| Slip of the Tongue | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Whitesnake |
| Cover: | Slip of the tongue.jpg |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 7 November 1989 (US) 13 November 1989 (UK)[1] |
| Recorded: | August 1988–1989 |
| Studio: | Record Plant, Los Angeles |
| Length: | 46:47 |
| Producer: | |
| Prev Title: | Whitesnake |
| Prev Year: | 1987 |
| Next Title: | Whitesnake's Greatest Hits |
| Next Year: | 1994 |
Slip of the Tongue is the eighth studio album by the British hard rock band Whitesnake, released on 7 November 1989 in the US by Geffen Records and 13 November 1989 in the UK by EMI. The album peaked at number 10 on both the UK Album Chart and US Billboard 200.[2] [3] Three singles were released from the album: "Fool for Your Loving '89", "The Deeper the Love" and "Now You're Gone". All the singles hit the US Mainstream Rock Tracks Top 40, two of which, "The Deeper the Love" and "Fool for Your Loving" cracked the Top 5.[4] Slip of the Tongue has sold over one million copies in the US, reaching platinum status.[5] It was the final studio album to be released through Geffen as they were dropped from the label after the Greatest Hits tour by the end of 1994.
"Fool for Your Loving" originally appeared on the album Ready an' Willing, but it was re-recorded for this album.
After touring with their previous multi-platinum eponymous album in August 1988, guitarist Vivian Campbell was having problems with the band due to musical differences. David Coverdale then added that Campbell's wife had a "falling out" with Tawny Kitaen, who was Coverdale's fiance at that time, causing tensions between the two. Originally, lead and primary guitarist, Adrian Vandenberg wanted to be the sole guitarist and personally did not want Campbell in the band. However, this was to be debunked as Vandenberg asserted that he had nothing to do with Campbell's departure but confirmed Coverdale's statements about Campbell's dismissal.[6] [7] Coverdale then announced that the next supporting album was going to be written by him and Vandenberg, who established a fruitful working relationship at that time.
The writing process for a new Whitesnake album started at Lake Tahoe with singer David Coverdale and guitarist Adrian Vandenberg. Some material, including the title track, had already been written while on tour and some lyrics were finished by Coverdale in Bora Bora. After approximately a month of writing, the band regrouped for three weeks of rehearsals.[8] Campbell shortly later departed in December 1988.
Adrian Vandenberg had planned to record for the album, but the worsening of an existing injury made it painful for him to play, requiring surgery.[9] For the recording, Coverdale chose ex-Frank Zappa and David Lee Roth guitarist Steve Vai. Coverdale was unfamiliar with Vai's work with Zappa or Roth, but had seen him in the 1986 film Crossroads, in which Vai had greatly impressed him. Adrian Vandenberg revealed in several interviews that he thinks Vai's flamboyant guitar playing was somewhat inappropriate, and that a more bluesy approach would have suited the album better.[10] Adrian Vandenberg was credited as a major co-songwriter, while Steve Vai was credited with "fulfilling all guitar responsibilities" on the album, and appeared in all the band's music videos. In this case, Vandenberg would not appear to play in any recording of Whitesnake albums until he finally appeared on the next upcoming 1997 release, Restless Heart.
Most of the backing vocals are by Tommy Funderburk and Mr. Mister lead singer Richard Page; Coverdale's friend and former Deep Purple bandmate Glenn Hughes contributed backing vocals to three songs.[11] Once again, keyboardist Don Airey, along with session musicians Claude Gaudette and David Rosenthal, was brought in to do some keyboard parts, but just like with Hughes, much of his material didn't make the final cut of the album.
Slip of the Tongue was released on 7 November 1989 in the United States by Geffen Records, then released worldwide (particularly in Europe) six days later by EMI. It later received a Japanese release on 18 November 1989 by CBS/Sony. The original album spawned three singles. "Fool for Your Loving '89" was released in October 1989 while "The Deeper the Love" and "Now You're Gone" were released in 1990. "Judgement Day" did not receive a single release, rather, it was made solely as a radio airplay. The single B-Side of the album, "Sweet Lady Luck" was released in 1990, only to be re-released in 1994 for the Greatest Hits promotion.
