Ah, Whitesnake. The world of music videos may well be one of smoke and mirrors, but at least these guys made the Grand Illusion lovely to look at! In fact, even though their heyday only lasted a few years, from 1987 to about 1990, I would venture to opine that Whitesnake managed to be one of the sexiest bands of the whole decade--due in no small part to their exceptionally hunky lead singer.

Of course, one might legitimately ask of just which Whitesnake I speak; the band became famous (or perhaps infamous) for its frequent personnel changes. David Coverdale has been criticized for that, but I think the reality is that rock and roll is as much a profession and a business as an artistic endeavor, and--as in any business--if someone is either not doing their job or creating disruptive friction within the work environment, then that's a perfectly legitimate reason to fire them and find someone who will get the job done. Granted, creative people can be a volatile bunch, and there are always other factors to take into account; it would hardly make good business sense to chuck your best songwriter out on his/her ear without a very good reason, for example. But given that DC has always been Whitesnake's primary songwriter and vocalist, and that the project was conceived of as a "concept" band, or an entity that would have an existence apart from its individual members, right from the start, I just fail to see what the big deal is. It's his band, and in my limited experience (I don't own anything like all the Whitesnake albums ever made) the changes usually improved the sound of the group, or at least didn't hurt it. Why argue with success?

Still, like most fans, I do have a favorite lineup, that of 1989's Slip of the Tongue album and tour, which consisted of DC on vocals, Adrian Vandenberg and Steve Vai sharing guitar duties, Rudy Sarzo on bass, and Tommy Aldridge on drums. That lineup typified the whole Whitesnake ethos; it was a happy meeting of some of the best musical talents in the world, and they looked good onstage. Okay, so two of the five were unnatural blonds during that period, but it was still an almost dangerous concentration of hunkiness. And in a way, it's really frustrating, because I was just getting into rock music in 1989, and--as with Kip Winger--my tastes were not yet evolved enough to truly appreciate men from the hard rock end of the musical spectrum. It took another ten years (and a few viewings of "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love" on VH-1 Classic) before DC and Co. could truly take up their rightful place in my affections. Sigh; so close, and yet so far...

I have come to quite like David Coverdale, though, and not just because he's hot as all get-out--and regardless of what certain of his former colleagues might have to say about him. Perhaps it's because he's so thoroughly British; I admit quite freely to being an unashamed Anglophile, and if nothing else, David Coverdale has a very British sense of humor. Even when he's not quoting Monty Python's Flying Circus, I end up laughing out loud at something he's said in nearly every interview with him that I've ever read--and he's written songs that I just can't get through without giggling. If you own a Whitesnake album, you know the ones I mean; think "Slide It In" or "Cheap An' Nasty." This is 80's rock at its best--risqué, overblown, and entirely tongue-in-cheek. At the same time, however, it's also obvious that DC has a romantic side, and you only have to read an interview or two to realize that, over-the-top innuendo aside, he's actually quite an intelligent and articulate individual.

And I suppose it's really all of that taken together which makes him so very attractive on so many levels. He's got class, and he's comfortable enough with his own sexuality to play both the rogue and the lover with equal ease. Add in good looks and plenty of talent, and you've got, if you'll forgive the expression, quite a package, indeed!