"North Winds"
Spitefire Reissues
By Vinnie Apicella Considered the first real "Whitesnake" record in spite of its predecessor, the first of Coverdale's solo work, "Northwinds" found the former Purple vocalist in fine working order on this early '78 release. Following the demise of Deep Purple, Coverdale took a little time to sort things out and ultimately design his own solo project, subsequently to become known as Whitesnake. "Northwinds" began to take shape with a tight assembly of talented musicians which included Micky Moody, Bernie Marsden and Neil Murray, formerly of the cyclic U.K. musical scene and well respected for many years to come. The sound on "Northwinds" ranged from funky "Keep On Giving Me Love," bluesy "Queen of Hearts," jazzy "Give Me Kindness," "Time & Again," and wholly sincere-particularly when it came time for those heartfelt ballads that would remain a key element to the long and prosperous Coverdale career-"Only My Soul," "Say You Love Me." This "Northwinds" collection is a very earthy, very smoky recording that aside from "Breakdown" which was based upon the recent demise of his former band, veers miles away from much of his previous work. In fact, what would arise out of this was the trademark Whitesnake sound which indeed built strongly around the classic Purple Hard Rock and Boogie style with much more of the gentleness reflected within Coverdale's passionate leaning toward sincerity and romance. "Northwinds" was first issued when the band Whitesnake was taking shape, and easily defines those recordings that would soon follow-some of the most emotive and powerful Blues-based Rock that would keep the passionate vocalist firmly focused straight ahead with nary a reason to look back. And come 1984, a pivotal year for both he and his former Deep Purple bandmates, would further solidify their own uniqueness years apart from one another-Coverdale's "Slide It In" release of that year gained him worldwide acceptance and finally commercial success which would continue to grow like wildfire with the following self-titled breakthrough and Purple's reunion album with classic vocalist Ian Gillan on "Perfect Strangers" remains one of Rock music's strongest comebacks of all time. This latest Coverdale reissue features an accompanying insert documenting the band's origins with a handful of old photos while the disc itself contains a rearranged track listing, digital remastering and two extra bonus tracks, the funk and groove styled "Shame on the Devil," and traditionally catchy Rock design of "Sweet Mistreater," a proposed then single, both pulled from the original album out-takes. |
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