### Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore's rainbow

#### 14/12/11 || Smalley

Having already familiarized myself with all of our dearly-departed Dio’s works in Black Sabbath, and some of his 80’s solo career, I decided it was time to dive into his 70’s discs and check out what he did in Rainbow, and lo and behold, all 3 of their albums are fucken rock-solid pieces of classic rock. Not to dis his earlier project, Elf, as I had planned to review their debut instead, but the egotistically titled “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” just drew me in stronger; perhaps there’ll still be a review(s) for that other band later.

For now, let’s just focus on Rainbow, which demands some backstory; after a (mostly) killer 9-album run as guitarist/songwriter for Deep Purple, Ritchie None-More-Black began to grew dissatisfied with the soul/funk/boogie influences being introduced on “Burn” & “Stormbringer”, partly due to the influence of future Whitesnake frontman/subject-of-Daemo’s-erotic-fantasies David Coverdale. While both of those records are awesome, I can’t blame Blackmore for wanting to follow his own creative direction in a new band, which came about after he meet the Italian midget with a throat of gold we now know as simply “Dio”. Add in three other former members of Elf, and Rainbow’s 1975 debut was ready to go.

We kick off with “Man on the silver mountain”, and the Deep Purple touches are immediately evident here, with some riffing/soloing/keyboarding that unmistakably reminds me of certain DP cuts. Not to imply that sort of thing is automatically bad; I mean, you can hear the same kind of guitar work Control Denied had on certain Death albums, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still incredible. “Man…” isn’t quite an incredible song in its own right, but it still has this pleasing, retro groove that you never hear anymore, along with Dio’s always-passionate, clear vocal work, and classy, poetic lyrics, cementing it as a solid album kick-off.

“Self portrait” continues in the same entertaining, ready-for-radio-play vein, as does Quatermass cover “Black sheep of the family” (albeit with a little more tempo and cowbell action), before “Catch the rainbow” shakes things up with its spacey, unhurried, Pink Floyd-y feel, excellent, subtle use of mellotron in the background (where you can definitely hear an influence on recent Opeth), and ultra-smooth, soothing crooning by Dio. One hell of an inspiring, epic ballad, and the album’s very best cut (along with one other song, but we’re coming to do that).

“Snake charmer” brings us another catchy, straightforward rocker, with some heavily “Stormbringer”-y guitar work (weird to leave because of an album, then do shit that sounds just like it in your new project, but er…), before the beautiful, crystalline acoustic playing of “The temple of the king” takes back into Balladville, and fittingly, is the only song here that can rival “Catch…” for the top spot. Dio’s lyrics really do have this timeless, mythical quality here that the music just wouldn’t feel complete without; fucken incredible.

Finally, we close things out with more rockers in the form of “If you don’t like rock ‘n roll”, “Sixteenth century greensleeves”, and spirited Yardbirds cover “Still I’m sad”, none of them amazing, but all still fun nonetheless. Scratch that, “Still I’m sad” is really good. Anyway, I do love the two ballads here, but all of the less ambitious, more unassuming rock ‘n roll-y material still satisfies, without a disappointing track in sight. “Rainbow” isn’t quite a classic record (old doesn’t automatically = classic, ya know), but it still remains a pleasing start for the new band, and, despite the Deep Purple touches, isn’t simply a rip-off of what Ritchie’s old group achieved. We’ll see where they headed to next once I listen to/review ’76’s “Rising”, but for now, I’m having plenty of fun back where it all began.

- Information
- Released: 1975
- Label: Polydor
- Website: Rainbow MySpace
- Band
- Ronnie James Dio: vocals
- Ritchie Blackmore: guitars
- Craig Gruber: bass
- Mickey Lee Soule: piano, mellotron, organ, clavinet
- Gary Driscoll: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Man On The Silver Mountain
- 02. Self Portrait
- 03. Black Sheep Of The Family
- 04. Catch The Rainbow
- 05. Snake Charmer
- 06. The Temple Of The King
- 07. If You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll
- 08. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
- 09. Still I’m Sad