Slip Of The Tongue: 20th Anniversary Edition was released in May 2009 as a two-disc remastered version with slightly modified running order and ten bonus tracks. There is also a single disc version with just the remastered, re-sequenced tracks and no bonus material.
A 30th Anniversary Edition box set was reissued by Rhino in October 2019, including a newly remastered version of the album as well as other recordings and videos. The B-Side single, "Sweet Lady Luck" received a promotional video release before the album's official second reissue.[12]
The Liquor & Poker world tour for the album was the biggest the band had undertaken yet, including their third appearance & second headlining of the famous Castle Donington Monsters of Rock festival on 18 August 1990. The performance was later released as Live at Donington 1990 on 20 May 2011 on Frontiers. The band embarked on the tour at Fairfax Patriot Center (later named EagleBank Arena), Fairfax, Virginia on 2 February 1990.[13] The tour had come to an end on 26 September 1990 at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, at which point Coverdale disbanded Whitesnake indefinitely for three years and took a break from the music business until late 1991 when he started to work with Jimmy Page, which resulted in the 1993 album Coverdale•Page.
Slip of the Tongue peaked at No. 10 on the US Billboard 200 chart and spent a total of 34 weeks there. It was made as a US second Top 10 and the final album hit there. The album also charted at No. 10 in the UK Albums chart running for a consecutive 8 weeks there, only to re-appear for two more weeks on 1 September 1990. It also charted at No. 12 in Japanese chart, No. 18 in the Canadian chart, No. 39 in the Australian chart (ARIA), No. 9 in the Norway chart, No. 11 in the Sweden chart, No. 11 in Switzerland chart, No. 9 in the New Zealand chart, and No. 19 in the Germany chart. The album cracked the top spot in Finland charts, making it the only album in the band's discography to do so, also the only country to debut at No.1. By the end of the week on 17 October 2019, the 30th Anniversary reissue eventually re-charted in the UK consecutively at No.7 on Rock & Metal Albums Chart, No. 43 on Scottish Albums, No. 55 on Album Sales, and No. 50 on Physical Albums.
Sales of the album were only over 4 million copies worldwide as of August 1990, only half of the previous album sold in the US (8 million copies) alone.[14] In a commercial outlook, Slip of the Tongue was considered a commercial disappointment. Coverdale stated that within four days after its release, over 1.2 million records were sold in America. In retrospect, the album was only certified in three countries. In the United Kingdom, it was certified gold by BPI in just four days after its UK release, selling over 100,000 copies. The album achieved platinum American RIAA certification status on 17 January 1990, while it also managed to be certified gold by Japan (RIAJ) in August 1992.
Unlike the band's previous album, which received widespread critical acclaim, Slip of the Tongue was met with mixed reactions, with many saying the album's sound was too far from the original Whitesnake sound. Mainly, musical outlets and magazines questioned the collaboration of Coverdale and Vai, raising doubts about the band's longevity and the musical style the band was fit for.
Robert Christgau gave the album a negative review, saying: "They got lucky, and they don't intend to let go. With fast-gun-for-hire Steve Vai operating all guitars and who knows what other geegaws, they've consolidated their sound into essence of arena: all pomp, flash, male posturing, and sentimentality, this is now the Worst Band in the World. So you just move over, Journey."
Kim Neelt, writing for Rolling Stone, called the album out as "not passionate enough to evoke pleasure" and "dull" as it can be. Understanding the album's context across tracks like Now You're Gone being compared to Flashdance, she questioned the reactions by summing out the rest of nothing "heartfelt" or "a tad too radio-friendly". Furthermore, she negatively slammed Vai about fulfilling the guitar arrangements from Vandenberg responding that Vai "couldn't step into the spotlight and sparkle without leaving his shoes behind." Admitting that the album has "its moments," she ended her commentary on the record saying that it "won't leave you feeling exhilarated, and it won't leave you feeling disgusted."
