Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Whitesnake
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1989
Running time: 46:47
Rating: 3.5/5
»Slip Of The Tongue« was the eighth studio album from the legendary hard rock champions Whitesnake, who were at the peak of their commercial success at the time, even though plenty of longtime fans still insist that the equally legendary singer and band boss David Coverdale had to sacrifice his bluesy rock soul to get there. With the exception of Coverdale himself, the lineup that recorded »Slip Of The Tongue«, the follow-up to the hugely successful »Whitesnake« (1987), really didn’t evoke the band that had once made some of the best blues rock albums of all time. Most of the Whitesnake members back then ‘flaunted’ the trendy teased-up ‘hair metal’ hairdos and skin-tight leather, and they had no great fondness for the blues at all – hard rock and heavy metal were much more their thing.
On »Slip Of The Tongue« Coverdale tried to rebuild the ultra-successful »Whitesnake« formula, but the plan backfired quite badly: the new album wasn’t as successful (it never climbed higher than the top ten on the British and American charts), and, much more importantly, it wasn’t as good when it came to the music itself. Sure, it had a few shining gems, including some of the hardest-hitting songs of their career and a couple of downright superb power ballads that still do them proud today, but on the other hand there are also a few tracks that Mr. Coverdale would probably rather forget by now, like »Cheap an’ Nasty«, »Kittens Got Claws« and »Slow Puke Music«. Three big hit singles, »The Deeper The Love«, »Now You’re Gone« and the re-recorded version of the »Ready an’ Willing« (1980) classic »Fool For Your Loving«, were clear proof that David and his obedient crew hadn’t lost their touch for building hypnotic melodies and mighty arrangements, which still win over all the romantic souls out there.
The lineup that recorded »Slip Of The Tongue« was probably the weirdest in Whitesnake’s entire career. The rhythm section was a fine duo of the brilliant bassist Rudy Sarzo and the drumming ‘animal’ Tommy Aldridge, but guitarists were once again a problem. Vivian Campbell had already left after the »Whitesnake« tour, after he and Coverdale hit insurmountable differences over the band’s future musical direction. Coverdale and the Dutch guitar virtuoso Adrian Vandenberg set about recording the new album in the US, but Vandenberg suffered a serious wrist injury and couldn’t touch a guitar for a long time.
Coverdale was patient at first and waited for him to recover, but even that had its limits, so he made probably the weirdest move of his Whitesnake career and brought in the ‘alien’ Steve Vai (ex-Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth, Alcatrazz) as the new guitar virtuoso for the recording. A versatile and utterly one-of-a-kind guitar hero who ended up in the world of hard rock entirely by accident, after six years of honing his craft under the legendary composer and guitar genius Frank Zappa, Vai naturally brought along a completely distinctive, lavish and multicolored playing style that stood out sharply from the expected blues rock framework. Vai did a great job and kept to the set limits as much as he could during the solos, so he wouldn’t overshadow Coverdale’s contribution with too much showboating, but plenty of people still blamed him, saying his vividly colorful guitar work was the main reason »Slip Of The Tongue« became the least traditional Whitesnake album ever.
Once again Coverdale needed the services of the legendary keyboardist Don Airey (ex-Colosseum II, Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne, now with Deep Purple) as a session musician, but the apparently moody singer wasn’t happy with all of Airey’s keyboard lines, so he brought in David Rosenthal (ex-Rainbow, later Happy The Man) and Claude Gaudette as well. Backing vocals came from a guest, Coverdale’s old Deep Purple buddy, the legendary singer and bassist Glenn Hughes, who was in the grip of a serious personal crisis from drug use at the time, which affected his singing too. The remaining backing vocals were sung by session singer Tommy Funderburk and Richard Page (Mr. Mister). The trendy hard rock production with an AOR punch was handled by »Whitesnake« producer Keith Olsen and Mike Clink.
