Fool For Those Japanese Singles

Picking up that latest Krokus 7 inch totally sidetracked me from other goals, and suddenly the most important thing to me was chasing more singles. The seller had a couple more that caught my attention, so I quickly added them to my cart.

It has been about a year since I added my last Whitesnake single to the collection, so when I found a US seller that had this Japanese pressing of Fool For You Loving available, I didn't hesitate to snatch it up. Sure, I already had the UK pressing of this one, with the glow in the dark cover, but this Japanese one is nice as well. It is a pretty cool live shot, with the stage bathed in yellow lights, on the cover. Man, I love collecting these things and buying this single just makes me want more of them.

Mean Business is a killer b-side song.

Whitesingles

I never set out to collect Whitesnake records, yet somehow here I am adding a couple more singles to the collection. Given how much I dispised this band when I was a teen in the 80's, I find it amazing that all these years later here I am obsessing over Whitesnake now. Initially, I set out to buy those Whitesnake albums from their 70's and early 80's years, but now I'm just as excited to pick up odds and ends singles along the way as well.

A few years ago I picked up the debut Whitesnake 7 inch and I remember feeling like I'd just bought an important piece of history. When I recently found a seller with a copy of the Japanses pressing of the Snakebite EP...although it is apparently knows as the Bloody Mary EP in Japan, I knew that I was going to have to buy it regardless of the price.

I love the look of this 7 inch with the alternate cover. Japanese singles tend to do something different with the cover art, and this one does not disappoint. So good.

Although Whitesnake's Come An' Get It album is from that classic period that I have really grown to love, it isn't one that I've spent a lot of time with. When I saw that the seller also had the Don't Break My Heart single from that album, I figured it was time that I get more familiar with those songs.

While the Don't Break My Heart title may sound flat and generic the song is actually quite good, however it is the b-side of Child Of Babylon that really captures my attention. That song is amazing. Happy to add another Whitesnake single to the collection.

Double Live Snakes

Back in 2010, I picked up one of my first Whitesnake records. I remember finding a sealed copy of Live... In The Heart Of The City for $5 on eBay and being pretty excited about finding such a great deal. Shortly after, however, I discovered that this was initially released as a double LP, but the one that I'd picked up was only the single LP version. Weak. I knew that at some point I was going to have to fix this oversight and grab the double LP. Eleven years later, I'm finally getting it done.

The single LP version only has the 1980 live set from the Hammersmith Odeon, while the double LP also includes their set from 1978. Both sets are incomplete with some songs dropped so that the recording could fit on a single LP, so I'm kind of disappointed that we don't have the full setlist included to truly document both tours properly.

The 1978 show had been previously released as a Japanese only release titled Live At Hammersmith, so the collector in me feels the need to track down this record as well. Hell, I probably should have skipped this double LP pressing and just picked up that Live At Hammersmith record and called it good alongside my single version of Live... In The Heart Of The City. I'll figure this shit out someday.

Flesh And Blood And Records

I was stuck in a Whitesnake obsession for most of 2020. There was a lot of depressing shit going on and Coverdale and the band provided the levity that I needed to not lose my fucking mind. While my interest in the band tends to focus on everything up to Slide It In, I did find myself giving some of later stuff a chance. It isn't nearly as good as the earlier stuff, but surprisingly, I don't find it to be terrible either. I had downloaded their latest album from 2019, Flesh & Blood, but I'd never really been hot enough on the record to pick it up myself.

As we were getting closer to Christmas, my mom asked if there were any records that she could buy me for a gift. While this used to be an easy question to answer, it isn't so simple these days. It's not like I can go, "yeah, I'd really like the silver label Megaforce Records pressing of the first Anthrax album." I can't just point her to Discogs or eBay because that would probably cause her head to explode, so I played it safe, and sent her a link to Amazon for this Whitesnake album.

While this record isn't going to blow your mind, and it can be cringeworthy with song titles like Shut Up & Kiss Me and Hey You (You Make Me Rock), I'm not too serious about it and I can still get down and have a good time with this album. I'm glad that I didn't have to buy it, but I'm still happy to have it in the collection.

