FabricationsHQ - Putting the Words to the Music
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  • Muirsical Conversations 2025>
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  • Selected Muirsical Conversations From The Archive>
    • Bernie Marsden (December 2021)
    • Robin George (November 2021)
    • Dennis DeYoung (June 2021)
    • Robert Berry (March 2021)
    • Dan Reed (February 2021)
    • Steve Hackett (January 2021)
    • John Verity (September 2020)
    • Steve Hackett (July 2020)
    • Gary Moat (March 2020)
    • Steve Hackett (October 2019)
    • Rebecca Downes (May 2019)
    • Ben Poole & Wayne Proctor (January 2019)
    • Dan Reed (November 2018)
    • Del Bromham (October 2018)
    • Brian Downey (September 2018)
    • Raintown - Paul Bain & Claire McArthur Bain (May 2018)
    • Hamilton Loomis (December 2017)
    • Alan Nimmo (October 2017)
    • Erja Lyytinen (September 2017)
    • Suzi Quatro (September 2017)
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    • Dan Patlansky (June 2017)
    • Graham Bonnet (May 2017)
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    • Stevie Nimmo (February 2017)
    • Dan Reed (February 2017)
    • Adam Norsworthy (January 2017)
    • Colin James (December 2016)
    • John Lees (October 2016)
    • Sari Schorr (August 2016)
    • Mike Vernon (August 2016)
    • Wayne Proctor (July 2016)
    • Laurence Jones (April 2016)
    • Chantel McGregor (March 2016)
    • John Young (January 2016)
    • Michael Schenker (November 2015)
    • Martin Barre (October 2015)
    • Chris Norman (September 2015)
    • Joanne Shaw Taylor (August 2015)
    • Fee Waybill (July 2015)
    • Ian Anderson (June 2015)
    • John Lodge (June 2015)
    • John Lawton (May 2015)
    • Steve Hackett (May 2015)
    • Manny Charlton (April 2015)
    • Ben Poole (April 2015)
    • Alan Nimmo (February 2015)
    • Popa Chubby (December 2014)
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    • Lee Kerslake (December 2013)
    • Pat Travers (September 2013)
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    • Hey 'Banker', can you spare a dime? (February 2010)
  • Author Bio & Site Info
  • Contact FabricationsHQ
Blues Inspiring 
Muirsical Conversation with Bernie Marsden
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British rock-blues guitarist-singer-songwriter Bernie Marsden has carved out a nice little solo career for himself since leaving Whitesnake four decades ago (and subsequent bands such as SOS, Alaska, Marsden-Moody and Company of Snakes).

Now, seven years removed from his last solo album, the multi-faceted Shine, Bernie Marsden has embarked on an 'Inspirations' based journey through his love and passion for the blues, some of the genre's greatest songs and its most legendary players.

The Inspirations Series (a collaboration between Conquest Music and Bernie Marsden’s Little House Music) started earlier in the year with, first, Kings (a royal blues nod to the "Three Kings" of the blues, Albert, B.B. and Freddie) then Chess (a homage to the famous Chicago record company of that name and its illustrious artist repertoire).

The Inspirations Series also fits the musical profile, personality and guitar tone stylings of Bernie Marsden perfectly.

Bernie Marsden spoke to FabricationsHQ to expand on that inherent love of the blues, the Inspirations Series and some of the songs & artists covered thus far, his band of blues enthused brothers who are such an integral part of those first two releases and what we can expect in the third Inspirations instalment, due for release in the spring of 2022.

But the chat started with the first album in the series, and the Prince of Tone’s homage to the Kings of the Blues…

​Ross Muir: Kings is a collection of songs and blues standards made famous by the Three Kings of the blues
– B.B., Freddie and Albert.
But this isn’t just another covers album or a band playing a bunch of blues standards
– this is an album of reverence and homage; an honouring of both the material and those legendary artists.

