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Ready an' Willing

Whitesnake - Ready an' Willing Audio CD

A fair review of the Whitesnake "Ready an' Willing" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Whitesnake reviews here, or go back to the Whitesnake tabs.

Band: Whitesnake
Title: Ready an' Willing
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-10-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Fool for Your Loving 2: Sweet Talker 3: Ready an' Willing 4: Carry Your Load 5: Blindman 6: Ain't Gonna Cry No More 7: Love Man 8: Black and Blue 9: She's a Woman 10: Mean Business [*] 11: Night Hawk (Vampire Blues) [*] 12: Don't Mess with Me [*] 13: We Wish You Well [*]

The best of the REAL Whitesnake music!
ever put out. This CD is by far the best Coverdale and Co. This is the blues rock Whitesnake of early 1980's. The addition of Ian Paice on drums makes this the classic lineup. At least 4 of these songs were concert staples. So much more soul and substance than the MTV crap of the late 80's Whitesnake. I can't begin to count how many people I turned onto this era of Snake music. Most Americans never even knew they put out any music before Still of the Night.

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

Released in 1980, Ready an' Willing is the band's third album (unless you count the Coverdale solo albums White Snake and Northwinds). As a latecomer to the band, it was reassuring to hear a familiar song opening the album. "Fool for Your Loving" definitely got things off on the right foot, and the fact that it's not even the best track on the album says a lot about the quality of Ready an' Willing. Whitesnake really seemed to hit their stride on this album, finding the perfect mix of rock and blues, and improving their songwriting along the way. The whole album is solid, more so than previous releases, but the highlights (to me, at least) are the raucous "Sweet Talker", the subtle "Ain't Gonna Cry No More" and especially the soulful "Blindman".

Ready an' Willing is one of the best of the early Whitesnake albums, and one that I'd definitely recommend it to all serious Whitesnake fans, as well as anyone into old school blues-based rock & roll.

NOTE: Ready an' Willing was reissued by EMI in 2006. The reissue includes the previously unreleased song "Love for Sale" and live versions of "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City", "Mistreated", "Lovehunter" and "Breakdown". I'm not usually a fan of live recordings, but there's a wild energy to these songs that came across very well live, especially on the (very) extended version of "Mistreated". As good as these performances are, and as nice as the expanded liner notes are, the real attraction of the reissue is the digitally remastered sound, which makes the album sound incredibly clean, clear and loud. I highly recommend picking up the remastered version of Ready an' Willing, especially now that the price has dropped to a reasonable level.
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When they were unknowns to the lil' girlies...
What people don't realize when they're listening to this album for the first time in this day an' age, when we're so saturated with crap music, or even a Whitesnake fan that bought the 1987 album as their first. .
This album came out in 1980.
Just think of all your favorite bands and figure out when they came out. . .
In 1980, very few great rock bands were around, compared to what came out since. . .
I was a fan of Coverdale when he was in Deep Purple.
I found the first Whitesnake ep "Snakebite" when it first came out,
It was pretty good, just loved his voice.
I lost touch with the band intil I heard "Fool For Your Loving" on Hartford, CT radio.
I went out and found "Ready an' Willing" that day. . .
My point is, that when this is the current Whitesnake album, you listen to it over and over and over and over. . . in the car, in your room, with a beer, with a smoke. . .
That's when you zone into the album and really appreciate and love what you're listening to. . .
This album has no bad songs. . .
Every song is perfect, the band was perfect at this point. . .
Ian Paice on drums, what taste. . . !!!
Neil Murray on bass, Whitesnakes finest bassist ever. . .
Jon Lord on keyboards, greatest player in all of rock playing some great riffs on this album. . .
Mickey Moody & Bernie Marsden are great blues-rock guitarists. . . just think of when Zeppelin actually played blues songs over their first 3 albums. . .
Coverdale's voice is at his finest. . .
"Fool For Your Loving" blows away the 1989 version. . .
My favorite tracks are "Love Man", great blues song. . . "Blindman", great 'ballad' in the vein of Deep Purple's "Soldier of Fortune". . . "Ready an' Willng", a great straight-out rock song. . .
I'd have to put this album as my favorite album in their catalog. . .

Wild Man (former roadie & Rochester radio dj).

Classic early 'Snake
The earlier days can be even more broken down between the first couple albums, with Duck Dowle on drums, and the more riffy hard-rock of the Ian Paice albums. Whitesnake has two main era/styles - the shredding, flashy, hair metal group (with a revolving lineup) that got them famous in America at the end of the 80's, and the blues based (sometimes hard-) rock of the late 70's, early 80's, with a relatively steady band. This one kind of bridges that gap. There's a lot of heavily grooving blues-rock goin' on here, some fantastic singing from David Coverdale (whose rich voice here was quite the opposite of his later, screaming, Robert Plant-inspired style), and a couple nice acoustic and ballady tracks. I might point out that I don't generally like metal ballads from the late 80's on - songs like "Now You're Gone" and "Is This Love" kind of bore me, but Coverdale's early singing (as on this album) is so wonderful, plus the fact that the songwriting and musicianship in the early Whitesnake was so full of feeling, that it make me really enjoy these songs. .

Great cd! Couple labeling errors though
Might just be a fluke, but a heads up for others who get the CD and freak out when they play it. This is an awesome classic Whitesnake album, their true bluesy rock roots!

There were a few mislabeling problems with the CD I ordered though, nothing missing or anything.

We Wish You Well is mislabeled as Lovehunter on the CD itself

Mean Business also mislabeled as Love for Sale on the CD itself

Night Hawk (Vampire Blues) is yet again mislabeled Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City on the CD itself

Don't Mess With Me *sigh* again mislabeled Mistreated on the CD itself

NONE of the tracks are missing, just a mislabeling error on the info in the CD.
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You can see a complete list of all Whitesnake discography, or go back to the Whitesnake tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.