Hidden Treasures - Early Whitesnake

For whatever reason, I’ve been intrigued about bands who didn’t get big early in their careers. Bands that were allowed to grow through their creative processes, lineup changes and business dealings before striking it big. Lots of bands were afforded this growth period - REO Speedwagon, Rush, ACDC, KISS, Journey, Kansas etc...

But something’s always been true about these bands, something was special about them that were allowed to continue to work, so there’s got to be something very cool about the albums that were made during this time in their careers. So that’s where were going this week...

I recently read a comment about the band Whitesnakes albums that predated their success and how good they are. I'm guilty of being a "Popular" Whitesnake fan. I love the album "Slide It In" the most, and they're latest 2 albums, "Good To Be Bad" and "Forevermore" are really quite good as well. So I poked around for a while, listened to some sound bytes, and so I took a shot and ordered a couple of their albums, "Saints an' Sinners", and "Come and Get It". I figured since they were on sale and remastered I didn’t have much to lose. WOW! These guys were better than their hey-day! So I order two more, "Trouble" and "Ready an' Willing". So good are these albums that they re-recorded a few of their tracks later on and they became hits. Here I Go Again, Crying in the Rain, and Fool For Your Loving were all tracks originally recorded before the band hit it big.

So here we are... Take listen let me know what you think about this topic and Whitesnakes albums leading up to their greatest success.

PS: Jon, I know I didn’t represent "Lovehunter" but they were out of stock when I ordered from Amazon, so tell us what we’re missing!!

PLAYLIST --> http://snack.to/adtp0jc1

	TROUBLE 1978 1 - The Time Is Right For Love The first full "Whitesnake" band album which came after an EP. This album featured Jon Lord so there’s a bit if Deep Purple influence in these early albums. Bernie Marsden and Mick Moody handle geetar duties quite capably. Marsden actually joined the band on stage at the Sweden Rock Festival in June 2011 making him only 1 of 2 former band members to play with Coverdale again, the other? Adrian Vandenberg. The album did pretty good in the UK, reaching #50 in the charts, but made no impact in the US. Tracks from the EP titled "Snakebite" were included in the 2006 reissue of the album.
	READY AN' WILLING 1980 2 - Black and Blue Marsden and Moody continue to be the dual guitarists in the band for this album as well. Jon Lord is still there and Ian Paice joins in. Pretty solid line-up! The album hit the Top 10 in the UK and actually broke into the Top 100 in the US. And Fool For Your Loving reached #13 on the UK singles charts. If you were to pick one album from this era of the band, this would be the one I recommend.
	COME AN' GET IT 1981 3 - Don't Break My Heart Again This track hit the Top 20 in the UK as the album reached the #2 spot. But the band couldn’t break in the US as this release went unnoticed. The band worked non-stop and kept recording, but Coverdale had to attend to his sick daughter and put the band on hold.
	SAINTS AN' SINNERS 1982 4 - Victim of Love Saints an' Sinners had been recorded but tension in the band had taken its toll. Moody quit, Marsden quit and only Jon Lord remained. Coverdale fired the band management and took on the business side himself. He put together a new band that included Cozy Powell and hit the road. Saints & Sinners was another Top 10 UK album and contained the hit "Here I Go Again" which featured guest keyboard player Malcolm Birch from Chesterfield based band Pegasus. The new lineup toured in 1982–83, headlined the Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donington UK.

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 5, 2013 at 11:52am

This sounds great. I'll listen to it after lunch. But you've now got me thinking. We've covered the Scorpions, Cheap Trick and now Whitesnake's early material. Who else is there? I love going back and discovering stuff I missed. Who else?

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Permalink Reply by Scott on March 5, 2013 at 11:57am

Yup... We've dug around this topic a few times, but it seems like it comes back up again from time to time...

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Permalink Reply by Scott on March 5, 2013 at 12:16pm

Sorry didn't answer your question.. We haven't looked very closely at...

Judas Priest (I only own Stained Glass and Sin after Sin so I don't think that would do them any justice, may fix that in the future though)
Fleetwood Mac (You and Jon did the FM thing for a while but theres so much about their early career that weve never discussed much and which I dont own any of)
Frampton has a good bit to look at leading up to Comes Alive
Bob Seger has a cool catalog leading up to his success (Though it would be nice if they would remaster them because they don't sound very good)

And then theres a bunch of bands that have 2-3 albums out before they got big that would be fun to look at..

