Track Listing

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. Love For Sale
11. Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City
12. Mistreated
13. Lovehunter
14. Breakdown

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23990 in Music
• Released on: 2006-05-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Great music - poor remaster
Don't get me wrong - this album is a great place to start listening to Whitesnake - just DON'T buy the 2007 remasters if you value the top range of your hearing! I have compared the tracks back to back with the 25th Anniversary versions (2003/2004) and the new remasters sound AWFUL! Far too bright in the mix and downright painful. I am not alone here - reviews on the DP website back me up.

Really looking forward to these CD's but feel really let down by poor remastering

Their Bluesiest Best
This was the very 1st 'snake album I heard, and it's still my favourite. I remember hearing the lead off track "Fool For Your Loving" when it hit the charts in 1980, and my big sister telling me- "wait till you hear this singer- he just makes it sound so easy". These words have incredibly stuck with me for many years as that's exactly what David Coverdale does on this record. I think this album contains his best ever vocals in terms of depth, feeling and emotion, and to be frank, DC could wipe the floor with any other rock singers around in 1980. The band were augmented by the addition of Ian Paice on drums and for the 1st time on record, sound like the finished article. Those who only know WS as the big-haired AOR outfit they became in the late 80's will find this music a revelation. It certainly has much more integrity than anything recorded from 1984 onwards. If you like blues rock music with passionate vocals, it doesn;t get much better than this.

Whitesnake's finest
This classic album was recorded seven years before Whitesnake broke through in America, having changed their sound from hard, bluesy rock n' roll to big-haired pop metal, so the version of "Fool For Your Loving" that kicks off "Ready An' Willing" is the original gritty rocker, not the slick, keyboard-laden and slightly evil one from the 1989 MTV video.

Back in 1980 original Whitesnake guitarists Bernie Marsden and Mick Moody played big, bluesy guitar riffs and short, sparse solos, Coverdale didn't yet bleach his hair, and the music was raw and powerful, more Deep Purple than pop metal and poodle-rock.
Indeed, "Ready an' Willing" goes from highlight to highlight:
"Fool For Your Loving", the hard-rocking "Sweet Talker", the superbly groovy "Ready An' Willing", the dirty, swaggering blues-rock of "Love Man", and the ballads "Carry Your Load", the slightly Zeppelin-like "Blindman" and the acoustic "Ain't Gonna Cry No More". And one of the band's unknown gems is also here, the funky, piano-driven R&B of "Black And Blue" which can only be found on this album.

It's not great art, sure, but it's really great fun, and there is certainly no need to program anything out here. To me "Ready An' Willing" is Whitesnake's strongest studio album by far, and it's also the also one of only two studio albums to feature the extraordinary line-up of Moody, Marsden, Murray, and former Purple members Lord and Paice.
Never again did the Snake make an album of such consistently entertaining songs.