Posted on by Nathan Beaudry

Episode #188 – Whitesnake – Slide It In (UK Release)

Link to video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4BLlfxmSzE

Disclaimer: The video used on YouTube is a byproduct of producing our audio podcast. We post it merely as a convenience to those who prefer the YouTube format. Please subscribe using one of the links below if you’d prefer a superior audio experience.

Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, Amazon Music, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

How To Support Our Show:

Brendan Ashbrook – Logo Designer

Thanks to Our Executive Level Patrons:

  • The $25 “Uncommon Man” Tier
    • Ovais Naqvi
    • Purple Maniac
  • The £10 Tier
    • Dr. Jill Breis
  • The Turn it up to $11 Tier
    • Clay Wombacher
    • Frank Theilgaard-Mortensen
    • Alan “Ain’t Too Proud To” Begg
    • Mikkel Steen
  • The $10.99 “What’s Goin’ On Here” Tier
    • Richard Fusey
  • $10 “Some One Came” Tier
    • Ryan M
    • Jeff Breis
    • Victor Campos
    • “Better Call” Saul Evans
    • Kev Roberts &  his wonderful children: Matthew, Gareth, and Sarah

Apple Podcasts Reviews:

  • VoodooOoze – US – 5 Stars
  • “Men In Time” would’ve been cooler.
  • This podcast rules & if I had it my way, it would’ve been called that. Oh well, like Ozzy Osbourne said on his 1994 album “Rock And Roll Over”: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”

Deep Dive Podcast Network:

Lead up to the Album:

  • The album was recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany between April and May of 1983 with Eddie Kramer producing.
  • In July of 1983 Coverdale did the vocals in America.
  • In October 1983 John Skyes auditioned for the band in Germany back at Musicland studios.
  • From October-November of 1983 the album was completed at Musicland with Martin Birch.
  • Hodgkinson quit the band sometime during these sessions.
  • Moody: “We recorded ‘Slide It In’ in Munich and it was kind of clinical to me and it was not the same sort of band that Whitesnake had been. At this end of the year, I left the band, after the end of a European tour in the fall of ‘83. I really didn’t have a particularly good time. You would have to ask David the rest of it. Geffen was interested in bringing him to the States and creating a new Whitesnake.”
  • Moody described only being really involved with the writing of one sign, “Slow and Easy” and felt that he was really there more as a session guy.
  • Micky Moody quits and The UK tour dates were then canceled.
  • Mel’s brother, Tom, says that before Mel joined Whitesnake that he and Mel had worked up demos for a new Trapeze album.  He said David Coverdale heard the demos and wanted him in the band to replace Bernie.  They ended up using two of the songs for this album including “Gambler” which was retitled and “Give Me Just A Little More Time.”
  • The other songs on that demo tape not used by Whitesnake would end up on Mel and Tom’s album “Phenomena.”
  • David Coverdale talks about being excited to do this album because it’s the first one where he’d gotten rid of the old management.
  • Coverdale was excited to work with Eddie Kramer but said it was very disappointing. He said the band didn’t like him at all.  He said he wasn’t very involved and said he was “an imposter.”
  • Coverdale was very impressed with Kalodner, saying that he had a great track record for reinvigoraging people who were all washed up.  Getting Aerosmith back together and smoothing out the tension between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, introducing them to Diane Warren.  He did similar things with Cher.

Core Band:

Additional Personnel:

Technical:

