Serpens Albus Est Semi-Erectus

All of you women better lift up your skirts and run
'Cause I aim to shoot my pistol and fire like a Gatling gun

Hard rock sacrilege warning: I’m not much of a David Coverdale fan. There, said it. Hard rock sacrilege warning #2: I think his best work by far is on Come Taste The Band. Hard rock sacrilege warning #3: I was thinking of charity shopping a couple of my early Whitesnake LPs.

Not this one though, Saints & Sinners is the sort of LP that can make a chap eat his own words, in parts.

Saints & Sinners was birthed in 1982 after a somewhat difficult pregnancy. Given Coverdale sacked the entire band, after securing the musical backing tracks and that no band members are listed, or pictured on the LP at all*, ‘a somewhat difficult pregnancy’ may be underselling it; some were reinstated afterwards as well. Entire doctoral theses have been written on Mr Coverdale’s uncompromising personnel policies in this period and rebutted by committed Coverdaleistas; I know nothing but I’m instinctively on Micky Moody’s side, I like his face.

Regardless, Saints & Sinners was held up Lion King style to the world in 1982, but did it deserve our homage?

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Like all the best hard rock LPs Saints & Sinners strides out and hits us hard, twice with ‘Young Blood’ and ‘Rough An’ Ready’**. Both are just perfect cocksure hard bluesy rock thunder, the band are absolutely firing on all cylinders here and its all classy as hell. The soloing on ‘Young Blood’ in particular is on point, an exercise in ‘all the right notes and no more’. ‘Rough An’ Ready’ is sillier and more macho, it swaggers to the point of parody, then struts even more. Brilliant.

Third track ‘Bloody Luxury’ is a real let down though, a Status Quo B-side and at 3:23 is about 3:20 too long. I really like the intro to ‘Victim Of Love’ but it gets less interesting from there, the lyrics are truly clunky too^.

Luckily both sides of the flip are excellent. Firstly the majestic ‘Crying In The Rain’, where Coverdale really shows us what his voice does best, that superb soulful blues delivery, where he sings beautifully within himself, rather than stretching for the rock notes. The guitars twine around each other beautifully on this one, extra bonus points to the Ian Paice and Neil Murray rhythm section too here.

Then it gets even better with ‘Here I Go Again’, where Jon Lord’s hymnlike introduction makes the song so much better than its re-recorded sibling; I say that as a big fan of the crunchier ’87 version too^^. I rather like the slower pace of this and the backing vox. I have to say Ian Paice’s playing is rather excellent on this too.

After every up however, ‘Love An’ Affection’ is a Purple throwaway at best, despite a happily bouncy tune and some dafter entendre. ‘Dancing Girls’ is enlivened and redeemed by a rather groovy middle section, much like my good self; although its fade out irritates. The title track ain’t much to write home about, despite a rather excellent funky rocking strut, it needed a better song to go with it.

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I really enjoyed Saints & Sinners, I like the way that at its best it is a cross between the funkier end of Deep Purple and a burlier English approach to hard blues rock. The band are never less than excellent, Murray/Paice/Lord/Moody/Marsden were a force to be reckoned with, its just some of the songs aren’t worthy of the talents on display, I suspect as a result of the LP’s torturous gestation. The less David Coverdale tries to tart it up and sings deeper and more soulful the better he is, at its very best he had a really unique voice^*.

Tonight it totally captured my crying in the rain, walking my lonely street of dreams looking for some rough an’ ready mood. Maybe I’m more of a fan than I let on. Ah well, time to polish my gatling gun.

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My copy of Saints & Sinners is a late 80’s reissue on the Fame label, meaning no inner sleeve, which is a bit sad. I have to say though the sound is really good, despite it being cut onto pretty flimsy vinyl by today’s standards. It is a pressing I would recommend.

1269 Down (the only road I’ve ever known).

PS. because I love you:

*my cheap reissue certainly doesn’t apart from a backing vox credit for Micky Moody, even originals only mention the writing credits for each song and the soloist on each cut. There is a pic of DC, looking a bit Alice Cooper, on the back cover.

**interestingly Coverdale seems to be the only/last ever recorded adherent to shortening ‘and’ to ‘an’, instead of the more usual hard rock ‘n’. See also Come An’ Get It and ‘Love An’ Affection’.

^although I do like Coverdale singing ‘I ain’t no stranger to the crying game’ – surely this must be a very foresighted reference to Neil Jordan’s 1992 film of the same name? I feel your shock David and I understand why you feel the need to assert your masculinity quite so much.

^^I love love LOVE the rumour that Geffen got Coverdale to exchange the word ‘hobo‘ for ‘drifter‘ in case it was misheard as ‘homo‘; which is exactly what I shall proudly sing every single time I singalong to it for evermore.

^*I keep meaning to get hold of a copy of Northwinds.