Customer Reviews

Northwinds

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

 

 

This is how David Coverdale should ALWAYS SING!!!
I originally bought this album on vinyl in 1985! Long before Whitesnake really got huge in the States! I first saw Whitenake in 1984 as the special guest on Quiet Riot's Condition Critical tour. Messrs. Coverdale, Neil Murray, John Sykes and the late GREAT Cozy Powell blew QR clean off of the Stage!!!!
I was immediately a HUGE FAN! I was a frequent reader of Britain's Kerrang! magazine and knew that Slide It In(Which they were touring in support of) was then the latest in a list of Whitesnake albums. I eventually found ALL of them.
From the very first moment I put this album on the turntable I LOVED IT! From the wonderful bluesy melodies of the title track, Time & Again(my favorite track!), Only My Soul, and Say You Love Me, to the fun and upbeat Give Me Kindness with it's gospel inspired ending, It is a true gem. It shows where DC's musical roots are. (Which he lost in the late 80's when he Americanized Whitesnake's sound. I quit buying his releases after the 1987 self titled album. As far as I was concerned Whitesnake wasn't as good. He had excellent musicians, but the 'Snake had lost its heart.) I highly recommend this cd. I was thrilled when it was finally properly reissued on cd!

Northwinds is a profound bluesy and hard rock album, one of the best Coverdale's releases-incl.deep purple and whitesnake.
There are two distinctive type of songs on this album, the slow introverted ones and the hard ones, these last ones will be re-released on the next album "snakebite" considered as the first WHITESNAKE album-or mini-album.
Northwinds is just the most beautiful song coverdale ever wrote, his voice is pure and simply divine.Time and again, a powerful ballad for electric piano and vocals.The funky/soul Say you love me and Give me Kindness-a weird funny fanfaron track-add diversity to the album.Coverdale sings softly but remains very steady.The Hard Rock songs, Breakdown, Keep on givin me love and the rock/ballad queen of hearts bring us back to the purple period (mostly Stormbringer) and ONLY MY SOUL another rock/ballad ambient song is worth buying the album alone.
In addition to all this soul and profoudness 2 excellent bonus tracks.With Northwinds, Coverdale built the bridge between Deep purple mark 3 and the rythm and blues of the firsts whitesnake releases.

Northwinds is probably THE most profound recording of DC's career. Funky, rocking, blusey, and introspective. Every song is incredible. The song styles vary, he's all over the place and he pulls it off! The 2 bonus tracks are worth the price alone as one reviewer stated...this is essential Coverdale...not the tacky dumbed down hair metal clown he became in '87 (and may still be today). If you're a fan of the solo works of Tommy Bolin and Glen Hughes, Rainbow (Dio years) and DC's Deep Purple through '84 Whitesnake this will blow you away. Definitely a recommended cd.

I cannot say anything here that has not been said already.Someone said that this is a part of David Coverdale that is now dead.I don't think so.In concerts and most recently, he has been teasing the hell out of people with an acapella version of 'Only my soul' that can be found on youtube.I advise everyone to check it out.As for this album, it has to be the greatest cd in my collection right now.Yes, it is that good.Northwinds, only my soul, give me kindness, sweet mistreater and on..Do I wish David still sang like this? I wish. A very moving, stirring and powerful album that the old cliche applies..THEY JUST DON'T MAKE THEM LIKE THIS ANYMORE.Buy it.You won't regret it.

I've loved this album since I first heard it some 20 years ago. Coverdale's voice never sounded better than on this album -- if all you've ever heard of him is from Whitesnake's metal days, this will surprise you. But then again if you're only into Whitesnake's metal days, you probably won't like this album. It's more indicative of earlier, bluesy Whitesnake but - for my money - better than anything they did. Great stuff.

Made in UK in 2000, Serial# 5076-2, Playing Time 47:10

This is DC's 2nd album, and is a logical follow-up to "White Snake". The musical genres are very similar, but a few tracks demonstrate greater energy.

A nice improvement over his previous effort is the production: the arrangements work better, and even though female backup vocals and/or horns are sometimes present, they're blended with more refinement.

As a bonus, 2 extra tracks have been included, and are quite captivating, in a rockier direction than most of the album.

Not earth-shattering, but a nice addition, even if you have earlier versions of the album. You can never tire of David's voice.

After the break up of Deep Purple in 1976, Coverdale wasted little time and quickly released his first solo album called "White Snake" that hit the UK in May of 1977. While it showed the strength and diversity of Coverdale's songwriting, his second solo LP "Northwinds" improved every aspect of the debut! The original eight tracks were recorded at London's Air Studios between March and April of 1977. Guitarist Micky Moody was in charge of the entire guitar parts just like on the previous recording as was Roger Glover on production. However, three new members arrived: Alan Spencer, Tim Hinckley, and Tony Newman on bass, keyboards, and drums respectively.

