35 Years Ago: Whitesnake Declare Themselves ‘Ready an’ Willing’ For A Breakthrough
By Eduardo Rivadavia May 31, 2015 10:12 AM
By the time Whitesnake unveiled their third studio long-player, Ready an’ Willing, on May 31, 1980, David Coverdale’s crew of English blues rockers had already been alive and kicking for a couple of years. But to say they’d achieved true stardom would be something of an overstatement.
Instead, it was Ready an’ Willing that signaled the career turning point they’d been working towards, as it climbed into the U.K. Top 10 and became Whitesnake’s first effort to even chart outside their homeland. The catalyst for all this being the group’s first bona fide hit single in “Fool for Your Loving,” and perhaps some timely upgrades to their lineup, too, with the arrival of former Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice.
By joining up, Paice was of course reuniting with his erstwhile Purple bandmates, Coverdale and organist Jon Lord, and simply adding his formidable talents to those of guitarists Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody, plus bassist Neil Murray — all of which elevated the band’s creative and performing powers to the next level.
This upgrade was perfectly apparent in album standouts like the sharp-tongued “Sweet Talker,” the slowly building “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More,” the bluesy balladry of “Blind Man” (reworked from Coverdale’s solo LP), and that groove monster of a title track.
But enough of our opinions and reminisces. Here’s what Ultimate Classic Rock’s own Matt Wardlaw learned about the period surrounding Ready an’ Willing’s recording and release, from a candid interview with former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden:
Did the album come together pretty easily?
Yeah, because we had
Martin Birch in the studio, the secret weapon as I used to call him. He was dead on the money. He knew. He’d been there with the whole thing with
Fleetwood Mac and Deep Purple — we all understood each other and never had to say much. He’d say, I’m ready for a solo” and I’d do a solo and I’d say, “Okay, shall we do it [again]?” and he’d say, “Thank you, I’ve got it” and he was right usually. You learn to trust people like that.
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