Impact Albums: Whitesnake: Slide it in (1984)

 

Jeepers…

When I got this album for Christmas back in December of 1984 this album knocked the Xmas tree off its stand!

CHAPTER ONE: Little Did I Know!

Little did I know than as a 17-year-old that there was my Canadian version copy of Slide It In which was different from the European version of Slide It In.

Little did I know that at the time of recording Slide it In Whitesnake went through 3 different producers on this album. (Eddie Kramer/Martin Birch/Keith Olson)

Little did I know that this album had listed on the back cover 3 Guitar players (Mel Galley/Micky Moody/John Sykes) but by the time the Snake made it over to tour North America in 1984 John Sykes was the last guitarist standing…

Little did I know that there was a UK version of Slide It In which is different from the Canadian/American version of Slide It In. (same songs/different track listing and different production jobs!)

Little did I know..ok I will stop !

If you recall when I did a weeks worth of Whitesnake reviews a looooong time ago it was an interesting learning curve for me as a listener ..

CHAPTER 2: deKe’s Joins Whitesnake (kinda!)

Let’s look at my time line of discovery of Whtesnake to the present time!

1981 I think it was I first heard the  Live Ain’t No Love In The Heart of the City release by Whitesnake. These guys had a sound I had never heard  with two guitarists I had never heard( Micky Moody and Bernie Mardsen) as well as a  Bass Player I had never heard(Neil Murray)..

David Coverdale I knew the name along with of course Ian Paice and Jon Lord as they were all in Deep Purple together! I liked what I heard on that live 1980 album Sweet Talker/Love Hunter/C’mon actually the whole damn album is fantastic..

Heck Whitesnake I actually gave a real better listen to at that point in time (early 80’s) than Deep Purple. Sure I knew Smoke on the Water but DP was in shambles at that point and it wasn’t until Purple reconvened in 1984 and released the stellar Perfect Strangers that I was officially onboard with Purple but Whitesnake was my first real dabble with all the alumni floating about in the two bands at the time!

1984 man….What a year for releases eh?

CHAPTER 3: Slide It In Indeed!

Slide It In is one of those releases easy! It’s a brilliant piece of old School Hard Rock with Lord blazing on his Hammond amongst the guitars/vocals and Cozy’s enormous thundering drums! Powell was a monster in this band just like his sports cars that he loved Powell drives the drums HARD!

Mel Galley who co wrote 5 of the tracks on this album is the unsung hero on this album. Galley was a huge foil in the Snake of things with David and they on this release turned out a brilliant batch of tunes!

 

North America Version:

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	“Slide It In”	Coverdale	3:20
2.	“Slow an’ Easy”	Coverdale, Moody	6:08
3.	“Love Ain’t No Stranger”	Coverdale, Galley	4:18
4.	“All or Nothing”	Coverdale, Galley	3:40
5.	“Gambler”	Coverdale, Galley	3:58

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	“Guilty of Love”	Coverdale	3:24
7.	“Hungry for Love”	Coverdale	3:28
8.	“Give Me More Time”	Coverdale, Galley	3:42
9.	“Spit It Out”	Coverdale, Galley	4:26
10.	“Standing in the Shadow”	Coverdale	3:42

Gambler is one of those compositions which best exemplifies the writing partnership between Cover/Galley. Great driving track of course fuelled by Powell’s drums throughout Slide It In!

Slow N Easy is a Coverdale/Micky Moody written tune that has all of those slippery trimmings of a classic Whitesnake tune! Love that brilliant intro of the  guitar at the beginning of the song. Than when Cozy destroys his snare drums which sound like artillery fire is simply magic! Such a well-rounded Sleazy Snake tune. Plus its pushing all kinds of boundaries as it’s not your typical 3 minute wham bam thank ya mamm ditty! No Sir! 6 minutes of  Ear Orgasm Brilliance!

There I said it!

Even the so-called power ballad of this album Love Ain’t No Stranger isn’t a power ballad. Sure the beginning has the traces of it with the nice keyboard swoon over acoustic guitar added with a nice touch of a wounded vocal from Dave..

Than…

Cozy takes over and takes this song over the top with his drumming! Nice guitar solo as well. Love Ain’t No Stranger is what kicked off the Whitesnake action here in North America and you can see why! Its a brilliantly written track that doesn’t sink in a cess pool of fluff…..

 

Thats the thing I love about this album! It’s simple, yet effective hard rock as Dave and the Snakes were doing what they were doing. Course John Kalodner (A&R Guru) wanted the band to break big in America which it did  by 1987  Whitesnake had morphed into a MTV band but Slide It In is the last of that Bluesy Hard Rock Vibe before the Cash Registers in North America started seeing a heavy dose of 1987 Snake records  slide by the til’s thanks to the Videos and that Horny  Cougar slinging around the hood of that car!

But back to 1984 as this album is chock full of sexual innuendo which is hilarious as Spit It Out serves that purpose elegantly. Musically a brilliant song. Lyrically as well..haha. I mean what a friggin brilliant chorus! Crank the audio of the track below..

Spit it Out If You Don’t Like It… What a catchy tune…

What really got me thinking of doing this back 2 back Whitesnake review was the recently released Slide It In box set that came out back in early March of this year!

Mikey Ladano shot me a message back in January that this album was coming out in a 7 Disc Set! I was onboard man right form the get go! Below is what’s on the inside of this massive set!

Coverdale put together one of the best box sets ever with this release. Over 100 songs from the beginnings of the writing sessions of Slide It In with a ton of demos/ruff mixes/the live show which I reviewed a few days back/ three different versions of the album. A slick hard cover book from that era/Tour book/Poster. It’s all here.

I will add that its nice to get the UK version of Slide It In. The drums are cranked up on the UK version whereas the American they are turned down a notch. The production as well has the  North American one sounding more punchy(for radio and MTV I’m sure) than the UK one which is more live sounding..

Once you dive into the UK/North American versions you really hear the difference. I can’t  believe I have never heard the UK version until basically 2019! Good move Dave on including both versions…

Actually there is a third version that has a 2019 mix of the album which has a real full sound and is spectacular as well. Big sound!

I could keep going about this album track by track but I’m already over 1100 words for this post!

Thanks for sticking it out for this review and by all means check this Deluxe Version out or individually as this album has been  rereleased on all formats including vinyl!

 

 

 

 

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