Whitesnake/David Coverdale album by album (Deep Purple & Coverdale/Page)

I forgot to post the NY Seltzer jingle that David sang on in the mid 80's.

 

That’s a typical rude sounding name from Coverdale to call the tour

 

On Slip of the Tongue, my two cents:

• Putting the production to one side, the songs just aren’t as good as 1987. That’s the biggest issue. Too many are leaden, uninspired, hook-free zones - now, old Whitesnake had some of those too, but with any trace of blues excised, any charm is gone too.
  
• I know a lot of posters here {wrongly IMHO} bristle at suggestions of DC’s Zeppelin influence - but how can we have so many comments on “Judgement Day” without mentioning it’s obvious and deliberate debt to “Kashmir” {which it is a pale imitation of - sorry}?
  
• Vai does Vai, which is what he was hired to do, presumably. I enjoy Vai-isms in their right context and sure, this probably isn’t it, but he’s always listenable. Plus, with nil songwriting credits, the main issue isn’t his doing. That said, “Sailing Ships” acoustic run definitely repeats part of David Lee Roth’s “Damn Good”.
  
• The production is drenched in 80s clothes, and it’s the kind of sound that really needs pop hooks to work. By itself, I don’t love the production as it’s so dated, but if the songs were there, I’d be fine living with it.
  
• It feels like the band situation and the pressure to follow up the predecessor smash were just not conducive to creativity for the band or DC in particular. Probably as hard an album to create - overworked and overthought - and it shows.

Anyways, not meant to be negative.

 

I agree on most points. The album was rushed as the tour was booked and Geffen wanted it out by the holiday season of 1989.

 

Sweet Lady Luck should've been on the album. Could've been an extra track on the CD and cassette editions, no problem.

Last Note Of Freedom doesn't do much for me. It's a track with no personality other than Coverdale's voice, who excels as usual.

1990 was the end of an era!

 

The Zeppelin influence on that track is perhaps so obvious it doesn't need mentioning.

 

thanks - it’s not an actively bad album, just not as good as the predecessor, investment and expectations demanded it to be!

 

I absolutely love it. One of Coverdales’ better lyrics (are they his?)

 

Nope Billy Idol and Hans Zimmer wrote Last Note.

 

Ah. I suspected not. No telltale signs of a DC lyric.

 

It should be noted that Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge, and Adrian Vandenberg joined up with former Little Caesar frontman, Ron Young, to form Manic Eden. House of Lords singer, James Christian, was in prior to them recording their self-titled album that got released in 1994. Due to it being the peak of grunge, the album was not distributed in the US. The album is very bluesy and similar to what Shrapnel Records was releasing in the 90's- shocked they didn't pick this up. Really nice guitar work by Vandenberg.
Rudy went back to Quiet Riot and is currently with them and also worked with Dio, the Guess Who, and Queensryche.
We can talk about Tommy and Adrian later.

 

Depending on the day, I prefer Slip Of The Tongue to the 1987 album.

I remember getting SOTT when it came out in late 1989. I had just gotten into playing guitar and had some friends who also played. Steve Vai was already popular in guitar circles, but SOTT really kicked off a 1-year-plus reign for him. Between SOTT, Passion & Warfare, his new 7-string Ibanez Universe model, and being featured on the covers of Guitar World, Guitar Player, and Guitar for the Practicing Musician, Vai was seemingly everywhere. And he delivered the musical goods.

When the chips were down, and David knew he needed an A-list axeman, Vai was the obvious choice. His playing is masterful throughout the album. Sykes was amazing on the 1987 album, but he is nowhere near Vai’s level of depth and sophistication. See tracks like “Judgment Day” and “Sailing Ships.”

One of the criticisms you often hear about Vai on SOTT is that his playing is too over the top. I wouldn’t disagree, but Sykes was very over the top on 1987. He plays a lot of notes — he still hasn’t come up for air on the solo for “Still of the Night.” I look at Vai’s playing on SOTT as taking David’s direction to the next level.

Plenty of highlights throughout. Love the grandeur of the title track. Amazing instrumentation between the drums and the bass. And Vai’s nuaned guitar work is the cherry on top, especially his orchestrated Eventide harmonizer-effected cadenza in the solo.

I don’t think I had heard the original version of “Fool For Your Loving” before SOTT. But I do remember hearing the original versions of “Crying in the Rain” and “Here I Go Again,” and not liking them. I appreciate the original versions much more now than I did then. But suffice to say, the 1989 version of FFYL is like a hot rod with a fresh coat of paint, bristling with energy.

