Whitesnake: Ready and Willin' - 1980


This was more of the same from Whitesnake, now including drummer Ian Paice from Deep Purple, as well as Singer David Coverdale and keyboardsman Jon Lord. 

I have to admit that after the glory of Deep Purple, I had expected a bit more from Whitesnake. I have always found them a little formulaic - chugging  heavy fare - two thirds rock, one third blues - and nothing particularly stand out. Nothing to make you think "wow", like Highway Star or Smoke On The Water for example. 

The album is a solid enough serving of rock but it is somewhat pedestrian, lacking in real inspiration. Lyrically, it treads the same hackneyed ground - hard lovin' women, bitches in heat - you get the picture, I'm sure. It starts quite promisingly with three fine rockers in Fool For Your Loving, Sweet Talker and Ready And Willin', add to that the Free-esque Carry Your Load, but we then get a pretty ordinary heavy rock-by-numbers pair in Blindman (Free had done this sort of thing much better) and the Bad Company-ish Ain't Gonna Cry No More. I do them a bit of a disservice, actually - they're not bad tracks at all, just not great ones. 

Just when things are getting samey, the quality improves on the bluesy Love Man, the rocking and pacy Black And Blue and the heavy if lyrically banal She's A Woman. Incidentally, I think Black and Blue is one of those fake "live" tracks, with crowd noises dubbed on to the recording to give it an atmosphere. Look, it's ok, solid enough, but, as I said earlier it ain't nothin' special. 

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