Watch Video For All-Star Cover Of Deep Purple's 'Burn'
(Cleopatra Records) History doesn't like to talk about it much, but when Deep Purple first replaced Ian Gillan with an unknown, self-described singing salesman named David Coverdale, a lot of their fans - not to mention the media - were deeply, darkly, sceptical.
Nobody, the assembled wisdom of the age insisted, could ever hope to match the lung-searing, throat-tearing, range roving power of Gillan, least of all someone who was best-known among the cognoscenti for having opened for Purple back in 1969, with a forgotten band called The Government!
But Coverdale, came, he saw and he conquered, and "Burn," the title track of his first album with the band, still blazes with the new energy and fresh dimensions he brought into Deep Purple, as his former Whitesnake bandmate, guitarist Doug Aldrich, explains. "Burn," after all, is a song with which he is long familiar, and he recalls, "Playing 'Burn' with David Coverdale or [bassist] Glenn Hughes was always a great jam."
And this new version, peeling off the upcoming Purple Storm Deep Purple tribute album, "was equally enjoyable to play on."
With Bob Daisley and Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow), Jonathan Cain (Journey), and fast-rising goth metal superstars 616 all on board, Aldrich continues "I have been extremely fortunate to work with some of the Deep Purple and Rainbow members during my time....that family tree is pretty legendary!"
And, while he admits, "No one can play [guitar] like Richie Blackmore," he is adamant. "I always do my best to treat his music with the ultimate respect."
And "Burn" is respectful, even as this remarkable line-up indelibly stamps its own identity over both sound and vision - the accompanying video is everything a song titled "Burn" should be, and the riff... that riff... still scorches the flesh from a thousand yards.
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