ALL MY LIFE
I'VE HAD A REPUTATION
I'VE BEEN THE
BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY
Lovehunter
is the second studio album
by the British rock band
released on
September 21st 1979.
It was the bands first
UK Top 30 album,
charting at No. 29
on the UK Albums Chart.
"Long Way from Home",
the leading track
on the album
reached No. 55
on the UK charts,
while
"Walking in the Shadow of the Blues"
is one of the most popular
and praised
Whitesnake-songs
from their early years.
The album became
controversial
because of its cover art.
Background
The band worked on the album at
Clearwell Castle.
Like their two previous recordings
it was also produced by
Martin Birch.
It was the group's
last album to feature
Dave Dowle,
before being replaced by
ex-Purple drummer
Ian Paice.
Marsden recalled that at the time
band members argued in
"a good, healthy, positive" way
and
"because of that the band got
better and more successful
with
Ready An' Willing
(1980)
and
Come an' Get It
(1981)".
He considered it a good record,
a sentiment Coverdale
didn't share and would
have rather released it
as an EP.
Both Coverdale
and Marsden considered
"Walking in the Shadow of the Blues"
as one of their
best compositions,
with Coverdale
stating that the song
"really summed up
my musical approach of the time.
It was very much my feeling,
my perspective
and probably my
life's philosophy back then ...
Bernie and I put the music
together very quickly.
It was obviously meant
to be as a song.
I'm very proud of that one".
Eduardo Rivadavia
writing for
AllMusic
described it as combining
"near-perfect songwriting
with one of Coverdale's
more mature and
most compelling lyrics".
Cover art
Lovehunter's
controversial cover art,
showing a naked woman
straddling a large snake
and blood on her hand
from a snake bite,
was created by
fantasy artist
Chris Achilleos.
Coverdale recalls such an idea
was made as response to
the critics,
"just to piss them off even more".
Actually,
it did spur more
journalistic criticism
for sexism,
and the cover was
"banned"
at the time in the USA
(woman was partly covered with a sticker;
album sold
"in a brown paper bag")
and Argentina
(woman was partly airbrushed with a
"chain-mail bikini bottom").
It was the last album cover
Achilleos designed for many years,
until 2003
and Gary Hughes'
rock opera
Once and Future King Part I.
The original
Lovehunter
artwork
was stolen in the 1980s
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