Whitesnake may today be enjoying something of a renaissance thanks to their two particularly fine recent albums ‘Forevermore’ and ‘good to be bad’ but there is surely no question as to the quality of the 1984 line up that graced world stages in support of the multi-platinum monstrosity that was ‘Slide it in’. With Cozy Powell (drums), Jon Lord (keyboards), Jon Sykes (guitar), Mel Galley (guitar) and Neil Murray (bass), David Coverdale simply straddled the world with his flowing locks, frequently bared chest and razor-sharp vocals and ‘back to the bone’ (really?) perfectly captures those hedonistic years as the self-professed ‘sleaze buckets from London’ worked their way to the very top of the melodic rock pile. With a large number of songs from the tour still played today (‘love ain’t no stranger’ being a prime example) ‘back to the bone’ is the perfect celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the iconic ‘slide it in’ and an apt reminder of just how powerful Whitesnake ’84 were.
Featuring a DVD of ‘Super-Rock’, recorded at the first Japanese rock festival at Seibu Stadium in Tokyo as well as footage of Maestro Jon Lord’s final appearance with Whitesnake, a particularly poignant bonus in light of the musician’s death in 2012, ‘back to the bone’ also features a CD of bootleg audio alongside tracks from the super-rock show and Jon Lord performance, making this a generous package aimed at sating the appetite of even the most ardent Whitesnake fan. The DVD is well put together but struggles to hide its age. Represented in its original aspect ratio of 4:3 (certainly a better decision than blowing it up for a faux widescreen effect) it looks as good as it possibly could for a thirty year old film. The sound, available in both 2.0 and 5.1, is one of the few cases where the 2.0 is far better than the surround sound mix. This is largely because the original tapes for the show are long gone so, rather than a full-blown 5.1 remix, what we have here is a 5.1 effect added to the pre-mixed files and the result is… well, it’s not great. However, it is nice to have the option, and the 2.0 mix is suitably powerful.
Whitesnake don’t do bad shows and the recent live CDs highlighted this point, but back in 1984 Whitesnake were a cutting edge band unleashing rock ‘n’ roll with a lascivious appetite and a wry smile. The CD included here is not a straight show but a ‘best of the bootlegs compilation’ which allowed the producers to pick the best tracks from across the tour. Listening to the band storm on stage to ‘Gambler’ is a stark reminder of just how potent this incarnation of Whitesnake was and, with absolutely no disrespect intended toward the current line-up, there is no question that this version of Whitesnake was definitive. With blistering solos, Cozy Powell’s powerhouse drumming and David Coverdale’s honeyed vocals, the band are on sizzling form and the pace does not let up as they stampede straight into ‘guilty of love’. Hearing the band tackle their then new album ‘slide it in’, it’s notable just how rampant the fanbase were and you can hear them going nuts throughout as the band lap up the adoration. The pace slows on the next song as the “bunch of sleaze buckets from London” play the ever-green ballad ‘love ain’t no stranger’ only for ‘slow and easy’ to take the set in a rather more lustful direction, Coverdale taking Led Zeppelin’s sex-soaked blues and filtering it through his own pornographic imagination for extra sleaze. A rambunctious ‘walking in the shadow of the blues’ sees guitarists Jon Sykes and Mel Galley trading wild licks and then ‘ready an’ willing’ swaggers in with porn star attitude and huge grinding riffs. It’s a powerful, rollercoaster ride that Whitesnake take you on and you better believe that this carefully sequenced selection of cuts truly does give you the best possible representation of Whitesnake during this golden period.
A selection of tracks from the Super Rock ’84 show also make it onto the CD, in this case we get different live trawls through ‘Love ain’t no stranger’, ‘ready an’ willing’ and ‘slow and easy’ but as these are largely repeating the DVD content they act as nothing more than a nice bonus for those who want to listen to the tunes on the move.
On the whole ‘back to the bone’ has to be considered one for the fans. There is nothing here to tempt the casual listener and audio quality is variable, particularly on the all-too-brief Jon Lord segment. That’s not to say that this is a poor release – far from it – simply that it’s a release put together with long-time fans in mind. For those who witnessed that seminal tour, or for those who have exhausted the myriad bootlegs available out there, ‘back to the bone’ offers a one-stop snap shot of the Whitesnake glory years but for those with a passing interest, it’d be better to get the ‘Made in Japan’ live album which benefits from modern recording technology and some cracking renditions of tracks from across the band’s varied back catalogue.
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