The album opens with the title track, a decent hard rock starter. After a short synth overture, a sharpened-up guitar phrase kicks it into a ferocious tempo, with Aldridge flattening everything in his path with well-measured fills. Coverdale’s vocal approach is highly varied this time and peaks in a mighty chorus. Between the punchy passages Vai finds enough time for his ‘spacey’ guitar variations, which carry the song into completely different ambient waters for a moment. The lyrics are among the most sexually naughty of Coverdale’s whole career and often cross the line of good taste, as on the erotomaniac self-parody »Cheap an’ Nasty«, where the snake-man would love to pour every good-looking woman into the same mold. The dumb lyrics are the main problem here, but not the only one: the combination of arrogant guitar phrasing led by supersonic solos, hauled over a smashing rhythm section, sounds more like an average hair metal band of the era than Whitesnake. Even Coverdale does his best to sound as trendy as possible with his ‘dirty’ vocal approach.
The re-recorded version of »Fool For Your Loving«, the album’s first single, can’t possibly compete with the ambient depth and subtlety of the original. In its distinctly hard rock version, fronted by Mr. Vai’s rainbow-colored guitar variations, it sounds like half its soul is missing, while the prominent synth lines are a poor substitute for Lord’s organ lines from the original. Even so, it charted better. Coverdale had actually planned to pick »Judgement Day« as the first single, but the bosses at the American label Geffen pushed him to dress up another longtime Whitesnake classic in ‘trendy colors’ after the huge success of »Here I Go Again«.
The next hit single, »Now You’re Gone«, comes off much more convincing. With its pompous, arena rock chorus it’s a downright sex-appeal-spiced energy catalyst that shows off the main strengths of the individual band members in the best possible way. David’s vocal is at its peak here with its epic, confessional power, while Vai’s colorful, sawing guitar phrasing is backed by a juicy keyboard arrangement and Aldridge’s crushing fills, which together highlight the universally melodic nature of this classic. The lyrics deal with a man’s longing for the return of a woman he split up with, whether long ago or recently. At the time Coverdale was married to the American model Tawny Kitaen, who appeared in some of the »Slip Of The Tongue« videos.
Šovinistično razpoloženi »Kittens Got Claws« s svojim izrazito butastim besedilom predstavlja še en precej nepotreben izlet v hair metalske vode, ko Coverdaleova tovarišija na vsak način želi zveneti nevarno in umazano. Pri tem početju je edino Davidov, trendovski naravi te povsem pozabljive stvaritve, utemeljene na nazobčanih, arogantnih kitarskih pasažah in masivnem obdelovanju bobnarske postavitve, prilagojeni vokal, tisti, ki vsaj malo spominja na prave Whitesnake. Zato pa precej boljše izpade epski »Wings Of The Storm«, bržkone celo najbolj udarna stvaritev v njihovi karieri na kateri z veliko žlico zajamejo to, kar dandanes večina imenuje epski težki metal/power metal. Drveči ritem v ozadju vsebuje številne sofisticirane aranžmaje, medtem ko kataklizmične kitarske pasaže, katere vrhunec doživijo v mogočnem, veličastnem refrenu tvorijo pravcato epsko atmosfero, katere se ne bi sramovala večina težko metalskih skupin tistega časa. Vaijeve supersonične kitarske variacije tokrat za spremembo ne izpadejo neumestno, medtem ko je Davidov veličastni vokal na višku svojih zmogljivostih. Resda je tu vnovič le malo sorodnosti s tradicionalnimi Whitesnake, pa vendarle ne bi bilo prav nič narobe, če bi bilo na »Slip Of The Tongue« več podobnih stvaritev.
Imenitna power balada »The Deeper The Love«, ena redkih pravih Whitesnake klasik na tem albumu, je bila še en veliki hit single. Eterični aranžma na klaviaturah je na okusen način harmoniziran s sofisticiranimi kitarskimi pasažami, medtem ko je Coverdaleova srce parajoča pevska predstava glaven porok za vsesplošno ganljivo epsko-lirično vzdušje. Ta izvrstna ljubezenska power balad sodi med sila redke stvaritve na »Slip Of The Tongue«, kjer je mogoče verjeti v iskrenost in globino pevčevih najglobljih emocij in ni na njej zaslediti niti trohice običajnega erotomanskega provociranja. Udarni »Judgment Day«, nesojeni single, je solidna trdo rockerska stvaritev z izpostavljeno, žgočo kitarsko frazo in hipnotičnim sintetizatorskim aranžmajem, kateri pomaga ustvariti skrivnostno in povsem netipično, rahlo mračno atmosfero. Coverdaleov vokalni razpon in količina vloženih emocij vnovič navdušita, medtem ko je epski osrednji aranžma podkrepljen z Aldridgeovimi silovitimi bobnarskimi prehodi.
