Who remembers Blue Murder ... ?

[geetarmikey]

Anyone got any stories, videos, articles etc... about Sykes recording 1987 and the BM album?

 

[Mr. Willy]

Huge tone! Zakk said in a GWq interview that he used the same setup on No Rest... that Sykes did on 1987 (JCM 800 combo into a 4x12), but the difference in tone is massive. Maybe John used the Colesium alongside that? Anyone have more info?

No JCM combo. He used the same set-up he used for Whitesnake 87: Two Boogie Mark III (no stripe) Coliseum heads slaved together and then double tracked for rhythms. There was a slight bit of chorusing from a Lexcion PCM41. He ran them into 2 stock Boogie Metal Grill Half Back cabs with the stock speakers (C90's on top and EV's on the bottom). John's technique of putting vibrato on chords makes it sound like there is even more chorus going on than there really is.

He can't recall but he says he may have done some parts here and there with his Jose modded Marshall. He also used a Roland JC120 for some clean stuff. He did record very loud. At the time, it was the only time Little Mountain Studio had noise complaints from neighbors.

I think this was brought up in a thread about 1987 tone not long ago...Sykes supposedly just used the Jose on the solo for Is This Love. Cab was a Marshall with 12-65's. Everything else gain-wise was the Coliseum.

 

[Red_Label]

One of my favorite albums/bands/guitarists from the 80s without question. I still love to put-on some "Blue Murder", "Valley of the Kings", and "Billy" through the PA in my man cave and play along loudly. Named one of my cats Billy because of that song. Sykes' tone on the debut still holds-up today.

I also love to watch old, live Thin Lizzy videos with Phil and John. Such awesomeness...

Here's one of my favorites... (so cool to watch Sykes and Wakeman trade shredding at the end)

And another one of my faves...

 

[ghosty999]

Anyone got any stories, videos, articles etc... about Sykes recording 1987 and the BM album?

He used 2 x 200 watt Mesa Coliseum heads. These amps have a Mark III pre-amp section but use six 6L6 power tubes--giving the amps180 watts each, the secret to that tone was recording extremely loud and layering the guitars. He also used a harmonizer, tap delay etc to further thicken the sound.

"For those that are interested - Whitesnake: Sail Away by Martin Popoff is a great book.


Producer Keith Olsen reveals two very interesting things:

1. Guitarist Dann Huff is all over Whitesnake 1987 beyond the Here I Go Again radio version. Sykes either couldn't play the same thing twice or do what Olsen wanted, so he had to bring in Dann Huff to play for Sykes on a bunch of the songs.

That is sort of disappointing in that I thought John Sykes was this guitar god, but a session musician had to be brought in to play for fucking John Sykes. Hey I can understand Cozy Powell and Denny Carmassi being brought in to play drums for Fred Coury on Cinderella's Long Cold Winter album - but John Sykes???

I think Sykes has been awful beyond the first Blue Murder album with his solo albums, etc. So maybe John Sykes has actually been overrated by hard rock fans for years - because they have assumed the brilliant guitar work on 1987 was him and sure much of it was - but much of it was also Dann Huff according to Olsen, because Sykes wasn't good enough.


2. Adrian Vandenberg's hand injury was bullshit and just for PR. This may be less surprising, since people have suspected that for years. But again, it was a situation where Adrian Vandenberg wasn't good enough to play on the tracks himself - since Vivian Campbell was booted from the band.

Steve Vai refused to record with another guitarist and he was being paid a ton of money to do the project, so they made up the hand injury thing completely.

This does makes sense though - because Adrian's playing on Restless Heart, the Unplugged album, Manic Eden and Moonkings is entirely mediocre. Whatever magic he had on those early Vandenberg albums - quickly left his body.

Further about Sykes:

Here is a couple of things that Olsen states:

Keith Olsen on 1987: The arrangements are great, the drums were really great - but the guitars were totally out of tune. Sykes was going through a period of time where he wanted to have a harmonizer, wanted all the effects, and the harmonizer going up and down so everything was really wide. And Coverdale found out that he couldn't sing to it.

