Heavy Metal Bookends

Whitesnake Is Back With Fresh Tracks, Anniversary Reissues

By John Voket

One of rock’s most provocative front men, Whitesnake’s David Coverdale, is on tour this summer celebrating two anniversary reissues of the band’s 1980s-era releases, as well as a ferocious package of new material that sounds like it is produced to seduce a whole new generation of fans. Opening with a fierce guitar explosion and growling vocals on “Best Years,” Good To Be Bad delivers three very contemporary-sounding numbers before transitioning to anything that might be remotely described as formulaic Whitesnake with track 4 — the soaring ballad “All I Want All I Need.”

The album continues with seven more very satisfying tracks that cleverly incorporate some of the kinds of musical hooks, screaming guitar solos and of course, trademark Coverdale vocals that brought the band to prominence in the US with the one-two punch of generous radio airplay and seemingly limitless exposure on MTV. For Coverdale, his latest project and this summer’s US tour supporting Judas Priest is a fine way to pay homage to longtime fans, as well as enticing perhaps a few new ones with this highly accessible new collection.

“For me, it has all the elements, all the ingredients that I enjoy about Whitesnake,” says Coverdale. “It’s a very solid, muscular, melodic rock record with a couple of fine ballads, so there’s a little tenderness when the moment calls for it, and of course the ballads help balance out the chest beaters! I find it a very complete piece of work, actually. It covers a lot of musical ground, a positive chapter in the Book of Whitesnake.”

As evidenced by other rockers, including “All For Love” and “Lay Down Your Love,” as well as another great ballad, “Summer Rain,” Good To Be Bad accomplishes dual missions of showcasing vintage Whitesnake personality with a modern, contemporary edge.

Joining Coverdale for the summer, including a July 5 stop at Wallingford’s Chevrolet Theatre, are guitarists Doug Aldrich (Dio, Lion, Hurricane) and Reb Beach (Winger, Dokken, Night Ranger), bassist Uriah Duffy (Christina Aguilera, Travers/Appice), keyboardist Timothy Drury (Don Henley, Stevie Nicks), and drummer Chris Frazier (Steve Vai, Edgar Winter) rounding out the current Whitesnake crew.

In addition to being Whitesnake’s leader since 1978, Coverdale has sung with some of rock’s most respected and legendary names, including Deep Purple and Jimmy Page (as half of Coverdale-Page). But it is his work with Whitesnake that personifies Coverdale best, due to a steady stream of mega-hits, including “Fool for Your Loving,” “Slow An’ Easy,” “Still of the Night,” “Here I Go Again,” “Is This Love?,” “Give Me All Your Love,” and “The Deeper the Love.”

With Whitesnake’s newest album holding its own, the summer US tour with Judas Priest, and having already sold more than 100 million albums in an illustrious career, Coverdale is also excited to showcase live material complementing the reissues of Slide It In — 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition and Slip Of The Tongue — 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, both released June 30 by Geffen/UMe. Fans and newcomers should appreciate the two CD+DVD sets with numerous rare or previously unreleased audio and video bonuses.

Coverdale got his first international exposure fronting Deep Purple before launching Whitesnake in 1978. After several UK albums acclaimed for their R&B-based hard rock, Whitesnake debuted in the US with 1984’s Slide It In. Featuring “Slow An’ Easy” and “Love Ain’t No Stranger,” the album went Top 40 and double platinum. But the US version of the album had a different mix — more commercial, more radio-friendly — with a different guitarist and bassist than the original UK album.

In fact, many Europeans bought the US version in order to experience the new, slicker Whitesnake. The Slide It In — 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition adds the UK mix for eight of the album’s tracks plus an acoustic live in Japan “Love Ain’t No Stranger” and single b-side “Need Your Love So Bad.”

The bonus DVD presents seven performances, six making their DVD premieres — three versions of “Love Ain’t No Stranger” (music video, acoustic in Japan, and from the Live...In The Still Of The Night DVD), two of “Guilty Of Love” (music video and from the band’s 1983 headlining performance at The Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington), the “Slow An’ Easy” video, and a 1984 Top Of The Pops performance of “Give Me More Time.”

Three years later, the band’s self-titled album charted Top 5 for more than six months, went eight times platinum, and made Whitesnake a global musical commodity. The follow-up, 1989’s Slip Of The Tongue, the only Whitesnake album with guitar wizard Steve Vai, went Top 10 and platinum and spun off the Top 40 hits “Fool For Your Loving” and “The Deeper The Love.”

The Slip Of The Tongue — 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition offers the newly digitally remastered original album and six bonus tracks — the rare b-side “Sweet Lady Luck,” alternative mixes of “Now You’re Gone” and “Fool For Your Loving,” a live “Judgment Day” and previously unreleased 1990 Monsters Of Rock versions of the title track and “Kitten’s Got Claws.” The videos of the latter two performances make their DVD debuts, as do five others on the bonus DVD: the promo videos for “Now You’re Gone,” “Fool For Your Loving,” and “The Deeper The Love,” and live “The Deeper The Love” and “Sailing Ships.”

“Judgment Day” was previously on the Live...In The Still Of The Night DVD.

In other Whitesnake news, the Broadway musical Rock of Ages, which features one of the band’s classic songs, “Here I Go Again,” was recently nominated for five Tony Awards including the Best Musical category, an achievement Coverdale downplayed somewhat during a Q&A with The Newtown Bee ahead of the band’s Wallingford show July 5; see the full interview in this week’s edition.