CDReview: Whitesnake, Forevermore

 

Whitesnake

Forevermore

(Frontiers)

Ahhh…nothing like coming home from a hard day’s work. There really isn’t. There’s also nothing like climbing in your awaiting bed to curl up and enjoy the cool summer night’s rest either, until you walk into your bachelor bedroom to find part of your ceiling in a soaking wet pile upon your chair, and an obscene number of killer concert shirts stained. It also got my robe soaking wet and dirty…that hurt the most. This was not a good ending to the day…or so I thought.

It was late for me (remember I get up in the middle of the night), and my procrastination set in; I’d let the mess wait until morning, or “near morning” for some. I just wanted a couple of hours sleep before attending a night out with the co-workers. I pulled back the blue plaid comforter that covered the burgundy sheets. What did I find? Certainly not a hot blonde with a bottle of wine and a pizza waiting for me! No, instead, I found a soaking wet bed. Though I am not opposed to waterbeds as I used to have one, but this was not the same thing. Ruined were the gentle threads that swaddled my body in the night’s embrace. Now I saw red, and I am not referring to said sheets.

It was too late to do anything and I needed to get out of the box that I had vacated long ago but was happy to be back in, if it would let me. But not tonight; my dreams were now drowned thanks to the hot water heater above me. For now, I needed to find another place to crash, or at least get out and find that blonde with the wine…or just the pizza. I needed something to take my mind off of the ocean sized shipwreck that had become my once luxurious bedroom.

A fresh haircut would do the trick!

I rolled outta my complex and headed to my stylist; I’m sure she would be thrilled to chop away the lockes I had grown over the past year…and I just got a cut in England just weeks ago! But it was a chop that I did need. I had come back stateside looking more Parisian than Texan, plus I needed new headshots for my upcoming book release entitled Copper, Texas. Then there was my baby face; it needed a shave. Not that carried a full beard, but it was shaggy and made me look like Keanu Reeves, and that’s not good.

Of course, she was happy to take on a new project and update my look now that I was in the public eye once again. She gave me a pinch of tobacco as I climbed in the chair and was wrapped up to keep my detached lockes from clinging to me. With shears in hand, my stylist cranked up some tunes. It was the new Whitesnake CD. So I enjoyed the music of one of the greatest bands and it made me think back on my youth. I closed my eyes as my hair started to fly…

 Forevermore is the David Coverdale monikered Whitesnake’s first release since 2008’s return to glory with Good to be Bad. Since the band’s birth in 1977, though they may have went through various lineups, one thing has always remained: great Coverdale vocals over some multi-faceted great melodic rock!

Coverdale has always surrounded himself with great musicians, such as guitarists Mel Galley (Trapeze), John Sykes (Blue Murder), Steve Vai, and bassist Rudy Sarzo and veteran drummer Tommy Aldridge to name a few. About the main one that collaborated with Coverdale the longest was Adrian Vandenberg, who was there for four classic albums. With Forevermore, that hasn’t changed. For this lineup, Coverdale is joined by second time guitarists Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach, and rhythm section led by drummer Brian Tichy and bassist Michael Delvin. As tight as the music is, it fits well with the rough edged but still soaring voice of their leader Coverdale. Time may show a little in his voice, but he can still push it when necessary, and smolder it in soul as well.

As with Motorhead’s latest release, Whitesnake compounds various sounds through the years, but concentrates on the band’s bluesy feel from the early era. From the opening few seconds of the first track Steal Your Heart Away, the listener is caught in the snake’s grasp! The guitars take the spotlight only second to the vox on this highly shiny polished production.  They provide a down and dirty groove along with some slide action and feature a killer chorus” “I want it all/I want it now/ Gonna beg, borrow, steal somehow”. And going the opposite direction a little straighter forward and radio friendly is the first single, Love will set you Free.  Though Forevermore is packed with blues driven rock, it just wouldn’t be a Whitesnake release without a killer ballad. In this case, we are presented with Easier Said than Done, a ballad so good it rivals some of the older ones. It is a great follow up to its predecessor Too Many Tears from 1998’s underrated Restless Heart.

Before I knew it, my haircut was complete and my stylist stood in front of me holding up a mirror. I had transformed from a shaggy European into a fashionable Texan. I looked like a tame, clean shaven version of Dave Navarro; that beats the highly teased long haired mess I looked like during my stint on the road and the early 90s era Whitesnake.

The haircut helped ease my mind from worrying about the hole in my ceiling that still needed attention and needed it quickly. As far as I was concerned, there was all day tomorrow to deal with it. As for now, it was time for me to step out and show off my new haircut. A last minute party was called in my honor, if there is such a thing.