Martin Popoff: Did you say out of tune?

Keith Olsen: Oh ya, really out of tune. Well there was 35 tracks...you know, when Mike Stone took the record and the first onslaught of guitars there were 30 something tracks of guitars and almost, maybe, there were one or two of the guitar tracks that were in tune. And you know it was on every track. And so I would pull, extract those two guitar tracks and then John played a few others and then later when it became impossible for John, Dann Huff had to be brought in. We redid all the vocals, cleaned up all the guitars so everything was in tune, got rid of all the effects that were out of tune.

Keith Olsen on Here I Go Again: I really wanted an eighth note in the verse. I got John on the phone and I said John, could you just grab the guitar and come by. You can plug into the studio amps. I just need eighth notes on two verses. John responds - No Keith, I can't do that. I would need my entire backline or I would have to fly to England. And Coverdale looks at me and I'm going: it's just eighth notes! It's just jung to give a little more push forward.

"Er, sorry - he needs his entire backline? I said Goodbye to Sykes and hung up the phone.

So I bring Dann Huff in again - he comes in with a guitar not even in a guitar case, plugs in, hears the song once and does it perfectly.""

 

[Red_Label]

Cripes... is there anything that Huff hasn't been on?

Disappointing about Sykes... But in general, I'm not a subscriber to the "what have you done for me lately?" school of thought regarding a player's greatness. Sykes earned his place in the Valhalla of Rock Guitar through his best work. Same with EVH, Yngwie, etc, etc... regardless of any subsequent downfall or hackery.

 

[Rdodson]

Huff is another guy who did (still does) it all: write, play, sing, produce...and at the very highest level.

 

[Drew]

Anyone got any stories, videos, articles etc... about Sykes recording 1987 and the BM album?

He used 2 x 200 watt Mesa Coliseum heads. These amps have a Mark III pre-amp section but use six 6L6 power tubes--giving the amps180 watts each, the secret to that tone was recording extremely loud and layering the guitars. He also used a harmonizer, tap delay etc to further thicken the sound.

"For those that are interested - Whitesnake: Sail Away by Martin Popoff is a great book.


Producer Keith Olsen reveals two very interesting things:

1. Guitarist Dann Huff is all over Whitesnake 1987 beyond the Here I Go Again radio version. Sykes either couldn't play the same thing twice or do what Olsen wanted, so he had to bring in Dann Huff to play for Sykes on a bunch of the songs.

That is sort of disappointing in that I thought John Sykes was this guitar god, but a session musician had to be brought in to play for fucking John Sykes. Hey I can understand Cozy Powell and Denny Carmassi being brought in to play drums for Fred Coury on Cinderella's Long Cold Winter album - but John Sykes???

I think Sykes has been awful beyond the first Blue Murder album with his solo albums, etc. So maybe John Sykes has actually been overrated by hard rock fans for years - because they have assumed the brilliant guitar work on 1987 was him and sure much of it was - but much of it was also Dann Huff according to Olsen, because Sykes wasn't good enough.


2. Adrian Vandenberg's hand injury was bullshit and just for PR. This may be less surprising, since people have suspected that for years. But again, it was a situation where Adrian Vandenberg wasn't good enough to play on the tracks himself - since Vivian Campbell was booted from the band.

Steve Vai refused to record with another guitarist and he was being paid a ton of money to do the project, so they made up the hand injury thing completely.

This does makes sense though - because Adrian's playing on Restless Heart, the Unplugged album, Manic Eden and Moonkings is entirely mediocre. Whatever magic he had on those early Vandenberg albums - quickly left his body.

Further about Sykes:

Here is a couple of things that Olsen states:

Keith Olsen on 1987: The arrangements are great, the drums were really great - but the guitars were totally out of tune. Sykes was going through a period of time where he wanted to have a harmonizer, wanted all the effects, and the harmonizer going up and down so everything was really wide. And Coverdale found out that he couldn't sing to it.

