other things, on the various interactions of the Sabbath camp with various members of the Purple family. Here’s an excerpt covering Gillan’s stint with the band.
What are your thoughts on the controversy surrounding the Born Again record?
Butler: I have to say, I actually liked most of the songs on the Born Again album. I didn’t particularly like a couple of lyrics, but I thought there was some good stuff on there. And I recently listened to it a couple of years ago, and after not hearing it for some time, I had forgotten how good of an album it was. The issue was, once again, once we got out on tour with Ian [Gillan], we found that he didn’t bother to learn any of the lyrics to the old Sabbath tunes. I thought that was ridiculous. I mean, if you’re gonna go out on tour with us, give it your all, or maybe get a monitor or something.
But again, it was obvious that Ian wasn’t 100% into it, and then in the middle of the American tour, he finally revealed to us that Deep Purple was getting back together, which screwed us.
Many people feel that Born Again shouldn’t have been called a Sabbath record at all.
Butler: We agreed, and we didn’t want it to be. But that was the problem we always had; we’d go to the record company and tell them things like, “Look, we’ve got three Sabbath guys, and Ian from Deep Purple, who has an R&B core, we don’t want to call this ‘Black Sabbath,’ ” but they weren’t having it. They’d tell us, “Okay, you don’t want to call it ‘Black Sabbath?’ Then retire or go somewhere else. We don’t want you.” The truth is – like several of Sabbath’s records – Born Again wasn’t a true Sabbath record, but we got stuck calling it as such. I regretted it then, but I’ve gotten used to it now.
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