I spit out the tobacco I had been holding in my mouth hole. Once I was uncovered and brushed clean, I paid the lady a nice fee before heading out to the parking lot. Grabbing the phone out of my car, I noticed I had four missed calls, half of them from people I worked with. I jumped back in my car and started to drive back to my box to meet the guys. As I drove in the approaching night sky, my phone once again began to ring. Looking down at it, I was shocked to see that an ex was calling; not the cool ex, but the one of the Tawny persuasion. I held the phone in my hand, and as I made my turn right to go home, I tossed the phone out into the road and sped away.

I ain’t a “Fool for her Lovin’” no more!

CDReview: Motorhead, The World is Yours

Motorhead

The World is Yours

(UDR)

I’m in the home stretch now before reaching my said destination of home. I’m less two hours away. No, I’m not driving, and I have passed up a couple of rides along the way. Instead, I’ve been walking; hoofin’ it so to speak. I don’t mind. After all that time traveling and working all over the world, I ate rather well for a hard working man. And when you do that, along with the fine taste of French wine, you tend to gain a pound or two. So, I didn’t mind the last day or two walking in the welcomed Texas sun. The Texas sun and the humidity did do a number on my body. I had been out of it for too long and had become spoiled to other worldly comforts. The other night I needed a break from walking and actually found a place to relax and re-juice…that’s not a typo. I meant “re-juice”.

Just the other night when I was taking the afore mentioned break, I caught part of a crowd leaving a concert. I sat on the back steps of the venue next to yet another tour bus; apparently I was drawing them like flies. Anyway, I found the monologue very funny as well as uplifting and inspiring. It was a something that motivated me, it was time to get myself back in shape and become the unstoppable force I once was a couple of years ago. As the people walked back and forth, I thought about what all I would need to change when I got back home. Gone would be the luxuries and welcomed would be the bare boned essentials to make me a fighting machine. One of the driving forces for me behind a workout and motivation is heavy music, and I found it…

Every time I think of Motorhead, I think of the British comedy series The Young Ones. Though I had heard of Motorhead before then, it wasn’t until that episode of the show that I actually heard the band. At that time I was in high school and enjoying various genres of music, but metal was still the front runner of my preferences. The World is Yours is the bands 20^th studio release in their 30+ year career of being the hardest working band in metal.

The one thing that I have learned to appreciate and love about Motorhead is how they can add an influence of a genre to their music without disturbing their familiar, signature sound that has made them kings of the metal mountain. The World is Yours lives up to Lemmy’s claim that the band is a rock ‘n’ roll band versus a metal band, and proudly presents it on this maverick release.

The bluesy roots of rock music origin combined with the British Metal sound are tattered through the CD and prominently noticeable on Get Back in Line and Bye Bye Bitch, Bye Bye. One thing to note, Lemmy states in the documentary Lemmy that his influences and still the best musicians he has ever listened to (and still does) are legends Little Richard and The Beatles. Rest assured, the band has not lost its sound or mellowed out in any way; this just happens to be the influence of music that made “the world yours”.  There are plenty of heavy hitters, like the piercing highlight Outlaw, packed with killer pounding drums that sound like massive gunfire, and scorching guitar work.

As my player shut off, a team of muscle bound bodyguards came out the back door of the venue and made sure the coast was clear to make it to the tour bus. They eyed me, thinking I was some kinda bum or something. Seeing I was no threat, they walked forward and unlocked the bus. Several more people followed, many being hot lively females of all persuasions; it looked and felt like being lost in a parade of women. I looked at the dancing gals as their strutted their way to the magical land that was encased inside the tour bus.

After the women were on the bus, a couple of more people walked by, surrounding a familiar face in the middle of them. He stopped walking and looked down at me. He nodded and smiled at me, then tossed his head towards the bus, obviously an invitation to join the traveling fun party. I had been in too much trouble having fun in parties lately, and now the opportunity to join this circus. It would be a once in a lifetime chance, but it was time for me to bite my tongue and decline the prestigious offer.

With shame, I sadly shook my head no to the offer, but thanked him anyway. The familiar face nodded with closed eyes that he understood. As a constellation prize, he tossed me a baseball cap and a couple of t-shirts as he boarded the mobile funhouse.

“Take that advice and The World will be Yours….” The man said as the door closed and the bus pulled off into the night.

I looked at the cap, and then to both shirts. Besides different images on the clothes, they all had one word in common…

Winning…