THE VIDEO Whitesnake, "Is This Love?" Whitesnake, 1987, EMI
Click here to watch this video NOW!
SAMPLE LYRIC "Is this love that I'm feelin'? / Is this the looove, that I've been searchin' for-or? / Is this love, or am I dreami-iii-in'? / This must be love, 'cause it's really got a hold on mee-eeee / a hold on meeee"
THE VERDICT This isn't my favorite Whitesnake song, but it's Power Ballads Month, so I can't exactly blog about "Slow An' Easy" or "Give Me All Your Love." I do have a particular affinity for it though, as if nothing else, it always makes me think of my cat, Pudge. I have a habit of working my pets' names into songs and singing to them, and given that "Pudge" rhymes with "Love" she bears the brunt of this. Besides, lyrics like "Is this Pudge? That I'm feelin' / Is this the Pudge? That I've been searchin' for" crack me up. So even though this isn't my most favorite Whitesnake song (I've always taken issue with its inclusion on Monster Ballads), here we are, 'cause it's Power Ballads Month.
And this song has a pretty damn enjoyable video. I love it when heavy metal guys invite their real girlfriends to "act" in their videos -- yes, much like having your relationship or marriage showcased in a reality show, it's pretty much the death knell for your relationship, but it gets around the usual "they aren't paying me enough to do that" awkwardness, as the real-life girlfriends are willing to be a lot more demonstrative. Or something.
The video opens with the inimitable Tawny Kitaen in her exposed-brick apartment, hastily packing a few unmentionables while wearing a teensy white dress that may or may not have a super high-waisted 80s thong built into it. David Coverdale -- looking very Sonny Crockett in an unstructured suit with a low-cut tee under it -- basically just watches all this happen. Their initial interaction basically sets the tone for the entire video: Tawny acting all spastic and jumpy, and Coverdale acting tired and resigned. Is this love? I guess?
Everyone in Whitesnake -- and Tawny -- appear to be playing in some kind of vague, dry ice-filled area, with each musician or band member's girlfriend standing atop a kind of horizontal structure. Basically, imagine if Stonehenge fell over, someone dropped a bunch of dry ice there, and everyone in Whitesnake came and stood on it, swaying their hips while playing this song, and you've got it. It's actually a really similar set to the one used in Dio's "I Could Have Been a Dreamer" and W.A.S.P.'s "I Wanna Be Somebody," if you can believe it. On a semi-related note, the humidity seems to be doing a number on everyone's hair.
Tawny next does something that seems totally natural. She drops her trunk in the hallway and balances on top of it in a sexy pose. That's how I usual relieve my frustration. Per my comments before, Coverdale just stands in the hallway staring.
Next we get one of my favorite parts of this video. A flashback! Yes, to the good old days when she would give him a lap dance in their super-80s loft apartment. Look out though David, as when this cuts back and forth, it appears the dry ice is filling the hallway as well -- are they sure it isn't some kind of gas leak? After all, whenever we cut back to them playing the song, everyone seems pretty subdued. It's pretty dim so it's hard to see if Adrian Vandenberg is making his usual guitar face, but based on his other movements I'd have to say the answer is a shocking no.
Coverdale's just laying on the bed, so between that, the nearly catatonic band members, and this sludgefest of a song, it's up to Tawny to carry the whole thing. And she tries very, very hard, tossing around her gigantic mane of hair (seriously, it looks like it's 1/4 of her body weight!), making furious sexy faces at the camera, and getting jiggy with the stairwell railing. I really love how content she is to dance around the bed without getting anywhere near David Coverdale. Even when he reaches out to touch her, you get this sort of "you need to pay extra for that" feeling. Is this love? Umm, doesn't seem like it so far.
Unless, that is, you count the director's love for David Coverdale. They seem to have been so enamored of doing a quick-zoom on Coverdale standing in the hallways that they've felt the need to repeat it at least five times so far. If I were anyone else in the band, I'd be like, "so let's see, you've shown me in silhouette a few times and my face in shadow once, but we've now done a quick-zoom toward David five times?!?" And as I finish typing, they go in for a sixth quick-zoom.
We also keep getting these shots of everyone reflected in water, with a foggy background. In these, Tawny appears to be wearing David's blazer. Does the water signify that this isn't what's really happening? Possibly yes, as she's letting David kiss her. Did I neglect to mention that Tawny has changed into an equally tiny silky black dress? Well, she has. Nothing else has really changed though.
The guitar solo kicks things up a little bit. We actually get to see the rest of the band's faces, and they move around a bit more. At least reflected in the water, David and Tawny seem reasonably realistically affectionate toward each other. And as it wraps up -- look! -- after a few failed attempts, Coverdale finally gets Tawny onto the bed with him. Is this love? Ewww, the leering David out in the hall seems to think so.
Now Tawny's outside, and between the weird loft they live in and all the steam on the street outside, it appears they live near Vince Neil's place in "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)." She's put on a truly ridiculously proportioned white 80s coat, and in spite of all the sexy faces she was making at the camera a minute ago, she now appears determined to get out of there.
Frustrated, Tawny throws her trunk away, and as she's reaching her car (yes, it's one of the Jaguars from "Here I Go Again"), David Coverdale freakin' jumps out from the shadows, grabs her, and begins yelling at her and shaking her! Next thing you know, he has her laid out on the hood of the Jag and is kissing her neck. Is this love? Gosh, I sure hope not.
P.S. And I can't Kitaen myself! I swear, this is something Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell says at some point, but for the life of me I can't locate the source of this quote. Suffice to say the next words out of his mouth are likely "schwing!"