Lovehunter

It was 1979 and Whitesnake was a hell of a band. Coverdale and Lord were the "former Purple stars", Micky Moody & Bernie Marsden knew the tricks for simple and memorable rock guitar, the rhythm section just grooved.

"Walking In the Shadow fo the blues" is the classic, and anyone who considers himself a Whitesnake fan has to love it! "Love Hunter" is the great hour of Moody's slide, "Mean Business" is fast and strong, with Mr. Lord kicking @$$! "You and Me" and "Rock 'n'ROll Women" are that kind of uplifting, I-know-is-silly-but-what-the-hell rock 'n'roll. The same can be said of "Medicine Man" (I would prefer a heavier version). "Outlaw" is an endearing rock (sung by Bernie Marsden, I guess), with some cool guitar work and a synth solo.

About the ballads: "Long way from home" is a mistake, and I can't believe they opened the album with this one. It could scare the rock-hungry audience. "Help me through the day" is a cover from Leonard Russel, and it's much better. It reminds me of "Ain't no love in the heart of the city", but this time they didn't create a stage favourite. "Wish you well" is a gentle closing.

I think this album is a satisfying experience for fans of late '70s long-haired rock. It doesn't sound like the glam metal monster Coverdale created in 1987. It is a more sincere, rootsy affair, in the tradition of British hard rock.

The following tour turned the band into a major attraction, and after the arrival of Ian Paice some months later, they were ready to record "Ready and Willing", Whitesnake's most respected album. But hey, Love Hunter has a much cooler cover!


A solid slice of bluesy rock n' roll   August 27, 2003
Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

"Lovehunter" opens with the groovy blues-rock of "Long Way From Home", and the classic, swaggering "Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues" - perhaps David Coverdale's best composition, and certainly one of his best and most mature lyrics.

Other highlights include the foot-stomping "Rock 'N' Roll Women", which is precisely as cliched as it sounds, and the supremely funky title track, which features some fiery slide guitar from Mickey Moody. And "You 'N' Me" is a pretty solid rocker as well.

There are too many mediocre songs for "Lovehunter" to be a great album, but it's still a pretty good one. A fine purchase for fans of Whitesnake's earlier material...and good enough for some 3 stars.


Lovehunter revisited   November 13, 2004
Raj (Mumbai, India)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Being a Deep Purple - Mark-II fan I always gave Whitesnake a stepmotherly treatment. This album I realy like.

The only album I realy listend to by the band was 'lovehunter', I also have some later albums which I listen to occasionally.

I bought the 'Lovehunter' CD yesterday and here is my review based on long listening over 15 years and a couple yesterday.

This is a bluesy rock album with some realy great songs.

The classic here is 'Walking in the shadow of the blues' a realy great blues song with great guitar work Bernie.

'Help me through the day' is another slow blues song which is brought alive by David Coverdale.

The other songs are the traditional '70's rock and roll mixed with simple but pleasent arrangements by David Coverdale & team and having the regular Coverdale lyrics of love, suggestive sex and sex.

'Outlaw' is a song which has Bernie Marsden on the vocals. More on the American '70s rock tradition with lyrics not the cliche David coverdale penchant for love, women & sex. This song breaks the monotony of the later half of the album.

All in all a great album one of the better ones by Whitesnake, First half of the album is real classic stuff, the second pretty average with the exception of 'outlaw'.

This album has more roots than the later albums by the band like '1987', 'Slip of the tongue' which were an overdose of giving the masses what they wanted.




Old school Whitesnake   January 11, 2007
Justin Gaines (Atlanta, GA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Like many people, I first discovered Whitesnake in 1987 when they released their smash hit self-titled album. Growing up with that album, as well as the band's 1989 follow-up Slip of the Tongue, make listening to the band's early works a challenge. They're all good albums, but it's just not the Whitesnake I'm used to.

Released in 1979, Lovehunter is the band's fifth album, counting Coverdale's early solo albums. To my ears, Lovehunter, while undeniably bluesy, is a bit more of a straightforward rock album than say "White Snake" or "Northwinds." There are enough hard rock elements to bring to mind Led Zeppelin as well as Coverdale's previous band Deep Purple. It still lacks the slicker AOR/hair metal/whatever touches that made "Whitesnake" and Slip of the Tongue so memorable, but Lovehunter is still a very solid hard rock album with very few tracks that could be considered filler. The sound is a bit dated, but I think that the album holds up pretty well considering a quarter century has passed since its original release date.

Lovehunter is not an easy album to find on CD. It was released at least twice on disc, but never in quantities comparable to the band's later works. It has been digitally remastered, but only for the Japanese market. I'm not willing to pay the import price, so I'm stuck with my older disc until someone graces the US market with some quality Whitesnake remasters.



Good Hard Rock album with a little blues in it   March 17, 2004
Darian Dennison (Walla Walla, WA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I'll never forget the first time I saw this album at a local record store and I saw the album cover, I was hooked on getting the album and I wish that this album wasn't so hard to find, the album opens with 'Long Way From Home' (not to be confused with Foreigner's version) and it's a good way to start the album, Walking Through the Shadow of the Blues is also a beautiful song with sensitive vocals and lyrics, Help Me Thro' the Day is one of the most beautiful ballad's that I've ever heard and it sure beats the heck out of Is This Love, Medicine Man is a good rocker with great lyrics, You and Me and Mean Business are what I consider it being the weakest songs but it's far from bad and I'll gladly take it over the best stuff of today's music, Love Hunter is my favorite song on the album and I'm surprised that it wasn't a hit in America, Outlaw is something that reminds me of a lesser known song off of Foreigner's debut album but I take that as a good thing, Rock 'N' Roll Women isn't one of the album's better efforts either and the album ends with a 1 and a half minute song called We Wish You Well.

Although I'm only a casual fan of Whitesnake but I think that this is a really good album, although it does have its weak spots but the good songs easily make up for it and this album deserves a well earned 4 stars.