![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
The wonders of technology
David Coverdale appeared on the Rock of Nations podcast.
We are thrilled and delighted to have #Whitesnake mainman #DavidCoverdale back on the show! This time he’s talking about the brand new boxed set “Still Good To Be Bad”, featuring remixes and remasters of the heavy 2008 classic album. And of course Dave and Shane get into all kinds of other stuff with DC. Here is part 1!
The interview itself starts around 6 minutes into the podcast.
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Still good…to be bad !
April 28th, 2023 at 12:59Those terribly nice people from that mail order company named after a South American stream have delivered the boxed set just now to me. Haven’t heard it yet.
The interview …, alas!, a lot of it has been said by David in other interviews before. And that cheery and slightly too grand oratory style is designed to let interviewers only skim the surface with him. It’s a long time ago that I’ve heard anything deep (no pun intended) from DC. He’s been battling for his health with antibiotics and steroids for months now, you can’t help but wonder what that must have done to his psyche. Interviews with him hardly ever stray from the superficial.
Judging from his own comments, even the elder rock star pose cannot obscure that his future as the WS front man is totally up in the air. He says he writes Motown songs (= initially bass-driven music) with loud guitars and drums – if that is the case, then it is perhaps time to jettison both? He also says he doesn’t want to just stand at the mic and sing – why the hell not I cry? Not everyone needs to be a Mick Jagger. I’d be fine if DC just sat on a bar stool and sang – Ian Gillan is hardly moving on stage anymore too (I sometimes do miss his little dance routines though he used to do up until about 10 years ago). DC is at an age where he should pattern his stage demeanor more after the great Tom Jones really.
I’ll report when I have listened to the SGTBB set. It was the WS album that made my son Leon (born 1994) a WS fan for a while, it went as far as that he implanted the same pick-ups Doug Aldrich used
https://www.suhr.com/pickups/
into his Les Paul (and in my humble opinion ruined its sound with it, but we must all go through the follies of youth; nowadays he agrees with me!).
Re the Coverdale Page box set, we shouldn’t be holding our breath I think. If Jimmy Page is now in charge, then nothing will ever get done … ; – )
He reminded me that the California Jam will have its 50th anniversary next year. Will we finally get a proper remix of the gig? Can we have a limited numbered edition luxury box set with pieces of the camera included perhaps?!
April 28th, 2023 at 17:08“Those terribly nice people from that mail order company named after a South American stream have delivered the boxed set just now to me”.
April 28th, 2023 at 23:46Ha ha ha, that is a classic Uwe & well said. In regards to Coverdale standing & delivering I agree, however I do have a loathing for those rockers that run around on stage showing off, it reminds me of being in infant school actually. ‘Look at me everybody, I can do this”. David Lee Roth you have some explaining to do! Even worse all that trapeze wire crap from certain show offs, not to mention the drum rise spinning & turning upside down & all. Stand or sit & deliver, if the music is good enough with the delivery of good sound & the feel is right that is what it is all about. Maybe throw in a few lights & graphics if that is needed to enhance a certain experience at the time.. However as we know many acts are not good with the songs, composition etc, so they have to dress it up to attract a different perspective from the ‘showbiz’ side of the circus. Shaky Bill (aka Shakespeare) said “all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts”. Neil Peart from Rush borrowed from the Bard & also added his own for the song lyrics in Limelight” It is about relating to the fame thing getting in the way & altering the perspectives of both the individual (performer) & expectation of an audience etc. Anyway can Coverdale stand or sit & deliver, will his ego allow that? Time will tell. Cheers.
I’ve got. I’ve listened. Not really sure what the point is. The album is too new to be remixed in my opinion. It is a good album but falls short of being great. The tracks I really wanted to hear featuring the Hook City Harlots and horns etc are disappointing silly because they have been added to what amounts to a wall of sound. There’s no space. Now, if the remixes were stripped right back… that may have been interesting.
One point of note: David sounds very good on most of these tracks. He turns in a great studio performance.
April 30th, 2023 at 14:06I’ve gone through all of it too now.
Jaffa is right, it is the last White Snake album where David actually sang well in the studio, a lot more studio wizardry would be layered on his vocals on subsequent albums.
“The tracks I really wanted to hear featuring the Hook City Harlots and horns etc are disappointing silly because they have been added to what amounts to a wall of sound. There’s no space.”
Same with me. The added chick singers add some more oomph to the chorus vocals, more Meatloaf if you like, but hardly essential. The added horns on just one (!) song, a nondescript shuffle, are as unimaginative as it gets – Blood, Sweat & Tears or PAL this is not. I love me a strong horn section with my rock, but here the arrangements are a disappointment.
I beg to differ on the remix. That sounds great to my ears, much more organic than the original mix. They’ve brought out the Hammond and keyboards in general more and Coverdale’s voicce sits more naturally in the music. Once you’ve heard this, I don’t think you will going back to the original mix very often.
The Evolutions CD is interesting, it features all songs of the album in their fledgling idea and/or first (partial) band demo stage (often DC’s srcatch idea on just an acoustic guitar or bare-bones keyboard has been mixed to merge into a later demo with band members and you thus hear as the song progresses). Though, inevitably with outtake stuff like this, you are probably only going to hear it once. So it’s for latter day WS devotees really.
The four studio tracks featured as a bonus on the Live In The Shadow Of The Blues CD are contained here as well and it makes for an interesting comparison to hear the same songs drummed by Tommy Aldridge as opposed to Chris Frazier (who swung the sticks on Good To Be Bad in case you have forgotten). To me, Chris wins over Tommy – I know that Aldridge has his fans, but I find his drumming for all his ability mechanical in groove, a bit like the other Tommy (Lee of Mötley Crüe) in fact. He doesn’t swing like Frazier does and his drum parts often sound like learned excerpts from “The Book of Rudiments for the Aspiring Heavy Metal Drummer”.
May 3rd, 2023 at 17:03@2…Both IG & DC only need to reintroduce a set of conga’s for the stage-act imo. I love the conga’s, & they do more for the music than people may think 😉 !
Peace !
May 9th, 2023 at 23:48