Why David? After a pretty good Whitesnake release (“Forevermore”) Coverdale decides to release a needless tribute album to his Deep Purple days. The songs on the album come from mark III and mark IV which featured David on vocals, although he also sung on “Holy Man” from “Stormbringer” where Glenn Hughes originally sings alone.
The “Purple Album” is decent with the emblematic singer doing the best he can on some of the song that gave him glory in the past, but time is ruthless and has taken away several stuff from him from the 1974-1976 era. Of course, that’s natural and totally expected, since it’s been 40 years since then! The band’s performance is decent as well, although Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra cannot equal Ritchie Blackmore, and probably that’s the reason that guitars have a different orientation on the “Purple Album”. On the other hand, Deep Purple had never been a case of guitarist – singer, at least musically speaking… Jon Lord and his keyboards has their own crucial role in the song compositions, as well as the band’s sound. Whitesnake’s “new” album is lacks on the keyboards section, which is a big “foul” from Coverdale who although knows firsthand how the “purple” sound was shaped has only one reference to such an significant element to Deep Purple’s DNA, Jon Lord (“Sail Away” is titled as “Elegy To Jon”.
Still, the question remains, why someone who has absolutely nothing to prove brings back his past, while most importantly he is not in the best shape for something like that? A lot of answers can be given by any fan, but the thing is that with this move Coverdale doesn’t do any good to himself, neither the songs. Whatever he does now, or in the future can take nothing away from him or his legacy, because in the end if you really want to listen to “Burn”, or “Lady Double Dealer” you’re going to put the original ’70s albums and not “Purple Album” by Whitesnake. So, please David don’t waste your time trying to relive the past, and focus on a new original material album. We, the fans, will always love you no matter what!
