Classic Rock Bottom

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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I like the Ready and Willing album, I'm not sure if I still have it on vinyl or not, I need to look. I love the different version of Here I Go Again on Saints and Sinners.

Do you know if Trouble (it's on Spotify, maybe on Itunes) Ready and Willing and Come And Get It (not on Spotify, probably not on Itunes) are available on CD?

They are all available on CD, and they are all remastered as well. I got mine from Amazon.

The first song sound like something from the 70's and the geetar reminds me of some other group with dual-geetaring. It's an allright song, but nothing memorable. 

Second song sounds like it came from the 80's (I'm not trying to be stupid here). It's an allright song, but if I had this album, it would probably become background music whenever it was it's turn to play. 

Third song, well here's something. This sounded like they were building up to something. They had a little bit of something here but they weren't QUITE there.....

.....but here they were! This was the beginning of Whitesnake excellence for, well, two albums. Then they blew it for about 20 years. With my thinking here, the next Whitesnake album will suck.

To me half of these songs were throwaways, one was ALMOST there and then they were THERE. Good listen though to hear the progression to awesomeness (and then a fall to suckicity).  

 

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