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Hi Nathan and John. Thanks for your great show. I’m from Melbourne Australia and have loved the music of Deep Purple since I was a teenager in the 1970s. I enjoy your enthusiasm, commitment and the sense of fun you bring to the podcast. Keep up the good work. Stephen
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Hope you can help. I’ve been thinking about an upgrade to the half way to evil tier since the days that Raff Kaff had it all to themselves. Having finally made the decision, I’ve looked at Patreon and it’s not a tier I can choose.
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SirFoo – UK – 5 Stars!
So much to like about this show.
This has enhanced my enjoyment about all things Deep Purple. Knowledgable , funny and well researched but, above all, it just feels like listening to a couple of friends having a conversation about a rock band that we all love.
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Bill Ward felt strongly that Sabbath without Ozzy wasn’t Sabbath.
While he like Dio and Gillan personally he just couldn’t see himself in the band, even though he would briefly return to record his only sober record with the group, “Born Again.”
Vinny Appice’s first album was with Rick Derringer’s Derringer band. He had also played with John Lennon.
Dio says they chose Appice because he had a similar style to Bill Ward.
With Appice in the band Dio said: “We had Vinny and Tony and myself and Geezer – three Italians and Geezer Butler! In fact, Geezer used to call us Geezer and the Italians!”
Iommi says Heaven and Hell had been partially written prior to Dio joining and on this album there was a bit more collaboration with Iommi and Dio working songs out together.
Heaven and Hell had been their last record for their deal with Warner Bros. As it was the last it didn’t get great promotion until it started selling well.
Dio describes Geezer as being a very negative person and that this writing process for this album was difficult. He says Geezer hated America and just wanted to be at home in England.
Geezer said in interviews that Ronnie assumed a lot of the credit for Heaven and Hell’s success. Geezer perceived it as Ronnie coming in and saving Black Sabbath.
Geezer said a tension grew between him and Tony and Dio and Appice and they’d go into the studio separately.
Dio had been bothered that the whole band was credited on the previous album where it was he and Tony who wrote it.
This time it was credited to everyone by Appice. He said he didn’t care even though a lot of the songs came out in jams because he was just happy to be in Black Sabbath.
They bought a mixing board thinking they could save some money by recording at Tony’s house in LA.
They ended up deciding that wouldn’t work and recorded most of the album at The Record Plant.
They began recording at Tittenhurst (John Lennon’s home) and Dio recalls bumping into David Coverdale there because they were just finishing up recording there. They recorded E5150 and the movie version of “The Mob Rules” there.
Dio said they learned of John Lennon’s death on thei flight over to England. Dio was slated to stay in John Lennon’s room and he didn’t want to stay in there because he was scared.
He and his brother Tim worked together known as “The Brothers Hildebrandt” and worked on sci-fi and fantasy artwork together.
Also did artwork for Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
The brothers may be best known for their “Style B” poster for the UK release of “Star Wars.”
Rumor is that the words “Kill Ozzy” are written underneath by the artist’s signature on the painting.
In reality the painting had been done in 1971 entitled “Dream 1: The Crucifiers” and was licensed by Black Sabbath.
One label rep claimed that Black Sabbath had requested this be added to the painting but there doesn’t seem to be anything to back this up.
The painting’s original title was “Mob Dream.”
The canvas stretched out in the center was supposed to be the stretched skin of a person with the face left intact.
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Album Tracks:
All songs were written by Robbie James Dio, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. All lyrics were written by Ronnie James Dio.
Side One:
Turn Up the Night
Ronnie said he was never a fan of this song and that it was just “all right.”
It was issued as a single with the B-Side “Lonely Is The Night” and made it to #37 in the British charts.
The song starts off the comparisons many make to “Heaven and Hell” with people saying it’s just a weaker version of “Neon Knights.”
Voodoo
Ronnie said he always really liked this song.
The band only played it a few times live.
The Sign of the Southern Cross
Ronnie said he named this after a song he used to play when he played Trumpet called “The Southern Cross.”
E5150 (instrumental)
They would use this to open concerts during the tour.