Guilty Of Loving Japanese Singles

I was recently feeding my obsession for Japanese singles, and as I was loading up my cart from a US seller on Discogs, I noticed they had a record from Whitesnake available. Given how much I've been listening to the band this year, it was an obvious choice to add it to my order.

This single is for a couple of songs off of Whitesnake's Slide It In album. The a-side song is Give Me More Time, which kind of surprised me, as I figured the b-side of Guilty Of Love was the bigger hit. Either way, I love the look of that front cover.

To be honest, I'd never really paid much attention to the Slide It In album, as I usually focused more on the earlier, more bluesy years from the band. That changed over this past summer. I was doing a lot of running at the time, and putting up around 40 miles a week. I was in love with this eight mile loop that I'd just discovered, and as I headed out the door at 5:00 one morning, I queued up a couple of Whitesnake albums to listen to on my run...and the second one on deck was Slide It In. As soon as the first song, Gambler, kicked in, I instantly perked up. Whoa. I didn't remember this sounding so damn good...and that feeling stayed with me for the entire album. It has been a mistake for me to overlook this album for so long. So good.

Here Comes Trouble In 2020

It has been a weird fucking year, and I'm so tired of people and their stupidity. Coronavirus and people that refuse to wear a mask...racist bullshit and police attacks on Black Lives Matter protesters...every single fucking Trump supporter...I'm fucking done. It's exhausting, and the only upside to COVID quarantining is that I don't have to go outside very often and deal with these jackwads. Through all of this, you know what makes me happy? David Coverdale makes me happy. That's right. I can't get enough of Whitesnake and the Coverdale era of Deep Purple. Those albums cleanse my mind and helps me forget all of that bullshit for a while.

Earlier this year, I picked up the US pressing for Whitesnake's first album, Snakebite, and I was having such a good time spinning that record that I decided to track down a copy of the band's second album, Trouble. Damn. This record is magic and totally takes the edge off of a shit day.

The US pressing had a slick full color front cover, but there was something more attractive for me to grab the original UK pressing with that white cover. Sure it doesn't look as professional as the US pressing, but I think that is why I gravitate towards it...I dig the rough, thrown together look of that cover.

When I was picking up the Trouble album, the UK seller also had a Whitesnake single that I wanted to grab as well, but eBay wouldn't let me combine the shipping for them. I messaged the seller and he had to cancel my original order, and then combine the records into a single listing so that I could click Buy It Now. What a pain in the ass. Discogs is so much easier to use.

This is an odd single that covers three songs from three different albums. Fool For Your Loving from Ready An' Willing, Mean Business from Lovehunter, and then Don't Mess With Me from Trouble.

While I've been interested in collecting singles lately, the thing that attracted me to this one was that the seller listed that it came with a "luminous sleeve". I was't exactly sure what that meant, but for few bucks I figured that I'd grab it and find out. Wow. This record is 40 years old and still glows in the dark like a motherfucker. I figured that the luminous ink would have long gone bad, so I was stunned to see how great this glow still looks in the dark.

Love Ain't No Snakebite

Growing up as thrasher, it has taken me years to get over the stigma of liking Whitesnake, but these days I will freely admit that I've grown to really love this band. Basically, at this point, I'm even considering checking out the self titled 1987 album again. My how the times have changed...

A couple of years ago, I picked up the first Whitesnake 7 inch that was released back in 1978. After it's initial run, the record labels got together and took those four songs from the EP, added in four songs from the David Coverdale solo album, Northwinds, and pressed it as the Snakebite full length. Then that full length album saw different covers based on the US and Euro pressing...and then a different one for the later pressings...and even as someone that has lost the spark to collect multiple pressings, I still managed to get the itch earlier this year to collect them all.

I didn't go crazy and rush out to scoop them all up, but I did pick up the original US pressing for cheap. I don't know why, but that little white snake on the cover for this pressing is hilarious to me. I can understand why they changed this with later pressings.

I was so happy when this record arrived that I had to show it off to my wife. I mean, this record is over 40 years old, and I was amazed to find this was in near mint condition and still in the shrinkwrap, so I was desperate to find someone that would appreciate it as much as I did.

