The Album Which Influenced Me - 'Lovehunter' Whitesnake

This article should probably be titled; ‘David Coverdale – an Open Love Letter from Iain’. The brief from Rockfiend was to pick an album that really influenced me and this is it for me. It’s not my favourite – most days that is ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ by The Quireboys – but this one came at the right time and was one of the first albums I bought as a ‘big boy’ in 1979. If it wasn’t this it would have been ‘Mr Universe’ by Gillan but Sir David is my ex-Purple singer of choice. I guess I had grown up with glam rock and I think the first single I bought as a kid was ‘Elected’ by Alice Cooper. Later on I wanted to be a punk but my Mammy wouldnae let me and then it all changed when I spotted this in a record shop window and I was hooked.

Obviously the cover art was one of the attractions for a teenage boy. I suppose it is a bit sexist, but as a wise man once said; ‘what’s wrong with being sexy’? The title track is magnificent and ‘Walking in the Shadow of the Blues’ is possibly the definitive Whitesnake song of that era and a long-time live favourite. Elsewhere there’s a run of typical throwaway tongue-in-cheek belters like ‘Medicine Man’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Women’ that are really enjoyable. This is pre-makeover ‘Snake so we’re treated to the blues-rock magnificence of Murray, Moody and Marsden. It’s a shame for wee Bernie – not radge enough for UFO and not glam enough for MTV but he always played beautifully and at least he gets to sing ‘Outlaw’ on this one. My sneaky favourite track is ‘Long Way From Home’. This song is seriously under-rated and always gets overlooked for ‘Best Of’ albums but for me it’s one of their best. I even bought it on an EP just to get a couple of live B-side tracks in ‘Trouble’ and ‘Ain’t No Love...’

Those live B sides set me off on two quests; live music and the David Coverdale back catalogue. I was too late for the Lovehunter tour so my first gig ended up being UFO on the No Place to Run Tour. So I guess Girl, the support group, were my first live band and that was probably the first and last time I saw Phil Collen with his shirt on. But I got to see the ‘Snake soon enough and then subsequently heard ‘here’s a song for ya’ at least 20 more times in great places like The Glasgow Apollo or Edinburgh Odeon and then Wembley Arena and Hammersmith Odeon during my London years. Probably my favourites were the August 1981 Playhouse shows with Billy Squier in the same week as I saw them at Donington. And just like the Lovehunter album, they all finished with ‘We Wish You Well’ and a feeling of happiness.

The DC back catalogue quest inevitably took me back to Deep Purple, or more specifically Mk III and Mk IV Purple with Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord, Ian Paice and a couple of guitarists. That is some of my favourite music of all time and is also why I can’t listen to the recent Whitesnake ‘Purple’ album. Not that it’s bad - and quite frankly, Sir David has earned the right to do WTF he pleases and these are his songs - but more because I love those songs so much just the way they are. My absolute favourite piece of music is the version of ‘Burn’ which is Side 1, Track 1 of ‘Made in Europe’. Obviously Paice and Lord subsequently joined the ‘Snakes and there were more great live albums to come and some excellent Reading Festival recordings around that time featuring ‘Lovehunter’ songs. Looking back now though, I do not miss all the solos that make some parts of those live albums unlistenable. Mind you, instead of that we now we have to endure the dreadful ‘acoustic interludes’ that a lot of self-indulgent bands force upon us which are nearly as bad – as soon as I see the stools coming out I’m off for a pint and a piss. And don’t get me started on that naff Riverdancey shite that blights otherwise good bands like Dare and Black Star Riders. But I digress.

There were several other terrific, possibly even better, Whitesnake albums in the early 80s. Then, as we know, they got all American and pretty around 1987 and the music changed – not worse, just different - and there were still more fantastic albums and live performances to come after that. I’m thrilled for DC that he got the success and dollars he deserves but it stopped being ‘my band’ that I grew up with and I miss that. The videos got better though. Incidentally, while channel surfing the other week I accidentally saw the episode of the plastic surgery disaster TV show ‘Botched’ which featured Tawny Kitaen. Jeez, time and surgery have not been kind to the lady but hopefully she’s happy and has retained flexibility. I’ll stick to my old VHS copy of Whitesnake’s ‘Fourplay’ promos that I splashed out on years ago.

They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes but I did in 1997 and it was a brilliant experience. I won a competition to attend a playback of the ‘Restless Heart’ album in Glasgow just before it’s release. Actually, that was the first time I accidentally insulted Tom Russell. I innocently asked Uncle Tom if he had also won a competition but he informed me that he had actually run a competition. Not being a Weegie, I was not familiar with his Radio Clyde show. (The second time was when he was signing my copy of his book and I asked him how many crayons he broke writing it). Anyway, Sir David was absolutely charming and had time for everybody. We had a right good chat – it was not long after his son Jasper had been born and he was clearly loving life and enjoying his music. He was totally authentic too; he spotted my ‘Would I Lie To You..Just To Get In Your Pants’ badge and correctly identified it as having come from the ‘Packet of Three’ that they sold at early gigs. We got a lovely pre-selfie picture together that hangs in my Man Cave. Just as it was being taken I asked him if we needed to suck in our cheeks like on the album cover and he pissed himself laughing. An absolute gentleman and my wife accepts that I’ll always be a little bit gay for David.

I haven’t been to a ‘Snake gig for a few years now, in fact, I don’t go to see many of my favourite 80s bands any more. Partly it’s because I don’t want any over-priced, sub-prime performances to impact my memories and also because there’s just so much brilliant new stuff out there now by bands just reaching their peak and you can’t go to everything. Allegedly, DC intends to retire next year, which is cool, although recent albums have been very decent indeed. I hope we’ve not heard the last of him – an autobiography would be essential reading. My dream would be to see him do a low key tour playing solo material from ‘Northwinds’ and ‘Into the Light’, plus Coverdale / Page stuff and anything else that was mellow, age-appropriate and sung in a lower register. I’d be there like a shot. Yes, indeed.