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intothewellsabyss
Nov 3, 20222 min read

Whitesnake - Live… In the Heart of the City (1980)

FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL…



On November 3, 1980, Whitesnake released their live album Live...in the Heart of the City via Liberty/EMI in the UK and Germany (via Mirage/Atlantic in North America, Polydor in Japan, and United Artists for the rest of the world).


Background:

Originally released as a double-vinyl album, and double-play cassette, it utilises recordings made in 1978 and 1980. The album charted at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart, and No. 146 on the Billboard 200.


Sides 1 and 2 of the vinyl are from recordings made with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at the Hammersmith Odeon, during the band's 1980 World Tour. Sides 3 and 4 are from a 1978 recording, previously released only in Japan as Live at Hammersmith.


The first UK CD version (EMI CZD 94) was a 2-CD set, issued in 1988, in what is now known as a 'fat-boy' double-CD case. Sides 1 and 2 of the 2-LP set were CD1; sides 3 and 4 were CD2.


The later 1994 release was a single CD version, the 1978 recording of Come On being dropped to match the restrictive running-time of the single CD.


Live...in the Heart of the City has since been remastered and was released in March 2007 as a 2-CD set (in a slimline double-CD case), once again featuring all the tracks of the original album, together with a 1980 recording of Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City as a bonus track.


The 1978 performance of Might Just Take Your Life, originally recorded by singer David Coverdale and keyboardist Jon Lord as members of Deep Purple in 1974, featured guitarist Bernie Marsden singing the middle eight part as originally sung by Glenn Hughes on the Deep Purple recording.


The sleeve-art is by British artist Jeff Cummins.


Critical Reception:

In his review for AllMusic, Eduardo Rivadavia stated;

“Virtually every hard rock band in the universe managed to release a live (usually double) album in the late '70s, and Whitesnake were certainly no exception. Live.... In the Heart of the City does a pretty good job of collecting the highlights from the band's first four releases, as well as a few Deep Purple standards (singer David Coverdale, organist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice are all Purple alumni). Whitesnake favorites such as "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues," "Ready an' Willing," and "Fool for Your Loving" heat up the crowd, but it's the extended version of Lovehunter that gets things boiling, thanks to Micky Moody's extended slide guitar solo. The audience participation on Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City provides another thrilling moment, but the band truly brings the house down with a last encore of Deep Purple's Mistreated -- a blues of monstrous proportions that becomes an 11-minute catharsis for Coverdale.”

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells



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