To begin with, guitarist John Sykes had been in a little band called Whitesnake for a short time, but was a major part of the shake up that was occurring in that band to help David Coverdale’s dream come true, of a major hit in the United States. Having co-written the entire album with Coverdale and played all the guitars, Sykes and the rest of the recording artists were dismissed from the band by Coverdale. This story is detailed more fully in the Season 2 episode of this podcast relating to the Whitesnake 1987 album. That album of course went gangbusters around the world, and especially the US, and given Sykes was so heavily involved, then it was only natural to think that he could do something similar again.
Almost immediately Sykes had begun to write new material, and in early 1987 had decided to form a band in order to get back into the swing of things. The first to come aboard was Music from a Lifetime favourite Cozy Powell, who had played in Whitesnake on the “Slide it In” album and then played with Sykes in the band on the tour that followed that. Bass guitar duties were to be handled by Tony Franklin, who was coming off two albums with another notable super group The Firm, that had also contained Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers and Chris Slade. Last to be appointed was the lead vocalist, Ray Gillen. Gillen undoubtedly had talent was seemed to have trouble remaining in bands, for which I can cite his very short term in the Tony Iommi solo slash Black Sabbath framework of the mid 1980’s. This line up of the band went to Spain to record demos, where tensions and doubts began to rise almost immediately over Gillen’s songwriting ability, and vocal technique, with he and Sykes often disagreeing on how the songs should be sung. Sykes himself had sung on the original demos he had made of the initial songwriting burst he had had after being fired from Whitesnake, so he had the best idea of what he wanted from these new demos. Gillen soon left the band, but the demos were good enough to secure a contract with Geffen Records.
But the revolving doors continued. Cozy grew tired of the lack of progress, and left the band, instead teaming up with Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath. A number of drummers were considered as his replacement, but it was eventually Carmine Appice who approached THEM as he had an interest in working with Sykes and Franklin, and he was soon confirmed as the drummer. The band entered the studio still searching for a lead vocalist. They had in fact hired Tony Martin for the role, who had recently sung on Black Sabbath’s “The Eternal Idol” album, but before they reached the studio he too had quit. Unable to find someone who fit the mould they were looking for, Sykes himself was convinced by the band to take on the role, something he had never done before. Talk about on the job training! And thus – finally! - two years after first making its tentative steps, Blue Murder had its debut album on the way.
So we all went into this looking for another Whitesnake album, didn’t we? I mean, that had been so hyped up about this super group journey that it was hard to separate the two at this point. And the fact that Bob Rock was hired as the producer of this album, another of the many high-profile albums he was to be a part of in 1989 alone, gave everyone hope that this was going to be an enjoyable and successful venture. So when you hear the song structure of the opening track “Riot” you think... yeah okay, that isn’t bad. The lyrics and vocals are a bit tame, but it's an okay song. Then you come to “Sex Child” and for the most part it is uninspiring. The vocals, the lyrics, generally the music... you get lost pretty quickly. That is, until you hear the John Sykes solo. Because this sounds like a solo from that Whitesnake album... because he PLAYED on that album. There’s that first connection between these two albums, the Sykes solo, so typical and familiar. So it’s time to continue on. The single “Valley of the Kings” follows, and is the epic track that I’m sure the band was looking for. It was co-written with Tony Martin, and to be honest if Martin had been singing this track, it would without doubt be a brilliantly epic track because of his voice. Look, Sykes sings this fine, but the rest of the song is epic in nature apart from the vocals. Tony Martin would have crushed this. A better vocalist would have crushed it. It is still a good track. And now we are into the album.