Martin Popoff: Did you say out of tune?

Keith Olsen: Oh ya, really out of tune. Well there was 35 tracks...you know, when Mike Stone took the record and the first onslaught of guitars there were 30 something tracks of guitars and almost, maybe, there were one or two of the guitar tracks that were in tune. And you know it was on every track. And so I would pull, extract those two guitar tracks and then John played a few others and then later when it became impossible for John, Dann Huff had to be brought in. We redid all the vocals, cleaned up all the guitars so everything was in tune, got rid of all the effects that were out of tune.

Keith Olsen on Here I Go Again: I really wanted an eighth note in the verse. I got John on the phone and I said John, could you just grab the guitar and come by. You can plug into the studio amps. I just need eighth notes on two verses. John responds - No Keith, I can't do that. I would need my entire backline or I would have to fly to England. And Coverdale looks at me and I'm going: it's just eighth notes! It's just jung to give a little more push forward.

"Er, sorry - he needs his entire backline? I said Goodbye to Sykes and hung up the phone.

So I bring Dann Huff in again - he comes in with a guitar not even in a guitar case, plugs in, hears the song once and does it perfectly.""

Yeah... that's Keith Olsen covering for his buddy Coverdale and trying to minimize Sykes' contributions. Keith doesn't mention the reason Sykes had no interest in working more on Here I Go Again was 1.It wasn't one of his songs and he felt he had already organized a pretty good updated arrangement (the album version that starts with the keyboard intro) compared to the original version on Saints and Sinners and 2. he had already been FIRED from the band weeks earlier. Sykes did go back and finish his solos on the other songs on the album after he was fired.

Sykes worked with Mike Frazier and Mike Stone, Olsen wasn't even really involved until later. Then Keith came in and thought they needed another pop version of HereI Go Again --which Dann did as John had no interest.

I obviously wasn't there when they were recording that album and I don't know about the harmonizer comment--but I worked closely with Sykes from 1998 until 2011 and I spent many hours running his Pro Tools rig while he put down demos and to say Sykes would let out of tune guitars get kept on a track is laughable. The guy has unbelievable ears.

To say Huff contributed guitars on Whitesnake (other than the radio version of Here I Go Again) is curious.. Why did the guitars on the first Blue Murder record sound the same as Whitesnake -- and Giant (which came out around the same time as Blue Murder), sounds nothing like either of the other two?

Sykes and Huff are friends BTW and they share funny stories about people they both worked with. Also, an exchange from back in the day from Dann Huff after listening to the raw tracks for Whitesnake 87 told to me by a staff member at Sound City studio.
Coverdale:"Dann, would you be interested in joining the band?"
Huff: "What you need is to get John Sykes back."

 

[Purpleibby]

Love Blue Murder....it's a crime IMO that they weren't a bigger success than they were......First album awesome, second one was too. Sykes always one of my fav. players and those albums stay in rotation at my place. Shame we never got that new Blue Murder album from Sykes we've been waiting for since forever....I still hope he will release it one day before it's too late.

 

[metalmaniac93]

Anyone got any stories, videos, articles etc... about Sykes recording 1987 and the BM album?

He used 2 x 200 watt Mesa Coliseum heads. These amps have a Mark III pre-amp section but use six 6L6 power tubes--giving the amps180 watts each, the secret to that tone was recording extremely loud and layering the guitars. He also used a harmonizer, tap delay etc to further thicken the sound.

"For those that are interested - Whitesnake: Sail Away by Martin Popoff is a great book.


Producer Keith Olsen reveals two very interesting things:

1. Guitarist Dann Huff is all over Whitesnake 1987 beyond the Here I Go Again radio version. Sykes either couldn't play the same thing twice or do what Olsen wanted, so he had to bring in Dann Huff to play for Sykes on a bunch of the songs.