Bernie Marsden: Thank you. That’s more or less how I felt I wanted it to go before I began; I didn’t just want to make another blues album. I’ve said a couple of times recently, about Kings, that I could have made that album about twenty-five years ago but it wouldn’t have been anything like as good because it would have been guitar centred.
Whereas now, as I get older and more experienced
– in life in general and with everything else that’s been going on these last couple of years – you really do start to understand those lyrics, and that they mean something. That’s really what I based the Kings stuff on.
Help Me Through the Day for example; I first did that with Whitesnake back in 1979 and it’s good 
– it’s a cool version – but I think the one on Kings is a much more grown up affair, you know?

RM: I do. The Whitesnake version works really well for Whitesnake but here you have a version that‘s as melodic in its phrasing as it is spacious in its arrangement; it’s a lovely interpretation of a great blues song.

BM: Yeah, it is a great song; the lyric is so good, too 
– whether it be a on a long tour, or after a long day or week in the studio, or a worry you have about something... you’ve got to help me through the day; the can I face tomorrow kinda thing.
I based the whole collection on not so much the lyrics but the sentiments of the songs; then I allowed the musicians to do what they wanted to do, really, while also being conscious of keeping the songs to a fairly decent length – probably more so on the Chess album.
I didn’t want a guitar solo then another guitar solo; then a Hammond solo followed by a piano solo! [laughs]
For me it’s all about the tunes and the idea behind each song.

RM: You’re making my job very easy because you’ve just set up something I want to ensure we make mention of
– the Kings and Chess band, and how they approached these albums.
This is not just a bunch of studio players brought in to help record the albums, this is a great little band in its own right. John Gordon for example
– lovely guy, great bass player and, boy, does he know his music…

BM: Yes, he does! I know it has my name on the cover – the guy at the front, the name person, or whatever
–but I can’t make these records without people like John Gordon. John was actually the first guy I called after I had the conversation about doing these albums; he’s such a consummate player and, also, he understands my thoughts and what I’m trying to channel.
For example, when I say "I’d like a Little Milton groove here, John" he’ll say "What, from his 1965 period or maybe from his later 1968 stuff?" And I’ll say "Well, maybe a little mix of both?" And he goes "Right, OK, mate!"
It was also John who recommended Jim Russell on drums. When I gave John a working list of the songs, he said "Who’s going to play drums?" I mentioned a few names and asked what he reckoned to them; he gave a slight pause then said "I know you’ve never worked with him but Jim Russell is the man for these songs." And he was absolutely right! When Jim came in, he came with 1950s and 1940s kits; he said "If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it properly!"

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BM: ​We also had Bob Haddrell on keys on both albums; Bob's universally known as a great British blues player. And getting Alan Glenn in for the Chess album, on harmonica, was not so much the icing on the cake as the fifth candle on the cake! 
The way all those guys played showed that they knew, and understood, what I wanted to do.
There was no great discussion needed; it was "Right, let’s get on with it!"

RM: And that comes across on both albums.
Stickling with Kings for the moment, I want give mention to Don’t You Lie to Me, which opens the album.
That’s a great take and arrangement – it sits somewhere between the Afro Cuban rhythms of Albert King’s version and B.B. King’s slower take.

BM: Yes, exactly; I also put in a little Albert Collins on the guitar! [laughs].
But then that goes back to there being a certain amount of plusses to being in the game a long time!
I’ve seen those great blues guys close up, since I was twenty years old – not all of them, but a lot of them – and the way in which they approach their work.
Freddie King for example, he had such frivolity about him! He would be throwing down this great, slow blues stuff but with a big smile on his face. You’d hear those blues licks he was throwing out at you and think "this blues stuff must be serious" but for Freddie [impersonates] "the blues ain’t nothing but a good time!" [laughs]
You remember those kind of things and being fortunate enough to be only two or three feet away from them – because in those days it could be the back of a bar they were playing!
That all stays with you and that’s how I began – it’s influenced my writing and, obviously, the way I play – and once it’s in you, there’s no out!