5, 1, and 50 in Roman numerals spell “VIL” so they put an E in front of it.
Ronnie said this one was written for the Heavy Metal movie along with “The Mob Rules.”
This was the beginning of “The Mob Rules” where evil forces were trying to attack the city.
Dio said it was supposed to be a backing track and intro for The Mob Rules.
Dio said they used a Taurus pedal and different effects and it’s the only thing on the album that’s from a different recording session.
The Mob Rules
They had recorded this song for the “Heavy Metal” soundtrack but recorded it again for the album. They felt the one they’d recorded for the movie was a bit of rush job as they’d just come back from tour.
The title notably adds “the” to the album title.
It was used in the soundtrack for “Heavy Metal.”
It was written before they had the album.
It’s a song Dio continued to do.
This song was recorded at John Lennon’s house.
They chose this song to do for the film. Dio said when they saw the original cut of the film it was like a porn movie and they had to edit it back to avoid getting a XXX rating.
The single didn’t chart in the US but reached #46 in the UK.
Side Two:
Country Girl
Dio mentioned that everyone liked this track except for Bill Ward.
Dio wrote it for Wendy at The Record Plant in New York.
Iommi said he brought up that he didn’t think the lyrics really went with the sound of the song but they ended up keeping it.
Slipping Away
Dio says they wrote this one in England at Goldrock Road where they ended up mixing the album.
He says they wrote it very quickly, Geezer liked it, and Tony suggested making it a little funkier.
Falling Off the Edge of the World
The title was inspired by a song written by George Young and Harry Vanda with the same title. Dio said he always liked the title.
Over and Over
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Reception and Charts:
Made it to #12 in the UK album charts and #29 in the Billboard top 200.
1981 Mob Rules – Black Sabbath (L.P Alemania Vertigo 6302119)
After a steady decline in both inspiration, mental stability, and commercial appeal throughout the second half of the ’70s, metal icons Black Sabbath were reborn with 1980’s Heaven and Hell. The album would be their first with new vocalist Ronnie James Dio, whose passionate, controlled wail broke new ground for the band and helped drive a comeback. 1981’s Mob Rules was a quick follow-up to Heaven and Hell, continuing the momentum of that record’s energy as well as its shift away from dark metal to more commercial hard rock. Tony Iommi‘s signature guitar playing takes on new forms throughout the album, with Zeppelin-esque riffing on “Slipping Away,” slithering bluesy rock playing on “Voodoo,” and a strikingly different approach to soloing, shifting from the laser-focused slow burn of early Sabbath albums to a more frenetic, technically showy style on some tracks. Speedy album opener “Turn Up the Night” is one of the more spirited and pop-friendly moments of any Sabbath record, with a hooky and melodic chorus and Iommi running through fast-paced leads and trills that were no doubt taking notes from Eddie Van Halen, who was perhaps the most celebrated guitarist in the world in 1981. Mob Rules delved more into experimentation with keyboards and synthesizers, with auxiliary player Geoff Nicholls adding cinematic synth bedding to the epic churn of “The Sign of the Southern Cross” and spacy atmosphere to “Falling Off the Edge of the World,” among other synth contributions. New drummer Vinny Appice replaced original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, pushing the sound even further from the band’s original sludgy approach. These changes, along with Dio‘s fantasy-based lyrics and a red-lined mix by producer Martin Birch put Mob Rules closer in line with the emerging New Wave of British Heavy Metal than the druggy devil-worshiping doom metal Black Sabbath first built their name on. While it was a solid album, Mob Rules might have followed the template established on Heaven and Hell a little too closely. The pacing and flow of the record was almost identical to its predecessor, from the chuggy opener of “Turn Up the Night” mirroring Heaven and Hell‘s “Neon Nights” straight through to final track “Over and Over” feeling like a continuation of “Lonely Is the Word,” the searching, midtempo finale of the previous album. It didn’t sell quite as well as Heaven and Hell, and Dio and Appice left the band soon afterward, (though Dio‘s relationship with Sabbath would be complex and sprawling) leaving Black Sabbath to reconfigure throughout the ’80s with mixed results. Mob Rules and Heaven and Hell work well as each other’s companion pieces, making the first round of Dio-fronted Sabbath material a bright spot surrounded by relatively grim efforts on either side.