That is sort of disappointing in that I thought John Sykes was this guitar god, but a session musician had to be brought in to play for fucking John Sykes. Hey I can understand Cozy Powell and Denny Carmassi being brought in to play drums for Fred Coury on Cinderella's Long Cold Winter album - but John Sykes???

I think Sykes has been awful beyond the first Blue Murder album with his solo albums, etc. So maybe John Sykes has actually been overrated by hard rock fans for years - because they have assumed the brilliant guitar work on 1987 was him and sure much of it was - but much of it was also Dann Huff according to Olsen, because Sykes wasn't good enough.


2. Adrian Vandenberg's hand injury was bullshit and just for PR. This may be less surprising, since people have suspected that for years. But again, it was a situation where Adrian Vandenberg wasn't good enough to play on the tracks himself - since Vivian Campbell was booted from the band.

Steve Vai refused to record with another guitarist and he was being paid a ton of money to do the project, so they made up the hand injury thing completely.

This does makes sense though - because Adrian's playing on Restless Heart, the Unplugged album, Manic Eden and Moonkings is entirely mediocre. Whatever magic he had on those early Vandenberg albums - quickly left his body.

Further about Sykes:

Here is a couple of things that Olsen states:

Keith Olsen on 1987: The arrangements are great, the drums were really great - but the guitars were totally out of tune. Sykes was going through a period of time where he wanted to have a harmonizer, wanted all the effects, and the harmonizer going up and down so everything was really wide. And Coverdale found out that he couldn't sing to it.

Martin Popoff: Did you say out of tune?

Keith Olsen: Oh ya, really out of tune. Well there was 35 tracks...you know, when Mike Stone took the record and the first onslaught of guitars there were 30 something tracks of guitars and almost, maybe, there were one or two of the guitar tracks that were in tune. And you know it was on every track. And so I would pull, extract those two guitar tracks and then John played a few others and then later when it became impossible for John, Dann Huff had to be brought in. We redid all the vocals, cleaned up all the guitars so everything was in tune, got rid of all the effects that were out of tune.

Keith Olsen on Here I Go Again: I really wanted an eighth note in the verse. I got John on the phone and I said John, could you just grab the guitar and come by. You can plug into the studio amps. I just need eighth notes on two verses. John responds - No Keith, I can't do that. I would need my entire backline or I would have to fly to England. And Coverdale looks at me and I'm going: it's just eighth notes! It's just jung to give a little more push forward.

"Er, sorry - he needs his entire backline? I said Goodbye to Sykes and hung up the phone.

So I bring Dann Huff in again - he comes in with a guitar not even in a guitar case, plugs in, hears the song once and does it perfectly.""

Yeah... that's Keith Olsen covering for his buddy Coverdale and trying to minimize Sykes' contributions. Keith doesn't mention the reason Sykes had no interest in working more on Here I Go Again was 1.It wasn't one of his songs and he felt he had already organized a pretty good updated arrangement (the album version that starts with the keyboard intro) compared to the original version on Saints and Sinners and 2. he had already been FIRED from the band weeks earlier. Sykes did go back and finish his solos on the other songs on the album after he was fired.

Sykes worked with Mike Frazier and Mike Stone, Olsen wasn't even really involved until later. Then Keith came in and thought they needed another pop version of HereI Go Again --which Dann did as John had no interest.

I obviously wasn't there when they were recording that album and I don't know about the harmonizer comment--but I worked closely with Sykes from 1998 until 2011 and I spent many hours running his Pro Tools rig while he put down demos and to say Sykes would let out of tune guitars get kept on a track is laughable. The guy has unbelievable ears.

To say Huff contributed guitars on Whitesnake (other than the radio version of Here I Go Again) is curious.. Why did the guitars on the first Blue Murder record sound the same as Whitesnake -- and Giant (which came out around the same time as Blue Murder), sounds nothing like either of the other two?

