You could call David Coverdale and his post-Deep Purple band
\nWhitesnake the hard rock Jekyll and Hyde.<\/p>\n
On one side, there is the blues-based rock that Coverdale and
\nwhatever particular lineup he was working with at the time could
\nblow the bolts out of. When it came to playing in that vein,
\nWhitesnake was an outstanding band.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, there was Coverdale thinking with the wrong
\nhead (go ask your big brother if you don’t know what I mean),
\nchurning out cock-rock that would have made a sailor blush. With
\nlines like “Lie down, I think I love you” or the blatant sexuality
\nof a song like “Take Me With You” (off of
\nTrouble<\/i>), Coverdale let his libido get in the way of the
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
In 1978, the blues-based rock version of Whitesnake won out in
\nits first outing,
\nSnakebite<\/i>. Really a collection of what could have been two
\nEPs, Coverdale shows his progression from his role as the third
\nlead singer in Deep Purple’s history to running the show himself.
\nIt’s an interesting portrait, and one that is well worth searching
\nout.<\/p>\n
The second half of
\nSnakebite<\/i> features Coverdale in 1977, shortly after his
\ndeparture from Deep Purple. In reality, you could argue whether
\nthese songs are true Whitesnake material or not, but there is no
\ndebating that Coverdale is on fire creatively. Tracks like “Queen
\nOf Hearts,” “Keep On Giving Me Love” and “Breakdown” all are
\nexciting to listen to, even 22 years after they were first
\nrecorded. I would argue that you can hear the birth cries of
\nWhitesnake in this lineup (which included future member Mickey
\nMoody on guitar, bassist Alan Spencer and drummer Tony Newman), and
\nare deserving of the name in front of the music.<\/p>\n
The first half of the album is the first “official” recording of
\nWhitesnake, with the lineup of Moody and Bernie Mardsen on guitar,
\nNeil Murray on bass, Dave Dowle on drums and, as “special guest,”
\nkeyboardist Pete Solley. The highlight of this short set is “Ain’t
\nNo Love In The Heart Of The City,” which could be called the first
\nhit for the band. All four songs in this set, including “Bloody
\nMary,” “Come On” and “Steal Away,” are all enjoyable, and hold a
\nlot of promise for the band. (Unfortunately, they would make a
\nserious U-turn into cock-rock on
\nTrouble<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
The only complaint I could have with
\nSnakebite<\/i> is its length. While I understand this was the
\nfirst effort from the band, I do wish that it was longer than eight
\nsongs. Just when you’re really locking into a groove, the album is
\nover – not fair, especially when you’ve got a lot of air guitar
\nriffs dying to be released into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\nSnakebite<\/i> is an album you might have to do some looking for,
\nbut if you like any of Whitesnake’s other work or you are a fan of
\nthe Coverdale-era Deep Purple, this one’s a keeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5777],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39217","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-whitesnake","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39217","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=39217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39217"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39217"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}