Album Art & Booklet Review

  • Artwork, Art Direction – Manfred Brey
    • http://www.breygraphics.de/
    • Only a handful of other album designs. High end designer based in Munich who has done a ton of work with high end clients and magazines.
  • Photography By – Jürgen Barron Reisch*
  • On the cover shoot in the 2009 25th anniversary release Coverdale is asked about some of the ads and tour material that went around.  More here: http://www.gilmourdesign.co.uk/services/liner-notes/whitesnake-slide-it-in-25th-anniversary-emi-2009/
    • Magazine ads reckoned “It’s about time you had an honest 12 inches”, and tour laminates featured a banana and a girl’s mouth. These weren’t genuinely considered for the new release, were they? “Ha Ha!!!…No…it was something I knocked up with a graphic artist  for stage passes for fun…My God, I would have been murdered had I even considered that as an album cover!” And the advertising copy? “An honest 12 inches” was only a naughty attention grabber for promo ads in the music press…Just a bit of fun.” What can DC tell us about the creation of the Slide It In sleeve? “There’s a fun story about the photo shoot in Munich for the cover…it featured a beautiful, 17 year old girl, called Franzeska…It was her first modeling assignment & I have a bloody big snake draped over her shoulders! After a couple of shots the snake decided to seek out someplace warm & started to work it’s way, rather sexily, down her chest…Unfortunately, this was too much for Franzeska…& she fainted dead away…That was why I had to crop her face where I did…otherwise you would see the white of her eyes as she went down! We had to bring in another model for the shoot & the snake worked amazingly well with her…it even curled into a very similar ‘W’ from the early Whitesnake logo…We used those shots on the inner sleeve & for the cover of the ‘Fourplay’ video collection…I think we may swap it around for this anniversary issue…just for fun…” 

Thanks to Our Core Level Patrons:

  • The $7.77 KeepItWarmRat Tier
    • Michael Vader
  • The $6.99 “New Nice Price” Tier
    • Fielding Fowler
  • The Episode $6.66 Tier
    • Steve Coldwell
    • Arthur Smith
    • Anton Glaving
  • The $6.65 “Almost Evil” Tier
    • Kenny Wymore
  • $5.99 The “Nice Price” Tier
    • Robert Smith
    • Peter from Illinois
    • Michael Bagford
    • Karl Hellberg
  • $5 “Money Lender” Tier
    • John Convery
    • German Heindl
    • Adrian Hernandez
    • Jesper Almén
    • Oleksiy The Perfect Stranger Slyepukhov
    • James North
    • Mark Hodgetts
    • Will Porter
    • Zwopper The Electric Alchemist
    • Percival Frequency
    • Scott Zerns

Album Tracks:

Side One:

  1. Gambler (Coverdale, Galley)
    • Backing Vocals – The Fabulosa Brothers
    • Soloist – Jon Lord, Mel Galley
    • Written-By – Coverdale*, Galley*
    • David Coverdale from the Japanese release liner notes: “‘Gambler’ is an exercise in lyrical obliqueness, trying not to be so straightforward in words, not using words like ‘spit it out’, which is pretty straightforward. On ‘Gambler’, I just tried to be a little more poetic, and I’m delighted with the way that came out.”
  2. Slide It In (Coverdale)
    • Backing Vocals – The Fabulosa Brothers
    • Soloist – Micky Moody
    • Written-By – Coverdale*
    • David Coverdale from the Japanese release liner notes: “‘Slide It In’ is more of a tongue-in-cheek. It’s about one of the aspects of the games people play in relationships and it regularly . . . I think a man and a woman can have a terrible argument and things, and particularly a woman can keep going on and on and on about it, and the only way I think I’ve ever found to remedy that situation is to get “anatomically conversant”, thereby being inspired to write a song called ‘Slide It In’. It’s actually not about bananas.
    • Coverdale describes Deep Purple as being a “deadly serious” rock band and that he really enjoyed having a little fun with songs and lyrics like these.
    • Coverdale said he wrote this and several other songs in Saint Lucia.  He said “My wife and I at the time were getting on very, very well and we were very physically active, which was certainly promoting a lof of those tunes.
    • About the negative comments from the press on the lyrics David Coverdale said: “Water off a duck’s back…that is of course if I bother reading the reviews.. If they don’t get it…fine…Unfortunate, but, not my problem. I do what I do, & they do what they do…for some reason I feel my contribution is more fun…more joyful…I don’t envy miserable people…they tend to try & drag you down to their level…Energy vampires…& I’m just not interested…It really is a waste of time to try & piss on my parade. Some of my lyrics are obviously written in fun…for a laugh…like the title track, and if they want to take them ‘seriously’, then that really is their problem…not mine. I remember when I was getting nailed as a sexist. I helped design the ‘Lovehunter’ cover…just to piss ‘em off even more!”
  3. Standing In The Shadow (Coverdale)
  4. Give Me More Time (Coverdale, Galley)
  5. Love Ain’t No Stranger (Coverdale, Galley)
    • Backing Vocals – The Fabulosa Brothers
    • Soloist – Micky Moody
    • Written-By – Coverdale*, Galley*
    • David Coverdale from the Japanese release liner notes: “‘Love Ain’t No Stranger’ is a song about some personal mistakes I made in my life, an attempt for me to analyze, for the reasons behind it.”
    • Cozy described this track as being “the best track he’d ever played on” according to Martin Popoff in “Sail Away.”