While I was picking up the copy of Snakebite, I saw that the seller also had a promo copy of the Whitesnake single Love Ain't No Stranger from '84. The condition of the cover was a bit rough, but for $5.00, I had no problem grabbing it. I'm a sucker for those unique promo covers.

Ready An' Willing

To give you an idea of how far behind I am with the blog, when I picked up this record, there was snow on the ground. Okay, that might not be saying much, since we had a longer than normal winter here in New England, but with this record sitting in the "to be blogged" pile since April, it shows how much trouble I've been having in keeping this thing current.

Back in April, my wife and I took a weekend vacation on the New Hampshire/Vermont border. It was a great trip, and the unexpected ice and snow storm certainly made it memorable. While we were walking through the college town of Hanover, I spied a some hole in the wall store with a sign advertising "used vinyl". I made puppy dog eyes and my wife, and asked if we could duck in there and look around for a little bit. I wasn't expecting very much, but I still managed to add some classics to the collection.

Over the last few years, I've done a fair job of making the point of how much I hated Whitesnake when I was a teen in the 80's. These are definitely different times, and I've been slowly building that Whitesnake collection.

When I first started to sink into a 70's rock obsession, and finally understood the attraction to that sound, I took my first tentative steps towards Whitesnake by downloading their 1980 album, Ready An' Willing. I mean, I was already a huge fan of Deep Purple's Burn album by this time, and with half of the roster for Ready An' Willing having spent time in Purple...well, it just seemed like the safest place to start. I obviously took right to it, and it remains one of my favorite Whitesnake albums (although Lovehunter gives it a run for it's money).

I've entertained the thought of chasing a UK pressing for this one, but holding this US pressing in my hands, with a reasonable price tag, and I took the more convenient option.

Whitesnake, White Vinyl

After laying the foundation, and preparing myself for a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal mindset with early chapters from Martin Popoff's books on the subject and healthy doses of a 1977 playlist, the next logical step was to move into 1978.

Digging into 1978 didn't uncover many lost treasures or surprises, however, there was one thing that caught my attention...and the more that I thought about it, I desperately wanted to make a move on it for the record collection.

I hated Whitesnake so much as a kid, that it still feels like a dirty secret for me to talk about how much I've grown to appreciate their early albums. I mean, the early Whitesnake days are basically just an extension of Coverdale's time in Deep Purple, and I've got no issue talking about my love for Purple...and the reality is that Whitesnake's albums like Snakebite, Trouble and Lovehunter, absolutely demolish Coverdale's last album with Purple, Come Taste The Band, so it might be time for me to finally stop hiding in shame, and proudly admit "Yeah, I fucking like Whitesnake. What are you going to do about it?"

Back to the topic at hand...when I was reading through Popoff's chapter on 1978 in his Wheels Of Steel book on the NWOBHM, I came across this entry:

June 2, 1978. "David Coverdale's Whitesnake" issue their first material, the Snakebite EP... The four tracks from this EP would be combined with four tracks from (Coverdale's solo album) Northwinds to become the debut album, also called Snakebite.

This came as a total surprise to me. I mean, I'm no scholar on Whitesnake history, but I had no idea that Snakebite was initially a 7 inch EP. Making this discovery, ignited a need to track one down, and finding out that they sell for relatively cheap on Discogs, made it an easy decision to grab one now.

Record Store Day 2017 - Part 1: Lovehunter

I expected the 10 year anniversary of Record Store Day to be a huge event that was going to suck the life out of my savings account. I was prepared for a goddamn vinyl love fest, with tons of cool shit and events that was going to tie up my entire day. Instead, it was a quagmire of "who gives a fuck", with maybe one or two things that kind of caught my interest, but truth be told, I wouldn't have cared if they didn't show up at the store. With no list of things I wanted, I was a liberated man...free to head out after the crowds had come and gone, and avoid the nerds looking to get their hands on the newest Elton John reissue.

I breezed into the store a couple hours after they had opened, flipped through the stacks of RSD releases...shrugged my shoulders, and walked out the door empty handed. Record Store Day was a bust, and I was more interested in hitting the used record bins at some shops in town...starting at Electric Buddhas.

