Album of the Year

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

WHITESNAKE ~ GOOD TO BE BAD

I am really LOVIN' this album! Coverdale has found a great songwriting partner in Doug Aldrich--who is also a badass guitarist, playing mostly LPs. They put out 4 new songs as Bonus Tracks on their LIVE In The Shadow of the Blues cd a year & a half ago, but this is technically WHITESNAKE's first full length studio album since 98's Restless Heart--which was originally planned to be a solo DC album like his Y2k solo disc Into The Light. Both those albums had some HEAVY moments but were mostly pretty m-e-l-l-o-w.
This new cd is everything I LOVE about WS! KILLER Riffs, solos, singing with passion....great bass playing (Uriah Duffy) & great drumming (NEW GUY--Chris Frazier)
Good Hard Rock!!!

[uwe]

It's a good album alright, but neither Uriah, nor Marco Mendoza, nor Rudy Sarzo nor Colin 'Bomber' Hodkinson can hold a candle (or have ever played a hummable bass line with Whitesnake) to Neil Murray's bass playing on the first six Whitesnake albums up to and including Saints and Sinners. Of course he had a musical drummer as a partner - Ian Paice - and not one of those muppet show drummer wannabees that followed Paice such as Cozy '"I don't care what the bass plays as long as it is mixed behind me" Powell or - worse still - Tommy "can I fit my double bass drum in this part too?" Aldridge. One listen to "Ain't gonna cry no more today" on Ready 'n' Willing will give you more creative, melodic and rhythmically intricate bass playing than on all post Neil Murray-albums combined. 

I like the new Whitesnake album very much and have listened to it at least 10 times (except for a few unfortunate tracks, Coverdale is back to what he does best, singing in a warm middle register and not trying to outscreech Robert Plant which he never could and definitely can't anymore), the guitar work is nice (citing even a little Bermie Marsden and Micky Moody of yore), the drumming pleasant and musical and even the Hammond B 3 sound (which Coverdale in the eighties misguidedly declared "old-fashioned") mixed up loud to the benefit of the music, but the bass playing is - by Neil Murray's high standards - unremarkable. I fail to hear anything like this on it as regards bass tone, rhythm and melody:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOM2kSwG7IA&feature=related

Just the way the bass enters here on the very first version of "Ain't no love ..." (very first line up, pre-Jon Lord and pre-Ian Paice) makes my eyes water ... No other bassist following Neil Murray ever played again like that with Whitesnake (or was allowed to!).



Now, lieber R'n'B, please don't tell me that for you "real" Whitesnake only started with the 1987 album (it can't, you saw Mk I Deep Purple, you said, opening for Cream)! That's like saying ZZ Top only came out on their own with Eliminator ... And Tawny Kitaen wasn't a serious actress either. 

Uwe (card-carrying David Coverdale archivist since 1975, first Whitesnake concert in 1978)

PS: And I'll always prefer hm with his natural dark hair! 



PPS: And miss how he has sacrificed the rich soulfulness of his voice for WASP stadium rock appeal over the decades ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59m2Ry1AFWg&feature=related

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

I really LOVE all the eras of WS...especially the Sykes, Murray & Powell (& offstage synth player) era. I have a bootleg dvd a friend burned for me of them in Japan.
All Right! Glad you're a certified WHITESNAKE fan too, Uwe! My FAV band for 24 years! (Tied for FAV band with Y&T actually!!) I love Tommy Aldridge too--great Double Bass Drummer & very cool yet deeeep & sober gentleman too.

Neil's really good at milking the most out of a few notes, ain't he?

Uriah--the current bassplayer--was originally a hired gun who's well known for beeing able to learn stuff quickly which saved the day when Marco Mendoza left to pursue SoulSirkus (which flopped by the way). I'm sure his looks & age (29 when he joined) didn't hurt but the decision to keep him on in the band was his great talent & chops!!
Marco does a great Latin Funk Trio gig at a local club in North Hollywood called La Ve Lee where many celebs are often sighted in the audience. Recently current WS keyboardist Timothy Drury & new WS drummer Chris Frazier were in the crowd. Marco is well loved. He can play about 32 notes per second which he does on some toons.
Amazing talent & chops too!! Excellent singer tooo

Yes, it was '87 when I first saw The MIGHTY Snake...with Rudy Sarzo on bass...& I've never seen so many GORGEOUS WOMEN in one place as at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California as that evening....but I'd already been playing drums covering their song Love Ain't No Stranger before the '87 album came out.

Hey Uwe~ Did you get those DC albums from '77~ titled Northwinds & Whitesnake??
There's some great soulful material there too!!
Edit: Yes, I guess you did~ the 4th vid you posted--Lady--is from the '77 WHITESNAKE!
Ah~ & the 5th vid...from Northwinds.

[uwe]

I have all his stuff pre-DP (with The Government), in DP and post DP plus assorted sessions (from Wizard's Convention to a track he did on a Tony Franklin solo album).

My fave albums are Northwinds (with tearjerker "Time & Again"), Trouble/1st Album, Ready 'n' Willing, 1987 (even though I don't think they ever replicated the sound of Dunbar, Murray and Sykes live), Coverdale's last solo album (which flopped undeservedly) and actually the new WS one.

