We are now in 1981 and the band is on their 4th album.  Whitesnake has started to gain some traction with the album’s ‘Ready an’ Willing’ along with the live album ‘Live…in the Heart of the City’.  When ‘Come an’ Get It’ arrives, it goes to #2 on the chart and barely misses #1 thanks to Adam and the Ants’ ‘King of the Wild Frontier’.  Yes, an Ant kicked a Snake’s ass!!!

The band’s line-up is unchanged, the producer, Martin Birch, is unchanged and they follow the successful formula of ‘Ready an’ Willing on this album to rather great success (on the charts).

• David Coverdale – vocals
• Micky Moody – Guitar
• Bernie Marsden – Guitar
• Neil Murray – Bass
• Jon Lord – Keyboards
• Ian Paice – Drums

I know this is a favorite Snake album for a lot of people and even a favorite of David Coverdale’s; however, it isn’t one of my top albums.  I have spent the longest with this album in hopes that it would grow on me and it has to some extent, but not overall.  This was a hard beast for me to get through, well Side Two was.  Side One kicks some major ass.

My copy only has an inner sleeve that says The Atlantic Group so no lyrics, but the back cover (as noted above) does let me know who gets the solo on each song which was it what I loved about the lyrics on the inner sleeves of the other albums.  I do love the back cover with the broken apple and the snake let loose…a whole Adam & Eve reference.  Speaking of covers, go back up and look at the Snake’s mouth. I don’t see a tongue, but maybe a part of the woman’s anatomy that probably might have been overlooked by censors…am I crazy?

Alright, I won’t delay any longer.  I will go through the songs and let you what I thought was great and which ones, didn’t sit well with me.

SIDE ONE:

The album opens with the cocky title track “Come an’ Get It”.  David doesn’t have a problem with the cock rock monicker that has plagued the band as he continues to throw it right in your face time and time again.  There is a great groove that carries the song forward and Bernie lays down a great solo.  A really great opening track that sets the tone.

Next up the band seems to be on speed as they “speed” through the extra cool “Hot Stuff”.  One of the heavier tracks on the album that blazes through and sees David flying through the lyrics.  Ian is banging out the beats with some killer fills and Jon Lord lays down one sexy solo with keyboards nonetheless (who knew they could be sexy).

Right on its’ heels is the first single and hit smashing song, “Don’t Break My Heart Again”. It reached #17 on the UK Charts and is actually one of my favorite Whitesnake songs.  The song is about David first marriage (and I think “Fool For Your Loving” is too).  It opens with Lord on organ and then Neil’s throbbing bass. David delivers some emotional and heavy lyrics and the song has a great drum beat throughout and then Bernie delivers on the solo.  One of David’s finest performances on this album and many album.s  Smoking track.

“Lonely Days, Lonely Nights” is blues, rock track that has one of the coolest vibes of all the songs.  It is slower in tempo and pacing and Micky is playing a mean slide guitar.  David is sounding sultry and sexy and delivering a very heartfelt performance.

Last up on Side One is the bar song “Wine, Women an’ Song” (Why do they always drop the “d” on and???).  The song has that piano bar sound and is a straight up boogie rock song.  The song is a complete blast.  If you were in a bar and this song came on, the whole bar would be on the dance floor having a hell of a good time.

SIDE TWO:

Side Two opens up with the wind blowing and some mystical sounding notes with the “Child of Babylon”. I felt the band was trying for an epic song in the same vein as say a later song “Judgement Day”, but to no real success.  Musically, the band sounds great, however, I couldn’t connect with this song at all.  I wasn’t sure what they were trying to do here.  And this was the start of it going wrong for me.

Next up is the second single called “Would I Lie To You” and it didn’t do as well as “Don’t Break My Heart Again” as it only reached #37 on the UK Charts.  The song is too cheesy lyrically which normally doesn’t bother me, but this time it did probably because the song title is too repetitive throughout the song.  And it just plods on and on and doesn’t seem to ever want to stop… God help me.  If I was 16, maybe I would like it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.  There were better songs on here for a second single.

And things don’t get better with “Girl” which might be the worst song they have ever done.  The bass is great on it, but I don’t have anything nice to say about this one other than that.  So yeah Neil!!