.38 Special
Triumph
Kansas
Journey

etc...

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 5, 2013 at 2:08pm

The band that first crossed my mind was AC/DC. But I like your suggestions and I'd love to hear some of that early Seger stuff.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on March 5, 2013 at 2:53pm

I wish I could help you on Seger, but until we get some solid remasters I wont be purchasing some of the older albums ... I do have one band in mind for next weeks post that I purposely haven't mentioned yet...

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 5, 2013 at 3:32pm

Same here on the Seger, I'm waiting as well. I'm still watching that BOC box set, it's now around 75 bucks for 16 albums.

Can't be Styx, we've talked about them a bit. Besides, you only like the Gowan era.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on March 5, 2013 at 3:57pm

Not Styx, I did the Wooden Nickel stuff some time back

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 5, 2013 at 2:06pm

The Time Is Right For Love - Love this bass line. Very nice. And I really dig the vocals on the chorus. It's not the strongest song lyrically that I've ever heard, but not terrible.

Black And Blue - Coverdale's vocals are in typically good shape, but I'm not crazy about the style of this song. Sort of a honky-tonk feel. "We can do some lines 'cause it's alright". I wonder what that refers to? I like the first song much better.

Don't Break My Heart Again - This is much better. This sounds like Whitesnake and could have easily been one of the songs re-recorded after breaking big. Again, I like the vocals and the keyboards are just enough to fill the song out without overtaking it. Love the guitar solo.

Victim Of Love - This song has a great groove to it. I like the verses a lot, but I'm not as impressed with the chorus. Again, it's not terrible. I could really hear this being a big hair band song in the late 80's, especially with that big chorus.

Ranking for me:

4. Black And Blue

3. Victim Of Love

2. The Time Is Right For Love

1. Don't Break My Heart Again

Now I'm gonna listen to Lovehunter.

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Permalink Reply by Scott on March 5, 2013 at 2:58pm

Its real interesting to listen to these albums because they are very bluesy and there's hints of that Mark III and Mark IV Deep Purple funk that Blackmore complained about. And then there's those pure Whitesnake moments where you hear what was to come. I liked Black and Blue better than 4th though, if I were to rank these tunes it would go something like this....

4. Victim of Love

3. Don't Break My Heart Again

2. Black and Blue

1. The Time is Right For Love

But if you were to ask which album to purchase I would tell you "Ready an Willing" by a long shot! That ones really very very good top to bottom.

Thanks for the reply (and thanks for filling in for me last week!)

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on March 5, 2013 at 3:31pm

I enjoyed it (filling in), but I much prefer you in the driver's seat.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on March 5, 2013 at 5:01pm

I have to get to this, Rjhog's guest spot and his AOTW, but for some reason Flash is no longer working for me at work. So I'm bummed.

I have Saints and Sinners, was going to post that as part of the 80's thing, but no big deal. Keep on forgetting about it anyway. I've heard bits and pieces from the other albums, but nothing really grabbed me. But, I get Flash working again, I shall give it a listen.

Pre-Schenker UFO would be interesting.....

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on March 6, 2013 at 5:55am

I can't seem to find time to listen to this, as you know, I can't listen at work anymore.

But I'll give a few comments:

I saw Whitesnake on the "Saint & Sinners-tour" in Jan. '83, Ozzy with Jake E.Lee was support. It was the "good ol' Whitesnake with Moody, Marsden, Jon Lord & Ian Paice on drums. That was THE Whitesnake-lineup, and I'm glad I got to see them. I especially remember Lord's Keyboard-solo, as he played the danish National-hymn. Otherwise, what I remember from that concert was that Ozzy was completely bald, AND it was the first time, I was offered a joint. I didn't smoke it, though, I was only seventeen. I waited a few years for that pleassure

I love "Saint & sinners" and "Slide It In", but I never really got that much in to the albums, that were released earlier. I've got a friend, that was a fan, so I have heard the albums, but I wasn't that impresed, as far as I remember.

It might just be one of those bands, where I eventually will "go back in time" and listen to, what I might have missed the first time around, but I wouldn't hold my breath.