My favorite pick-up of the day is easily the UK pressing of Whitesnake's Lovehunter that I grabbed at my first stop. I've flirted with the idea of buying a copy of this Whitesnake album for years now. I despised this band throughout my teenage years, but with age, I seem to have grown a deep appreciation of 70's Rock...and that includes Whitesnake...only through 1984's Slide It In. That self titled record from '87 can still get throat punched as far as I'm concerned.

I may have paid a bit too much for this copy of Lovehunter...especially since it is a later pressing...but the call of a naked girl riding a snake was too much to resist.

Speaking of David Coverdale, after grabbing the Whitesnake album, Deep Purple's Come Taste The Band caught my eye. Hey, I was in a 70's frame of mind, so I just went with it.

Like the Whitesnake record, this Deep Purple one is in excellent condition. Of all the Deep Purple albums that I listen to, Come Taste The Band is probably my least favorite, so I felt a little foolish spending the money that I did on this, but it was still good to cross this one off the list. Just need to get a copy of Stormbringer, and I can probably be done buying Deep Purple records.

Bloodrock were another band out of the early 70's. I've been really wanting their first album for a while now, but I just haven't made it happen. My OCD was kicking in pretty hard, and it was difficult to buy Bloodrock 2 before I owned the first album...because a part of me insists on buying the first record first...but I fought through it, and bought it anyway.

While Bloodrock 2 isn't as great as the debut, there are still some really good rock songs here, and it was well worth picking up.

The last record I picked up while at Electric Buddhas was UFO's Lights Out. Outside of their Force It album, I find that I rarely listen to this band. They have some great songs, but for one reason or another, I just don't dive into their albums. When I was checking out with the Whitesnake, Deep Purple and Bloodrock albums, the guy at the register mentioned that it was "buy 3 get the 4th free", so I grabbed the UFO record.

The day is still young...let's hit another record store...

Purplesnake

I'm generally not a fan of bands re-recording their classic albums. I just don't get the point. I'm not interested in you recording it with better production, or giving it a more modern sound. Those excuses don't mean shit to me, and when I heard that David Coverdale was going to record a bunch of his Deep Purple songs with his current Whitesnake band, I threw up in my mouth a little.

I'm a big Deep Purple fan. Coverdale's first album with the band, Burn, is flawless as it practically boils over with passion and power...and Made In Europe is one of the all-time greatest live albums (move aside Made In Japan, Coverdale's got you beat here). I considered this new re-recording an offensive abomination, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I'll stick with the originals, thank you very much.

Then I had an old friend from High School reach out to me about this new Whitesnake album of Deep Purple songs. He sent me a link to the new Stormbringer video, and wouldn't stop praising how great he thought it sounded. I resisted, yet he wouldn't shut up about it. It was just like it was '86/'87 all over again, with him trying to sell me on Deep Purple and Whitesnake, and me wanting no part of it.

I finally broke down, and stole a free download of the album. I gave it a listen, and prepared to set my friend straight by tearing it apart. Well, I was wrong.

Now while I love Deep Purple, the one thing that has always rubbed me the wrong way was Glenn Hughes. I fucking hate his R&B/funk influence on Stormbringer and Come Taste The Band. So while this Whitesnake album is too thick and heavy to really let those Purple songs properly breathe, they do have one thing going for them, and that is that there is no Glenn Fucking Hughes. Having him removed from the equation, lets me appreciate these songs on another level, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed this fresh take on the old classics. Goddamn it, I hate being wrong, but I'll give credit where it is due, and this Whitesnake album is a blast to listen to.

I'd procrastinated on picking up the double vinyl for this album all year. Since it was 2015 release, I really wanted to buy a copy before the year came to a close, but time after time I kept finding records that I wanted to own more than this. Plus, as an import, it wasn't easy to justify spending the extra money on it. When I got a notification from eBay last week, stating that The Purple Album was available at a reduced price, I figured that I'd check it out. Considering that this was typically a $30 album, I jumped at the Buy It Now option of $14. Sold.