There once was a time that the British band Whitesnake was one
\nof the leading forces in solid blues-rock, even if there were
\ntinges of cock-rock involved. The thing about it was that there was
\nat least a balance between the two sides, so songs like “Slide It
\nIn” weren’t as patently offensive as they night have been
\notherwise.<\/p>\n
I bring this up now because I recently dug the band’s second
\nalbum,
\nTrouble<\/i>, out of the Pierce Archives to give it a spin or
\ntwo. It’s a good thing that David Coverdale and crew weren’t shot
\non sight because of this lemon. Not only is the band more
\ninterested in ridiculous sex talk (which would have at least been
\nlaughable had it not sounded so serious), but they often forget the
\nwhole purpose is to write decent songs, of which there are very few
\non this album.<\/p>\n
The trouble (no pun intended) starts off right at the beginning
\nwith “Take Me With You,” a song that at least has a catchy beat, if
\nnot much more. Coverdale immediately goes to work on his
\nCassanova-in-Spandex routine – and immediately destroys the
\ncredibility of the band for this album. Sample lines: “Gonna spread
\nher pretty legs so I can see \/ Sweet lip honey be the death of me.”
\nLater in the song: “I know love and what it means \/ It’s a skinny
\nlittle girl in tight-ass jeans.” Give me a fuckin’ break, Dave; I’d
\nexpect this kind of shit from Hanson in heat, not from a rocker who
\nhad to be within sniffing distance of 30 at this time.<\/p>\n
Wait, it gets better – or is that worse? Coverdale, obviously
\nthe poster child for NOW, continues to sign about modern love in
\n1978 with such ridiculous tracks as “Love To Keep You Warm” and
\n“Lie Down (A Modern Love Song)”. The point of the latter? From the
\nchorus: “Lie down, I think I love you.” (I’ll pause now so the
\nreader can stop laughing.) Add to that a half-assed cover of “Day
\nTripper,” and you have the makings of a disaster waiting to strike
\nat the start of each song.<\/p>\n
What Whitesnake almost forgets throughout
\nTrouble<\/i> is that there are some damned fine musicians that
\nmake up this band, something that would have been lost had it not
\nbeen for the instrumental “Belgian Tom’s Hat Trick”. Guitarists
\nMicky Moody and Bernie Mardsen provide some nice chops to redeem
\nthe band in one aspect, while Jon Lord, rising from the ashes of
\nDeep Purple (which had broken up a couple years previous), shows
\nshy he is one of the most exciting keyboard players out there.<\/p>\n
The second half of
\nTrouble<\/i> isn’t nearly as offensive as the first, but I’d be
\nhard-pressed to say that tracks like “Don’t Mess With Me,” “Free
\nFlight” or the title track are anything spectacular. If the song is
\nthe message, then the message I’m getting is that there’s no one
\nhome.<\/p>\n
Maybe
\nTrouble<\/i> was meant to be Coverdale’s declaration of
\nindependence from the more strict songwriting style that he
\nexperienced as Deep Purple came to a close in the mid-’70s, or
\nmaybe it was him trying out a new style. Who knows, maybe it was
\nCoverdale admitting he was a first-class horndog to rival Kiss.
\nWhatever the case,
\nTrouble<\/i> is appropriately named, and is one that you can pass
\non without feeling guilty about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5777],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-36070","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-whitesnake","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36070"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36070"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}