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Coverdale to be honoured at Vegas Rocks! awards
David Coverdale will receive Vegas Rocks! magazine “The Voice of Rock” award. He will receive the award alongside Sammy Hagar. The ceremony will take place at The Joint inside Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on August 26th. The event will focus on the local Las Vegas rock scene as well as rock legends of the past and present to receive and present awards. It will be filmed for a worldwide live broadcast at VegasRocksTV.com. Tickets are available through Tickemaster.
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Interesting that it’s the “Voice of Rock” award. Hasn’t Glenn Hughes trademarked that title? 😉
June 7th, 2012 at 22:27Although I’m a big MK II fan, I must say that Coverdale was spectacular in Purple. His voice on all three albums was great, especially Burn. By all accounts he was consistently very good. The problem after burn was Hughes and Bolin for CTTB. Hughes’ singing became more and more R&B amd Bolin simply could not play. Quite frankly, even when not completely stoned his playing was weak while with Purple.
June 8th, 2012 at 04:04Hi Ron. Just want to come to Mr. Bolin’s defence. I think his playing on Come Taste The Band is quite the opposite. Excellent, dynamic, exciting. Comin’ Home particularly is for me one of the most exciting Purple tracks full stop, and Bolin’s playing just lifts and lifts it. Gettin’ Tighter, Owed To G, You Keep On Moving. Fantastic stuff. He was different to Blackmore, more basic I think in his approach to lead – but to say he couldn’t play is I think harsh. His work on Billy Cobham’s Spectrum is phenomenal. It’s clear he was unravelling when you listen to the live stuff, but there’s still great moments. I doubt my words will change your mind, but maybe just give him another chance? All the best.
June 8th, 2012 at 09:31I thought the same as Brad! 🙂 And two singers receive THE Voice of Rock at the same time? 🙂
June 8th, 2012 at 09:49Well, whatever kind of award he gets, he certainly deserves it. A master vocalist, good composer, and an archetypical rock star and frontam.
June 8th, 2012 at 11:38If you like bluesy Rock, DC is the man IMHO.
June 8th, 2012 at 13:16Saw Whistnake last year on the Forevermore tour, and it was excellent.
Big fan of DC’s, big powerful voice dripping with soul and fantastic delivery…Still love IG’s the most though.
@ 2. I agree about Tommy, great musician though he was, he wasnt the right choice to replace Ritchie (although at the time there was no-one good enough to walk into his boots) However Tommy could barely play the riffs. Burn has a swagger and style about the way its played and tommy should have spent more time getting it right (He had just joined one of the biggest bands in the world after all) He even managed to play SOTW badly. i remember seeing Mk IV at Wembley and being dissapointed in his playing and then this was confirmed on first listen of Pheonix Rising.
June 8th, 2012 at 14:01I totally agree with you Ron, whatever ability to play Tommy Bolin had in the past he had lost it by the time he joined Purple. If they had recruited a proper guitar player the band would have stayed intact for a few more years I guess. That would have been interesting.
June 8th, 2012 at 16:46Not sure what happened to my reply regarding Pete’s comment, which was the only comment here a few days back! Anyway, I asked him in what way did Coverdale’s voice ruin Deep Purple, as he stated!
June 8th, 2012 at 23:01@2 probably you missed ‘live california 1976’, T.Bolin was wonderful with Purple when he was not stoned…and He demonstrated to be a genius musician outside Deep Purple…
Great news about Coverdale and his name should have been above Hagar…
June 9th, 2012 at 08:44Coverdale was ok on the “Burn” album, but ok is not the same as “best.” The best singer in Purple (and outside purple) was and will always be – Ian Gillan. But Coverdale went “Vegas” years ago and Gillan did´t, so thats why Coverdale gets this award and not Gillan.
June 10th, 2012 at 18:31Coverdale singing on Come Taste the band is the best during his tenure with Deep Purple and Bolin guitar work just masterful and inspired especially on Comin’ Home.You should listen to the Remaster&Remix CD and realize what a great album Come Taste the band is.
June 11th, 2012 at 02:03Regarding the Bolin debate, I don’t think it’s fair to say that he couldn’t play by the time he joined Purple. Listen to the rehearsal material. Some of his playing is incredible.