RM: I’m glad you mentioned Freddie King because one of my favourite tracks on Kings is Same Old Blues, one of the great slow blues numbers.
You come very close to matching Freddie’s gospel style version; you deliver not just a great solo but a great vocal on that song.

BM: Thank you very much. What I love about Same Old Blues is that it is the most same old blues of all the blues numbers!
I’ve always been a great admirer of Don Nix as a writer but I only recently found out that the original version of Same Old Blues was by a band called Moloch, from Memphis, that Don was producing an album for.
​
In fact the original version of Goin’ Down is on that album as well! It’s incredible stuff and there’s great guitar playing on there, too.
I always thought Same Old Blues was written for Freddie but it was written for that album; same with Goin’ Down.
On Same Old Blues I used my old Les Paul for the solo, which is very sweet; no overdrive, no powerful sound, nothing; you don’t need to crank it up because it has that feel. Yeah, great song.

RM: Hot on the heels of Kings came Chess which, as the title alludes to, nods to the famous Chess Record Company of Chicago.
That Chess catalogue and great artist repertoire would be so far up your Chicago blues street that I would venture the album could easily have been a double?

BM: Oh, I could do another ten next week and five of them might contain stuff you’ve never heard before! 
I was lucky, back when I was fourteen or fifteen, to be given LPs by Howlin Wolf, Muddy waters and Sonny Boy Williamson, alongside my Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Dave Clark Five singles.
That’s when I realised if I’m spending time trying to play Glad All Over I may as well try to learn to play Mannish Boy – and I got a lot more satisfaction playing Mannish Boy than I did Glad All Over!
So there you go, that’s what happened there
– and I’ve never stopped, really!

RM: The Chess artist repertoire featured some major-league and hugely influential names, including Chuck Berry, who you cover by way of Back in the USA.
There are so many great guitarists that will tell you they may never have picked a guitar up if not for Hank Marvin, but It’s much the same with Chuck Berry. 

BM: I would say so, yes. If you picked up a guitar because of Hank Marvin, but then heard Chuck Berry, you would then be likely to think "Oh, I’d like to be able to do that as well!"
When I first heard Johnny B Goode
– you would hear it at wedding receptions and stuff like that; a band would be playing Apache one moment then a few songs later Johnny B Goode or Rock and Roll Music – that’s when I started checking out Chuck Berry. Oh, he did that song, and did he did this one too!
Suddenly you’re building up this armoury of great songs and realising he wrote them too – you also realise this is a clever guy!

RM: For me it was simply the sheer effervescence and energy of his then new rock and roll sound; it just knocked everybody out.

BM: Yeah, and it was the same thing we’re doing now – just three or four guys in a studio, getting it on with a great tune and enjoying themselves – and being told of course that "You’ve got an hour to do this so get on with it!" [laughs]

RM: Another legend you couldn’t not cover on Chess is Bo Diddley and Can’t Judge a Book – I’m delighted you kept that so faithful to the Diddley Beat, because if you hadn’t I’m pretty sure there would have been a Public Inquiry.

BM: [laughs] I think so because there are some things you just can't go around changing!
That was about trying to remain faithful to the original yet without copying it; using the vibe of it, really.
I’ll tell you something else
– that’s a hard song to sing, it really is. Vocally, you think "Well this will be easy" but when you sing those words and get close to it, when it came time to do it, I thought "Wow, I can’t do this!"
And when you think he was probably doing that live, for the recording, and those counter-rhythms…respect!  
    
RM: In a similar vein to wanting to, or perhaps having to, remain faithful without doing a note for note cover, the Willie Dixon penned Elmore James hit I Can’t Hold On retains its famous Dixon stop-time arrangement.
But you’ve added some wicked little slide licks of your own.