»Slow Poke Music«, vnovičen izlet v umazani hair metal, je še en hitro pozabljiv dosežek, ki gospodu Coverdaleu nikakor ne more biti v čast. Infantilno besedilo je pospremljeno z butastim, neizraznim refrenom, medtem ko te polomije ne moreta rešiti niti Vaijeva običajna ‘vesoljska’ kitarska frazeologija in Aldridgeovi brezkompromisni, masivni bobnarski prehodi. Končni vtis na srečo dodobra popravi ganljiva zaključna power balada »Sailing Ships« na kateri Vai s pastoralno začinjenimi akordi demonstrira tudi svojo, na tem albumu redko izraženo, sofisticirano kitarsko plat, medtem ko je Davidov vokal že tradicionalno najbolj prepričljiv pri osebnoizpovednih baladah. V drugem delu se ganljiva balada nekoliko nepričakovano prevesi v udarne, trdo rockerske vode, kjer se Coverdaleov pevski pristop močno spremeni, kar pa v navezi s še eno ‘vesoljsko’ kitarsko improvizacijo še poveča vsesplošno epsko vzdušje te imenitne stvaritve. Čisto za konec pa gospod Coverdale doseže še zanj precej neobičajno visoko pevsko lego, kar pomeni, da se je njegov vokal tedaj še vedno nahajal na vrhuncu svojih moči.
»Slip Of The Tongue«, ne preveč posrečeni naslednik famoznega »Whitesnake« albuma«, je ne glede na to, da je Coverdale z njim naletel na veliko komercialno razočaranje, saj ni ponovil predhodnikovega uspeha, z izjemo treh popolnih mimostrelov povsem soliden in unikaten dosežek. Resda je s svojo trdo rockersko-metalsko naravo, ki je bila odsev tedanjih glasbenih trendov, najmanj tradicionalistično obarvan Whitesnake izdelek na katerem je sila težko ugotoviti, da je legendarna skupina nekoč nastala kot blues rockovska kolektiv, a ravno to ga na svoj način dela zanimivega in svojstvenega.
Turneja na kateri so promovirali »Slip Of The Tongue« je bila uspešna in njihova najbolj ambiciozna sploh s številnimi nastopi po velikih stadionih, vendar je na koncu Coverdalea tako izmozgala, da se je odločil zaključiti Whitesnake zgodbo o uspehu in se nameraval za nedoločen čas upokojiti. Njegova upokojitev ni trajala dolgo, saj se je že konec leta 1991 vrnil v glasbeni svet, ko je sklenil kratkotrajno sodelovanje z legendarnim Led Zeppelin kitaristom Jimmyem Pageom ter z njim posnel album »Coverdale and Page« (1993). Whitesnake pa je obnovil leta 1994, čeprav je to njihovo prvo ‘vstajenje od mrtvih’ trajalo samo do leta 1998, medtem ko je bil druga vnovična združitev leta 2002 veliko uspešnejša.
Lineup
David Coverdale – vocals
Steve Vai – guitar
Adrian Vandenberg – guitar (credited on the album, although none of his guitar parts appear on it)
Rudy Sarzo – bass guitar
Tommy Aldridge – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Glenn Hughes – backing vocals
Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals
Richard Page – backing vocals on “Now You’re Gone”
Don Airey – keyboards
David Rosenthal – keyboards on “Slip of the Tongue”
Claude Gaudette – keyboards
Production
Mike Clink and Keith Olsen
Track list
1. Slip of the Tongue
2. Cheap an’ Nasty
3. Fool For Your Loving ’89
4. Now You’re Gone
5. Kittens Got Claws
6. Wings of the Storm
7. The Deeper the Love
8. Judgement Day
9. Slow Puke Music
10. Sailing Ships