June 12th, 2012 at 20:44PS. It’s well documented that by the time Mk IV got to the UK the writing was on the wall, and that Bolin wasn’t playing well at all by then. It’s also well documented that he became very upset when the band started rehearsing for the tour, because he was told what to play. This perhaps explains why he played Burn and other earlier songs that way – as a little protest. For what it’s worth, as a very modestly skilled guitarist I can tell you that the riff to Burn is very easy to play – so there’s no way that Tommy couldn’t duplicate that, and I think the way he played it on the Long Beach cd is fantastic. Wrong choice to replace Ritchie? Thanks to the tragic way events unfolded we’ll never really know, but I think that version of Purple had the potential to be something special and there’s plenty of musical evidence to support that. It was a great shame. All the best!
June 12th, 2012 at 21:10Great that Coverdale and Hagar are getting their Kudos, 2 phenomenal Vocalists of all time! Regarding Tommy Bolin, he had his demons, thats for sure and it took his life, thats a fact! But I definitely agree with #3 on his skills, Come Taste the Band is great, as well as his work on The James Gangs, Bang @ Miami. His live playing suffered when he was High, and he should of learned the Purple back catalog before hitting the stage. But that was then and this is now. So great news for David and Sammy. Caio Bill
June 13th, 2012 at 14:02The comments about Bolin’s playing are very interesting.
As I have indicated many times before, guitar playing–and art in general–is often times a simple matter of taste. I often hear accolades and praise for guitarists that quite frankly are simply medicore–despite being well-loved. I won’t mention names, but Blackmore himself has touched on the subject many times over the years.
I agree that Tommy’s playing on the live circuit was hit-or-miss due to circumstances beyond his control (the calls for Blackmore from the audience) and choices he made (drug abuse). I also agree that he was in his twilight by the time he joined Purple, his two solo albums notwithstanding.
That aside, when he was “on,” he was great, and his playing in the studio is first rate–although stylistically, he was Blackmore’s opposite. Tommy loved effects and was a master at using them. He was also very fond of repeated motifs and tercets, and his playing in the studio tended to be much more staccato than Blackmore’s legato and arpeggiating. I love Tommy’s tone when he uses a Stratocaster and the bell-like sounds and pick scrapes come through.
Now the can of worms.
Bolin probably was not the best choice for Purple in ways that go well beyond the scope of this discussion. However, he was chosen for much the same reason as Steve Morse: He was different than Blackmore both stylistically and in personality.
It could be argued that *at the time*, Steve Morse was also not the best choice for Purple in that his style of playing was light-years out of the realm of what Deep Purple was doing muscially. Just compare The Battle Rages On with Purpendicular.
The difference between Bolin and Morse, however, is that Morse made it work, while Bolin could not. Morse was able to reïnvent Deep Purple while bringing rock-solid stability. Bolin had trouble adapting–and in fact was not really allowed to adapt to any great extent, being forced to play a certain way, and brought Deep Purple to a wavering stone tower that shook to and fro until it crumbled.
To his credit, however, I personally prefer Bolin’s “Smoke on the Water” riff to Morse’s. The latter’s version sounds exaggerated, and the finger vibrato a bit of a heavy metal cliché. It’s trite.
Bolin’s version was inventive, done I believe in fifths rather than block chords/double stops and picked instead of snapped. In addition, Bolin’s interpretation of the “Stormbringer” riff challenges the original with a bit of Hendrix’ “Foxey Lady” thrown in, and check out the “statement-response” motif in his version of “Lazy”. Therefore, the guitariast was certainly capable of injecting his own style into established works.
I am not much of a fan of Morse’s interpretations of older songs for the most part (“Woman from Tokyo” and “Fools” noteable exceptions–the latter is simply brilliant), although when he plays his own songs, the man can’t be touched, and I simply would not care to hear any other guitar player doing Morse songs–if it ever came to that.
As for Coverdale’s honor–good for him. It’s about time someone from Purple got some kind of accolades–although they are probably more for Whitesnake than Purple.
I just wish Blackmore would be so recognized, just so he can tell them all they know where to stick it.
June 13th, 2012 at 16:26Well stated Mr. Brightling! I woud have loved to see a second release by Mk IV. I thought Tommy Bolin’s playing on THE JAMES GANG albums Bang & Miami was very good, and I really enjoyed his solo albums Teaser & Private Eyes.
