In the last few years, David Coverdale has been quite busy rehashing old material, but in a good way.  He has brought us deluxe box sets for albums such as ‘Slide It In’, ‘1987’, ‘Slip of the Tongue’ and even ‘Unzipped’ the all acoustic box set.  And next year in 2021, we will get ‘Restless Heart’.  But for now, he is rehashing old material yet again.

This time it is a series called ‘Red, White & Blue’ Trilogy.  The Rock Album (White) was up first and now we are on Love Songs (Red) and I believe The Blues Album (Blue, duh) will come in early 2021 (February was last I heard but that has not been confirmed yet).  Each album is really a glorified greatest hits albums each with its own theme and the titles give you those themes quite nicely.

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The big difference on these albums is more than just a remastering.  The songs have been tinkered with and given a little touch-up with some re-mixing and even a little touch-up on arrangements and other little surprises.  The songs aren’t completely re-imagined, thankfully it is no Bon Jovi “This Left Feels Right”.  The songs are still very much recognizable, just enhanced ever so slightly.

These 15 songs are from the albums ‘1987’ up to ‘Forevermore’ with the exception of the three previously unreleased songs. Those three songs were originally recorded during David Coverdale’s solo release in 2000 called ‘Into the Light’ and no he has brought them in to the light. There is one song from ‘1987’, two from ‘Slip of the Tongue’, three from ‘Restless Heart’, two from ‘Into the Light’ (not including the 3 new tracks from that session), two from ‘Good To Be Bad’, two from ‘Forevermore’ and none from the newest album ‘Flesh & Blood’. I guess it is too soon to rehash those.

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Since there are 15 tracks, I don’t think I am going to go through them all as that would make this way too long and you way to bored. I will stick with songs that have some serious changes and also focus mostly on the three new tracks if that is okay with you. Being the love album, you think it would all be ballads, but it is not. Some of the songs rock a little more, but the theme of the songs are still love. Love can rock as well as be a ballad so I am fine with the mix of tracks.

Speaking of mix, the opening track on the first LP, “Love Will Set You Free”, has a whole new a cappella opening that honestly doesn’t work for me. The original song starts with the some heavy guitar riffs and rocks out the whole time. The a cappella opening feels wrong. We also get some new guitar parts added as well as some keyboards to both “The Deeper the Love”, “Too Many Tears” and even “Can’t Go One” which Joel played on (he didn’t play on the original. I think it changes the songs enough that you notice the differences and these aren’t too bad of a change. Funny enough, “Is this Love” doesn’t seem to have been altered much, if at all…but why mess with perfection. The last song on the first LP with a noticeable difference is “Summer Rain” which I believe has a little more added to the backing vocals as they seem fuller.

The one new song on the first LP is “With All of My Heart”. This is ballad that is a little too syrupy sweet. It is very slow and plods along and doesn’t have much depth or heart to be honest. I found it rather boring and see why it was left off “Into the Light”. The backing vocals with the “oooh baby” aren’t that great either. Not a good track to me.

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“Your Precious Love” opens the second LP and the song seems to be a little less churchy as the original had more of a gospel feel to it. Joel Hoekstra added some guitars and Derek Sherinian added some Hammond. Another song that seems to have more backing vocals added like “Summer Rain” is “Don’t You Cry” and I think it is a nice add. A number of the songs have been cut down in time as well from the originals including “Midnight Blue” which has shaved around 10 seconds off. “Don’t You Cry” shaved 15 seconds as did several other songs probably to help get more tracks on the albums as it is simple enough to shorten the endings of the song by changing how it fades out.

The second LP had two new songs, the first being “Yours For the Asking”. This is more of an upbeat track and stylistically way better than the first new track. It has some orchestration it, probably done with keyboards, but still a nice effect. Chorus is short, but I think it is David’s vocal delivery that shines here. It is more serious and a deeper register, a little bluesy, but not much which keeps it cool sounding. Also, David is actually playing guitar on this track.

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The last new track is “Let’s Talk It Over” and this one goes on for 8 minutes. Yowzers, that is a long time. It sounds like there is an organ, acoustic guitars and a sweet sounding song David wrote after he and his wife had a fight. There is some nice guitar work in the final moments of the song and although really long, isn’t a bad track. It is a rather sweet song.

Since this is basically a glorified greatest hits compilation, I will treat it as such so no track score.  As a greatest hits album, it is great set of songs from 1987 up to today so I have no complaints with it for that reason.  It covers a ton of the ballads and a few of the rocking love songs, however, as an album, I don’t think we really needed re-mixed songs with slight changes here and there.  That part is a little unnecessary for me.  I found the album a little boring at times as it is a lot of have nothing but love songs. The Rock Album, I can deal with all rock songs, but love songs is another thing. Plus, with the exception of a few ballads, they aren’t all the greatest songs David has done. The new songs are more miss than hit too. I did enjoy it at times, but at others not so much. I don’t think it is a bad concept, just a tough sell. But I will still give it a fairly decent score as it Whitesnake and David and at least he is busting his ass putting out material. After I have rambled on and on, I will score it a 3.0 out of 5.0 Stars as I think you will find it enjoyable overall when you are in the mood for it..

I am glad I got to add another notch in the David Coverdale Series bring us to 39 posts. I can’t wait for the ‘The Blues Album’ in early 2021 (hopefully) to bring us to 40 reviews. Of course, I will happily add more for any other Whitesnake releases (or Coverdale). Hell, I will probably come back down the road and actually review the Live albums I missed as well.

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 – Love Songs
38. Whitesnake – The Albums Ranked Worst to First
39. 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)