Sail Away: Whitesnake's Fantastic Voyage (32 page)

 “After Coverdale Page, my manager and I
discussed that maybe it was time for me to start working as David Coverdale,”
David had told Mitch Lafon. “All of my record contracts are David Coverdale
A.K.A. the artist known as Whitesnake. It’s never involved anybody else’s
signature from any chapter of Whitesnake. It’s always been David Coverdale also
known as the artist Whitesnake. I made an album called
Restless Heart
that was to be the pre-cursor to
Into The Light
. It was a David
Coverdale solo record and the executives I worked with at EMI in London who had
agreed to help me make this transition from Whitesnake to David Coverdale got
replaced by other executives who wanted it to be a Whitesnake record. So, I had
to put tougher guitars on and turn the fucking drums up, but to me it wasn’t a
Whitesnake record. It was a David Coverdale solo record. But I came to the
realization that the way I’m known whether I like it or not is as Whitesnake.
It’s my franchise [
laughs
]. I don’t have the ego that says, ‘I want my
name up there.’ That’s just not necessary. It was just my manager and I
talking. We just did Coverdale Page so why not Coverdale? Never pulled it off
and who cares?”

Salving the reality that David was now a
low-key recording artist was the fact that the band’s 1994
Greatest Hits
album had notched platinum status in the US. Highlights to the
package were three European bonus tracks from the golden era and a gentle
reminder from John Kalodner that there’s a radically more polite version of
“Here I Go Again” that got done, seemingly, just because.

After another low-key Japanese release,
an acoustic live album called
Starkers In Tokyo
, David returned with his
first official solo album since
Northwinds
back in 1978.

“Oh, I think this is the
most consistent record I’ve done,” Coverdale told me back in 2001, with regards
to
Into The Light
. “I’ve never had a piece of work that has been so
critically across the board applauded. As I say, I have total faith in the
record. It’s just the ability to get it out there. At this point in time, I had
no idea there were so many good archaeologists digging around and finding the
bugger ([
laughs
]. As I say, I’ve never really embraced fashion other
than in the late ‘80s when it became very fashionable to be in a hard rock
band. Otherwise, I don’t think I would ever have been able to sustain a 30-year
career. The circumstance is that I have total faith in the record. It is not a
fashion record. It hasn’t been as overtly successful as I would have hoped but
I still maintain that it can be made to be successful. The tunes are very
approachable, it’s very me, it’s a good kind of cross-section of who I am, what
I’ve done, where I am, and where I intend to go. The essence is always songs
with me utilizing the three elements that I feel are very appropriate to my
expression, which is rock, soul and blues.”

“As I say, it’s interesting that the
most successful record I ever had is the
1987
album,” continued
Coverdale, “and that album was actually two years old before it saw the
light of day. So there is a testament to the fact that I’m not fashionable. You
know, and it might just not be the right time right now. I had great success
with the song ‘Slave’ on American radio; it got to No. 13 on mainstream rock,
which is unheard of for an independent. But it’s very expensive to compete with
the majors who can afford to schmooze the radio chains and it’s really hard to
get involved there. And I have a great relationship with American radio in
terms of support, but it’s a case of being able to afford to maintain that
profile.”

Like
Restless Heart
, David
produced this one himself. “I have always done it,” notes Coverdale. “It’s just
that I’ve never taken the title. Difference circumstances, all the
engineers I’ve wanted to work with in terms of the big rock sound, the
big rhythm section sound, they all suddenly found themselves managers and all these
managers said, well, you should be a producer. So suddenly you had all of these
engineers who now have the title producer and if I wanted to work with them,
of course that’s fine. No big whoop. Everybody I’ve always worked with has
always brought something to the party.”

Any trouble with the voice? “No, none at
all, other than the fact that I’ve had a sinus infection for all of March and then
I was on so many antibiotics, and I took a fast to clean up my system. And then
I ended up getting every kind of flu, cold, and right now, I don’t know if you
can hear, I’ve got every kind of allergy going into spring. I live at Lake
Tahoe surrounded by pine trees so they are dumping big time. We’re actually
getting snow sprinkles. Mother Nature can’t make her mind up what she wants to
do.”

“I don’t know about these
players,” continued Coverdale, seemingly adrift, and more than a little unsure
what to do with his career, at this point, frankly. “We had a handshake
agreement and of course things didn’t work out as everybody would have hoped.
Everybody has to make a living so they are free to do whatever they
want. In a perfect world, that would have been the band. We’ll have to see,
when the timing is right and the climate is more appropriate, if indeed any of them
still want to be involved. Normally, if you are familiar with my work, I use a
United Nations of rock players. But most of these people are in Los Angeles. My
dear friend and favourite drummer Denny Carmassi is in the Bay area, San
Francisco, so he’s about three hours away. But it’s never really been that
important. I’ve always been an international artist so I’ve always enjoyed
looking at musicians from Europe or whatever and putting them together.
It’s an interesting vitality mix.

And so it wasn’t looking like there
was much reason to try touring
Into The Light
. “Personally, I would love
to,” says Coverdale, “but it’s cost me so much money to go indie after all this
time. What I normally would spend on putting together an extraordinary
collective of musicians I’ve actually been spending on this record company.
It’s hard. Let me give you a basic example. If you want a soft drink and you go
to the supermarket, the first thing you will see when you go to the
supermarket is Coca-Cola because they pay for that shelf space. So, of course,
trying to get shelf space in some of the major record stores is very difficult.
Initially, a lot of people would have been more comfortable with me embracing the
name Whitesnake. It’s a great brand name and it’s globally recognized but I
really felt that it is appropriate for me to move on.