Sykes and Huff are friends BTW and they share funny stories about people they both worked with. Also, an exchange from back in the day from Dann Huff after listening to the raw tracks for Whitesnake 87 told to me by a staff member at Sound City studio.
Coverdale:"Dann, would you be interested in joining the band?"
Huff: "What you need is to get John Sykes back."

Great post!!

 

[RockyStar]

The first Blue Murder record was a monster.

 

[mrTapp]

Really sad he doesn't release new albums

Extremly talented guy

 

[Red_Label]

Yeah... that's Keith Olsen covering for his buddy Coverdale and trying to minimize Sykes' contributions. Keith doesn't mention the reason Sykes had no interest in working more on Here I Go Again was 1.It wasn't one of his songs and he felt he had already organized a pretty good updated arrangement (the album version that starts with the keyboard intro) compared to the original version on Saints and Sinners and 2. he had already been FIRED from the band weeks earlier. Sykes did go back and finish his solos on the other songs on the album after he was fired.

Sykes worked with Mike Frazier and Mike Stone, Olsen wasn't even really involved until later. Then Keith came in and thought they needed another pop version of HereI Go Again --which Dann did as John had no interest.

I obviously wasn't there when they were recording that album and I don't know about the harmonizer comment--but I worked closely with Sykes from 1998 until 2011 and I spent many hours running his Pro Tools rig while he put down demos and to say Sykes would let out of tune guitars get kept on a track is laughable. The guy has unbelievable ears.

To say Huff contributed guitars on Whitesnake (other than the radio version of Here I Go Again) is curious.. Why did the guitars on the first Blue Murder record sound the same as Whitesnake -- and Giant (which came out around the same time as Blue Murder), sounds nothing like either of the other two?

Sykes and Huff are friends BTW and they share funny stories about people they both worked with. Also, an exchange from back in the day from Dann Huff after listening to the raw tracks for Whitesnake 87 told to me by a staff member at Sound City studio.
Coverdale:"Dann, would you be interested in joining the band?"
Huff: "What you need is to get John Sykes back."

Pure awesomeness! Every word! And much more believable than that Keith Olson quote. Thanks for posting that!

P.S. Coverdale = narcissistic rock star. It's not hard to believe that he and his buddies would try to minimize and marginalize anyone he feels is a threat to his "kingdom". I remember when the split between he and Sykes happened, and Sykes was pretty miffed about being fired and replaced. I saw Whitesnake on the following tour with Vandenberg and Vai. As awesome of players as they are, it wasn't even close to the same monster band. Very "meh". Sykes' live "Crying in the Rain" and "Still of the Night" were so awesome.

 

[mdc1mdc11]

excellent stuff for that period, he needs to lay off the gain so we can actually hear note articulation. I have some bootlegs and they sound fucking awful as he is playing through so much gain that the lead tone is just unlistenable and it has nothing to do with it being a bootleg. Compressed, buzzy shit on some of that stuff from that period. Just my opinion though.

 

[geetarmikey]

Yeah... that's Keith Olsen covering for his buddy Coverdale and trying to minimize Sykes' contributions. Keith doesn't mention the reason Sykes had no interest in working more on Here I Go Again was 1.It wasn't one of his songs and he felt he had already organized a pretty good updated arrangement (the album version that starts with the keyboard intro) compared to the original version on Saints and Sinners and 2. he had already been FIRED from the band weeks earlier. Sykes did go back and finish his solos on the other songs on the album after he was fired.

Sykes worked with Mike Frazier and Mike Stone, Olsen wasn't even really involved until later. Then Keith came in and thought they needed another pop version of HereI Go Again --which Dann did as John had no interest.

I obviously wasn't there when they were recording that album and I don't know about the harmonizer comment--but I worked closely with Sykes from 1998 until 2011 and I spent many hours running his Pro Tools rig while he put down demos and to say Sykes would let out of tune guitars get kept on a track is laughable. The guy has unbelievable ears.