June 14th, 2012 at 09:23To really appreciate Tommy Bolin’s genius you need to listen to ‘from the archives vol.I’ ‘wishper an roses vol.I’ and Teaser’s outtakes…just astonishing versatility, songwriting, inventivness, style, sound…Inredible singer (too)/songwriter/guitar player and even producer (‘Teaser’ album production is really great)
June 14th, 2012 at 20:21@16 -kind of hard to be fond of ‘repeated motifs and tercets’ when he didn’t even know what a bar was. An example of his natural genius, where others comes off forced a lot of the time for genius’. That would explain the biggest difference between Bolin and Morse. As much of a master Morse is, compared to Blackmore and Bolin he is reduced back to the ever long student. Just goes to show, technical prowess isn’t music, it’s just more applied to what seems to be better off less, most of the time. That’s my opinion, of course, but I’m not calling either of them in particular, ‘mediocre’ for once second in any case. That would be an arguable opinion if there ever was one.
June 15th, 2012 at 09:08Cell phone texting, gotta love it. not!
June 15th, 2012 at 09:10Tommy Bolin was a fine guitarist indeed. But I have always been suss on the Come Taste The Band album. It has some good moments, but not as a ‘Deep Purple’ record! As the maestro Jon Lord says on the Phoenix Rising DVD at 25 minutes 39 seconds!
June 15th, 2012 at 10:21Come Taste The Band is not a Deep Purple record, it is a Bolin, Hughes & Coverdale album with some really good help from 2 members of Deep Purple! Enough said about that low point in Purple’s career! Those comments are just before the Stormbringer comments, absurd from Hughes to say the songs on that album (Stormbringer) are more melodic & stronger than Burn! Each to their own! But he would say that, as he allegedly didn’t feature in the songwriting as much on Burn & his ‘shoe shine’ influence is creeping in on Stormbringer, as he tries to defend it as not ‘funky’. Amusing indeed!
Stormbringer has 5 excellent tracks & Holy Man is one of them, but the rest are ordinary rock n’ roll! Jon Lord is correct, in hind site, he should have left the band with Blackmore, not to worry, the world kept turning!
In the meantime someone else is pushing further :
http://www.planetrock.com/news/rock-news/black-country-communion-start-recording-album-3/
June 16th, 2012 at 10:15Hmm…nobody mentioned Sammy Hagar`s excellent voice (Montrose).
O.k. we all DC.
Cheers.
June 17th, 2012 at 02:29@22 I hope the new Album will have different artwork than the last 2. Didn’t care for the first cover and then the second is quite similar! Same goes for the music. Hopefully Heavier and/or more progressive!
June 18th, 2012 at 16:34The BCC article posted about was two days ago, the article itself was released five days ago. Now he’s sharing a photo at his Facebook page reporting that they’re done in the studio. Which to hell is it, BCC?
June 18th, 2012 at 22:43“Which to hell is it?”
What does that mean?!
June 19th, 2012 at 08:37Congratulations to two of the best voices in rock ever!!! David Coverdale and The Red Rocker, they have recorded some of the finest hard rock records in history!!! On the Tommy Bolin subject, he was a gifted guitar player, but the problem was that he could be so “chemical” unpredictable. His finest moments on stage were when he was clean and sober. As far as Steve Morse is concerned, he’s a talented player also, but for Deep Purple, I think Kee Marcello (ex-Europe) or Jake E. Lee (ex-Ozzy) would fit much better. Anyway, listen to Steve’s playing on Living Loud, it’s amazing!!!
June 19th, 2012 at 15:19Hi
Looking forward to the best award for the award awarded.
June 21st, 2012 at 13:15Hagar is not even close to being the ‘rock” singer DC is, not to mention the blues, he is only more popular because of his time in Van Halen (Van Hagar)
June 24th, 2012 at 21:22Hello again, Hey Dave, I agree, Sammy is a great singer a deserves at least our mention. He’s done a hell of a lot for RNR over the years, and his involvement with his own strong muicians (guitarists) Eddie , Ronnie Montrose are also great Guitar Maestros in their own right. But Coverdale deserves it, he’s worked with some great great people! Also I agree with MacGregor, Hughes saying that Stormbringer was stronger than Burn or Machine Head are crazy, he thinks that because of his contributions to that album, but actually all of the Purple catalog is better before Stormbringer! I know a few might disagree, but to much filler on that lp, and the Rock stuff, beside the title track, needs to be Blackmored! Lady Double Dealers guitar needs to be beefed completely, like the live version. Oh well we can go on & On. caio Bill
July 8th, 2012 at 15:06