AFTER 1980’S HARDER and faster Heaven and Hell, there was reason to believe that singer Ronnie James Dio might pull Black Sabbath off the heavy-metal scrapheap. Didn’t happen. Mob Rules finds the band as dull-witted and flatulent as ever.
It isn’t easy to figure out exactly who deserves the blame for this sludgefest. Dio’s lyrics are insipid and clichéd, but since the vocals are usually buried in the mix, that’s only a minor annoyance. His bass rumbling like an overloaded truck, Geezer Butler is busy, busy, busy. But not quite as busy as guitarist Tony Iommi, who uses the album as an opportunity to demonstrate how swiftly he can play. (In case you’re wondering, he’s quicker than Mark Farner, not as quick as Johnny Ramone.) As for the new kid on the block, drummer Vinnie Appice, his thumping is so leaden and uninspired you have to listen twice to notice him.
The reason that Mob Rules is terrible is teamwork — not just thinking up lame riffs and dumb lyrics but also performing them as poorly as possible.
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Sending all our best to Mick Underwood and his family.
Apple Podcasts Reviews:
Exile 66 – UK – 5 Stars!
Excellent well researched informative and done with humour
This is excellent Loads of albums that in the past meant so much to me have been brought back to life over two hour chunks And respect is given to pre 1984 Whitesnake which are the best episodes for me
Postcards From The Edge . . . OF CONNECTICUT!
Another Joe Stump postcard coming in late!
And yet ANOTHER podcard!
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From the 2006 recorded live album from the ‘voice of Rock’, the talented bassist and vocalist who has played with Deep Purple, trapeze and others. For his first solo show in Australia in June of 2006 at the famed Sydney venue, Hughes brought his unique brand of Rock-Funk to a new audience. Indeed, this is one of Britain1s greatest Rock singers in acoustic mode, intimate and live, and his soulful, distinctive voice is in top-notch condition throughout.
On This track, Hughes returns to his legendary Deep Purple days for ‘This Time Around’
For his first solo show in Australia in June of 2006 at the famed Sydney venue, Hughes brought his unique brand of Rock-Funk to a new audience. Indeed, this is one of Britain1s greatest Rock singers in acoustic mode, intimate and live, and his soulful, distinctive voice is in top-notch condition throughout. The songs range across his career, taking in material from his solo albums like 1977’s Play Me Out to 2005’s Soul Mover and his newest release at that time, Music For The Divine
Watch Glenn Hughes from California Breed performing Breathe in this Planet Rock Live Session.
2014
St. Louis (AND BEYOND) Food Reviews
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John Mottola, from the Deep Purple podcast, asked me to give this album a listen. I did, for the first time. Let’s see what I think and what John taught me about the band and their second studio album. This is the fourth part of a 4 part series because that’s just what happens when John comes to visit.
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The band was only about seven months old at the time of recording.
They had already had a huge chart hit with “Hush” and were preparing to go on tour for “The Book of Taliesyn.”
Tetragrammaton worked hard to get them a US tour even though they were barely getting gigs in the UK at this point.
Tetragrammaton was looking for a British band along the lines of Hendrix or Cream to push in America and that’s why they latched on to Deep Purple.
They had headlining dates as well as this gig opening for Cream who were in the midst of a farewell tour and not getting along very well.
The tour was a nineteen city farewell tour starting on October 4th, 1968.
An article in Disc reveals Deep Purple will receive £80,000 pounds to perform with Cream on their upcoming farewell tour in the US for the twenty shows
Plans were then changed so that Deep Purple could finish their album The Book of Taliesyn. Most of it had been completed but ther was at least one song that wasn’t recorded until the beginning of October.