“So there’s been a lot of stuff I had to
deal with in terms of overcoming corporate power, and so it’s proved
extraordinarily expensive. And it’s compromised the idea of me actually being
able to tour in the normal sense. Whereas the perfect promotional premise is
for me to tour, for people to be able to see and hear what I do. So I have been
for the last couple of months trying to extricate myself from certain contracts
that haven’t been positive in terms of my moving forward. In fact I’m talking
to a couple of entities in terms of partnerships in order for me to try and get
out there in terms of marketing and promotion. It’s tough stuff, certainly when
you are familiar with the kind of success I’ve seen, you know, to look at the
small potato.

“The analogy I’ve been using, is that
hopefully from little acorns, oak trees grow. You know, it’s quite a baptism of
fire. I haven’t lost faith at all dealing with a lot of negatives. A lot of
people I am divorcing in parentheses [
laughs
] really didn’t do the
kind of research that is necessary in order to inform people how hard this
particular road would be. Does that make sense? So, before I can feel
comfortable moving forward I’ve got to get rid of some elements of the
past which I don’t think are serving me well.”

“Well, I’m working!” qualified David,
when I asked him if he was writing new material for a follow-up. “It’s a
personality characteristic of mine to try to turn negatives into positives. But
if you look at it, I’ve had a 30-year career, which a lot of people can’t
really testify to. Because I’ve acknowledged if you make music your mistress,
you’ve got to accept the mood swings. And, of course, in the last 50 years there’s
been a significantly more fashion-oriented approach by the corporate music
industry than ever before. And I’m not 19 and I can’t sing and play that way.
And there’s a huge teenage market at the moment. Knocking on 50’s door isn’t
exactly a bonus to certain people. But the circumstance is, whenever I have
those peaks and valleys, whenever I’m going through this kind of period, when
I’m actually not in the public doing anything, I’m actually working and
preparing for the next step. I’ve actually got a lot of material.

“The album’s in certain stores and there
is a relationship with certain chains, but distribution has been difficult.
It’s just getting exposure. I’ve been asked to do some cameos on VH1; they are
doing years now, and I’m involved with 1987, Coverdale’s little boy. And I
think there’s been a bit of promotion on the side. But it’s getting people
aware of it, Martin. It’s the most over-saturated market that it’s ever, ever
been. And one of the things I’m trying to learn — which is very hard — is
patience.”

Still, fighting valiantly, wanting to
learn, and not giving up, David reflects that, “The sad thing for me is that the
corporates have gotten so familiar with doing cheap deals. Many years ago, there
was an article, maybe nine years ago, in
Billboard
, featuring Val Azzoli,
an old friend of mine, who runs Atlantic Records. And he said, why should we
pay an established name a million dollars, when we can sign ten college bands
for the same amount of money, you know, $100,000 a piece, and if one makes it,
one has a hit record, something like Hootie & The Blowfish, and we’re in
money? And there was just no mention of art. And what about the
poor bastards who are hopelessly in debt, the other nine bands whose whole
dream and aspiration was to have a musical career? And I knew that was sounding
the death knell. With the Internet and a lot of the recording facilities
available now, you can do an album in your garage and start your own label and
put in out there. But as you can see now, the corporates are starting to take
over the digital deliveries. The whole corporate aspect is control and power.”

But there will always be the
old songs, always an albatross for heritage acts, but of course, a mixed
blessing. “I would be inevitably driving to the radio station and I would tune in
to the station that we’re going to, and they would be playing ‘Slide It In’ or
‘Love Ain’t No Stranger.’ You have no idea how many DJs lost their
cherry to ‘Love Ain’t No Stranger.’ But stations would realize that I’m a good
interview and they would have me on for that reason.”

And there goes a decade post-glory years
for David, roughly spanning all of the 1990s. A little quiet to be sure, but to
keep him warm, there was a platinum album with Coverdale Page and a platinum
album with
Greatest Hits
, for which he toured, alongside Adrian
Vandenberg, Denny Carmassi, Rudy Sarzo, keyboardist Paul Mirkovich and —steak
and sizzle — Ratt’s Warren DeMartini on second banana guitar.

As well, there was a solo album and a
half-solo album both quite creditable, both demonstrating the
deep wells of talent behind all the flash of the band circa the
late 1980s. In effect,
Restless Heart
and
Into The Light
served
as beacons for the deep fan to go back and listen to the first two solo records
and the work of the original English Whitesnake band. As well, touchstones
along
Restless Heart
(also toured, but with more of a pick-up band
versus the 1994 situation) reminded the listener of
Whitesnake
and
Slip
Of The Tongue
pleasures that were now guilty, sinful even, and especially
sinful if we were consuming these songs through the videos — now archived for
convenient gawking on YouTube — made by Marty Callner, who created a fantasy
world for us we could never attain for our less fabulous selves.

The next time I spoke to David, it was
on the road to the inevitable, namely, the building of another
band of pirate rogues that would play the old hits with purpose, and then,
maybe, write some new material that would eschew today’s music trends and give
“Still Of The Night” a run for its stacks of paper — creatively that is, for no
one was foolish enough to expect multi-platinum ever again.

“The agreement that I made with the
Scorps is that we are co-headlining, and I’m going to work an hour in the
middle so it will be good for me to rebuild my stamina after so many years,”
said David in 2003, back in the hockey barns where he figures he belongs.