Free Sail Away: Whitesnake's Fantastic Voyage by Martin Popoff Page B

bands with a good live show. I wasn’t
listening to anything heavy or heavier than that, really. So we just went out
and rocked and had a good time. Simple as that. We didn’t even know if we would
last, to be quite honest. I just enjoyed it. We were partying and had a lot of
good times. I thought I would keep on doing this until it either
happens or it doesn’t.”
    Moving past “Walking In The Shadow Of The
Blues”— ersatz anchor to the record, the love hunter itself, things lighten up
considerably, throwing the listener back to the early Whitesnake material. “Help
Me Thro’ The Day” is a blues cover, albeit a modern one from Leon Russell, and
its sombre groove would have made it a perfect fit to Stormbringer ,
something Coverdale and Glenn Hughes might have proposed much to the
chagrin of rocking Ritchie.
    “‘Help Me Thro’ The Day,’ that was a
transition thing,” says Marsden. “That was a follow-up to ‘Ain’t No Love In The
Heart Of The City,’ really, which is a song I always wanted to do. I was the
one who said, ‘Hey, “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City,” Dave, you could
sing this great,’ because I was a big Bobby Bland fan; still am. And the
next thing is, I suppose, I was always a big follower of Leon Russell as a
writer, also as a performer, but especially as a writer. But always loved ‘Help
Me Thro’ The Day,’ and I said, ‘Look, what we did in “Ain’t No Love;” I think
we could do to this.’ And I think everybody agreed, and I think it’s one of the
best versions ever. It’s good to think out-of-the-box sometimes, and I think it’s
just great that we did that.”
    “Medicine Man” was another
strident rocker on the album, full up with Coverdale swagger and rich tones of
Purple. No surprise, given that the esteemed Martin Birch was on board
producing, re-generating the great guitar and keys alloy he had helped bring to
fruition along with Jon and Ritchie.
    “Back in the day, you took those things
for granted,” reflects Marsden. “We were all young men, and Martin did my And
About Time Too solo album with me as well in that same year; he was
producer, and one of the greatest engineers. Funny, the other day, I was
listening to a reissue of a Jeff Beck album, and Martin engineered it: Beck-Ola .
I was always enamoured with Martin because of his connection with Peter Green
and Fleetwood Mac, so anytime I was in the studio, I would say, ‘Well, what
would Peter do here?’ And he was very canny, he was quite clever, and he said, ‘He’d
probably do something like this.’ And then he would go, ‘Well, what would you
do?’ I’d try to talk about Peter Green, he wanted to hear Bernie Marsden. He
was great like that. Great producer. Doesn’t do much these days; hasn’t bothered
for a long time. Since his relationship with Iron Maiden, I think, he hasn’t
done much. But he’s got a record that is second to none. He’s on some of the
great guitar tracks of all time. But yeah, ‘Medicine Man’ I think is a really
cool track.”
    “Martin is great, a really strong
character,” seconds Moody, on Birch. “I mean, really positive. Martin was an
engineer who became a producer, and he was a great engineer. Latter part of the
‘60s, recorded with the early Peter Green Fleetwood Mac. He came from being a
great engineer, and he said, ‘Well, I can produce as well.’ He could see the
qualities in each person in the band and he could bring the best out. Of
course, he got me the best sound you could ever get. Very, very positive man,
Martin. A bit of a man’s man. Very strong character, someone you could rely on,
someone who was very, very together. And, the fact that he produced so many
top-quality bands, I’ve got nothing but praise for Martin.”
    Adds Murray: “He was very much in the
background. He’s very much a laid-back kind of guy. His thing was to be
encouraging and not let any kind of real bad mistakes go by. But mostly to get
really good sounds,