BM: I used to play slide a little bit, but once I got involved with Whitesnake, with Micky Moody playing slide, I realised there was no point in me playing it because that was Mick’s natural thing and he was really good at it.
So my own slide playing stopped for about four years but I’ve always been a fan of Elmore James and obviously the Fleetwood Mac thing comes in too, with Jeremy Spencer.
When you go back and listen to all those old Elmore James records then, okay, every lick is almost the same, but he did it so well!
And, again, we’re all about the song and how he originally performed it – and I Can’t Hold On is another with a great story.

RM: Which raises another good point
– we’re talking about the artists being paid tribute to on Chess but the song selection is just as important; in fact it sounds like you thought very hard about just what songs to record, from a musical and lyrical standpoint.  

BM: Yeah, we did. There’s probably about four or five left over from each session, which I could probably have put on – and they will, more than likely, see the light of day at some point – but I wanted to keep it to ten songs and fairly crisp, and just get on with it – just like the old days, really!
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​RM: I want to mention one more track on Chess and that’s Howlin’ Wolf’s Who’s Been Talkin’, because I love the deeper, rhythmic sway you’ve applied to that song – there’s an almost Santana-Supernatural or smooth Latin vibe going on there.

BM: Well, let me tell you, that’s actually a legacy to Peter Green, because as you may or may not know I was kind of hanging with him in his last two or three years.
I was with him one particular afternoon and said to him "One of my favourite songs of yours Pete is I Loved Another Woman," which is from the first Peter Green & Fleetwood Mac Album.
He looked me straight in the face, with quite the intent, and said "Well, that was Howlin’ Wolf, wasn’t it?"
I said "Wait, what?" [laughs]. "Yes," he said "You must have heard Who’s Been Talking?" And I thought "Oh, yeah!", but it had never occurred to me before!
So, when I recorded it, I really wanted to play it to him – and he did get to hear it; he got to hear a rough mix of it before we lost him. That’s why I’ve put that feedback thing on there; it’s a bit of homage to Peter.
But, yes, it’s also a bit of Santana and Supernatural.

RM: That’s a lovely touch, the nod to Peter. I honestly would not have picked up on that.

BM: But then you probably wouldn’t have picked up on that because some other people that I played that song to, said "Are you doing a bit of Supernatural there?" and I’ve said "yeah!" [laughs]

RM: Having spoken about Kings and Chess, and knowing this is an ongoing series, can you tell me anything about the third instalment or is that under wraps until next year?

BM: No, I can tell you what’s next – this is typical of me, isn’t it?
Nothing for seven years and then three turn up almost at once!
I’m a bit like a London bus, aren’t I? [laughter]
The next one in the series is going to be called Trios and it’s actually a collection of recordings I made some time ago, which I thought I had lost, because the studio we recorded at had since closed.
In fact, I never planned to release anything from those recordings; it was more a less just a celebration of the songs, really.

But then, not long ago, I ran into the guy who engineered the tracks.
He said "Oh, I’ve got all those recordings on Logic."
I said "Really?" and my eyes started to light up! I asked if we could transfer them to Pro-Tools and he said "Yes, of course we can."
So, we put them up and listened to them and I was blown away by them. What they are is a three-piece, playing songs by all the trio bands that, just as I was turning pro, I was really into.
You’ve got Rory Gallagher with Taste, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, The James Gang, Johnny Winter… it’s a real rock album – it’s as rocky as Kings and Chess are blues.

The bass player on it is David Levy, who was with Rory’s band, and the drummer is the late Jimmy Copley, who was a fantastic drummer – his playing on it is absolutely sensational; he just plays so well on it.
The more we heard it back, and as we began to make some mixes, I said to the engineer "This has got to be heard; people need to hear this." 

RM: That sounds great and intriguing. Was there any catalyst that kicked that whole Trio idea off at all?

