David Coverdale Adds a Special Aural Bite to 30th Anniversary Whitesnake Box Set

David Coverdale was at the crossroads when he beat a retreat to the south of France with guitarist John Sykes to work on the demos for what would become the biggest album of his career, 1987’s mega-multimillion-selling Whitesnake— or, as it’s better known internationally, 1987 in Europe, and Serpens Albus in Japan. (The phrase Serpens Albus, which can be seen adorning the band’s iconic seal/logo on the album cover designed by Hugh Syme, is Latin for, of course, Whitesnake.)

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album that spawned such massive FM hits as “Here I Go Again,” “Is This Love,” and “Still of the Night,” Rhino has uncoiled an exhaustive 4-CD/1-DVD box set featuring a disc of demos titled 87 Evolutions, properly mastered live bootlegs, and four of-era videos remastered in surround sound on DVD.

While it’s clear the writing team was well on its way to creating one of the decade’s most iconic hardrock records, Whitesnake’s label at the time, Geffen, had also asked Coverdale if they could do more “Fm-friendly” versions of “Here I Go Again” and “Crying in the Rain,” a pair of songs originally found on the band’s 1982 album, Saints & Sinners. “That was what I had always called The Contractual Obligation Album, so I wasn’t averse to the idea of doing ‘Here I Go Again’ again,” Coverdale admits. “John Sykes, though, was very averse. He loved all the new stuff we had—as I did—but I said, ‘John, we could do a really great version of it!’ I had no idea it would then become the biggest f---ing song in the Whitesnake universe.” ( I ain’t wastin’ no more time, indeed.)

Coverdale, 66, and I got on the line to dissect the critical change in his vocals on the original album, why he loves the new 5.1 mixes for those iconic videos, and the reason the core Whitesnake songs retain

such universal appeal.

MM: Did you feel any change in your vocal character in terms of what you sang on the Whitesnake album, following the vocal surgery you had to clear up a sinus infection?

DC: No, I think it was more… (pauses) You could hear me better. On the earlier records, my voice was always back in the mix.

We did all of the vocal mixes for Whitesnake in ten days, after I got the all-clear from my ENT—MY ear, nose, and throat doctor—who, thank God, saved my life. He said to me before my surgery, “There’s a 50/50 chance you may not be able to sing in the same way.” But I actually added an octave to what I could do.

MM: You’re much more out front in these 1987 mixes, that’s for sure.

DC: For me, to listen to isolated tracks from the 1987 project has been breathtaking.

We also remastered the videos, which I don’t even think was ever done before. It was exciting to remix “Still of the Night,” “Here I Go Again,” “Is This Love,” and “Give Me All Your Love” to get rid of some of those ’80s “tinkerbells” Keith Olsen [the original album’s co-producer] talked me into.

And on the Evolutions disc, you can hear how we never rested. For example, I thought “Still of the Night” was really spectacular, but the solo sequence was kind of ordinary. It was like what you’d expect, you know? I said to John, “What if we try that, then that?” And that’s what led to the cello riff—the “da-na-na-na” part— which is one of the most chilling moments of the record, I think.

MM: Agreed. Given all the options we have these days, how would you prefer people listen to this box set?

DC: Any way they want, as long as the music connects with them. My feeling is, I spend a lot of time writing as many human elements into the songs as I can—love, heartbreak, the search for direction. I mean, I love trees and I’m a huge environmentalist, but I can’t write songs about treehugging.

Whenever I’m getting ready for a writing session, I listen to ’60s Motown, Stax, Muddy Waters, and Willie Dixon. They’re really inspiring to me because that music is perfectly played and perfectly arranged with beautiful poetry, great melodies, and great singers. What more could you ask for?

So when I create a song like “Here I Go Again,” I want people to put it in their pockets to accompany them on their journey. That’s a good deal for me.

An extended version of the Mettler-coverdale Q&A, including a discussion of how “Is This Love” was almost given away to Tina Turner, appears in the S&V Interview blog on soundandvision. com.