Lovehunter is the second studio album by British band Whitesnake, released on 21 September 1979.[3] It was the bands first UK Top 30 album,[4] charting at No. 29 on the UK Albums Chart.[5] "Long Way from Home", the leading track on the album reached No. 55 on the UK charts,[5] while "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues" was one of the most popular and praised Whitesnake's songs in the beginning.[4][6] The album became controversial because of its cover art.[4]
Background
The band worked on the album at Clearwell Castle.[4] Like their two previous recordings it was also produced by Martin Birch.[4] It was the group's last album to feature Dave Dowle, before being replaced by ex-Purple drummer Ian Paice.[4]
Marsden recalled that at the time band members argued in "a good, healthy, positive" way and "because of that the band got better and more successful with Ready An' Willing (1980) and Come an' Get It (1981)". He considered it a good record, a sentiment Coverdale didn't share and would have rather released it as an EP.[4]
Both Coverdale and Marsden considered "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues" as one of their best compositions,[6][7] with Coverdale stating that the song "really summed up my musical approach of the time. It was very much my feeling, my perspective and probably my life's philosophy back then ... Bernie and I put the music together very quickly. It was obviously meant to be as a song. I'm very proud of that one".[6] Eduardo Rivadavia writing for AllMusic described it as combining "near-perfect songwriting with one of Coverdale's maturest and most compelling lyrics".[8]
Cover art
Lovehunter's controversial cover art, showing a naked woman straddling a large snake and blood on her hand from a snake bite, was created by fantasy artist Chris Achilleos.[4] Coverdale recalls such an idea was made as response to the critics, "just to piss them off even more".[4] Actually, it did spur more journalistic criticism for sexism, and the cover was "banned" at the time in the USA (woman was partly covered with a sticker; album sold "in a brown paper bag") and Argentina (woman's was partly airbrushed with a "chain-mail bikini bottom").[4]
It was the last album cover Achilleos designed for many years, until 2003 and Gary Hughes' rock opera Once and Future King Part I.[9] The original Lovehunter artwork was stolen in the 1980s.[10]
Lovehunter was remastered and reissued in 2006 with several bonus tracks taken from Andy PeeblesBBC Radio 1 sessions recorded 29 March 1979 (tracks originally from the band's debut album Trouble).