Side Two:

  1. Slow An’ Easy (Coverdale, Moody)
    • Backing Vocals – The Big ‘Eads
    • Slide Guitar – Mel Galley, Micky Moody
    • Soloist – Micky Moody
    • Written-By – Coverdale*, Moody*
    • David Coverdale from the Japanese release liner notes: “‘Slow and Easy’ is a kind of Whitesnake track which we arranged as a kind of modern rhythm and blues vehicle. We structured the arrangement Cozy Powell at his dynamic best. This song has been accepted all over the place. It’s like a new Whitesnake anthem. We’re delighted, but the essence of Whitesnake is to try and accomplish modern blues in an ‘80s context.”
    • Coverdale: “Slow an’ Easy,’ I had written basically to replace ‘Lovehunter’ because I was bored sick of singing it. And it was going to be a vehicle for my then slide player Micky Moody.”
    • He says it was recorded during an alcohol-fueled jam in Munich and that most of the lyrics were ad-libbed then cleaned up for the recorded version.
  2. Spit It Out (Coverdale, Galley)
  3. All Or Nothing (Coverdale, Galley)
  4. Hungry For Love (Coverdale)
  5. Guilty Of Love (Coverdale)
    • Backing Vocals – The Fabulosa Brothers
    • Soloist – Mel Galley, Micky Moody
    • Written-By – Coverdale*
    • David Coverdale from the Japanese release liner notes: “Just a very simple and honest love song, which . . . my daughter asked me, “Daddy, how can you be guilty of love?” and unfortunately I couldn’t give her an answer. It’s just an own-up song that I tried to be clever with words on, very simply. But it is just basically a very simple love song.

Thanks To Our Foundation Level Patrons:

  • The $3.33 Half Way to Evil Tier
    • Raff Kaff
    • Spike the Rock Cat
    • Spike’s Mom
  • $3 “Nobody’s Perfect” Tier
    • Peter Gardow
    • Ian Desrosiers
    • Mark Roback
    • Duncan Leask
    • Stuart McCord
    • Flight of the Rat Bat Blue Light
    • Øyvind Fjeldbu –
    • Runar Simonsen –
    • JJ Stannard
    • Ruinous Inadequacies
  • $1 Made Up Name Tier
    • The “Guilty of Leaks” Leaky Mausoleum
    • Stephen Sommerville The Concerto 1999 Fanatic
    • Hank the Tank
    • Private Eyes
    • Ashen Lionel
    • Blackmore’s Tights
    • John Miceli

Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

Reception and Charts:

  • The UK version was released on January 30, 1984.
  • It peaked at #9 in the UK on February 11, 1984.  It would reach #1 in Germany.
  • Shortly after recording Galley was badly injured in a fairground accident and suffered nerve damage which left him unable to play the guitar.
  • Jon Lord describes working with Eddie Kramer as being happy to work with someone new.  “I’m really chuffed with the album. Very, very chuffed indeed.”  He adds: “The songs, I think, are the best that David’s written for some time.”
  • Lord goes on to say that he found it difficult to write with Whitesnake and that his role was more to be the best keyboard support possible.  Lord says, “To me, this is what Whitesnake has always been aiming at. It’s not so much your bog standard rock ‘n’ roll band, or a hard rock band, but a modern R&B band, which I’m glad to see is happening.  But the songs on the new album, I think will se the style for Whitesnake for the next coupld of years.”
  • Lord describes the sound Kramer got for them as being bigger.

Reviews:

  • Record Mirror – Jim Reid
  • Sounds – Garry Bushell
  • Kerrang! – Dave Dickson
  • New Musical Express – Richard Cook
  • Soundcheck – Neil Jeffries
  • Darker Than Blue – Simon Robinson

For Further Information:

Listener Mail/Comments

  • Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Leave a Reply