Taking Sides: Saxon vs. Whitesnake

Saxon & Judas Priest in the heydey of NWOBHM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip0G-DQr5l4

Not sure what the program is.

Whitesnake loses by default. Whitesnake would even lose to White Lion.

SAXON!!!

http://cdn.last.fm/coverart/300x300/1418634.jpg

Which is the best Saxon album in your opinion?

Denim & Leather is the most anthemic. Wheels of Steel is next and was Saxon's unanimous UK charting success. Strong Arm of the Law has the best bite down hard riff in the entire catalog in ita title track although the rest of it rather compales in comparison.

Not the best horse race to rate. Byf was never as good as David Coverdale. Plus, Whitesnake was, at one point, Deep Purple incognito.

Whitesnake was huge in the US. Saxon was an opening band, at best, in the US. Whitesnake cycled guitar heroes -- Sykes, Vai, Vandenberg.

That'd be 'pales in comparison' -- Thanksgiving bubbly working.

Awful comparison, actually. Whitesnake was actually a bunch of bands. Saxon was always Saxon until the 21st century. There was the Whitesnake that was blooz rock continuing on from Deep Purple after Come Taste the Band, ejection of Glenn Hughes, etc. Records made never released in the US until much later on. Then John Sykes, Cozy Powell and such were dragged in as sidemen to Coverdale. Hooked up with big producer to make Slide (Slip?) it In which actually did accomplish something in the US.

Then entire band was sacked and Coverdale hooked up with Hollywood session hacks Dan Huff (still producing modern country hits for Keith Urban) and Heart/Montrose drummer Denny Carmassi. Made the huge single which you all know at which point another band -- Sykes in again, I think, was assembled to make the album which featured Coverdale's then squeeze, Tawny Kitaen, in its major video. The album was sold on videos with Steve Vai as guitarist.

Whitesnake's entire US success was build on pop songs and ad hoc session work.

There is a lot of bullshit talked on this thread.

Anyway: Saxon for rocking out, Whitesnake for Ladies' Night.

Strong Arm of the Law for me. "20,000 Feet" still destroys.

Yeah, "Strong Arm of the Law" kills. It's ripe for someone minor to redo it. "Dallas 1 PM" also merits mention.

Hell yeah.

Pre-Sarzo/Vandenberg/Scottish dick from Dio-era Whitesnake MOP THE FLOOR with fuckin' Saxon. "Slow N' Easy" shits over the entire Saxon catalog from a great, brown, splattery height.

Yeah, but tell us what you really think Alex.

SAXON. (early.)

Been listening a lot to both Saxon and pre-Tawny Whitesnake lately and they're both really solid. Neither blows me away with any consistency, but both at their peaks were better than the shit impression left in their wakes as time wore on. Long slow skidmark into oblivion.

Whitesnake 78-82 wipe the floor with any era of Saxon. But the comparison is a bit apples and oranges - although both became successful in the UK off the back of NWOBHM, they've got very little in common. It's a bit like comparing Talking Heads and Jayne County on the basis that both were CBGB punk bands.

I don't think "wipe the floor", but as you say very different bands. Both worthy of praise.

early Saxon is hella fucking fun fuiud

EZ Snappin says "Long slow skidmark into oblivion."

Seriously, thanks. I've been laughing for a few minutes at this.

yeah that was a good one

Sadly, one of my few moments

Slow N' Easy" shits over the entire Saxon catalog from a great, brown, splattery height.

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, November 24, 2007 1:01 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^classic alex

how could dave q hate on rainbow :(

Brian Tatler is in Saxon now? do NWOBHM bands just have a cork board where they put themselves up for exchange?

Maiden started all that by poaching members of Samson, White Spirit and, um, Wolfsbane.

there does not appear to have ever been a dedicated Saxon thread!

Only knew and loved "denim and Leather"; am now listening to 2002 The Best of Saxon: it seems that Biff is the guy who makes this band, the other guys do not appear to distinguish 'emselves… apart from being pretty sui generis as a vocalist, also he seems sui generis as a metal lyricist: he is interested in air travel as a frequent topic, "Dallas Ipm" is pretty striking, possibly even more distressing to the Kennedy Clan than Jello et al: he writes about how great metal and the brotherhood of metal fans are consistently, and not really any Sword and Sorcery shit? is that right? Is metal in general unfairly maligned as Sword 'n' Sorcery besotted? Is it just Dio, cuz Maiden's shit is concerned with history, and I guess Priest does fantasy frequently. I'm not hearing any songs about women… there's a song called "Sixth Form Girls" on their first record, which I'm sure english people would roll their eyes at.

seeing them in exactly two weeks w/ Uriah Heep

Saxon have never done a thing for me, but man, I would love to see Uriah Heep. (And pre-Hollywood Whitesnake have their moments. Live...In the Heart of the City is a great 70s live album.)

From what I recall of the attitudes in the air during my teenage hard rock years, bands like Maiden and Saxon wouldn't write songs about love or shagging because it was 'girl's stuff'. Instead they would write about real things - steam trains (Princess of the Night), plane crashes (747), war (Power & the Glory), the Crusades (Crusader, which not unfairly got them banned in the Middle East on grounds of religious offensiveness) etc. Same with Maiden - WW1 pilots (Aces High), torture devices (the titular Iron Maiden), ethnic cleansing (Run to the Hills), whatever film or book Steve Harris was interested in that week (most of the rest of the back catalogue).

Blimey

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-68797713

listening to the s/t Saxon and why are there so many songs about rainbows

oh wow, this album is fun in a "first album where band hasn't found itself" kinda way.

production is paper-thin and wrong, lotsa poppy moments that woulda been unusual by their later standards, and yet I like most of the tunes.

I realize it gets stick for being the black sheep but I like this!

If you can see Saxon on this tour

Do it

I have chills