BM: No; there was no pressure when we recorded those songs – we were just picking out songs to do.
Well, actually, I had been asked to do a Rory Gallagher track by somebody, so we did the Taste track Same Old Story and that turned out so good that we decided "Let’s a couple more!”
Jimmy said "Let’s do a Hendrix tune" so we did Spanish Castle Magic; that turned out to be great fun.
But as any guitar player will tell you, if taking on a Hendrix song you’re going to get told "What, are you crazy?" [laughs] – but, as long as you give it respect, you’ll be fine.

RM: Which goes back to how we opened this chat – about not just playing covers but paying respect or true homage.

BM: Yeah. Although these songs were recorded longer ago, I did them with the same amount of thought and respect as I did the Chess and Kings albums, because those songs and artists were core to my career.
We did all the recordings in about a week and soon had a potential album in the can; but as I mentioned earlier I really wasn’t thinking about doing anything with it.
But, having found the songs again, I played it to the record company guys for the Inspirations series and they said "This could be just as big as the other two."
So Trios is going to be the third one in the series, which we’ll put out in the spring.

RM: What I find interesting about that story Bernie is I don’t believe in coincidence, or rather not at higher significance levels; for me the fact you have rediscovered these recordings just when you are doing this Inspirations series is classic case of Meant To Be, or all the pieces fitting.

BM: Yeah, you could be right! And there’s some real guitar hero stuff on Trios because I wasn’t ever thinking "Oh I wonder what people will think of this?" because it wasn’t ever meant for release at the time!
And I haven’t changed anything, other than mixing it about four months ago, for its 2022 release.
I think it’s really good.

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​RM: News of a third Inspirations album in the spring of 2022 also begs the obvious question – come the spring of next year, pandemic and health & safety proocols willing, would you like to take these albums out on the road?

BM: Well, I’ve been offered quite a few blues festivals, which I’m saying yes with a maybe to, depending on where we all are with this damn virus; but I haven’t got anything planned, more or less, until the spring of next year anyway, so that’s fine.
I was going to go out on a book tour, which I was looking forward to very much, but I don’t think that was going to make it to Scotland; I think there were lots of complaints about that, so I’ll make sure when that gets rebooked there are some dates in Scotland!
So the book tour is something to look forward to and yes, playing the Kings and Chess stuff live will be a joy, to be honest with you.

RM: Of course, especially given your love and enthusiasm for both playing live and the blues; it’s a win-win.
I totally get, and understand, the attraction if you said you were going to do a classic Whitesnake set or a set of predominately Whitesnake numbers, but I’d love to see you do a full blues show...

BM: …and I could sit down for a couple of numbers! [loud laughter] Chat between songs, all of that! [laughs]

RM: In all seriousness you could do that – a Q&A between songs, talking about the tunes and their origins, about the Three Kings of the Blues and the Chess label, much as you have done here.
You have your autobiography Where's My Guitar? but what about another book, solely on the blues and your love of the blues? An Inspirations book if you will; the companion piece to the Inspirations albums.

BM: [pauses]... Now there’s a thought, thank you for that. I’ve been lucky enough to know a lot of these blues greats, and sit one-to-one with players that are seen as icons.
I’d walk in to a room where B.B. King was and he’d look up and say [impersonates] "Hey Bernard, how are you?" I never fail to stop pinching myself thinking of that, believe me.
And of course hanging out with Peter Green – I’ve got some tapes of Peter and me just talking, and singing and playing together, which I’m sure people would love to hear.
But then we could do a whole programme or interview just talking about that man.

RM: Absolutely we could; he was a very special player in his prime; of that there is no question.  
Bernie, thanks for sitting in with FabricationsHQ and long may your inspiration, and Inspirations, for the blues continue; this has been a blues chatting pleasure.

BM: Oh thank you, mate; and I'm looking forward to getting back up to Scotland for a show so we can have a wee dram or two together – cheers! 

Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Berne Marsden
December 2021


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