WHITESNAKE Live In 84 - Back To The Bone

November 13, 2014, 9 years ago

(Frontiers)

Mark Gromen

Rating: 9.0

review hard rock whitesnake

WHITESNAKE Live In 84 - Back To The Bone

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Slide It In, here's yet another 'Snake DVD/CD combination, at least the third in as many years. Thankfully this one's a vintage show, from deep in the vaults, dating back to the Jon Sykes/Cozy Powell/Neil Murray line-up (who opened for Quiet Riot throughout North American arenas). At the November 29th Cleveland date, actually bought a copy of the sleeveless shirt David Coverdale's sporting in the concert video.

The particular show on display here is from Japan, a couple of months earlier, but amazingly, the CD isn't merely lifted from the DVD, but rather opts for bootleg renditions of nine tracks (all heard elsewhere on DVD or CD) from the '84 tour, including the original (bluesier) rendition (read: pre-MTV/pre-Adrian Vandenberg/pre-Americanization) of "Crying In The Rain", as well as the old Deep Purple standard "Soldier Of Fortune". There's a real urgency (and humor) pumping through the CD. The DVD specials include a trio of older Whitesnake chestnuts, not typically heard on North American releases (as they predate US success): a sexy (rubbing, lip smacking/tongue waggling) "Ready And Willing", predominately crowd sung "Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City" and the concluding "Don't Break My Heart Again".

The accompanying booklet houses individual photo montages and contains Coverdale's heartfelt memories about the trio of deceased participants/ex-band members, who are immortalized in name/silhouette on the foldout digipak (Powell/Lord/original guitarist Mel Galley). Visual extras include 16-minute snippets of demos and old audio interviews regarding Slide It In material, when it was still fresh. A second, 16 minutes showcases the final Snake show with keyboardist Jon Lord (before returning to the reforming Deep Purple): a short (four songs, all heard elsewhere in this collection), multi-camera smoke-filled / mic thrusting set on a morning TV show in Sweden, following the final night of the Spring European tour.

The main concert is periodically interrupted by b&w; interview/introductions (complete with kanji subtitles), as well as the on-tour segments now typically included in the bonus section of DVDs. Onstage, this is a high energy, no frills (OK, the singer already had a wind machine between the front of house wedge monitors) rock performance, not the FM/ballad driven band that would come into force a few years later. Lots of post-production editing, as the songs segue into one another and each is introduced by the title being posted on the screen. What's not visible is the Lord-less keys in Japan, especially the aforementioned “Ready And Willing”and lone accompaniment during most of “Soldier Of Fortune”. There's more than one super close-up of Coverdale, evil visage on display. Watch his expressive eyes! This is the band that I remember, not what they became, prior to the recent re-emergence.



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