To say Huff contributed guitars on Whitesnake (other than the radio version of Here I Go Again) is curious.. Why did the guitars on the first Blue Murder record sound the same as Whitesnake -- and Giant (which came out around the same time as Blue Murder), sounds nothing like either of the other two?

Sykes and Huff are friends BTW and they share funny stories about people they both worked with. Also, an exchange from back in the day from Dann Huff after listening to the raw tracks for Whitesnake 87 told to me by a staff member at Sound City studio.
Coverdale:"Dann, would you be interested in joining the band?"
Huff: "What you need is to get John Sykes back."[/quote]

Very cool, what's it like working with Sykes? I'd love to be there when he puts some guitar tracks down!

 

[Deleted member 13074]

Yeah... that's Keith Olsen covering for his buddy Coverdale and trying to minimize Sykes' contributions. Keith doesn't mention the reason Sykes had no interest in working more on Here I Go Again was 1.It wasn't one of his songs and he felt he had already organized a pretty good updated arrangement (the album version that starts with the keyboard intro) compared to the original version on Saints and Sinners and 2. he had already been FIRED from the band weeks earlier. Sykes did go back and finish his solos on the other songs on the album after he was fired.

Sykes worked with Mike Frazier and Mike Stone, Olsen wasn't even really involved until later. Then Keith came in and thought they needed another pop version of HereI Go Again --which Dann did as John had no interest.

Thanks for the riposte - that nonsense from Olsen is disturbing. There is no sign of Huff apart from the rehashed HIGA.
The first '1987' version of 'Here I Go Again' being erased from the recording and replaced with 80s clean radio-friendly jangle is a criminal offence for which Coverdale should do time in the musical penitentiary (if there was such a place). I cannot listen to it without getting hot under the collar, and I'm a big Huff fan.
Seek out the first version folks, it is miles better.

Post '1987' tells us all we need to know...
Sykes continues to write, play and sing up a storm (he could be helped by better production - Olsen not being interviewed for that job).
Whitesnake is not Coverdale on his own and need a top writer/player to flourish and eventually found a gem in Aldrich, although they never eclipsed '1987' and sound noisy with 2 players.

PS Sykes fans should listen to the Sykes 'Out of my Tree' disc for therapy, or indeed Thin Lizzy 'One Night Only'.
Each of those is a finger up to Coverdale. Two fingers to you, you bitter old bastard.
PPS Note to Coverdale: 'Still of the Night' tuned a whole step down sounds like ass, so stop playing it live.

 

[jabps]

Anyone got any stories, videos, articles etc... about Sykes recording 1987 and the BM album?

He used 2 x 200 watt Mesa Coliseum heads. These amps have a Mark III pre-amp section but use six 6L6 power tubes--giving the amps180 watts each, the secret to that tone was recording extremely loud and layering the guitars. He also used a harmonizer, tap delay etc to further thicken the sound.

"For those that are interested - Whitesnake: Sail Away by Martin Popoff is a great book.


Producer Keith Olsen reveals two very interesting things:

1. Guitarist Dann Huff is all over Whitesnake 1987 beyond the Here I Go Again radio version. Sykes either couldn't play the same thing twice or do what Olsen wanted, so he had to bring in Dann Huff to play for Sykes on a bunch of the songs.

That is sort of disappointing in that I thought John Sykes was this guitar god, but a session musician had to be brought in to play for fucking John Sykes. Hey I can understand Cozy Powell and Denny Carmassi being brought in to play drums for Fred Coury on Cinderella's Long Cold Winter album - but John Sykes???

I think Sykes has been awful beyond the first Blue Murder album with his solo albums, etc. So maybe John Sykes has actually been overrated by hard rock fans for years - because they have assumed the brilliant guitar work on 1987 was him and sure much of it was - but much of it was also Dann Huff according to Olsen, because Sykes wasn't good enough.


