Northwinds/Whitesnake [Import]

Whitesnake, David Coverdale | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Connoisseur Collection
• ASIN: B000005REM
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,732 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows what a fine singer can do!, July 1, 1999

By 

"[e-mail]" (Rio de Janeiro,Brasil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Northwinds/Whitesnake (Audio CD)

The reviewer from Stockholm seems to have the same musical opinions that I have. His reviews of both NORTHWINDS, David Coverdale's first solo efforts, and RESTLESS HEART, the singer's most recent album, are precise. I'd only like to add some more information.

This CD contains the first TWO solo LPs, WHITESNAKE and NORTH WINDS. Coverdale had a tremendous career beginning: the first truly professional band he played with was nothing less than Deep Purple! And he joined them in 1973, at the peak of their popularity! After 3 great studio albuns with the legendary group (and a lot of stress and differences among the musicians), he embarked in a solo career that produced the material contained in this CD.

It was 1976/77, and the media's attentions were focused on the punk/new wave crap, so the young singer didn't succeed comercially. But the songs were good and his voice was great as ever. It wasn't a typical hard rock sound. Actually, there are more ballads and some plastic soul. The overall work is endearing and if you are a fan of COverdale's voice, then NORTH WINDS is a chance to listen to it in more sensuous and laid back tracks than most of Whitesnake's stuff. He used many studio musicians, including female backing-vocalists and a full horn section. The main collaborator was Micky Moody, who would be a very important member of Whitesnake (the band was formed just after the recording of this album). Moody's tasteful guitar can be appreciated in all the tracks but "Time and Again" (that's just Coverdale and an electric piano).

About the songs: ROCK - "Breakdown" is the heavy one. Sounds like a great Purple tune! "Whitesnake" would name the band. Already contains the innuendo and good guitar by Moody. "Keep on giving me love" is so funky. An overlooked gem! The same can be said of "Time on my side". It is so emotional! Great piano and guitar! "Sunny Days" and "Lady" incorporate the horn section and are uplifting. "Queen of Hearts" begins smooth and then explodes with all the rock and R&B excitement those good-old brits could deliver!

PLASTIC SOUL: "Goldies Place" has a sensuous groove and some cool bass lines. "Celebration" is the most energetic, with downright funky rhythm-guitar. "Give me kindness" has a gospel choir. BALLADS: The others can be defined as such, but bear in mind there's a range of moods and arrangements. Highlights: the epic suffering of "Blindman" (Great arrangement; a lesson in simplicity and emotion in Moody's solo) and "Only My Soul" (Coverdale could really write and sing a romantic song! This one is terrific)and, last but not least, "North Winds".

I've written too much, but the bottom-line is: If you like Coverdale, buy this CD and give yourself a chance to listen to this fine musician singing the most diverse material of his career.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of Coverdale's finest--and most overlooked, October 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Northwinds/Whitesnake (Audio CD)

It is truly a shame that this album is not more widely available--and that the original recordings did not do better in 1977 and 1978. Once David Coverdale left Deep Purple in 1976 (because the band itself broke up), he kind of became "the man that time forgot" for a few years before Whitesnake took off in Europe. Granted, part of that reason is that he couldn't perform live due to silly contractual obligations, but even if he had played 350 shows in 1977, punk and disco still would have gotten all the attention in the so-called "rock mags." And that's a travesty, for these are some of the best, most heartfelt, and diverse songs of his career. At times he seems to be wearing his influences on his sleeve ("Lady" sounds like the Rolling Stones, "Peace Lovin' Man" sounds a lot like Joe Cocker, and "Time on My Side" sounds like Free), the arrangements (brass, slide guitar, acoustic and electric guitars, female back-up singers, and pianos) and the lyrics carry the album through many moods. Lyrically, many of the songs seem to be about breakups--whether breakups between a man and a woman, or the breakup of a band--and the narrator's longing for things to be the way they once were. "Take me back, to sunny days again," David sings in "Sunny Days," and he's talking about the good times he had in Purple. "There's a riot in the Hyatt, and madness in the Holiday Inn"--could that be the time that all the roadies dumped the leftover dry ice in the swimming pool in Miami in 1974? "She's got the heat to make a dead man rise?" (from "Lady")--is that referring to some encounter on the bed in the seduction palace of the Starship? But good times sometimes turn to bad. "Blindman" reminds one of "Mistreated," a man who's lost his way after the party. And don't forget "Hole In The Sky." A man's woman has left him...perhaps he was on the road too long. In the end, the ballads are what remind us of Coverdale's versatility. Some of them indicate a direction which, had he stayed on that course, would have led him to become another Michael Bolton, but the pain in the voice is real.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SUCH TALENT!, April 19, 2000

By 

LISA (ELMONT, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Northwinds/Whitesnake (Audio CD)

I NEVER LISTENED TO A CD SO MANY TIMES THAN THIS ONE! DAVID PUTS HIS HEART INTO THIS! THE ARRANGEMENTS & LYRICS OF EACH SONG GIVE YOU SUCH DIFFERENT FEELINGS FOR EACH OF THEM. WITH A VOICE LIKE DAVID'S HOW CAN'T THIS CD BE ANYTHING BUT GREAT!