David Coverdale himself has also seen the album as one of the weakest in the band's catalogue, but has since found somewhat of an appreciation for it. He summed up his feelings by saying:
For a long time, I felt the album lacked a certain Whitesnake feel in the music, but, countless people thro' the years have assured me that they enjoyed and enjoy the album, nonetheless. So, now I happily accept it as a significant part of the Whitesnake catalogue and to be honest, I enjoy it more now than I did back then. It was an album plagued with challenges and obstacles for me, personally, from many avenues, but hey...nobody said being successful is supposed to be easy!
Metal Rules ranked the album #38 on their list of the Top 50 Glam Metal Albums.[15]
Billboard named the 2019 reissue at number 9 as one of the best reissues of that year.[16]
In the album's 30th anniversary "The Wagging Tongue" interview with Coverdale and Vai recorded in 1989 led by Phil Easton, Coverdale revealed the opening track for Slip of the Tongue was originally titled, "Dominatrix Blues."
To speak about how the title got changed and came through its main idea for the title of the record, David Coverdale stated:
Coverdale then talks behind the meaning of Cheap an' Nasty saying:
He then mentioned that it was Kitaen's favorite track on the album.
In retrospect of the re-recording for Fool for Your Loving, according to the 20th-anniversary liner notes of the album, Coverdale comments:
David Coverdale revealed that the band did attempt to re-visit some of the older tracks in the Whitesnake discography, such as "Ain't Gonna Cry No More" (from Ready an' Willing), "We Wish You Well" (from Lovehunter), and "Burning Heart" (from Vandenberg's eponymous album). Given how the original "Fool for Your Loving" was given for, he commented:
Coverdale then expressed how he believed his performance on the original version of "Fool for Your Loving" was botched saying, "I always do my best writing songs, but then it's up to my colleagues to put the passion that the song deserves. It is a passionate song... if you listen to the original, I think the only security other than the song itself is my vocal performance... It's a very secure blues performance... but it's very bottom-light in terms of presentation and totally top-heavy, musically. There isn't the passion, the song is not given the passionate performance that it deserved, the same of "Here I Go Again" (the original 1982 version)." The same thing would apply to the past early-80s Whitesnake albums as it was written in the best that Coverdale was in that position but blatantly set lacking the passion and performance of the rest of the songs. Coverdale further said, "I honestly cannot understand how I accepted those, that particular takes, that particular performance [...] it's like overcompensating because Ian didn't play as powerfully as I know he can, maybe he had something else the track on his mind that day, you know [...] it's simply isn't good enough." He affirmed that he would plan to re-record older songs for the next upcoming Greatest Hits complication album, but neither of these came out, with only the complication under that "Greatest Hits" name that featured the tracks from the mid-80s released in 1994.
Coverdale claimed that he was satisfied with the track, Now You're Gone whisper-to-a-scream methodology part. Stating on how it was written, he said:
On the track Kitten's Got Claws, he asserted that the song was the easiest song to sing from the album. In addition, he mentioned that the song was written for Tawny, referring to her last name calling as a "kitten." Furthermore, Coverdale spoke about its meaning, saying:
Coverdale then talks about the meaning of Wings of the Storm, saying:
Coverdale further states how The Deeper the Love was written, saying:
To explain further, Coverdale commented on the origins of the song in the 20th-anniversary edition liner notes by saying:
Coverdale stated that Judgement Day was referenced when he had back surgery in the spring of (April) 1988 due to a herniated disc that had to be removed caused by intensive stage performances he had encountered throughout the years. He was given a medication called, "Percodan" to relieve him from his post-operation. He said that he was in a "desensitizing condition" given the fact that he was physically and mentally worn out from that medication, even while the band was still on their marks headlining their supporting tour for the 1987 album.[17] [18]
Coverdale talks about the meaning of Slow Poke Music, stating:
To conclude the interview, Coverdale talked about the meaning of Sailing Ships, stating:
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[19] [20] [21] For further DVD reissue credits, see Live at Donington 1990.
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| Chart (1989-1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[23] | 1 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[24] | 12 |
| Chart (2019) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[25] | 41 |
| Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)[26] | 73 |