Whitesnake - The Purple Album

I think he's aged better than some of his contemporaries for sure.

I grabbed this CD on a whim when I was at Wal-Mart over the weekend. Mind you, I have never been more than a casual Whitesnake fan and you might be able to fill a thimble with my Deep Purple knowledge (out of D.P.'s approximately 27,000 album catalog I own two best-of compilations, one Extended Versions disc and the Made In Japan live album, aaaand ... that's it!)... but this project seemed like an interesting idea and a quick way to introduce myself to some Purple stuff that I wasn't familiar with. The only songs I knew going in were "Burn," "Mistreated" and "Stormbringer."

Anywhoo, I'm only on my third or fourth spin of The Purple Album now but I'm digging it. I was a little worried at first cuz the version of "Burn" that opens the album sounds a little "off" and absolutely pales in comparison to the original (of course) but from then on I have had no complaints.

One of my FB friends who's a massive Deep Purple fanboy has accused me of committing "blasphemy" for buying this CD though.

Like you, I'm only a casual fan of Whitesnake and only slightly more knowledgeable about the 'Purp, but I have a real interest in this album for some reason. I'm in no immediate rush, but I will pick this up at some point.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Like you, I'm only a casual fan of Whitesnake and only slightly more knowledgeable about the 'Purp, but I have a real interest in this album for some reason. I'm in no immediate rush, but I will pick this up at some point.

I may have picked it up just cuz it was such a surprise to find something so 'specialized' on the rack in a Wal-Mart. You don't see much of anything besides Country or budget line greatest-hits collections in their music dept. anymore.

I looked for The Purple Album while grocery shopping Saturday...no such luck.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Like you, I'm only a casual fan of Whitesnake and only slightly more knowledgeable about the 'Purp, but I have a real interest in this album for some reason. I'm in no immediate rush, but I will pick this up at some point.

I may have picked it up just cuz it was such a surprise to find something so 'specialized' on the rack in a Wal-Mart. You don't see much of anything besides Country or budget line greatest-hits collections in their music dept. anymore.

I saw it at Best Buy the other day when I went there looking for Armored Saint, but I'm holding out for the Deluxe version with bonus tracks and a dvd I'll never watch.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I saw it at Best Buy the other day when I went there looking for Armored Saint, but I'm holding out for the Deluxe version with bonus tracks and a dvd I'll never watch.

Hopefully the bonus tracks will be "radio edits" of a couple tunes from the album. That's always nice. Real deluxe.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I saw it at Best Buy the other day when I went there looking for Armored Saint, but I'm holding out for the Deluxe version with bonus tracks and a dvd I'll never watch.

Hopefully the bonus tracks will be "radio edits" of a couple tunes from the album. That's always nice. Real deluxe.

Nah, I checked. I ain't falling for that trick again, thank you very much Ace Frehley. The Deluxe edition has 2 bonus tracks, 'Lady Luck' and 'Comin Home' and a dvd with videos or something that you don't get on the "regular" release.

Since I'm in no rush to get it, I'll wait it out for a used copy to show up on-line for the 2 additional tracks.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I looked for The Purple Album while grocery shopping Saturday...no such luck.

I guess I bought Wal-Mart's only copy. Sorry dude.

I haven't spent too much time with this one yet, but I really like what I've heard.

And, for those on the fence, it's worth getting the deluxe for the re-recording of Lady Luck. That song RIPS in its new form.

There are a few points where there's a bit of audible frailty in Coverdale's voice, but he sounds old, not bad; so it's more a question of accepting where he's at than "This ruined the damn song!" I hate to say it, but if he'd done it in the 80s in full voice, it probably would have been so similar to the original, it really would have begged the question, "Why bother?"

Something I did find interesting is that a lot of the Stormbringer and CTtB tunes have been stripped of funkier touches I didn't even really clock on the originals. It's more bluesy/southern rock now and I like the contrast. It's not a total reimagining, but it's cool to get a sense of the subtle touches in the originals you wouldn't have caught without someone pointing them out AND you get a sense of other ways the material can be taken, which is always fun.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Mind you, I have never been more than a casual Whitesnake fan

So I may never become a bigtime Whitesnake fanboy, but listening to The Purple Album all this week impressed me enough to pick up a used copy of Good To Be Bad yesterday.... so hey, my Whitesnake collection has doubled!

Am I the only one that thinks Coverdale's voice is unlistenable these days?

Temple of Blood wrote:

Am I the only one that thinks Coverdale's voice is unlistenable these days?

It's certainly weaker than it was, but he's old enough to be my damn grandfather. I would be in awe if he was still belting out. He can still carry a tune in a bucket, and that's more than some of his contemporaries can say.

Hell, it's more than Geoff Tate can say right now and he's what? 20 years younger?

You think Coverdale sounds better than Tate now? I think he sounds much, much worse.

Tate ducks the high notes but still sounds like he has a good tone and pitch IMHO.

I wrote me a review of "The Purple Album" on my HubPage blog:

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Whitesnake-THE-PURPLE-ALBUM-2015-Review

Fat Freddy wrote:

I wrote me a review of "The Purple Album" on my HubPage blog:

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Whitesnake-THE-PURPLE-ALBUM-2015-Review

Nice review. Glad to see it sparked some more interest in Purple and Whitesnake which is the best possible side effect of a release like this.

As someone that has owned the Coverdale Deep Purple albums for years this seemed like an unnecessary purchase to me (especially since I wasn't thrilled with these new versions I heard)...but for people unfamiliar with the material at all it's probably not a bad introduction.

after giving this a few good listens I have to say he has completely shed the 70s era sound here and basically rerecorded these songs as if it was the late 80s..this album hit me as a very "shaggy big hair" 80s album...not a bad album but I hear no traces of the 70s here...(I was really hoping for more of that 70s sound)

brokentulsa wrote:

..this album hit me as a very "shaggy big hair" 80s album...

You make that sound like a bad thing! I think that just pushed it up a notch or 2 on my want-list.

Most of familiarity with the Deep Purple catalog comes from the Ian Gillen-era, so aside from a few hits, these versions will be pretty much "new" to me and who knows, might cause me to seek out the originals.

Quote :

Most of familiarity with the Deep Purple catalog comes from the Ian Gillen-era, so aside from a few hits, these versions will be pretty much "new" to me and who knows, might cause me to seek out the originals.

That's pretty much how it worked for me.... a nice "crash course" in an unfamiliar era of Purple.

It's definitely a hell of a lot more bombastic than the originals, but I don't know if his voice would have managed an old 70s sound.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to hear another album like Northwinds from DC, but I doubt that's happening anytime soon. He doesn't seem to have much interest in it.

Whitesnake doing Deep Purple. I do like that David put a lot of thought into keeping faithful to the original, yet making it a Whitesnake album. I hope that maybe this will spur interest in older Whitesnake like Trouble or Live in the heart of the city. Good review Fat Freddy.

For those interested in increasing their Deep Purple collection affordably there is this box which retails for $52 new and there are used copies around $45 on Amazon.



It has all your MKII (from the 70s):
Concerto For Group & Orchestra
In Rock
Fireball
Machine Head
Made In Japan
Who Do We Think We Are

and all the MK III & IV:
Burn
Stormbringer
Made In Europe
Come Taste The Band.

Been enjoying this one myself. Seeing them live and Geoff Tate I can say Coverdale easily outshines Geoff these days. Glenn Hughes popping up for a couple songs was a nice edition to the live show also.

Hughes showed up? That must have been awesome!