Customer Reviews

Love Hunter

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Lovehunter" opens with the groovy blues-rock of "Long Way From Home", and the classic, swaggering "Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues" - perhaps David Coverdale's best composition, and certainly one of his best and most mature lyrics.

Other highlights include the foot-stomping "Rock 'N' Roll Women", which is precisely as clichéd as it sounds, and the supremely funky title track, which features some fiery slide guitar from Mickey Moody. And "You 'N' Me" is a pretty solid rocker as well.

There are too many mediocre songs for "Lovehunter" to be a great album, but it's still a pretty good one. A fine purchase for fans of Whitesnake's earlier material...and good enough for some 3½ stars. Get this one and the equally inconsistent "Come an' Get It" and you can make one hell on a CD out of those two!

This has been one of Whitesnake's weakest albums IMHO, but the remaster has completely changed the sound of this album. The pumping bass of Neil Murray is very evident and gives the songs new life. Nice job EMI!

I'll never forget the first time I saw this album at a local record store and I saw the album cover, I was hooked on getting the album and I wish that this album wasn't so hard to find, the album opens with 'Long Way From Home' (not to be confused with Foreigner's version) and it's a good way to start the album, Walking Through the Shadow of the Blues is also a beautiful song with sensitive vocals and lyrics, Help Me Thro' the Day is one of the most beautiful ballad's that I've ever heard and it sure beats the heck out of Is This Love, Medicine Man is a good rocker with great lyrics, You and Me and Mean Business are what I consider it being the weakest songs but it's far from bad and I'll gladly take it over the best stuff of today's music, Love Hunter is my favorite song on the album and I'm surprised that it wasn't a hit in America, Outlaw is something that reminds me of a lesser known song off of Foreigner's debut album but I take that as a good thing, Rock 'N' Roll Women isn't one of the album's better efforts either and the album ends with a 1 and a half minute song called We Wish You Well.

Although I'm only a casual fan of Whitesnake but I think that this is a really good album, although it does have its weak spots but the good songs easily make up for it and this album deserves a well earned 4 stars.

Being a Deep Purple - Mark-II fan I always gave Whitesnake a stepmotherly treatment. This album I realy like.

The only album I realy listend to by the band was 'lovehunter', I also have some later albums which I listen to occasionally.

I bought the 'Lovehunter' CD yesterday and here is my review based on long listening over 15 years and a couple yesterday.

This is a bluesy rock album with some realy great songs.

The classic here is 'Walking in the shadow of the blues' a realy great blues song with great guitar work Bernie.

'Help me through the day' is another slow blues song which is brought alive by David Coverdale.

The other songs are the traditional '70's rock and roll mixed with simple but pleasent arrangements by David Coverdale & team and having the regular Coverdale lyrics of love, suggestive sex and sex.

'Outlaw' is a song which has Bernie Marsden on the vocals. More on the American '70s rock tradition with lyrics not the cliche David coverdale penchant for love, women & sex. This song breaks the monotony of the later half of the album.

All in all a great album one of the better ones by Whitesnake, First half of the album is real classic stuff, the second pretty average with the exception of 'outlaw'.

This album has more roots than the later albums by the band like '1987', 'Slip of the tongue' which were an overdose of giving the masses what they wanted.

Lovehunter represented a significant leap ahead of Whitesnake's earlier releases Snakebite and Trouble. While the playing on both is often on par with that of the best known blues rock acts of the day, the songs themselves and lyrics were often lacking. That problem is not completely rectified on Lovehunter, but for the first time they have hit more often than missed. The album actually starts off with four solid, if not quite spectacular, numbers in a row. Both "Walking In the Shadow of the Blues" and "Medicine Man" rock convincingly; the former would remain a stage favorite for years to come. Meanwhile, opener "Long Way from Home" is a nice, smooth mid paced rocker with an odd touch of sentimentality from DC, and "Help Me Thro' the Day," while not written by the band, is one of the very best of the early ballads, with an outstanding instrumental outro by the always soulful Mick Moody.

It's a shame Coverdale's often duff songwriting starts to rear its fanged head come side two. The title track, again with excellent playing (this time slide) by Moody, is the best of these songs, but even a bit too long. "Outlaw" is akin to "Free Flight" from Trouble in affording Bernie Marsden the lead vocal. While both are interesting, neither prove to be necessarily strong material. John Lord gets to tickle the ivories with the brief, whimsical "We Wish You Well" to end the preceedings. Other songs on side two all being throw aways; bland material with typically cliche lyrics. If Coverdale could have combined the first fours songs here with side one of 1980's Ready An' Willing, he would have had a bonefide four-star winner. Unfortunately, he never recorded an album consistently strong from start to finish with Whitesnake. Having said that, check out Lovehunter along with Ready An' Willing to get the goods on the better early Snake.

Coverdale has one of the best hard rock blues voices ever and I'm a fan who appreciates the band's late 70's through mid 80's work and I don't shun there late 80's heyday cause that's still some damn fine Rock N Roll!