The two ballads on the album are stellar, I feel mainly due to David’s vocals. Indeed, he is in fine voice throughout this album. Though I love the solo on “The Deeper The Love,” perhaps Vai’s final tapping run was a bit too much. But after all, it was 1989.

“Wings of the Storm” and “Judgment Day” remain big favorites. Especially the latter. Yes, it’s Zeppelin influenced, but Vai’s guitar work makes for plenty of then-modern sensibility. His melody work and heavily effected clean guitars add a cinematic, majestic sense. Hands down, this should have been the first single, as was intended. Hard to fathom that Coverdale hadn’t amassed enough capital to overturn the decision.

Even much derided tracks like “Kitten’s Got Claws,” “Cheap ‘An Nasty,” and “Slow Poke Music” – all of which I like – are taken to new heights due to Vai’s guitar. Vai has often commented how much fun he had coming up with the guitar parts for this record, and you can definitely hear it.

“Sailing Ships” is certainly Coverdale’s masterpiece. What a song. What a lyric. What a vocal. And the musicians brought this number home. A+ playing all around. This is a sterling example of the aforementioned level of Vai’s sophistication — listen to those layers of guitars and the way he weaved together his parts. Glorious.

“Sweet Lady Luck” is definitely a solid track. Looking back, in the days of packing as many tracks as can be on albums (Def Leppard, Hysteria; KISS, Hot in the Shade), strange that they just wouldn’t have included this on the album.

Impossible to top an album like 1987 in terms of sales. Time has shown Coverdale is indeed very proud of this album, as well he should be. A platinum record and two Top 40 hits is nothing to snicker at.

4.75/5

* By 1989, I had gotten a CD player and just gotten into collecting CDs. SOTT is one of the first discs I remember as having a cool design featured on the face of the disc. All of the recent Whitesnake deluxe editions have been great, but SOTT is definitely my favorite.

 

Here's a great interview with David from 1989. Very lively and in good spirits:


And a news piece from June 1990. In contrast, you can tell he looks tired and is feeling rough around the edges. I think the back to back album/tour cycles of 1987 and SOTT had caught up to him -- hence the then-forthcoming break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a6-k2RVYkg

 

Thank you I meant to post that here but forgot about it!

 

COVERDALE - PAGE
Released March 1993
UK # 4 / US # 5

Tracklist:
Side 1
1- Shake My Tree
2-Waiting on You
4- Take Me for a Little While
5- Pride and Joy
6- Over Now

Side 2
7- Feeling Hot
8- Easy Does It
9- Take a Look at Yourself
10- Don't Leave Me This Way
11- Absolution Blues
12 Whisper a Prayer for the Dying

Musicians:

• David Coverdale – lead vocals; acoustic guitar (4 and 7)
• Jimmy Page – electric guitars; acoustic guitar (1, 3–5, 7, 9 and 11), bass (3); harmonica, dulcimer (4)
• Ricky Phillips – bass (7 and 10)
• Jorge Casas – bass (except 7 and 10)
• Lester Mendez– keyboards (3, 5 and 7–11), percussion (7)
• Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 10 and 11)
• John Sambataro – backing vocals (2, 6, 10 and 11)
• John Harris – acoustic harmonica (4)
• Denny Carmassi – drums, percussion

Notes:
At the end of the Whitesnake tour, Coverdale was tired of the music business, tired of Whitesnake, and needed to sort out the dissolution of his marriage (David and Tawny were married from Feb 1989-April 1991). Coverdale was talking to a mutual friend and agent, Rod MacSween, about putting Whitesnake on ice while Rod was also talking to Jimmy about him wanting to get a band together and start working again to follow up his 1988 Outrider album and tour. Prior to this, there were talks about a Led Zeppelin reunion due to the huge success of the Led Zeppelin box set but Plant bailed out thinking it would hurt his solo career. Page was anxious to get back to work and asked about available singers.
After an initial talks back in Jan 1991, they the met in NYC in March 1991. While getting to know each other while walking around NYC, they literally stopped traffic and was asked if they were going to work together. They got along together great and committed to a project as long as they could write songs together. They got ex-Heart and Montrose drummer Denny Carmassi as well as ex-Bad English and Baby's bassist Ricky Phillips to join for rehearsals and flesh out the songs. It took quite some time to finish the album. Jimmy took a year alone to to record his guitars.
The album cover shows two roads intersecting. Initially the names for the project- Legends and North and South- were thrown until they went with simply Coverdale -Page. The album debuted high as we were now in the Soundscan era but it only clocked 24 weeks on the chart and by mid-Sept -it fell off. Seeing that it was the grunge-era this wasn't bad but due to the anticipation of this album it was slightly disappointing. Rock radio did embrace a few of the singles and got heavy airplay. MTV played Pride And Joy on Heavy Rotation and then Medium Rotation but rarely played the second video Take Me For A Little While which came out in July. A tour of US and Europe was planned for but was canceled due to a soft market and it wasn't agreed upon on whether to do theatres or arenas. Page's manager was supposedly not on board with Coverdale - Page so a tour never worked out. Only dates in Japan were salvaged and were done in Dec 1993. A follow-up album was planned but Page's manager put the kibosh on that so work stopped. Page would soon reunite with Robert Plant by the Summer of 1994.
Coverdale-Page is not on Spotify due to the rights going to Coverdale and Rhino. A 30th Anniversary set is planned (but Page has been invited to be involved so we shall see if it happens) next year.
Will post about the singles, videos, and tour.