They arrived in Los Angeles on October 15, 1968. Jon Lord, in an interview with Chris Charlesworth: “It was a warm evening and there were palm trees everywhere. It seemed like paradise to us coming from our bedsits in cold England.”
Prior to the gig, on the 17th, The band had a famous performance on The Dating Game where Jon Lord was later a contestant.
Recorded at The Forum or The “Fabulous” Forum in front of 16,000.
Performance was on October 18, 1968. Opening for Cream as part of their farewell tour.
Someone at the Tetragrammaton decided to try out this new recording device during the show to record Deep Purple.
The show was set to be recorded by Deep Purple’s US record label, Tetragrammaton Records. They recorded a video from the audience with a Sony ½ inch reel-to-reel video and audio recorder with an open aire microphone. The video quality ended up being very low but the audio sounded very good. When Warner Bros. Records took over Tetragrammaton the original video was thrown away. Many years later it was recovered and The Deep Purple Appreciation Society transferred the audio portion for a CD release.
This video technology was cutting edge and was not really done properly.
There is so little live recording of Mark 1 that this is a rare glimpse into their live act. The only other real known recordings are are some of the BBC sessions and only one other full show from 1969.
This is likely the be the earliest recorded show by Mark 1 and likely the only video of a full show.
At this point Deep Purple had performed fewer than 30 live shows. If my calculations are correct this would have been their 27th live performance.
Simon Robinson points out in the liner notes that at this point Ritchie didn’t have a lot of experience being in a band being mostly a studio guy and playing some shows with other acts. It can be noted that Jon Lord tends to take more solos than Blackmore at this point.
Japenese tour poster sent in by Jeff Breis.
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Setlist:
Hush
River Deep, Mountain High
Mandrake Root
Hey Joe
Wring That Neck
Kentucky Woman
Rod announces that Kentucky woman was released on “Saturday” which would have been October 12th.
Help
Reviews:
Reviewers seemed to be surprised by the band though the referred to “gimmicky reworking of known songs” and deemed them not quite ready to be superstars.
The rumor is that Deep Purple was kicked off the bill after these first few shows because someone in Cream’s management was afraid of being upstaged.
Derek Lawson, being interviewed again by Chris Charlesworth, stated: “Ritchie was the first guitarist to play some light novelty thing in the middle of a hard rock number just for a laugh. Cream didn’t think it was funny but the audience loved it and what with ‘Hush’ being a hit single they wend down very well, probably too well.”
Rumor is that Cream may also have been upset by Hendrix coming to an after show party with Deep Purple and not with Cream.
Cream went on to finish the tour without Deep Purple and ended at The Royal Albert Hall on November 26th at The Royal Albert Hall.
Deep Purple would perform there less than ten months later when they performed Jon Lord’s Concerto For Group and Orchestra for the first time.
A cassette version of this show made it out on bootleg in Japan but the official CD issue didn’t come out until 2002.
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Hall of Famer Norman Weischlebaum writes in to shed some light on a new Blackmore side project.
…changed his business?
(Found at Bangkok airport)
Best
Norman
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Listener Email
Not sure if this is random or on purpose but it dawned on me recently that the Battle Rages On album has two song titles that are the same exact names of two of the most iconic Bond girls during Roger Moore’s reign, Solitaire (Live and Let Die) and Anya (The Spy Who Loved Me).
Take care
Ron
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DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “”This is definitely written for a live set and it is a song about the lady who is featured in the video. The same lady who appears in the ‘Is This Love’ video.”
Is This Love
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “The concept of that was originally for Tina Turner, but the lyric got pretty personal so I kept it. I didn’t write it especially for her, the actual structure of the song was based loosely around a song called ‘Time And Again’ from Northwinds and when I started getting more into the lyric of it it became a very personal statement and | decided not to present it to the lady. Maybe one day, but it seems to be kicking substantial arse, as they say. It’s at number two at the moment and another reason that I’m all over the place, apart from trying to give up smoking, is that I’m waiting too on the news to find out whether we’ve got the number one spot. If we can plant the flag on the top of the mountain after climbing so high, it would be a double treat. The people I work with are confident that this album will be in the top five for the next four or five months… It’s doing incredibly well.”
