Customer Reviews

Blues & Green

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Bernie Marsden is the guy who made the original, early Whitesnake (1981-82, _Come and Get It_ and _Saints and Sinners_) sound so good. WS was no Purple (although Lord and Paice were in, guided by DC, plus Murray on bass, and Marsden/Moody on guitars), but it was good old British blues-rock, and despite idiotic lyrics, the music was juicy and authentic -- and having watched how DC proceeded to destroy this quality band later on in his quest to get rich playing K-Mart rock in the US, with scantily-clad broads on the hood of the car and an ever-shifting succession of fluffy-hair guitar robots, I had to conclude that the earlier, lovely bluesy feel was due to Marsden. So that's who Bernie Marsden is: a pudgy English guy who doesn't look like a blond Nordic god of love with six-pack abs, but who "has it" in his bones and can play real music. This CD here is his collection of blues covers, dedicated to Peter Green. If you like pure, raw blues it's an OK disk: playing and singing (Bernie on vocals as well) are very idiomatic and confident. However, I'm not a lover of raw blues, which I consider too crude and monotonous; I much prefer cleaner and more varied blues-rock, where the bluesy feel is preserved, but in a more developed -- harmonically, melodically, and formally -- context of normal European music. So while I liked it, I wasn't too crazy about this record: it's too monotonous to my taste; I like my music to modulate away from the baseline; I like scintillating, shifting textures and instrumentations: it doesn't have to be Brahms, but otoh, a prolonged banging on your head with an interminable series of IV-V-Is while screeching, in a fake-negro fashion, some crap about "mah woomn" is annoying too (with age, I somehow lost my used-to-be considerable tolerance of idiot lyrics). All in all, my evaluation is: I'm glad to see Bernie alive and kicking; the record is well done -- but it is not a must. I bought it a number of years ago, but I don't believe I've ever listened to the whole thing at once, I get bored. A couple of numbers now and then is the most I can handle of it. But YMMV though: objectively speaking, it's a good record; if you like raw blues, by all means get it, you won't be disappointed.

I first heard the tracks of this CD over the low din of a family party while I was visiting friends near Cork, Ireland. I asked the owner of the house who was playing on the CD, and he remarked' "Bernie Marsden. He's doing a Peter Green tribute on this CD." I knew the name as a Whitesnake mamber, but I never suspected him to be a blues player. My wife's sister made me a copy and I took it home to the States.

I have listened to this album at least 100 times since then, and I never get tired of it. I bought a used copy (take that, copyright police!) because I wore out the homemade one. The guitar playing is top shelf, the selections are all good, and the emotion is excellent for a studio recording. I'm not yet a fan of Marsden's other works, but this blues collection is one of my favorites.