David Coverdale has discussed the four unreleased songs he recorded with Jimmy Page that he plans to work on for an expanded release of the Coverdale Page album next year.
Speaking to Polish radio station Radio 357 in an interview broadcast on March 20 (thanks to Royal Orleans member pablak for sharing a recording), Coverdale told presenter Piotr Kaczkowski that he has “maybe four songs and a lot of jam sessions in the can” from his work with Page on the 1993 album.
Coverdale and Page are working on a remastered and expanded version of the Coverdale Page album to be released for its thirtieth anniversary in 2023.
“There’s a lot of songs that we didn’t get to release,” Coverdale told Radio 357. “I was very excited to work with Jimmy. I thought we did a very good job getting the best out of each other at that time in our lives. And I had [a] very, very creative electricity feeling so I was coming up with ideas and I said to Jimmy ‘We can do another album. We can make Coverdale Page 2.’ And his manager at that time was not encouraging.”
“I’ve utilised a lot of those songs with Whitesnake, like on Flesh & Blood, ‘Gonna Be Alright’ was one of those guitar licks I had for Coverdale Page 2 and on Restless Heart, I don’t know whether you remember when we spoke so long ago, two of those songs I’d written for a Coverdale Page 2 which was ‘Woman Trouble Blues’ and ‘Take Me Back Again’.”
“So at least these songs are getting exposure but we still have, I think, maybe four songs and a lot of jam sessions in the can,” Coverdale added. “It’s just very dangerous now for … Jimmy doesn’t have a studio at home. I have a studio around the corner from my house so I can do all this remixing during the terrible Covid experience. But Jimmy can’t get to a studio. There are still dangerous elements of these Covid variants coming out but we have the thirtieth anniversary in 2023. It’s fantastic, Peter, it’s the thirtieth anniversary of Coverdale Page, amazing to think of, so I would love us to make a beautiful box set for that … as soon as I finish touring, I’m back in the studio.”
Coverdale has repeatedly mentioned his plans to release an expanded version of Coverdale Page in 2023.
Speaking to Antihero Magazine last year, Coverdale confirmed plans to release an expanded version of the album in 2023 and said he has struck a deal with Universal to purchase the rights to the album.
“I’ve just got that album back, the rights to it, from Universal in a settlement deal,” Coverdale said. “Because a lot of my work was lost in that infamous fire. It’s been consistently denied, we were really fortunate to come out with the stuff we did.”
Coverdale’s comments revealed that there is more unreleased material from Coverdale Page than previously known. He told the “Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown” podcast in February 2021 that “right now I’m working on songs potentially to present to Jimmy Page for maybe a couple of bonus tracks.”
“I spoke to Jimmy about it, and I said, ‘I must tell you, I’m loving working with Rhino, I want to give them first offer,’” Coverdale told Antihero Magazine. “We still have to come to an agreement on that, but the plan is we have so much content, and I suggested to Jimmy, ‘Why don’t you do a mix? We’ll always have the original which we’ll remaster. We’ll find amazing guys to work on it. I said, ‘Why don’t you do the Jimmy Page mix, and I’ll do the David Coverdale mix? You do your own running order, I’ll do my own running order, I think the fans would love it.’”
“We have, I think, four unreleased songs, five, I’m not sure,” he continued. “Because working with Jimmy was so inspiring, it was a particularly prolific period for me. So, I said, ‘Let’s finish off the album. Let’s do a second album.’ We could’ve done it easily, and his manager talked him out of it, it was really sad, and thank God that guy’s out of the picture now.”
“But Jimmy and I maintain a super friendship, and I’m hoping to have some good news for him soon anyway. So, we shall see, fingers crossed. But that is part of the plan, yeah.”
Coverdale also told eonmusic in October 2020 about his plans for a remaster of the album.
“I think you’re in for some nice surprises,” he said. “Jimmy and I have been talking about it, and he’s isolated out in the country, so we just have to make sure, because I’m not getting on a fucking plane, and I certainly don’t expect him to!”
“We’ll have the original album remastered, and we’ve got a bunch of songs we didn’t release, and I videoed most of the writing and recording scenario, and all the way to the shows in Osaka and stuff, so, there’s a shit load of content, but one of the things I suggested to him, I said; ‘why don’t you do a Jimmy Page mix on the record, and I’ll do a David Coverdale mix, and let the fans just get Jimmy’s perspective, and mine.’”
Coverdale first mentioned a remaster of the album in an interview with Eddie Trunk in 2018.
“Last year, prior to Christmas, I hosted all my Warner guys, the new people I’m working with. The new team flew up from LA to Reno where Hook City, the Whitesnake studio, is. We spent a day together discussing plans and ideas,” he said.
“And the president said, not the president of the United States, said, ‘How would you think bout revisiting the ‘Coverdale Page’ album?’ And I said, ‘What, remixing?’ Because initially, prior to me getting ill we were supposed to deliver the ‘Flesh and Blood’ studio record to Frontiers by the end of February in order to get it out May-June to coincide with the Foreigner one. And of course my illness just kicked it off the table.
“But at that time I thought March, April, May – Jimmy and I could remix it and mix the unreleased songs that we had, because we had four or five extra songs. At the same time, talking about synchronicity or good planning on the part of Warner, the president or Warner UK was entertaining Jimmy a dinner or lunch and saying, ‘Hey, how would you fancy revisiting the Coverdale Page project?’ And he went, ‘I’ll call David right now!’ And I said to this guy, ‘I’ll call Jimmy right now.’ It was the funniest thing.
“So definitely when we can, when we both have the time, we will be remixing and adding… I mean, I documented, I filmed the whole process from the first day Jimmy and I sat down to write music at my house at Lake Tahoe. So there’s enough stuff to make a really interesting package for the fans.”
Listen to that interview below:
Look forward to the CP2 new material. Possibly something from the Japanese tour as well. Instrumental tracks with JP are most welcome of course. A quality box, story of the project all complete would be excellent.
Any update? Has David started work on it since he recovered from his illness and tour cancellation?
I am a big fan of both artists.