Children of the Night
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “This is another anthem job. Some of these are arranged purely and simply for live per-formance, but the sentiments are strong. Over here I’II be opening the show with ‘Bad Boys’ going into ‘Children Of The Night’ and reprising with ‘Bad Boys’ again. So that there are fireworks right at the start. If you listen to the album it is arranged purely and simply as a kind of studio-concert record. It’s got all the ball breakers and then the pause for. breath and then the ball breakers again.”
Straight for the Heart
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article improperly titled “Straight To The Heart”: “”This is another related song, it s a cousin of ‘Guilty Of Love’ and this is one track that I was a little disappointed with, but I’m hearing more and more positive reports about it. I felt it was the weakest, but a lot of the press said that ‘Children Of The Night’ was the weakest, but I don’t think so. It could have been better. It has come out well though.
Don’t Turn Away
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “”It’s to do with the separation between my beautiful ex and me. It’s double edged, it’s like her talking to me and me talking to her.”
Some great finds from the collection of Jeff Breis!
Reviews:
Darker Than Blue
“Like Gary Moore’s band, or Blizzard Of Oz, Whitesnake are now a replaceable backing band, but this album was written while they were still a proper group. While I think It’s probably my favourite by them to date, it still contains too many fillers. “Still Of The Night” is the best track, even If it does rip off Zeppelin’s Rock’n Roll. It’s a new direction for them and a much more adventurous effort than many. I was it surprised it did so well as a single too as it’s so long, and unlike normal fodder. “Bad Boys” is a rabble rouser. “Give Me All Your Love” is a real filler, it could be off any of their albums. “Looking For Love” is great. Slow, with mournful lyrics, it’s got a great vocal. On side two we get the redone “Crying In The Rain”. I prefer the original on Saints ‘n Sinners, this lacks atmosphere. “Is This Love”strikes me as being soppy rather than emotional. The remainder of the album is rarely above average, “Straight From The Heart” sounds recycled, only “Don’t Turn Away” comes out of it well.
On the singles, “Here I Go Again : 87” is very like the original, I don’t really see why they bothered. “Your Gonna Break My Heart Again” on the 12″ is rather better than some of the album tracks in my opinion. In all, some tracks are among the best that he’s done, but too many are substandard. I would appreciate some variation in subject matter, most of it being to do with horizontal pursuits as ever. However it has prompted me to get back into the albums again, though the chance of him ever doing that definitive LP seen to disappearing.” Michael Kearns
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John Mottola, from the Deep Purple podcast, asked me to give this album a listen. I did, for the first time. Let’s see what I think and what John taught me about the band and their second studio album. This is the first of a 4 part series because that’s just what happens when John comes to visit.
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Their last show prior to “Whitesnake” being released was Rock in Rio on January 19, 1985 which they played with the stripped down lineup of Coverdale, Sykes, Murray, and Powell, Powell’s last show with the band. People were calling them “the European answer to Van Halen.”
The Whitesnake album was released in March in the US.
They didn’t play live again until June 20, 1987.
Year-by-Year:
1977- White Snake
1978 – Northwinds
1978 – Trouble
1979 – Lovehunter
1980 – Ready an’ Willing
1981 – Come an’ Get It
1982 – Saints & Sinners (November)
1984 – Slide It In (January)
There were numerous issues including David having sinus surgery with a long recovery.
About the time between live shows and albums David Coverdale told UCR in a 2017 interview: “I thought I was done. I thought it was over. I thought it was “Stick a fork in me, I’m done.” I was very substantially in debt due to not working for two or three years, and there had been terrible advantages taken while I was recovering from [sinus] surgery and unable really to function in a professional environment. And people who I trusted, I found out I couldn’t trust. So the album became extraordinarily expensive — the most expensive Whitesnake album ever. And it was minimal to do with me. [Laughs] So that was the primary reason — for me, in a relationship, if you can’t trust your partner or partners — it’s time to move on. I had flown home from a very sad Christmas holiday with my daughter in Munich and she was kind of punishing me, understandably, because I’d left her mom. So I flew home from Munich to L.A., pretty depressed about it and very sad.”
