music

cock rock is the cudgel that the nme reading musical chattering classes used to beat down heavy metal. ‘oh it is so misogynistic’ they say. look how it demeans women they moan. meanwhile they will praise any number of less than pleasant rap and hip hop musicians who sing about bitches and hoes.
the quintessential cock rocker is david coverdale. rock music’s equivalent to richard burton.
he came to fame with deep purple, gained superstardom with his own band whitesnake.
coverdale must love the top he is wearing here as he wears it again on stage, but in london. glen hughes who also helps out on vocals is forever associated with mars bars, jon lord wigs out on keyboards. as ever ritchie does what ritchie does on guitar which is why he is still one of the greatest even if he is a little mad.
(oh that rainbow you see in the background - watch out for its next appearance).




several years later he would record ‘ain’t no love in the heart of the city’ it remains one of my favourite songs. i first heard it on a double live album (natch), it was one of those lps i would play with the lights out and by the glow of my three bar electric fire i would practice my bass guitar scales and pretty soon i was just air-bassing (which is why right now i can’t even play the spoons).
this live video from donnington is notable for the fact that the crowd actually does sing when the asked to rather than the usual deathly silence that greets the band when the audience just stays schtum.
as whitesnake got bigger and crossed over from blues rock to chart topping pop metal coverdale became part of that big haired bare chested group of rockers who were overly made-up and overly airbrushed. it was all a little silly.
my ex told me i was wrong to listen to whitesnake because they were sexist. in retaliation she made me listen to the beatles – which was worse because they were shit. i came home early from work one day to discover her playing one of their albums, she never explained why. it did mean i didn’t have to listen to the beatles anymore. so that was a result.
i haven’t really paid much attention to what coverdale has been up to in recent years. frankly it doesn’t matter with the deep purple and first batch of whitesnake lps he carved himself a place in my rock pantheon.