This week, we are going to explore my David Coverdale Collection on vinyl. We will start with his time with Deep Purple and go through the Whitesnake collection as well as any solo and side projects. I’ll even throw in some bootlegs and 12″ Singles. It is all things Coverdale for this episode as he is one of my favorite Rock & Roll Singers and I think I have enough stuff to go through that I think you’ll enjoy!!
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Back in 2011, Whitesnake released a box set called ‘Box ‘O’ Snakes (The Sunburst Years 1978-1982)’. It was a massive 9 CDs, 1 DVD and a 7″ Single of ‘Snakebite’. And if you missed it, like me, you would have to pay the late tax which means you’d be paying a pretty penny to get it now. Probably over $200 with shipping if you were lucky. Luckily, in 2013, they re-released it and called it ‘Little Box ‘O’ Snakes’. This time around there are only 8 CDs, no DVD and no 7″. You also miss out on an extra live show. But you do get a lot of stuff.
As David Coverdale doesn’t own the rights to these albums from the Sunburst Years, we won’t be seeing those massively incredible Deluxe Box Sets he has been doing from ‘Slide it In’ and forward. For now, this will do. I already have all of these on vinyl, but I didn’t have the CDs so this was a cheap easy way to get them all in one bunch. I think I paid around $30 for the set. Much better than the $200 for the original set. For now, this will do.
The set comes in a sturdy card board box and each CD is housed in a cardboard sleeve similar to a vinyl album cover. No CD cases to house them. There is also a booklet accompanying the set. All-in-all, you get 8 albums which includes the first E.P., 5 Studio albums and 2 live albums. A ton of music to get through and an incredible line-up of songs and bandmates.
David Coverdale coming off of Deep Purple put together a stellar band with the likes of Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden on guitars and what a duo that would be. You also get a rhythm section like no other with Neil Murray on bass and Dave Dowle on drums for the first few albums then the incomparable Ian Paice thereafter. If that wasn’t enough, you had Jon Lord on keyboards/organ. What a beast he was and I don’t think there was anyone his equal at that time. Now, what’s in the box?
I have done two posts already on the Best & Worst songs from every Judas Priest album and also from Cheap Trick. I really enjoyed doing that so I thought I would continue that process and this time we would go through every Whitesnake album and see what is the best song and the worst one off each album as well. Whitesnake has 13 studio albums to go through so sit back and take it all in. Now, let’s preface this with the fact that these are my choices and not necessarily yours as we can have different opinions. If you watched the show you will see that sometimes my worst song was their favorite so you never know what people like and we all like different things or this would be a very dull world. I hope you enjoy!!
‘TROUBLE’ (1978)
BEST SONG –“Belgian Tom’s Hat Trick”: The coolest song on the album and probably the best is “Belgian Tom’s Hat Trick” which is a full assault of an instrumental with 3 different solos. One for Moody, One for Lord and One for Marsden. I don’t see it as out of place as Purple threw in an instrumental on ‘Burn’ and this one is way better. I really love when Jon Lord lays it down and he does just that. The guitar’s have a riff that plays through-out that is the main feel for the song and everything is played beautifully off of that riff. No David Coverdale on this one, so sorry, but this is too killer not to include.
WORST SONG – “Day Tripper”: The worst is this horrible cover of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper”. It is…let’s say…not good. It is uninspiring and bluh. The adding in of the Framptonesque Talk Box doesn’t help and I really can’t stand it. I hope that point is coming across. Skip/Delete whatever you do, just avoid it.
For My Sunday Song #207, we are tackling an early career defining song for Whitesnake called “Walking in the Shadow of the Blues”. The song was written by David Coverdale and Bernie Marsden and is off the 1979 album, ‘Lovehunter’ and although the album did better than the debut, it still didn’t light the world on fire. But looking back on the band’s early albums, this was the one where they started finding themselves and they grew from there.
Over on Loudersound.com, an article on Whitesnake by Geoff Barton, quotes David Coverdale on the song and he stated the following:
“That song really summed up my musical approach of the time,” Coverdale says. “It was very much my feeling, my perspective and probably my life’s philosophy back then. The lyric more or less wrote itself. It was very free-flowing, very autobiographical. It was just waiting to be written. Bernie and I put the music together very quickly. It was obviously meant to be as a song. I’m very proud of that one.”
“Walking in the Shadow of the Blues” tells the story of a man who never fit in and was the black sheep of his family. He wanted to live his own life and do what he wanted even if his parents didn’t want him to do it. He packs his bags and his guitar and heads out on his own to pursue that dream which I would say he succeeded.
Starting back on August 1st, 2019, we started the David Coverdale Series of reviews. It was a long process and after 36 reviews, we are capping off the series with not one, but two album rankings. The first one, this one, is going to cover only the Whitesnake albums. The second one, next week, will cover ALL albums that David Coverdale has done. The list are only studio albums. No E.P.’s, no live albums and no greatest hits.
Whitesnake started back in 1978 and was a result of David going solo after his stint in Deep Purple and he realized he enjoyed the band aspect and Whitesnake was born after 2 solo albums. The name was taken from the title of David’s first solo album and now David is the only original member. Hell, it was really his band anyway. One of the few bands it doesn’t matter who is in it as long as David is singing. If you want to read the reviews of each album, check out the list at the bottom of the post and click away and go explore each album in more depth. Thanks
The really cool thing I discovered when I went back to compile my list is that no album saw a score of less than a 3.0 out of 5.0 Stars. How many bands can say that. Probably not a lot. Enough chit chat, now let’s get started…
In May 1979, the band went back in to the studio to record the follow-up to ‘Trouble’. In a few short weeks they were done and on October 1st, 1979, the band released “Lovehunter’ to the masses. The album was recorded by Martin Birch who did ‘Trouble and they recorded at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire in the Rolling Stones Mobile and it was later mixed at Central Recorders Studio and Sauna in London. Sauna??? That is freaking weird. Anyway, the album did modestly and reached #29 in the UK Chart. Not a smashing success, but it did chart.
The album was rather controversial. Not for the music, no that wasn’t it. It was that cover. And oh what a cover!! It was a picture of a beautiful lady straddling a huge snake. Oh, and she is naked!! If only the U.S. had this album back in the day…why couldn’t my brothers have owned this one because at 10 years old, I would have really loved this cover. The artist was Chris Achilleos who was known for fantasy artwork and I believe he was very distraught over the controversy as it was the last album cover he did until 2003 when he did the album cover for Glenn Hughes’ album ‘Once and Future King Part 1’.
This album would end up being Duck Dowle’s last album as the drummer for Whitesnake as he was replaced shortly after the release by former Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice which would bring the total of ex-Deep Purple members to three.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 