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A gift from the grave
Ultimate Classic Rock has an interview with David Coverdale where he is discussing, among other things, his plans to celebrate a life changing job offer he got 50 years ago:
With me celebrating the 50th anniversary of Purple, we’re going to be doing something, probably around October. I spoke with Glenn Hughes last year and asked if I could fly him up, to just sit down there and video us talking about our memories of getting the gig. He got the job with Deep Purple before me.
I’m hoping I can pull that off, so we can just put that on the internet for both him and I and our respective social media. Because it’s such a fucking game-changing, life-changing thing. This is how the universe works. Last week, I came into the studio and we were going over stuff to do. They said, “Oh, what do you want us to do about that huge trunk downstairs?” I went, “Uh, what huge trunk?” They bring up this thing I’ve never seen before. I said, “What’s in it?” They said, “It’s locked.” I said, “Well, break the fucking thing open!” It was my mother’s belongings. I lost my mother 20 years ago.
There’s this gift from the grave, which sounds awful, but it’s the tape that got me the audition with Deep Purple. That’s one of the things that we’re putting together now for a special release in October.
Read more in the Ultimate Classic Rock.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Wow, this is interesting! Let’s hope it happens.
May 2nd, 2023 at 03:36If someone can get in touch with David, please tell him to release the Burn demos that were not approved by EMI for the 2004 remix/remaster and the Stormbringer alternate vocal tracks that didn’t make it either for the 35 anniversary set either.
May 2nd, 2023 at 11:27David knows that time is getting shorter, must now start to prioritize things. Wish Ritchie and Ian would think the same and patch things up and do a couple of shows before it’s to late.
May 2nd, 2023 at 12:25ALL FOR MONEY….
May 2nd, 2023 at 13:29@4: Of course, he is a professional musician. It’s his job.
May 2nd, 2023 at 13:32I don’t mind him über-curating his past oeuvre. If he only got his hands on the original tapes from the Sunburst years and the outtakes and demos from that era.
I wish there was someone who showed the same commitment for DP’s legacy which for a band of their stature has – with a few exceptions like the Made in Japan all three nights release – has only seen a shabby to an at best workmanlike treatment. Would you believe that the last remaster/partial remix of an album as pivotal as In Rock was 27 years ago?!!! That its release in 1970 (co-opening a new era of 70ies rock) went un-commemorated in 2020 by any record company that may now own the rights?!!! Shame- and awful is the word.
https://dailyrelay.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Clint-Eastwood-Mad-In-Gran-Torino-Gif.gif
Nearly every B and even C league hard rock outfit has seen better treatment of their back catalog.
Think about it: We now have complete remixes of works as comparatively recent as Blackmore’s Night debut or Whitesnake’s (Still) Good To Be Bad) opus. The only albums completely remixed from DP are 1972’s Machine Head (the 1997 Roger Glover remixes) 26 years ago and 1975’s CTTB (Kevin Shirley remix – which I liked) 13 years ago.
That CTTB is the only ‘more recent’ complete remix of a Purple album leads me to the assumption that Ritchie has probably vetoed a complete remix on all other albums. It is telling that on the Stormbringer reissue, the four tracks that were NOT remixed are the ones with the greatest Blackmore songwriting input: Stormbringer, Lady Doubledealer, Gypsy and Soldier of Fortune. (He probably had other strife with the Purple organization at the time and was just being his obnoxious self, I don’t really think he gives a damn whether the old recordings are remixed as long as his solos remain untouched – cue in the SOTW remix “affair” with an alternative Blackmore solo on the MH reissue which he unjustly blamed Roger for.)
May 2nd, 2023 at 16:05DC’s mom keeping (a copy or the original?) of his audition tape is a cute detail, just what you would expect a loving and proud mom to do.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/bb/31/df/bb31df53015861a99d4d33a30a1f4d42.jpg
I’d love to hear that recording. It must contain a version of Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talkin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kznTMxOsxo ,
because that caught Little Ian’s ear at the time “even though David’s rendition hardly used the melody once”.
Wonder how David’s version compares to (now Florida resident) Iggy’s?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMOz-XJORpg
May 2nd, 2023 at 16:30To be honest I really can’t understand why him and Glenn are so keep to revive the DP purple saga.
May 2nd, 2023 at 19:24They both done well very well after DP and they just should drop their involvement and let the current living breathing DP touring DP, Musically active DP carry on with their lives.
Seriously this is just getting quite messy as you can’t have every one with links to DP touring under their name.
As IG once said, it’s not a family tree it’s more like a f**king jungle.
Peace ✌️
@3
Dude, it’s already too late. Way too late.
May 2nd, 2023 at 20:05I thought the remixed Stormbringer has one disc (surround quad mix) with some alternative vocals on it, mine does from memory. Soldier of Fortune has a little different vocal piece than the original vinyl & cd release. Come on Uwe, don’t blame Blackmore again, sheesh that is just too easy a thing to do. I will dig out my Stormbringer box set re release & have a look at it & see if that Evil Man In Black has cast a spell over it. Cheers.