2. Adrian Vandenberg's hand injury was bullshit and just for PR. This may be less surprising, since people have suspected that for years. But again, it was a situation where Adrian Vandenberg wasn't good enough to play on the tracks himself - since Vivian Campbell was booted from the band.

Steve Vai refused to record with another guitarist and he was being paid a ton of money to do the project, so they made up the hand injury thing completely.

This does makes sense though - because Adrian's playing on Restless Heart, the Unplugged album, Manic Eden and Moonkings is entirely mediocre. Whatever magic he had on those early Vandenberg albums - quickly left his body.

Further about Sykes:

Here is a couple of things that Olsen states:

Keith Olsen on 1987: The arrangements are great, the drums were really great - but the guitars were totally out of tune. Sykes was going through a period of time where he wanted to have a harmonizer, wanted all the effects, and the harmonizer going up and down so everything was really wide. And Coverdale found out that he couldn't sing to it.

Martin Popoff: Did you say out of tune?

Keith Olsen: Oh ya, really out of tune. Well there was 35 tracks...you know, when Mike Stone took the record and the first onslaught of guitars there were 30 something tracks of guitars and almost, maybe, there were one or two of the guitar tracks that were in tune. And you know it was on every track. And so I would pull, extract those two guitar tracks and then John played a few others and then later when it became impossible for John, Dann Huff had to be brought in. We redid all the vocals, cleaned up all the guitars so everything was in tune, got rid of all the effects that were out of tune.

Keith Olsen on Here I Go Again: I really wanted an eighth note in the verse. I got John on the phone and I said John, could you just grab the guitar and come by. You can plug into the studio amps. I just need eighth notes on two verses. John responds - No Keith, I can't do that. I would need my entire backline or I would have to fly to England. And Coverdale looks at me and I'm going: it's just eighth notes! It's just jung to give a little more push forward.

"Er, sorry - he needs his entire backline? I said Goodbye to Sykes and hung up the phone.

So I bring Dann Huff in again - he comes in with a guitar not even in a guitar case, plugs in, hears the song once and does it perfectly.""

Yeah... that's Keith Olsen covering for his buddy Coverdale and trying to minimize Sykes' contributions. Keith doesn't mention the reason Sykes had no interest in working more on Here I Go Again was 1.It wasn't one of his songs and he felt he had already organized a pretty good updated arrangement (the album version that starts with the keyboard intro) compared to the original version on Saints and Sinners and 2. he had already been FIRED from the band weeks earlier. Sykes did go back and finish his solos on the other songs on the album after he was fired.

Sykes worked with Mike Frazier and Mike Stone, Olsen wasn't even really involved until later. Then Keith came in and thought they needed another pop version of HereI Go Again --which Dann did as John had no interest.

I obviously wasn't there when they were recording that album and I don't know about the harmonizer comment--but I worked closely with Sykes from 1998 until 2011 and I spent many hours running his Pro Tools rig while he put down demos and to say Sykes would let out of tune guitars get kept on a track is laughable. The guy has unbelievable ears.

To say Huff contributed guitars on Whitesnake (other than the radio version of Here I Go Again) is curious.. Why did the guitars on the first Blue Murder record sound the same as Whitesnake -- and Giant (which came out around the same time as Blue Murder), sounds nothing like either of the other two?

Sykes and Huff are friends BTW and they share funny stories about people they both worked with. Also, an exchange from back in the day from Dann Huff after listening to the raw tracks for Whitesnake 87 told to me by a staff member at Sound City studio.
Coverdale:"Dann, would you be interested in joining the band?"
Huff: "What you need is to get John Sykes back."

Thanks for sharing and agree, Olsen was covering for his buddy. Same as Olsen taking a cheap shot at Vandenberg. Adrian had released three pretty darn good solo albums, I believe he could handle "guitar wise" what he was doing on the Slip album. That was all about Kalodner and Coverdale getting Steve Vai who at that point was the biggest name in guitar and happened to become available. Adrian like John got the short end of the stick on that. At least we all got to hear what John did. They still got paid though...especially John 8 mill sold, those royalties weren't to shabby all those years.

