Review by Peter Coates – www.facebook.com/InsideEdgePhotography
Released – 9th May 2025
Conquest Records / Little House Music
There was a huge outpouring of loving tributes to Bernie Marsden since he passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family on 24th August 2023 at the age of 72. I was lucky enough to see Bernie as part of the classic Whitesnake line up in the late 1970s and early 80s, and also got to meet him a couple of times at shows, and he was the most un-pretentious person you could hope to meet.
Although Bernie had always worked hard and kept busy, most recently releasing 3 solo albums since 2021 in KINGS, CHESS and TRIOS as part of his Inspirations series, and this new release, ICONS, is the fourth chapter of this body of work, and was preceded by an EP release of the amazing Purple Haze re-working. ICONS celebrates the works of a number of iconic blues/rock guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and Peter Green. The final volume of the series will be STAGE, released later in 2025, and this will represent the amazing Bernie Marsden live performance experience.
The album kicks off with the great Elmore James’ Shake Your Money Maker which is the most straight up slide guitar boogie workout, and Bernie adds his own quite refined vocal style, while absolutely nailing the slide work especially in the close out chorus. Back over the Atlantic to 1970, and a version of Derek & the Dominos Bell Bottom Blues written by Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock. This features acoustic guitars and some wonderful harmony vocals.
Up next is the rendition of Purple Haze, which is a remarkable interpretation of the Jimi Hendrix classic, featuring a complementary riff that works as a counterfoil to the classic lick. Bernie lets the vocals take something of a back seat, with a simple delivery that lets the guitars shine. The slick piece of soloing that comes just before the ending is one that creeps up out of nowhere and delivers a final slap in the face!
Albert King is the next Icon, and Born Under a Bad Sign from 1967 is just a perfect choice as it fits Bernie’s natural style so well. The riff is crisp and distorted enough, and the bass rumbles along under the guitars, while the drums just accentuate the beat with some rolling snare fills, and the soloing is just a clean and pure delight. There is a real change of tack with a version of Rory Gallagher’s Wheels Within Wheels, which is more folk and skiffle than blues rock, from the 2003 album of the same name. Bernie has always had an under-stated voice, and here again he has provided the ideal vocal melody that perfectly fits the underlying track.
The first side of the record finished with an almost surf-rock ballad in Bernie’s own Kestrel – a mellow instrumental that brings the first half of the album to a very gentle close.
The second half kicks off with another Gallagher number, in the bluesy Calling Card, that opens up with some tasty electric piano that echoes the bass intro from the original version, but delivers a much more laid back version of the song. The guitars are less strident, and altogether smoother than Gallagher’s brashness, but Bernie allows the piano to add a dimension missing from the original, and this allows the guitars to be more expressive at times. Peter Green was always one of Bernie’s own icons, and the riff for Oh Well is perfectly delivered, over the tight bass and drums, together with some shuffling percussion to add some dynamics. The solo section is pure Bernie, and the different musical elements surrounding the riff just add to the experience, then allowing the essence of the core riff to take over for the ending.
Back to the USA and 1973 for a really honest Jessica, the Allman Brothers instrumental classic tribute to Django Reinhardt that was apparently designed to be played using only two fingers of the left hand! There is a fiddle solo that sits neatly over the backing, before the guitar slides in alongside to bring the melody back to the fore.
Back to Fleetwood Mac for a blistering version of Like It This Way, a real blues cracker from 1969, and Bernie and the band absolutely tear their way through this, with a top-drawer solo from Bernie. Staying with Fleetwood Mac, we now get a very gentle cover of Man Of The World, with the intricate picking and delicate guitar breaks that were Peter Green’s hallmark.
The record closes with another one of Bernie’s, in Barford Blues, and this is as close to the true Marsden sound that I have heard since the About Time Too record came out in 1979 during the Whitesnake years, and that remains one of my all-time favourite records. This is a standard blues rock beat and structure, with no vocals again, but Bernie lets the guitar tell the whole story, and it is just extraordinary in the way it wrings every drop of emotion from the listener.
The EP that preceded the release of ICONS included On The Road Again, Sitting On Top Of The World, Joe’s Place and Pick It Up as well as Purple Haze, and that is definitely worth picking up as an add-on to this album.
Critics might suggest that Bernie could have dropped a couple of the Fleetwood Mac numbers to make way for a couple of other blues guitar legends, but if you look at the whole 4 album set so far, most of those are already covered one way or another. We should welcome and treasure any remaining release from this Lord of The Blues!
Useful Links:
Pre-Order:
https://berniemarsden.tmstor.es/
Website:
https://berniemarsden.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/berniemarsdenofficial
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Bernie_Marsden
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/berniemarsden
Track Listing – available on CD or Black Vinyl LP
1 Shake Your Money Maker
2 Bell Bottom Blues
3 Purple Haze
4 Born Under A Bad Sign
5 Wheels Within Wheels
6 Kestrel
7 Calling Card
8 Oh Well
9 Jessica
10 Like It That Way
11 Man Of The World
12 Barford Blues
