Whitesnake: "Ready an' Willing" (1980)

Whitesnake released their best album, "Ready an' Willing," on May 31, 1980. The album was recorded at Ridge Farm Studios in West Sussex and Central Recorders Studio and Sauna in London, with Martin Birch as the producer.

By Martin Johannessen

Jon Lord had been involved in a couple of previous albums, but now Ian Paice had joined the band. Along with David Coverdale, Neil Murray, Bernie Marsden, and Micky Moody, they released three great albums together.

All three are very good, but they never managed to top "Ready an' Willing."

The band had been on the road for a few months before going into the studio to record the album and were quite tight-knit. Bernie Marsden says:

"Yeah, we’d toured for about six months before we started to record ‘Ready An’ Willing’ and that really showed as well. I think we’d hit kind of a gold vein song-wise as well, knowing that Jon and Ian were permanent members of the band by then and that made a big difference, really."

The Singles

Two songs were released as singles: "Fool for Your Loving" and the title track. Additionally, "Sweet Talker" was released as a single in the USA.

It was "Fool for Your Loving" that did the best, even though the title track is at least as good. "Fool for Your Loving" was originally written for B.B. King, but the band thought it was far too good to give to anyone else. And they were right.

The song is about David Coverdale's divorce from his first wife. Coverdale explains:

"You can look at my first marriage and see ‘Fool for Your Loving’ and ‘Don't Break My Heart Again’. A lot of those were fueled by songs about a relationship that once was very positive but sadly was unfolding into not positive."

The groove on the title track is fantastic. Coverdale sings with blues both in his voice and in the lyrics:

I want to be loved

Don't want to be teased

I don't want no woman

Getting down on her knees

And Micky Moody's short and concise guitar solo is amazing. "A beast of a track," as they say.

"Blindman" was first recorded on Coverdale's debut solo album, “White Snake” (1977). The new version is somewhat more electric. And although there are naturally differences between two separate recordings with different musicians, the song structure is quite similar.

“Sweet Talker” is also a tough track that could easily have appeared on a Deep Purple MKIII album. However, it was only released as a single in the USA, where it didn't get much attention.

“Ain’t Gonna Cry No More” is a nice and somewhat different song. It opens acoustically for a couple of minutes and is spiced up with some lovely tones from Jon Lord. The rest of the track is unmistakably Whitesnake; blues, a bit of soul, and very skilled musicians.

“Ready an' Willing” is a brilliant album and always tops my personal list of the best Whitesnake albums.