Then comes “Jelly Roll”, the second single from the album. Opinions vary on this song, and according to Tony Franklin the single failed because MTV would not play the video for this track after the relative failure of the first single to chart. To me though, unlike the previous song, no vocalist could make this a good song, even Coverdale. The lyrics are ripe of the era, of the glam metal styling, but here it doesn’t work. In the same way as “Sex Child” doesn’t feel worthy of this trio, add to that list “Jelly Roll”. The whine of “Love can break your heart” over and over is what entices the skip button rather than a sing-along. The title track “Blue Murder” fights back harder, the only song credited to all three members of the band, and all three sound more invested. A great solo from Sykes again is the highlight – why wasn’t there more of this on the album? - and there is more energy across the board. “Out of Love” though tries to recreate the Whitesnake song “Is This Love?” and while it probably appeals to parts of the marketplace, it doesn’t have Coverdale crooning, which may well have made the difference. Listen to both those songs back to back, and you know what Sykes is going for. It’s not an exact copy, but the song structure and melodies are the same. On the other hand, “Billy” drives harder than most of the songs here, with great drumming from Carmine and yet another excellent solo from Sykes dominating the song. This rates as arguably the best song on the album. “Ptolemy” seems to be reaching for something it isn’t, a utopia-like grander scale track again that sounds like it is missing something that could get it anywhere near that level. The album is closed out by “Black-Hearted Woman”, that opens with that immediately recognisable riffing from Sykes that is plastered all over the album he will always be known for... yeah, that Whitesnake album again. This could almost have been drawn completely from that album, even Sykes’ vocals channel Coverdale on this track. One wonders if perhaps he should have done more of this?
I vividly remember when this album was released. Well, what I remember is how the band was being pumped up as the next Whitesnake, because John Sykes was as involved in the Blue Murder album as he had been on the Whitesnake 1987 album. In fact, as he is singing here as well, he is involved more! And I remember the video for “Valley of the Kings” being on Rage on ABCTV every single Saturday night, and it being... okaaaay... but was it Whitesnake without David Coverdale? Well. Maybe.
I think my main motivation behind eventually buying the album is that I bought my first ever stereo for my room around the same time, and it had my first ever CD player, so I was going out and hunting for albums I could buy on CD to begin my collection. And as it turns out, this was being prominently displayed in Wilson’s Records in Wollongong on one day when I walked in, and so I decided to fork out the $28 it was marked at and give it a go.
Error.
I don’t think I have ever been more disappointed with an album on purchase. I don’t deny I was looking for Whitesnake Mark II, and you get that in pieces on this album, but there is never enough of it. No one wants a carbon copy of an album when it is a different band, but what Sykes did brilliantly on that Whitesnake album was write and play riffs and solos, and when he does this on this Blue Murder album, it sounds fantastic. And given he was so influential in the writing of the Whitesnake album, then surely there should have been more of that here. Or was he self conscious enough that he didn’t WANT it to sound like that, and thus the differences? I don’t know the answer. I think Carmine on drums and Tony on bass sound good here with the material they have. And beyond that, all I do know is that when Sykes riffs hard on this album, it sounds great. John Kalodner, the band’s manager who convinced Sykes that he should also sing on this album, came out a few years later and suggested that the relatively poor performance of the album was due to Sykes not being a strong enough front-man. Well done you. And while his vocals are fine on this album, a lead singer I think would have made a big difference on some of these songs, and actually made them better than what they are. Yes, I am thinking Tony Martin here, but honestly if only they had been able to make it work with Ray Gillen, that too would have been awesome, as the Badlands debut album later in 1989 proved... but we’ll get to that down the track.
So I’ve dusted this off over the past two weeks (still in alphabetical order in the racks, so that was a bonus) and played it a number of times over. Probably more in fact than I have since I first bought it all those years ago. And to me, the same failing keep raising their head. The difference for me now is, that I don’t consider this a bad album. Instead, it is an album that for all intents and purposes, I find... dull. It should have been more inspired with these three involved, but it isn’t. The good news in this is that I had it with four other albums in my CD stacker for the current round of reviews for this podcast, and when it came on, I did notice it and found myself enjoying parts of it as I did other things around the listening. So I do believe that I am more enamoured with the album now than I ever was. Maybe I WILL eventually get my $28 worth out of listening to it, after all...
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