1. Long Way From Home- Beautiful way to start the album very slow and show's off Coverdale's great voice also a killer solo by Mr. Moody 5/5

2. Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues- A Hard fist pumping rock track with some kick ass bass by Neil Murray man what an underrated bass player Dowle give's some nice drum surprises on this one and Coverdale's voice is at it's peak another classic Whitesnake song 5/5


3. Help Me Thro' The Day- Man this is some baby making music right here! Almost on par with Marvin Gaye or Barry White written by Leon Russell of coarse the slow bass and drum beat make a sweet and sexy love song excellent 5/5

4. Medicine Man- Neil own's this song he play's some killer bass lick's he make's this a great song the guitar rift sound' kind of similar to Fool For Your Loving.. Or maybe that's just me(:

5. You N' Me- A Little bit of a weak point after the excellent beginning four tracks, The song's not bad just nothing special in the musician department Coverdale still shines though 4/5

6. Mean Business- Starting with some cool guitar effects one of the fastest song's on the album at a furious pace excellent song Dowle, Mick, David, Marsden & Lord are at the top of there game here 5/5

7. Lovehunter- My personal favorite song on the album great lyrics and top production by the boys and the drum breakdown is beautiful I love it! A Rock N Roll/Blues classic 5/5

8. Outlaw- A Great hard rock track with some of the best lyrics on the album I like Coverdale's screaming on this one very emotional 5/5

9. Rock N Roll Woman- A Fine outro Coverdale love's woman and here he professes his love with a Blues attitude the rest of the boys play this song with ease going into a killer solo and finale a good way to end the album

10. We Wish You Well- Despite David's powerful vocals here this song is really not needed and feel's to much like a filler beside's the fact that it's under two minutes 3/5


Lovehunter in my opinion a lost blues/rock classic definitely worth a look

Like many people, I first discovered Whitesnake in 1987 when they released their smash hit self-titled album. Growing up with that album and the band's 1989 follow-up Slip of the Tongue makes listening to the band's early works a challenge. They're all good albums, but it's just not the Whitesnake I'm used to.

Released in 1979, Lovehunter is the band's fifth album, counting Coverdale's early solo albums. To my ears, Lovehunter, while undeniably bluesy, is a bit more of a straightforward rock album than say Northwinds or White Snake. There are enough hard rock elements to bring to mind Led Zeppelin as well as Coverdale's previous band Deep Purple. It still lacks the slicker AOR/hair metal/whatever touches that made 1987 and Slip of the Tongue so memorable, but Lovehunter is still a very solid hard rock album with very few tracks that could be considered filler. The sound is a bit dated, but I think that the album holds up pretty well considering a quarter century has passed since its original release date. Highlights include the title track, "Mean Business", and the completely rocking "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues", which has become one of my favorite Whitesnake tunes.

I can't really call this an essential album, but I'd definitely recommend it to all serious Whitesnake fans, as well as anyone into old school blues-based rock & roll.

NOTE: Lovehunter was reissued by EMI in 2006. The reissue includes four bonus tracks (BBC Session performances of a sweet instrumental called "Belgian Tom's Hat Trick", "Love to Keep You Warm", "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" and "Trouble". As good as these performances are, and as nice as the expanded liner notes are, the real attraction of the reissue is the digitally remastered sound. I had the earlier version of Lovehunter on CD and can tell you that the difference in sound quality is astounding. It's so much clearer and louder that it almost sounds like a brand new album. If you don't already have Lovehunter on CD (heck, even - no, especially - if you have it) I highly recommend picking up the remastered version, especially now that the price has dropped to a reasonable level.

The album cover says it all. It's one more slab of mucho macho hard rock for a testosterone-charged audience that, even when new wave was ultra-hip and "heavy metal was dead", didn't forget the pleasures of beer, women and song.

It was 1979 and Whitesnake was a hell of a band. Coverdale and Lord were the "former Purple stars", Micky Moody & Bernie Marsden knew the tricks for simple and memorable rock guitar, the rhythm section just grooved.

"Walking In the Shadow fo the blues" is the classic, and anyone who considers himself a Whitesnake fan has to love it! "Love Hunter" is the great hour of Moody's slide, "Mean Business" is fast and strong, with Mr. Lord kicking @$$! "You and Me" and "Rock 'n'ROll Women" are that kind of uplifting, I-know-is-silly-but-what-the-hell rock 'n'roll. The same can be said of "Medicine Man" (I would prefer a heavier version). "Outlaw" is an endearing rock (sung by Bernie Marsden, I guess), with some cool guitar work and a synth solo.

About the ballads: "Long way from home" is a mistake, and I can't believe they opened the album with this one. It could scare the rock-hungry audience. "Help me through the day" is a cover from Leonard Russel, and it's much better. It reminds me of "Ain't no love in the heart of the city", but this time they didn't create a stage favourite. "Wish you well" is a gentle closing.

I think this album is a satisfying experience for fans of late '70s long-haired rock. It doesn't sound like the glam metal monster Coverdale created in 1987. It is a more sincere, rootsy affair, in the tradition of British hard rock.

The following tour turned the band into a major attraction, and after the arrival of Ian Paice some months later, they were ready to record "Ready and Willing", Whitesnake's most respected album. But hey, Love Hunter has a much cooler cover!

LOVEHUNTER is yet another great Whitesnake album from the days when the band was English metal's answer to Southern rock- unflinchingly raw and honest, yet melodic. The songs here are among the band's best ever, and David Coverdale's bluesy vocals make it clear what was lost when he decided to head for big hair and big ballads in the late 80s.

This Cd was far better than i could of imagnied i always loved whitesnake and wanted there cds but couldnt find them in stores so i finally bought the rest here on amazon. Music is divided into eras if u will coverdales early stuff whitesnake through snakebite ep being there first era trouble through slide it being there classic era then the block buster whitesnake thru forevermore is for all whitesnakes metal fans (except restless heart, metal fans should check out slide it in cd to) im glad i finally bought them all whitesnake music is pretty varied but all great. The classic walking in the shadow of the blues is the hightligt for this release.