Whitesnake – ‘Into the Light: The Solo Albums Box Set’ (2024) – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

David Coverdale has really outdone himself with these Super Deluxe Editions Box Sets.  First was the ‘1987’ album, then an UnZipped Box Set, then ‘Slide It In’ and the 1989 album ‘Slip of the Tongue’. Heck, He even did the 25th Anniversary Edition of ‘Restless Heart’ and even a 15th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition for ‘Good to Be Bad’ now called ‘Still…Good to Be Bad’. And they are all spectacular. Now, we get a new box set. This time around it is a collection of his 3 solo albums. Starting with the most recent, 2000’s ‘Into the Light’ and going all the back to his first 2 solo albums including 1977’s ‘Whitesnake’ and 1978’s ‘Northwind’. And you don’t get each album once, you get them twice. One with a remastered version and then a 2024 complete remix.

This special edition consists of 6 CDs, 1 60-page Book, and 1 Album Cover Poster.  And it has over 91 tracks amongst all the CDs.  Well…not really. Each album is repeated twice with the remixed and the remastered versions, but there is a lot of new unreleased stuff too which is great. So, this is why I say this is for the diehard fans as it is very repetitive…this is for the diehard fans as it is very repetitive! Yes, I said this twice to prove a point and yes, I did this joke on pretty much every box set review for Whitesnake because its true. Here are all the songs you get…it’s immense.

Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘Into the Light: The Solo Albums Box Set’ (2024) – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)”

Whitesnake – ‘Best’ (1987) – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

I was out at a record show here in Charlotte and I love to go digging at them when they come around. You never know what you will find and this last trip was no different. If you’ve been on the site, you know I’m a huge David Coverdale fan and that of course means a Whitesnake fan as well. I love to find obscure Whitesnake stuff and I believe this fits the bill. I never knew this existed so of course I had to have it. It is a best of compilation out of Greece. It is on EMI, but this wasn’t compiled by the band, nope. I am sure this was done to capitalize on the success of their self-titled album or as some call it, “1987”. This was released only in Greece in 1987 and other than the band name and song titles, the notes on the back are written in Greek.

The cover art work is really bad, which is why I think it is really cool. Just Coverdale on the cover with a snake wrapping around it. That same snake is on the back as well. Not very original to say the least. The copy I have has a label that is different than what is on Discogs so I think I have a different variant. My label is the “Liberty” label, the one on discogs has the Whitesnake logo on top, no Liberty. I think that is pretty cool too. All around, I was quite pleased to pick this up and add it to the Whitesnake collection.

The songs only have one song from the new album, “Still of the Night”, and the rest are from the back catalog and it goes deep and wide. Honestly, it is an interesting track listing with the exception of “Day Tripper” which I hate Whitesnake’s version, but we will get to that. Production wise, it is okay. Nothing stellar. “Still of the Night” isn’t as impressive as on the CD which hurts it I believe. Otherwise, it is all fine. Glad to have a copy.

SIDE 1:

Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘Best’ (1987) – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)”

David Coverdale – ‘Northwinds’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

After ‘Whitesnake’, David went in a recorded his follow-up solo release, ‘Northwinds’.  This was around March / April of 1977; however, the album wouldn’t be released until a year later in March of 1978. I am not sure why the long delay in release, but the bad news for the release was by the time it did come out, Coverdale was done as a solo artist.  He had already pieced a band together that would go on to become WHITESNAKE!  I will save that for the next release which came out in June of 1978 just 3 months later.

The album did a little better than the debut and sound wise is more of the same. Okay, maybe the production is a little better and the sound starts to get some of the Whitesnake sounds, but not entirely.  David is still finding himself with this record which doesn’t mean its bad, it is far from that.  It is an interesting look at early David, pre-Whitesnake, and a glimpse into his musical tastes.

I have this on vinyl and it is part of a 2LP set including both David’s early solo albums, ‘Whitesnake’ and ‘Northwinds’.  It is a sweet set released in 1988 at the height of the band Whitesnake and they were trying to capitalize on Coverdale’s popularity.  I like having this set as these two albums really should be played together to get the full impact of his early songs and to see a young Coverdale growing into a fantastic songwriter.

 

Continue reading “David Coverdale – ‘Northwinds’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)”