Launching the albums is "Keep On Giving Me Love", a funk/soul number with an infectious riff on its verses and a melodic chorus where keyboard player Hinckley plays some cool electric piano runs. Moody adds his usual slide towards the end. The Coverdale/Moody written title cut comes next and it introduces a new sound that will be featured quite prominently throughout the rest of the album: Hinckley's stereo phased electric keyboard that makes for a very atmospheric sound that I really like! Glover added a string synth overdub that is heard on the third (last) verse/chorus. David's voice in is excellent form here and listen to that effective catchy lead guitar line that Moody plays during the chorus! Brilliantly executed but there's something else here that you should really pay attention to: Newman's drumming! There's nothing rocket science about it but this ballad has some of the most tasty drum fills I ever heard! A master performance from him!
"Give Me Kindness" is a pretty good song that includes some backing vocals from Ronnie Dio on its chorus although I've never been able to hear them clearly! Another excellent ballad comes in song number four titled "Time & Again". The atmospheric stereo phased electric piano is the main instrument throughout with a very emotional vocal performance from Coverdale! One of the album's best for sure! "Queen Of Hearts" is a blues-rock number with a descending piano melody in the verses although the strongest part is the chorus. Moody who co-wrote the song with Coverdale gets the chance to play a mean bluesy solo in the middle. Another gem comes with "Only My Soul" a mid-tempo haunting composition with Newman providing a steady hi-hat closed type of beat. It progresses nicely from its verse to pre-chorus and finally its excellent chorus. Glover plays some synth in the short instrumental bridge section plus a few electric violin runs from session musician Graham Preskett. This section reminds me a little bit of Blackmore's harmonized solo in the studio version of the Deep Purple song "Mistreated". What follows is a composition left over from Deep Purple's Mk4 line-up called "Say You Love Me" which is another memorable ballad. The female vocals add extra depth in the chorus plus a melodic saxophone solo. Surprisingly, the arrangement left room for Moody to add one of his best guitar solos on the album right before its conclusion.
Coverdale decided to finish the album in pure rocking fashion with "Breakdown", a blues-rock number that he co-wrote with Moody. It tells the story of Deep Purple's break-up with a kind of pissed off vocal delivery! Definitely another highlight that will later be featured in Whitesnake's live set list. You can hear the band perform it on the remastered version of the "Ready 'An Willing" album as an added bonus track. I really liked the part where everybody stops playing and a bluesy riff is left unaccompanied that's quickly echoed with a string-like keyboard sound. "LOOK OUT!" shouts David before its rather unexpected collapsed ending.

Bonus Tracks:
The funky "Shame On The Devil" is an LP outtake. A decent song similar in feel to "Celebration" from his debut but it pales in comparison with "Sweet Mistreater". A real gem this is! It was going to be released as a single but for some reason it got shelved! It shows Coverdale's songwriting at its melodically best right from the beginning with an incredibly catchy synth melody!

"Northwinds" does a great job in showcasing Coverdale's vast songwriting talent with the material being much more diverse than his work with Deep Purple or Whitesnake! Highly recommended if you are a fan of those groups and would like to hear what he's capable of doing on his own!
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later...

David Coverdale's two solo albums from the late 70's (this and "Whitesnake") are both full of soul/funk-influenced soft rock (even drifting into gospel once or twice) - quite a difference from his harder rocking stuff, although one can see the influence of such black American music on his later Deep Purple and early Whitesnake albums. This album also contains a few rockers (not really metal, yet), which would appear on the "Snakebite" CD release combined with the first 4 recordings of the band Whitesnake. To my ears, the 4 songs that ended up on Snakebite sounded significantly different on my copy of "Northwinds" (which was a release from the late-80's coupled on one CD with the "Whitesnake" solo album). They just sound like a fuller, more rocking band than the mellower, soft-rock direction of the rest of the album. Either way, the softer stuff is decent 70s soft-rock (if you like such music), and the rock stuff is quite good - Coverdale's beautiful rich voice was at its peak here, rich and full of feeling (and sounding NOTHING like Robert Plant at this stage in his career!).

I love all records of David Coverdale, this is the second after he Join a group called Whitesnake, this cd is not a classical hard rock album, if you want an album like burn or ready and willing, this is not the cd for you!

I ordered this CD because David Coverdale has a wonderful voice and writes good, straight ahead Rock tunes. I was, unfortunately ripped-off by this Rdc54 guy...as were many others. People who try to sell with no E-mail available should be stopped by Amazon.com!!! Buy the Cd, but not from that turkey!!