On October 1, 1979, "Whitesnake" released their second studio album "Lovehunter".
It can be said that the band started its way back in 1977 when David Coverdale released his first solo album "White Snake" and collaborated with guitarist Micky Moody who would also become one of the pillars of the band's emerging band.
A year later in 1978, Coverdale released his second solo album "Northwinds" with Moody continuing to serve as his songwriting partner and as an integral part of the band. It is interesting to note that this album also featured former "Deep Purple" bassist Roger Glover as a producer and even played synthesizer and cowbell. Also, Ronnie James Dio and his wife Wendy contributed vocals to one of the songs on the album.
After recording his second solo album, Coverdale begins to form a band to accompany him on the tour to promote the album. He joins his second and third pillars, guitarist Bernie Marsden and bassist Neil Murray, and Whitesnake's initial lineup began to crystallize. It should be noted that the move of adding a second guitarist was a certain change from the traditional hard rock lineups, most of which usually included one guitarist.
This lineup is slowly becoming permanent, when in the same year (1978) Coverdale is already releasing the first EP with the band formed - "Snakebite". This EP is already coming out under the name "David Coverdale's Whitesnake" while borrowing from the name of Coverdale's first solo album.
1978 was a busy year for Coverdale and he also released the band's first album "Whitesnake", which was called "Trouble". On this album, the band was joined by the immortal keyboardist Jon Lord, who completes this almost perfect lineup into a simply dreamy one. Why only "almost"? Because on the next album the band will be joined by drummer Ian Paice - another old friend from the MKIII lineup of "Deep Purple", then the band's lineup would be just "perfect".
In the second album for the band, collaborated with super-producer Martin Birch. The cohesive lineup is already proving to the audience and the record companies that it is not a passing project but a Solid band that is going to be part of the musical landscape of the hard rock and blues-rock scene.
The opening song "Long Way from Home" was written by Coverdale and was also the only one released as a single from it and was a relative success. It is interesting that although in the chorus of the song Coverdale sang the word "Long" twice - "Long, Long Way from Home", the title of the song includes only one "Long", probably to avoid confusion with a song of the same name by the band "Foreigner" from 1977. It is interesting to note that the song also had a marketing clip in which drummer Ian Paice can also be seen, who joined the band after the recording of the album and before the filming of the clip.
One of the iconic songs on the album is without a doubt "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues". it is not clear why the band chose not to release it as a single. The song was written by Coverdale and Bernie Marsden and can be found in the band's setlists to this day.
These songs as well as the theme song are a perfect example of the unique sound of "Whitesnake", which combines hard rock and blues, a sound in which the band will continue with minor changes until the great metamorphosis of 1987.
This album shows us the high abilities of all members, including Moody with his so unique slide guitar sound, Bernie Marsden in the bluesy solos, and even singing along with Coverdale in the song "Outlaw", and Jon Lord in the piano ballad "We Wish You Well". At this point, it was already clear that this band could not be ignored.
And it is impossible to end the review without a few words about the special album cover that caused a great deal of controversy and criticism, especially among women's organizations. The designer was the artist Chris Achilleos, who immediately stopped designing covers until 2003. On the cover is a naked girl riding a snake. A similar idea exists on keyboardist Jon Lord's second solo album from 1975 - "Sarabande". Lord was known to be part of the band "Whitesnake" and we wonder if he is the one who gave the idea to Chris Achilleos.
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