Customer Reviews

Live in the Heart of the City

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These fine live recordings feature the original Whitesnake line-up playing the Hammersmith Odeon in November 1978 and on two dates in June 1980.
The sound is good, and Whitesnake play some great, often blues-tinted hard rock, held together by Deep Purple's Jon Lord and Ian Paice.

The band goes through some of the best songs from their first three albums:
The heavy "Sweet Talker", which opens with a superb dual guitar riff, the groovy, swaggering blues-rock workouts "Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues", "Ready An' Willing" and "Love Hunter", the catchy radio staple "Fool For Your Loving", the acoustic, Led Zeppelin-influenced ballad "Ain't Gonna Cry No More", and the soulful Bobby 'Blue' Bland classic "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City".
Furthermore, they perform two Deep Purple songs from the David Coverdale era, a fine "Might Just Take Your Life" and a magnificent eleven-minute rendition of "Mistreated".

The music is less flashy, perhaps, than the latter-day versions of Whitesnake featuring hair metal guitarists Adrian Vandenbergh and Steve Vai, but the two excellent rock n' roll guitarists Bernie Marsden and Mickey Moody play superb, interlocking guitar riffs and fiery solos (not least Moody's extended slide guitar solo), and the rhythm section of Lord, Paice and bassist Neil Murray is rock-steady. And then there's Coverdale, of course.

If you like early Whitesnake, or just hard, blues-n-boogie rock n' roll in general, I can't see why you wouldn't enjoy this excellent live album as well. It's a prime example of Whitesnake at their best and grooviest, and it doesn't get much better than this.
I was actually surprised at how good this record is...it really should be mentioned alongside "Live In Japan" and "Frampton Comes Alive" as one of the greatest (and most entertaining) live albums of its time.

The funny thing about Whitesnake is that although David Coverdale was the center of the band (and also the founder), the music changed so dramatically. This album is more bluesy and less commercialized that albums such as Whitesnake-Whitesnake and Whitesnake-Slide It In, but has its own appeal. I have always liked David Coverdale's vocals since I first heard him in Deep Purple. My first song to hear from Whitesnake was "Fool For Your Loving" from the album Ready an' Willing, I believe in 1980. The band continued to go through changes until the mid to late 80's when they hit it commercially big starting with Slide It In and continueing from there. Getting back to this album, the songs here are very rich such as Love Hunter and Ain't Gonna Cry No More, etc. THere are hard rocking ballads such as Fool For Your Loving, Sweet Talker, and Ready An' Willing. And of course the heavy, bluesy Walking In Th Shadow Of The Blues. This is an album that you have to sit down by yourself and just listen to it thoroughly and before you know it, you understand how great it is. I don't know anyone that mentions this album and that is because it was not a commercial success, but don't let that stop you. Don't let the media choose your music. Buy it or borrow it and listen to it. I guarantee you will be impressed if you like good 70's and 80's rock and blues.

Being an older rocker, I brought this C.D to replace my vinyl double album. It was the nearest to a complete c.d copy of it that I could obtain.

The stadium rock style that whitesnake play is shown in full force on this cd compleation...it has crowd reactions and sing alongs which showcase whitesnake's ability as a live band and not just a studio one. My 15 year old thinks it's great too, and does not mind it played in the car!


Shame that they could not fit the extra song onto the c.d If you like early eighties rock then this is for you. A great live performance

Of course Coverdale's vocals smoke... and the version of 'Fool For Your Loving' included here is my favorite. 'Ain't No Love In the Heart of the City' is an awesome cross between melancholy blues and metal. But while better than the CD with 3 songs from the 11/23/78 Hammersmith show left off, they still left off one version of 'Come On' that was on the original double lp set (the strongest version, at that). Still, this is the most complete version to date that I know of.
I'm waiting for the double CD reissue with bonus tracks- hint hint!!!

March 20, 2007 UPDATE!
The 2 CD version is out. No bonus tracks, but at least all of the original tracks. My favorite Whitesnake release ever!

I've got 2 copies of this album, 1 in CD and another one in LP-Vinyl. I've got the LP on the same year the album was released in the Philippines which is early 80s.
Here you can taste the classic line-up of Whitesnake: David Coverdale on vocals, Ian Paice on the drums, Jon Lord on keyboards, Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden on lead and slide guitars and Neil Murray on the bass guitar.
Some of their classic that was performed are Ain't no love in the heart of the city, Love hunter and Walking in the shadow of the blues and many more...
Get it if you're a Whitesnake enthusiast! It's a must for collectors too!

This is a great collection of two partial performances FINALLY released on CD in the context of the LP with the exception of 1 song. I prefer this sound 'Snake is pushing here rather than the over metalized glam rock they did in the 80's. Now if only there was a DVD of this or simialr from this time period.

This is not the best live album of David Coverdale, the best is live in the shadow of the blues, but this is great because you can listen on stage the old band, the performance is great,the songs are great too, but I don't like the solo of M. Moody, but this is my own opinion!