May 2nd, 2023 at 22:13I have just finished listening to the Burn & Stormbringer remixed tracks. The Burn album remastered & remixed songs release of 2004 has four main Blackmore influenced album tracks remixed. Burn, Mistreated, You Fool No One & Sail Away, plus the extra bonus instrumental track Coronarias Redig. Unless things were different come the Stormbringer album re release, with the remastering & selected remixed tracks. There is some wording on the In Rock re release from the mid 90’s that EMI are restricted somewhat as to what they are allowed to re release etc. The Fireball album doesn’t seem to have much in regards to the original album tracks being remixed, only Demon’s Eye & No One Came. I don’t own the Machine Head re release so I am not up on that & I will have to look that information up online. With WDWTWA there are 3 songs, Our Lady, Woman from Tokyo & Rat Bat Blue remixed. I just cannot imagine someone would be vetoing certain songs & not others. Are the full album Master tapes still available & are there any other contractual issues with Purple’s past catalogue? Cheers.
May 3rd, 2023 at 03:32MacGregor asked qt.”Are the full album Master tapes still available & are there any other contractual issues with Purple’s past catalogue ? Cheers “.
I suggest that this may turn into a can-of-worms to be honest, as these matters & ownership rights are no-doubt different today, as when they were when the recordings were first made, yet alone who-owned-what at the time of the remaster editions…
eg. You’ll have HEC Enterprises, Tetragrammaton, EMI, Warner Bros, Deep Purple ( Overseas ) to investigate with the first-four-marks up until the mid-1970’s…And then Mr.Payne ( Thames management ) took over managing from the reunion onwards, followed by BMG stepping-in somewhere & now EarMusic releasing both old & new stuff…And when you throw-in “Friday Music” releasing a few remastered releases ( these sound awesome ) in the mid 2000’s, it gets messy for sure as to who-owns-what…
I gave up, & only learned most of the above from wanting the last 3 x DP ( Overseas) Live Series releases, & doing some research about 7-odd-years ago lol !
I’m told that the early stuff remained the property of HEC Enterprises, & name changed into Deep Purple ( Overseas ) around circa 1972 with Machine Head, but then issues arrived with the death of Tony Edwards & John Coletta (a few years ago now ( Ron Hire was bought-out in the early 1970’s from any management activity ))…
I’m not sure at all who owns what today, but Deep Purple ( Overseas ) is in “administration” which is why the last 3 x Live series releases are not available, even through they were released through EarMusic…
Peace !
May 3rd, 2023 at 07:3412 – yes indeed Gregster a can of worms it most probably is. I remembered today whilst looking at the Machine Head 40th anniversary edition online, the one with the quad dvd on it. I was only reading about all that no more than a year ago as we were discussing it here. MH is the only album that has a full remix to all of the original songs. Nostalgia wise I am only interested in the early Quad mix or surround on both MH & Stormbringer. Not that I think that is a superior mix at all, it is a curiosity of mine from hearing those way back in time on the original vinyl with a 4 speaker quad set up. Stereo is fine & best suited to rock music for my ears. Unless it is Floyd or something similar, Tubular Bells also, that sort of recording suits surround much better. Is it worth buying all the bells & whistles in regards to MH? I only have the original cd release from the 1980’s. All the other MK2 releases I have with the newer mastering re mix scenario so I suppose one day I might travel down nostalgia central, time will tell. Cheers.
May 3rd, 2023 at 08:43@8
“To be honest I really can’t understand why him and Glenn are so keep to revive the DP purple saga.
They both done well very well after DP and they just should drop their involvement and let the current living breathing DP touring DP, Musically active DP carry on with their lives.”
I think none of us on this forum have been through the success that David and Glenn had been in the 1970s, when DP was the biggest band in the world. Therefore, we don’t understand the addiction to the chemistry of success that they both have. David kinda replicated that with his 1987 effort, but he is out for more. And Glenn has not done too well after DP, at least commercially. His solo albums got praised by other musicians and hardcore fans like us, but they did not sell, nor they charted. So both of the old boys want to live again through those sweet moments of 1974.
May 3rd, 2023 at 11:08@13…Ha ha, the days of quadraphonic…I actually have Floyd’s DSOTM on quadraphonic LP…And I’m pretty sure that the reason quadraphonic was never pursued further was that it was freaking too many people out, especially with the onset of 8-track cartridges & super-duper car stereos arriving on the scene…Rumor had it that because of such dynamic & directional sound, people were crashing their cars…Hmmm…
The new home-theater packages are about as best as you’re going to get now-days, & to be fair, they probably equal or even better the original quadraphonic concept, but everything is a compromise today also. I can tell you from my own mixing experience, that to get the most out of surround sound, is to simply tweak where possible, the instrumentation that’s panned L or R ( or somewhere in-between ) to more equal levels with the rest of the recording. That said, your computer & / or home theater amp will have “pre-sets” that can do this automatically for you via compression & pre-set amp effects. I haven’t bothered to check all these things out just yet with my own equipment, other than being happy with no effects, & simply using a regular stereo signal running through the amp…Sounds good to me lol ! Even older regular stereo recordings do sound clearer, & instrumentation well placed via 5.1 listening. And 7.1 would be even more definitive I’d guess. You could kind-of-describe the difference in sound is like being up-on-center-stage with the band with surround sound, rather than out in the center audience.
Peace !
May 3rd, 2023 at 11:39