Deep White Purple Snake

Take a bunch of '70s hard rock songs, 'Snake 'em up a bit, and what do you get?  You get a killer collection called The Purple Album by the one and only Whitesnake.  When I heard about this project by David Coverdale in 2015, I could not have been more excited.  I'm a huge fan of Deep Purple, especially the Mark III lineup that introduced Coverdale to the world in 1973, and an as big or bigger fan of Whitesnake.  The two albums he recorded with that lineup (Ritchie Blackmore on guitar; Jon Lord on organ/keyboard; Ian Paice on drums; Glenn Hughes on bass), Burn and Stormbringer, are classic '70s albums and two of my favorites.  He recorded one more album with the Mark IV lineup (Tommy Bolin on guitar), its only release, called Come Taste The Band.

According to Coverdale, his desire was to take some of the great tracks from these albums and give them the Whitesnake flair.  Some did not love the result, but many of us did.  One thing the album proves is how these songs have held up over time.  Coverdale has said that some of the members of Whitesnake remarked that the songs could have been written yesterday, and this album shows that to be true.

Those who are serious Deep Purple fans cannot help comparing and contrasting the new versions with the originals.  I even made a playlist on my phone called "Deep White Purple Snake" in which I put all of the songs, alternating the original with the new version so I could listen to each one back to back.  If The Purple Album alone proves the quality of the originals, hearing the originals against the remakes takes away all doubt.  The original recordings were simply superb, and this is due in no small part to the contributions of Jon Lord on organ and keyboard.  There is nothing in the world like his playing, and while some of those parts have been taken over by guitars on The Purple Album, the sound of the Hammond organ is unequaled and irreplaceable.

That said, the "'snaked up" versions are a treat as well.  Consider this rendition of the 1974 classic "Stormbringer."

No, it is not the original, nor should it be since that was not the aim of this project.  The Purple Album was not a release of remastered originals.  It was a re-recording with a different band, a re-recording envisioned and directed by one of the principal creators of the songs, David Coverdale.  I can enjoy his three albums with Deep Purple from the 1970s and this album from 2015.  Give it a listen.  It will blow you away.