In Metal Hammer UK in 1987 Coverdale says: “There was illness in the studio and it took ages. There were problems with attitudes and mentalities, and some wonderful egos. It stopped being fun. I wanted to throw it down the toilet, not because of the music but because of the problems that went with it.”
“During the recording, I developed a sinus infection, which was absolutely not drug related. I had a deviated septum which caused me a great deal of intense pain and made me sing off-key. I went to a specialist who checked me over and told me he was surprised he could even talk in my condition. He said I’d need surgery, but we were already months overdue so I asked if there was anything I could do that would enable me to finish the album first. He gave me a course of anti-biotics and told me to take three weeks off. However, when I went back into the studio and started singing again it had all started once more, I chucked it in.”
After the surgery he had to have six months of silence which added to the delays in the album.
John Sykes also had an issue with his tonsils so they broke before Christmas of 1985 with the intention of starting back up in January.
It was then that Phil Lynott died and Sykes had to return to England to attend the funeral.
This was all being done in Vancouver. Sykes then wento to Toronto and all his amps were broken. Coverdale said it was “like a world tour of recording studios!”
After finishing the album Coverdale said it was “only nine months recording time. A true pregnancy! Fortunately the baby’s been born with no defects, and the feedback I’ve been getting is quite exceptional.”
On the departure of Mel Galley. Coverdale says the band pressured him into letting Galley go and referred to the remaining members as the “glamour boys.” Coverdale: “I love Mel’s voice and songwriting, but the only way I could keep him involved was to offer a situation where we could writ together and he was still a member of Whitesnake but it was peripheral. Unfortunately I broke his heart. I know he blames me but it wasn’t my fault. I tried to get him the gig with Bad C. but I don’t think he was fat enough.”
Jon Sutherland asked DC how he was protecting his voice while touring after all the trouble he had DC responded: “Lots of smoking and alcohol. I keep it coated with some type of film.”
In an interview with Metal Rendezvous when asked about the surgery Coverdale again stated that it was not drug related: “Not drug related! I am not doing spoon fulls of the devil’s dandruff!”
It’s further stated in the Metal Rendezvous article that he couldn’t hold a note and had no power. IT ended up taking eight months off his career and he didn’t know if he’d even be able to sing again.
Other than his first two Glover-produced solo albums this was his first time not working with Martin Birch.
In Metal Rendezvous he is asked about the “touchy” subject of sex in his writing. Coverdale responded: “It’s disgusting. I wanted to call the album ‘No Muff Too Tough!’ But to make such a ridiculous small statement just to stick it up these people’s noses, you’re only gonna gain bullshit.”
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “’Crying In The Rain’ is very important to me. It was very important to get the statement across as it should have been in the first place. A lot of my colleagues had their heads securely up their arses, but a percentage of that was my fault and I’ve always wanted a better recorded statement than that and I think we’ve achieved it on this. It features a stunning solo from John Sykes.”
Bad Boys
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “It’s a rock ‘n roller, it’s a rebel song. Whitesnake albums are always structured in a, similar way. Musically, tempos or whatever the songs are always related. ‘Bad Boys, is in the ‘Would I Lie To You’ vein and there’s still a bit of a rebel there. even at thirty-five!”
Still of the Night
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “It’s a ‘Lovehunter’ song, it’s a predator song. It’s a relative of ‘Slow ‘N Easy, ‘Victim Of Love’ and ‘Lovehunter’. It’s a kind of nightime’s-the-right-time kind of song, you can get away with much more in the dark! I think this is definitive Coverdale. It’s already proven to be excellent live and the band are playing it f***ing great. It was in essence arranged to walk straight of the disc into the concert hall and just expand a little on the atmospherics piece. I’m very pleased with it, it’s certainly gained more mileage than I could ever have wished for.”
Here I Go Again
DC in Metal Hammer UK, “In His Own Words” article: “
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