After Gillan’s departure from the band, everyone was all a buzz as to who would replace him. After all, how do you replace a voice as distinctive and powerful as that? Well, you can either get a well known replacement in (I remember Paul Rodgers’ name being mentioned at the time), or you can get a complete unknown. They hired one David Coverdale who, at the time, was working in a boutique and he sent a tape in to audition for the gig. The amazing thing here is, he is not the best singer in the band, as that would be Glenn Hughes who joined at the same time on bass and BV’s.
This is my favourite album with Coverdale singing as it still sounds like Deep Purple before they went all funky and RnB. Don’t get me wrong, I really like those formats, it’s just Purple are a hard rockin’ band, and a hard rockin’ band they should be.
The album opens up with the title track, Burn, and is a trademark Purple rocker but with a more bluesy soulful voice. It was released as a single at the time, and rightly so, as this is the most commercial track on the album. Funnily enough the next track, Might Just Take Your Life, was also released as a single, and is also a starting point for the groovier side of the band that would totally takeover when Blackmore would leave. Lay Down Stay Down follows and is a perfect mix between rock and RnB. It has some great trade off vocals between Coverdale and Hughes, plus a killer solo from the man in black. Sail Away closes out Side 1 and has a slow funky blues vibe that Coverdale would use to great effect in early Whitesnake.
You Fool No One announces the arrival of Side 2 with a great drum groove and awesome riff. It’s one of my favourite MK3 tunes, plus there is lots of Ritchie at the end of the song. What’s Goin On Here is next up and is almost an old blues shuffle but with a dirtier groove – I love the sparring vocals between Coverdale and Hughes. Next up is the big number of the album and big Live track for Purple, as well as for Hughes and Coverdale when they both went solo. I think I’m right in saying that Blackmore wrote the music to this after being inspired by Free’s Heartbreaker almost 2 years earlier, and Coverdale would finish the lyrics after he joined. Another iconic Blackmore riff starts the show rolling, before it becomes a showcase for DC’s vocals and Blackmore’s guitar. The album closes with A’ 200, a somewhat weird instrumental where Jon Lord uses synths for maybe the first time, and Ritchie gets to cut loose also. So that’s my favourite Purple album with DC on vocals and it gets 9.5/10 from The Grooveman.
