Northwinds (David Coverdale, 1978)

To paraphrase a certain Russian president, the breakup of Deep Purple in 1976 was one of the greatest rock catastrophes is history. Well, maybe I won't go that far, as it did result in a deluge of pretty good to excellent albums, many of which never would have seen daylight if their creators were still working under the DP banner. Thinking aloud, the post-breakup period gave us Play Me Out (Glenn Hughes, 1977), Private Eyes (Tommy Bolin, 1976), and Malice in Wonderland (Paice Ashton Lord, 1976). Meanwhile, members that left pre-breakup were doing interesting things as well: Child in Time (Ian Gillan Band, 1976), Rising (Rainbow, 1976), and Elements (Roger Glover, 1978). In the midst of all of this activity was the former (and future) brash frontman David Coverdale, with two very low-key solo albums, White Snake (1977) and this one, released on the eve of his new band, Whitesnake.

Most people, especially stateside, hear that name and immediately start smelling the hairspray. 1987 was still a long way off at this point. Northwinds, which is not a Whitesnake album, but a solo album, was released at a challenging time, against the tidal forces of punk and its ilk. Its predecessor included some material Coverdale had written for the D.O.A. 1976 Deep Purple album and some bluesy odds-and-ends. Northwinds went even further in the introspective direction, with some really quiet numbers like the title track and "Time and Again". Lest we think Coverdale was on the verge of releasing a folk album for 1979, we have stomping tracks like "Breakdown" and the bonus track "Shame the Devil" which sounds like he is channeling P-Funk (loosely). As it would turn out these more animated tracks would dictate the direction Coverdale and his guitarist/partner-in-crime Mick Moody wanted to go. Later that same year the two would channel this energy to assemble a new band with a new name.

For those interested, early Whitesnake enjoyed a great deal of success in the UK from 1978 to 1984, consuming 3/5 of the old Paice-Ashton-Lord, and then nearly consuming itself in the wake of a falling out between Coverdale and Moody in 1982. The reconfigured Whitesnake emerged in 1984 with a series of successful albums that finally cracked the US market, though bearing no resemblance to the old band and furiously rotating through various band members (Galley, Sykes, Vai, etc. etc.) until Coverdale decided to fold the band and team up with Jimmy Page for an album. There's more (much more) following Coverdale/Page, but that's another story altogether.