About a month ago I saw Whitesnake for the 1st time at the Forest National arena in Brussels. The concert took place under heavy guard as it was the first gathering of so many people after the terrorist attacks at Le Bataclan in Paris, with some of the perpetrators still at large and reportedly loose in the city of Brussels. It was part of their "Purple" tour, a powerful incentive for me as the Deep Purple Mark III-IV repertory is rarely played live. Ian Gillan-fronted Deep Purple prefer to ignore the existence of records made with other singers, Blackmore has cut ties to his past and only Glenn Hughes occasionally revisits those songs. Yet Coverdale was the lead singer during those years and, knowing that his voice wasn't waned considerably, I was eager to listen to the likes of "Burn" and "You Keep On Moving" live. An unexpected bonus came when Coverdale sang one of my all-time-favorite ballads, the rarely performed "Soldier Of Fortune" from the 1974 Stormbringer album. It was an intimate, unadorned, performance with only an acoustic guitar for backing. The rest of the Purple tracks were performed with gusto, but there's such a thing as trying too hard. The band's two guitarists (Joel Hoekstra & Reb Beach) are quite skillful but they seemed anxious to put in as many solos as possible, trying to be compete with the ghost of Ritchie Blackmore, and that's a game you can't win. The ghost of Blackmore is unbeatable, not least by Blackmore himself who knows better than to take it on. Just ask Tommy Bolin! Anyway, that meant more hard rock and less ballads - which is fine with me. That said, despite the band playing their ass off during the Purple numbers, the highlights were the familiar Whitesnake hits from the 70's and 80's. The band was more relaxed and seemed to enjoy playing them. Coverdale was in good state vocally, while his appearance belied his age: lean, with the same blond mane he had in the 80's (probably even he has forgotten his real colour), unwrinkled face and bleached teeth. I'd swear when the lights momentarily went out I could still make out a disembodied smile, as if he was Alice's cheshire cat. Anyway I thought it'd be good to present a Whitesnake album in my blog but I hadn't brought any with me to Brussels, so it had to wait until I got back to my stash in Delft.  |
| "... I guess I'll always be a Soldier of Fortune" |
The "Silver Anniversary Collection" covers 25 years of Whitesnake and related side-projects and, if you add its sister collection "The Early Years", you'll have all (some would say more than) you'll ever need from this band, 50-odd tracks in total. I'll present them chronologically as I usually do with retrospectives of this kind. After the dissolution of Deep Purple in '76 amid drug problems and following a badly-received Blackmore-less tour, Coverdale went into a bluesier direction, initially under his own name and later under the Whitesnake moniker, starting with 1978's Snakebite whence we get Bobby "Blue" Bland cover "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City", one of their finest blues numbers which is rightfully still in their live set. From the same year's Trouble we get FM rocker "The Time Is Right for Love" and soulful ballad "Love to Keep You Warm". From 1979's Lovehunter there's only the short goodbye-number "We Wish You Well" - not much, but that album is in no danger of ever be forgotten because of its epic cover art. Move on to 1980's Ready an' Willing featuring arguably the best 'Snake line-up with star guitarists Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden, bassist Neil Murray and Deep Purple alumni Jon Lord and Ian Paice. Hence we get R&B flavored rocker "Fool for Your Loving" (ostensibly originally written for B.B. King), excellent Free-like ballad "Blindman" and Southern Rock-style "Ain't Gonna Cry No More".
That line-up's live prowess is demonstrated on live cuts "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues" and "Ready an' Willing" from the same year's Live...in the Heart of the City while sexually charged album titles continue with 1981's Come an' Get It, represented here by funk rocker "Don't Break My Heart Again", semi-acoustic Zeppelin pastiche "Till the Day I Die", electric blues "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" and funky Deep Purple Mk.IV-sounding "Hit an' Run" . From 1982's Saints & Sinners we only get hard blues "Victim of Love" while 1984's Slide It In (those sexual innuendos on the title kept getting lewder and funnier) is a typical hair metal album of the 80's. "The Deeper the Love" is the "sensual" ballad, "Now You're Gone" is AOR and "Love Ain't No Stranger" sounds like a mix of Free and the Scorpions. Better yet are driving FM Rock"Guilty of Love" and Zeppelin-ish blues "Slow an' Easy". The apotheosis of that stage in the band's career came with the eponymous Whitesnake (released in Europe as 1987) featuring the archetypal 80s soft metal ballad "Is This Love" and one of the best hard rockers of the decade, "Still of the Night". Check the video for a trip back in time - it even stars the future Mrs. Coverdale as the ultimate 80's pin-up.
Does it matter that its monster riff is borrowed from Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog"? Of course not, after all Zeppelin also borrowed heavily from other sources. Power ballad "Here I Go Again '87" is a re-hash of an older Whitesnake hit with a catchy chorus, and hit no.1 in its new, polished, incarnation. Other tracks from "1987" included here are typical hair metal fare "Straight for the Heart", ballad "Looking for Love" and "Give Me All Your Love" with its welcome mix of hard rock and blues a la Gary Moore. 1989's Slip of the Tongue followed the same recipe with 1987, with diminished results. Ballad "The Deeper the Love" was a surefire hit, burt the rest wasn't so strong. "Judgment Day" is a return to the hard rock days of Deep Purple and "Now You're Gone" a competent but forgettable cut of AOR. The comparative lack of success drove Coverdale to join forces with Jimmy Page in supergroup Coverdale•Page for a sole album in 1993. Though that both were past their prime, this collection manages to evoke past glories, most notably in the Led Zeppelin soundalikes "Pride and Joy" and "Shake My Tree". "Take a Look at Yourself" is a typical 80's ballad of the kind Eric Clapton or Joe Cocker produced at the time (yawn). 1997 saw the release of the unplugged Starkers in Tokyo. Two understated emotive cuts are included here, "Sailing Ships" and the aforementioned Purple ballad "Soldier of Fortune". From 1998's Restless Heart we get the electric blues "Too Many Tears" and from Coverdale's solo LP Into the Light (2000) the short intro of the same name, Aerosmith-like hard rock "Slave" and bluesy ballad "Love Is Blind", complete with strings. All things considered, Coverdale could just as well retire from recording after 1987 without anyone noticing his absence. But since his voice is still in such a good shape and he's amassed a rich back catalogue of hits, you'd do well to catch him live - if bluesy hard rock is your thing or feel nostalgia for the 80's...
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Whitesnake at Forest National/Vorst Nationaal, Brussels 1-12-2015
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***** for Fool for Your Loving, Still of the Night
**** for Pride and Joy (Coverdale•Page), Is This Love, Walking in the Shadow of the Blues (live), Guilty of Love, Blindman, Give Me All Your Love, Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City, Here I Go Again '87,
*** for Don't Break My Heart Again, Hit an' Run, The Time Is Right for Love, Love Ain't No Stranger, Too Many Tears, Victim of Love, Judgment Day, Take a Look at Yourself, Sailing Ships, Soldier of Fortune, Ready an' Willing (live), Slow an' Easy, She Give Me…, Shake My Tree, The Deeper the Love, Love to Keep You Warm, Love Is Blind, Ain't Gonna Cry No More Love Is Blind Lonely Days Lonely Nights, Till the Day I Die,
** for Straight for the Heart, Now You're Gone, Looking for Love, Into the Light, Slave, We Wish You Well
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