 

[Chubtone]

What Keith Olson said is absolute nonsense. You would have to be deaf to listen to 1987 and then listen to the first Blue Murder record and not realize who was ALMOST entirely responsible for the sound and writing and vibe of that 1987 album. Listen to the album before 1987. Listen to the album after 1987. Do the math. It is simple.

Also, Vandenbergs playing on the 1st three Vandenberg albums was more than good enough to record that Slip of the Tongue album with Whitesnake. I believe it would have been 100X better than what they did with Vai. I don't think Adrian knew how or wanted to get that huge tone like Sykes had so the album would have suffered in that regard.

Adrian on those first three albums is one of my all time favorite. Especially the second album!

I am not a fan of Vai though he is ridiculously good. He just doesn't do it for me at all.

Poor old Coverdale, can you imagine how he felt having a young guy who looked, played AND sang like Sykes in HIS band?

 

[audiomichael]

Poor old Coverdale, can you imagine how he felt having a young guy who looked, played AND sang like that in HIS band?

I had heard somewhere in the pipeline that record company politics and the hope for continued WS success put the squash on Blue Murder's promotion.

 

[Scotty]

What Keith Olson said is absolute nonsense. You would have to be deaf to listen to 1987 and then listen to the first Blue Murder record and not realize who was ALMOST entirely responsible for the sound and writing and vibe of that 1987 album. Listen to the album before 1987. Listen to the album after 1987. Do the math. It is simple.

Also, Vandenbergs playing on the 1st three Vandenberg albums was more than good enough to record that Slip of the Tongue album with Whitesnake. I believe it would have been 100X better than what they did with Vai. I don't think Adrian knew how or wanted to get that huge tone like Sykes had so the album would have suffered in that regard.

Adrian on those first three albums is one of my all time favorite. Especially the second album!

I am not a fan of Vai though he is ridiculously good. He just doesn't do it for me at all.

Poor old Coverdale, can you imagine how he felt having a young guy who looked, played AND sang like that in HIS band?

Vai walked away laughing taking $1,000,000 of Coverdale's money to take the gig and did everything at his house in the Harmony Hut, Vai may not have Syke's vibe and heavy handed tone but it was a nice paycheck I know we have disagreed abut Vai's Deeper the Love solo but it is a monster piece.

First time I experienced a Coli was with Gainfreak and it was at that moment I understood Syke's direction and tone; people fawn over 2C+s but give me a in-line 6 any day for the aggression. Only reason why I still have a metal grill Mesa with MC90s and EVMs is for that day I see a Coli and the dude has no clue what it is

I have been redoing the man cave, yes the "It puts the lotion in the basket" cave is retired and moved over to the finished part of the basement, and was hanging the guitars and yeah that Slime Green Charvel's neck is just a cut above the other 4 necks. I do believe when you said that the CS was helping out with that batch to get them out.

 

[Chubtone]

Vai walked away laughing taking $1,000,000 of Coverdale's money to take the gig and did everything at his house in the Harmony Hut, Vai may not have Syke's vibe and heavy handed tone but it was a nice paycheck I know we have disagreed abut Vai's Deeper the Love solo but it is a monster piece.

First time I experienced a Coli was with Gainfreak and it was at that moment I understood Syke's direction and tone; people fawn over 2C+s but give me a in-line 6 any day for the aggression. Only reason why I still have a metal grill Mesa with MC90s and EVMs is for that day I see a Coli and the dude has no clue what it is

I have been redoing the man cave, yes the "It puts the lotion in the basket" cave is retired and moved over to the finished part of the basement, and was hanging the guitars and yeah that Slime Green Charvel's neck is just a cut above the other 4 necks. I do believe when you said that the CS was helping out with that batch to get them out.

Oh, I don't blame Vai for taking that gig. I do blame him for ruining that album though Who is this "Scotty" noob? Only 16 posts. Weak!