 

For some reason I was excited when I heard this was coming out. Should have known better. This is pretty dire stuff, and Coverdale’s voice sounds terrible. “Pride And Joy” and “Shake My Tree” are salvageable, but the rest I never need to hear again.

 

THE SINGLES

Pride & Joy
US Mainstream Rock # 1/ UK N/A
The first single/video which came out in late February a few weeks prior to the album coming out.


Shake My Tree
US Mainstream Rock # 3/ UK N/A
The next single was serviced to radio only in late March.


Take Me For a A Little While
US Mainstream Rock # 15/ UK # 29
Single and video was released in July.


Remixes:
Take Me For A Little While (Acoustic Version)
Shake My Tree (The Guitar Crunch Mix)

Over Now
US Mainstream Rock # 24/UK N/A
Last single in the US was serviced to radio only in late August.


Take A Look At Yourself
US N/A / UK # 49

Remixes:
Take A Look At Yourself (Acoustic Version) 5:17
Take A Look At Yourself (With Girls)

 

THE VIDEOS

Despite 5 total singles released worldwide, only 2 videos were made to promote the album.

PRIDE & JOY



TAKE ME FOR A LITTLE WHILE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaQEb4oBva4

 

THE TOUR
Coverdale-Page would only do 8 dates in Japan in Dec 1993. They took Guy Pratt (session player) on bass and Brett Tuggle (ex- David Lee Roth) on keyboards. The setlist consisted of a mix of Zep, Whitesnake, and CP songs.

Setlist
01. Absolution Blues (Coverdale /Page)
02. Slide It In (Whitesnake)
03. Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin)
04. Over Now (Coverdale / Page)
05. Kashmir (Led Zeppelin)
06. Pride and Joy (Coverdale / Page)
07. Take a Look at Yourself (Coverdale / Page)
08. Take Me for a Little While (Coverdale / Page)
09. In My Time of Dying (Led Zeppelin) 10. Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
11. White Summer/Black mountain side (Led Zeppelin)
12. Don't Leave Me This Way (Coverdale / Page)
13. Shake My Tree (Coverdale / Page)
Encores:
14. Still of the Night (Whitesnake)
15. Out on the Tiles (Intro) / Black Dog (Led Zeppelin)
16. The Ocean (Intro) / Wanton Song (Led Zeppelin) / Feelin' Hot (Coverdale / Page)

Live in Osaka
12/20/93

 

UNRELEASED SONGS FROM COVERDALE-PAGE

SACCHARINE


SOUTHERN COMFORT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB7MsfcfXj0&list=PLHY_8NzmFprWVg6QEI5IOPzLHVREVHH4q&index=2

GOOD LOVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNbX5Y9aBl0&list=PLHY_8NzmFprWVg6QEI5IOPzLHVREVHH4q&index=3

 

Well, my hopes for this album maybe were so high that nothing could have matched them. They were tempered by the fact that I thought Page's 1980s work was subpar. "Outrider" had some nice glimmers, but it seemed inexplicable that the guy from Zep could release an album that had so many half-baked moments. The Firm was mediocre in the studio, and the concert I witnessed offered little hope. All of this while hard rock/ heavy metal guitar players were burning into the stratosphere, leaving Page's 1980s work far behind.
However....I do have a soft spot for this disc. The lyrics are cringy, and some of the singing is too, but I maintain that this is Jimmy Page's best post-Zep guitar album. It just needed an editor.

 

I really like this one but for some reason I don't play it that often.

I think this has the potential to be an epic box set based on the interviews DC has given the past couple of years. If it has everything DC has talked about it could be 6 or 7 cds plus a dvd.