“Hit an’ Run” was actually written for the ‘Ready an’ Willing’ album, but was then known as “Love For Sale”.  The lyrics were completely overhauled for inclusion on this album.  It starts out with a bang and is a little bit of a saving grace for side two. They were completely losing me at this point, but this brought be back.  It includes a fantastic voice box solo from Bernie and the lead guitar solo is Micky on his slide guitar.  Truly awesome.

And closing out the album is “Till The Day I Die” and as I mentioned earlier that the formula follows the last album so this song would most resemble “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More”.  It starts out acoustic and later plugs in and slams in the electric guitars and rocks out.  If you want an epic sounding song, this would be it not that “Child” crap earlier.  With Micky on the acoustic and then Lord getting the solo, this hits all the bells and whistles for a great rock track.  Way to close out the album.

Track Listing:

1. Come an’ Get It – Keeper
2. Hot Stuff – Keeper
3. Don’t Break My Heart Again – Keeper
4. Lonely Days, Lonely Nights – Keeper
5. Wine, Women an’ Song – Keeper
6. Child of Babylon – Delete
7. Would I Lie To You – Delete
8. Girl – Delete
9. Hit an’ Run – Keeper
10. Till the Day I Die – Keeper

The track score is 70% with 7 out of the 10 Tracks as keepers.  The three songs starting out Side Two really came close to killing this album for me.  However, the remaining songs are all pretty killer and did salvage the score.  It will get a 3.5 out of 5.0 Stars which is pretty good, but it won’t land it in as a favorite with that score.  I can’t say enough how much those songs hurt the overall enjoyment of the album.  Still though, you need this one because I can see why this is a favorite of a lot of people because there is some choice stuff here.  I might prefer to listen to this on CD merely to make skipping easier…hard to do on my vinyl with lifting the needle and placing it further down the songs.

Up next…Deep Purple – “Live in London”.

The David Coverdale Series:

1. Deep Purple – Burn
2. Deep Purple – Stormbringer
3. Deep Purple – Come Taste the Band
4. Deep Purple – Made in Europe
5. David Coverdale – Whitesnake
6. Deep Purple – Last Concert in Japan
7. David Coverdale – Northwinds
8. David Coverdale’s Whitesnake – Snakebite
9. Whitesnake – Trouble
10. Whitesnake – Lovehunter
11. Whitesnake – Ready an’ Willing
12. Whitesnake – Live…in the Heart of the City
13. Whitesnake – Come An’ Get it
14. Deep Purple – Live in London
15. Whitesnake – Saints & Sinners
16. Whitesnake – Slide It In
17. Whitesnake – “Give Me More Time” 12″ Single (Bonus Review)
18. Whitesnake – ‘The Best of Whitesnake (Bonus Review – 1982 release)
19. Whitesnake – Whitesnake (1987)
20. Whitesnake – “Is This Love” 12″ Promo (Bonus Review)
21. Whitesnake – Slip of the Tongue
22. David Coverdale – “The Last Note of Freedom” – Single Review
23. Coverdale/Page – Coverdale/Page
24. Coverdale/Page – “Take Me For A Little While 12” Single (Bonus Review)
25. David Coverdale & Whitesnake – Restless Heart
26. Whitesnake – Starkers in Tokyo
27. David Coverdale – Into the Night
28. Whitesnake – Live…In the Still of the Night (DVD)
29. Whitesnake – Live…In the Shadow of the Blues
30. Whitesnake – Good To Be Bad
31. Whitesnake – Forevermore
32. Whitesnake – Live at Donington 1990: Monsters of Rock
33. Whitesnake – The Purple Album
34. Whitesnake – The Purple Tour (Live)
35. Whitesnake – Flesh & Blood
36. Whitesnake – The Rock Album
37. Whitesnake – The Albums Ranked Worst to First
38. David Coverdale – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

Other David Coverdale Albums reviewed – (Box Sets and Bootlegs):

1. Whitesnake – 1987 (30th Anniversary Edition) – Box Set
2. Whitesnake – Slide It In (35th Anniversary Edition) – Box Set
3. Whitesnake – Unzipped – Box Set
4. Whitesnake – Slip of the Tongue (30th Anniversary Edition) – Box Set
5. Whitesnake (Snake) – Still of the Night Live in Battle Creek, Mich. July 26, 1987 (Bootleg)