I saw Sykes on the last tour of WS with Jon Lord (he left for the DP reunion after it), they were pushing the Slide it In album (American mix). I remember how appalled I was at his inability to play his lightning fast solos in time, sloppy wasn't the word, he was as uncontrolled as I remembered him from Thin Lizzy's farewell tour ... Of course he perked up quite a bit soon after and his playing on 1987 made that album what it is instrumentally (together with Aynsley Dunbar's great drumming). Coverdale's ego/financial decision to fire Sykes took revenge on him a few years later when he took the 1987 touring outfit of Aldridge/Campbell/Sarzo/Vandenberg minus Campbell (who could have done a lot more with WS if Coverdale had only let him, just look how he evolved with Def Leppard) and plus - ill-fatedly - Herr Vai to record Slip of the Tongue for millions of bucks only to find that his touring mercenaries could provide none of the Brit balls that had been so prevalent on 1987. Slip of the Tongue is for all the money that went into it and the few decent songs it has a very limp album. They imploded soon after.

I've seen Whitesnake about a dozen times - from the first line up still with Duck Dowle through the classic Paice line up, the ill-matched Galley/Sykes years, the abysmal Vai line up (great guitarist and I love his work with Alcatrazz but he didn't have a clue in WS), the Vandenberg/De Martini years and now this more recent one which to their credit is the best one since Marsden/Murray/Moody/Lord/Paice.

I still think that Coverdale is caught in an artistic and commercial time warp and that he is consistently underselling his main strength which is his emotive voice (certainly not his lyrics -  ). Just imagine how a Rick Rubin or Daniel Lanois produced David Coverdale solo album with some outside songwriters and two Motown classics would sound and what commercial inroads it would make. And Jeff Beck guesting ...

Nice to have someone here who likes Dave " 'Ere's a song for ya!" Cuvverdale too!

Uwe

[uwe]

The "album of the year"-maker and recent US citizen



as a young, fish & chips nutritioned (and quite chubby for it) North England lad circa 1970 (pre-DP) ... I thought you might enjoy that, R 'n' B. I always have the feeling that Herr Coverdale has conveniently forgotten that part of his career.





Blackmore, never one to mince words, once said: "I hate Coverdale's affected posh London accent these days. He's from up North and we all know how they talk there." Mind you, that did not keep him, image obsessed as he was, to demand in 1973 when young David "unknown boutique saleman from Redcar" Coverdale joined DP that the latter have an operation to correct his cross sightedness and throw psyche-affecting slimming down pills to get his weight down quickly.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Ha haaa Good Lord! My hero was a chubby teenager! Wow
The bow tie!!! HA HA Haaahaaaaaaaaa
I'd love to hear that Government stuff tho.

Only My Soul is my fav from Northwinds. He sang it a capella at a show or 2 recently. I'd love to see it done with the band!!!!!
WHITESNAKE is in Mexico City tonight. Just played a few gigs in South America too & got rave reviews!!
WORLD TOUR~ Can't wait til they play California again--saw 'em 3 times on each of their last 2 tours!!!!!!

Cool that you've seen 'em 12 times Uwe. Wow! They're comin' your way soon...you got tix?

My fav cut on the new album is Best Years. It's got that Whipping Post riff & the best lyrics!!
Also LOVIN' Summer Rain & Lay Down Your Love!!

I've got Tony Franklin's Wonderland too...tho it hasn't been released here in the States. Sunshine Lady is AWESOME! Tony told me he sang a version of it himself, but was pleased to put David's version on over his own.

[uwe]

"David Coverdale's group, The Government, played support for Deep Purple Mk2 at one of their early shows. Just in case the new boy from Episode Six (meaning Ian Gillan as successor to original DP vocalist Rod Evans) didn't work out, Jon Lord took Coverdale's number. As it was, Purple's career took off big time, and while 'In Rock' was taking up residence in the UK album charts, The Government were trooping into the studio purely to make souvenir recordings for themselves. The resulting four tracks give us our only glimpse of Coverdale's pre-Purple career. The band sound like a backing for Otis Redding, choppy guitar and brass, San Francisco in Sunderland. David is instantly recognisable, and it's a wonder that he had to wait another three years before a big-time recording contract came his way."

Here's the CD with the four tracks:



http://www.purplerecords.net/prepurple/prepurple.htm

It can be ordered here:

http://www.shop.deep-purple.net/

But if you want, R'n'B, just send me your address and I'll send you a CDR of the four The Government tracks on it.

Uwe 

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Coool~ Thanks Uwe!

Well I road tested Good To Be Bad today---cruised thru Malibu Canyon & up & down the coast, & it sounds even better as a soundtrack to lots of girl watching!
The foxy ladies of SoCal were out in force today & wearing very little on this 90 degree day!!!!
God bless 'em!!!!!!!!
Jumped in the ocean to cool off & steam rose like when lava hits the sea!! hahaaa

Can't wait to road test this album in the bedroom....now that is the real test of an album!
I think it'll pass with flying colors.