Hopefully there are good recordings of the live stuff and they release the complete setlist

 

Coverdale–Page

I guess my main issue is that this sounds like Whitesnake-lite.
I'm sure Jimmy Page brought something to the table, but after Sykes, Vandenberg, Campbell and Vai? The only song I really revisit is Waiting On You which is on one of my Whitesnake playlists.

There are other good moments, and it certainly ends well with both Absolution Blues and Whisper A Prayer For The Dying. But I never need to hear Feeling Hot again...

 

My review:
Shake My Tree- This album starts things off right with a great crunchy groove. After years in the wilderness, Pagey is back! Coverdale bounces between singing in the stratosphere and using his low timbre. Funny there is just a harmonica solo and no guitar solo. 5/5
I like the Guitar Crunch mix too:
(849) Coverdale/Page - Shake My Tree (unreleased longer version with an extra Jimmy Page part) - YouTube

Waiting on You- Another great opening riff. Page's guitar solo does a cool solo here. Chorus is a bit repetitive but it's catchy as hell. This should've been a single. 4.5/5
Take Me for a Little While- I was surprised this was the second video and that they didn't make one for Shake My Tree. Great bluesy guitar solo here and is right there with his best Zep solos. However it's not the best ballad David has done. 3.5/5
Pride and Joy- Since Shake My Tree didn't have solo I guess this was the next best choice. I didn't know what to think when I first heard it as it so there was so much expectation. Maybe more of a rocker than an acoustic song? Nevertheless it's a great song. 4.5/5
Over Now- Zzzzz...what crap song. Buckle up David and get over Tawny already. The opening riff is the only memorable part of the song. One of the more Zeppier songs on the album but not in a good way. 2/5
Feeling Hot- This song is dumb as hell but it's fun and the band cooks on it. 4/5
Easy Does It- This sing does nothing for me. It's two average songs pasted together. 1/5
Take a Look at Yourself- This was already done as Take Me For A Little While but not as good. There are few mixes out there via its CD single and it works better as an acoustic song which they recreated live. 2/5


Don't Leave Me This Way- Sometimes I like this song depending on my mood. It's as blusey as they got on this album. 2.5/5
Absolution Blues- For some reason I never listen to this song. I forgot they opened their shows with it and it's a good song so not sure why I ignored it. Beginning is very "In The Evening" 3/5
Whisper a Prayer for the Dying- This is the pinnacle of the album. An epic song without trying to be Zeppelin (or Whitesnake!). Coverdale sings like a dream and Pagey pulls out all the stops. You can tell they really had chemistry despite the haters. It's a shame they didn't do another project together. 5/5

Overall it is a 3.5/5
I don't get the haters for this. Pagey hasn't played this good (in regards to original music) since 1976 and I don't think he matched it with Walking To Clarksdale . He's inspired here and it shows in spades. There are layers and layers of guitars but done so without choking out the rest of the music and the band. It really fleshes out the music. The production is crisp and clear. I like the big drum sound- Page needs a big drum sound! You can hear the bass too. Coverdale is still singing too high in some parts which doesn't help his case to not sound like Plant. Him and Plant also shared the exact same haircut in 1993. It's like the used the same hair dresser. David is the blondest he's been during this period which again didn't help! I think it's a really good album with a few clunkers. In regards to the the lyrics Zeppelin wrote a bunch that isn't better or worse than what Coverdale did here.

 

I remember seeing ads for this when I was in England in the summer of 1993. I had no idea they'd got together and on the one hand it was an exciting prospect, but on the other I didn't know what to expect. I took a long time picking it up, but when I did and listened to it I realised I shouldn't have worried. The record offers exactly what it says on the cover - Coverdale and Page - and it is such a great album. It isn't perfect, though. I for one would've preferred for Coverdale to change register and write a different kind of lyric for these songs, something he'd proven he could do with Sailing Ships, and there's one or two lesser tracks thrown in (I've never been hot about Feeling Hot, for example), but the music elsewhere is so brilliant it's easy to forgive the imperfections.

Coverdale sings his ass off and Jimmy Page really brought his A game this time around, giving the album its individual personality and unique flavour with so many great ideas that couldn't have come from anybody else. This album features Page's best work since Led Zeppelin, and work he did because there's so much to get into here and enjoy in terms of guitar layers and assorted Pageisms. Just brilliant stuff.

I could list most of the songs as favourites, but album closer Whisper A Prayer For The Dying merits special mention, it's monumental.

Stay away if you can't stand David Coverdale. Otherwise this album is a must for fans of Jimmy Page because the man is inspired throughout.

9/10