Customer Reviews

Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975.) Rainbow's first album.

Circa 1974, Ritchie Blackmore must have been tired of playing in Deep Purple, because after nine albums with them, he finally left. Elf was a blues rock act who opened for Deep Purple in recent years, and Blackmore was really into them. He joined forces with the members of that band, and his new band, Rainbow, was born! With future heavy metal star Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals, Blackmore and company set out to rock the world! Did they succeed with their first album? Read on and see.

The first thing I should probably point out is that this album, while a classic rock power album, is a far cry from Rainbow's later material - it's much more bluesy than their later material. This is because this is essentialy "an Elf album with Blackmore." But, what we get is a solid album nonetheless. The opener, Man On The Silver Mountain, is a solid classic hard rocker that would go on to become one of the band's biggest hits, as well as a fan favorite. If You Don't Like Rock 'N' Roll is the most bluesy track on the album, but it's still excellent. Another one of the excellent bluesy tunes here is Black Sheep Of The Family. And, of course, who could forget the gloomy yet melodic stylings of songs like Self Portrait and Catch The Rainbow? These are underrated classic rock masterpieces. The Temple Of The King and Sixteenth Century Greensleeves hint at a medieval sound, something that fascinated Blackmore (and would eventually destroy his career, but I'm not gonna get into that here.) A short but sweet instrumental entitled Still I'm Sad finishes off the album. All in all, a cool album.

THE TEXT IN THIS PARAGRAPH REFERS EXCLUSIVELY TO THE WARNER BROS. AMERICAN REISSUE OF THE ALBUM. The record company did a fine job remastering and rereleasing the Black Sabbath catalogue, as did they several other artists. Unfortunately, they didn't really do anything outside of improving the sound quality. You don't get expanded liner notes, interviews, bonus tracks, combined albums, or anything. Oh, well. I still think it's a damn fine album.

Even though Blackmore was no longer a part of Deep Purple, this album more than proved that he was still a capable rock artist. This was also the band that would really launch Ronnie James Dio's career - he'd become a big time heavy metal legend in the eighties. If you're a fan of Blackmore or Dio, or just good classic power rock, Rainbow's Dio-era material is some good stuff you simply can't overlook.

Rainbow's first album wasn't so good as the next two but there's some good songs that are worth it. Ronnie James Dio in vocals and Ritchie Blackmore in guitar were a good compilation. And of course Jimmy Bain in bass guitar...

1. Man on the Silver Mountain - very good rock song, very good lyrics, still one of Dio's popular live songs. 4.75/5
2. Self Portrait - quite good, but a little bit too bluesy 2.75/5
3. Black Sheep of the Family - this is a cover song, but not speacial one 2.25/5
4. Catch the Rainbow - a beautiful ballad, very touching lyrics! 4.75/5
5. Snake Charmer - just like "Self Portait" but a little bit more blues song 2/5
6. Temple of the King - a very beutiful song, good lyrics and good keyboards! 3.75/5
7. If You Don't Like Rock & Roll - basic rock song 0.5/5
8. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves - good riff, good lyrics! 4.5/5
9. Still I'm Sad - an instumental song, nothing interesting 1.25/5

The very first album by post-Purple Ritchie Blackmore's project. Unfortunately, this debut is two steps behind in the quality department compared to the next two studio jewels by the Blackmore/Dio association.
This CD still sounds excesively derivative from the decadent Deep Purple that Blackmore so desperately left behind. Music and production are in general unexpressive still making evident the creative void of our guitar hero in his late Purple stint. However, there' s still some life in Blackmore's Rainbow in songs like "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves",the enigmatic and beautiful "Temple Of The King" where the medieval and gothic sound of future releases can be perceived and finally "Man On The Silver Mountain" that althought sounds like "Smoke On The Water part II" is still a nice rocking track; Ritchie ironically admitted in a GW interview that he confounded the riffs of "Water " and "Silver Mountain" during a concert repeating the latter twice.

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in resume, is an anticlimatic record with a few sparks of geniality.

The price of this disc today in downtown Toronto at one of the
retailers, way high. I mention this only because I just ordered
this from an Amazon.ca seller....$8.99 delivered to my door! This
is by no means a good deal as the price dropped $2.00 after they
stung me once again. Richie played a hell of alot of good licks in DP.
I bought the vinyl upon it's release back in the day. This will be
added to the "collection" and I'll return with an UPDATE...Disc is
in the house and the sound is very good, not the best, but then the
material has it's limits too!

The "stinker" is "If You Don't Like Rock 'N' Roll," but the other cuts on the album make up for it... this album still deserves five stars.

That aside, this is a classic fantasy metal album (maybe even the first...?) that rocks me to my core. Kicking it off is "Man On The Silver Mountain," which is one of the best songs on the album. It is built off of a signature Ritchie Blackmore guitar riff, and Dio's melody is awesome... it is immediately apparent that this record will be a great rock statement. Dio's melodic, but ferocious roar and dungeons-and-dragons lyrics perfectly match Blackmore's baroque musical stylings. The next song, "Self Portrait," is one of my favorite Rainbow songs. It is a slow, bluesy number with an incredible, soulful guitar solo from Blackmore. "Catch the Rainbow" is the closest this album comes to an epic, at about six-and-a-half minutes. It has obvious influence from Pink Floyd, and this is a good thing! It is a very mellow, psychedelic song. "The Temple of the King" is probably the most mystical song on the album, with really weird but awesome lyrics from Ronnie James Dio.

My favorite song is the instrumental "Still I'm Sad," which is a cover of the Yardbirds. I've never heard the Yardbirds' version, but it can't possibly come close to this, because this version blows me away. It is so dreamy and ethereal, but hard-rocking at the same time. Blackmore's soloing is incredible... maybe even his best on the album.

Blackmore's playing and Dio's singing are consistently awesome throughout the song, and they save songs like "Snake Charmer" and the Quatermass cover "Black Sheep of the Family," which, based on songwriting alone, would fail in the hands of almost any other band. The other 3 musicians (bass, drums, keys) are fine, but certainly not exceptional. Blackmore and Dio are the real stars of the show.

People say this album has a stupid album cover... I completely disagree! I think it is one of the coolest album covers of all time! It tells you a little about what the music will be like... the castle represents the baroque, medieval themes, and the guitar shape represents the awesome hard rock that the music is based on. Rainbow's self-titled album, while not up to the standards of their next two studio efforts "Rising" and "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll," is still one of the best metal releases of the 70's.

This guy's guiar playing has influenced so many young guitar players out there now, that a statue of him in gold somwhere is long overdue! I've been a Deep Purple nut for so many years, and although albums like, In Rock and Burn, have some of his most amazing playing in them, this 1st Rainbow release is his best guitar work in the sense of melody. His playing on Catch The Rainbow and Temple of The King is just beyond words. I love Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Malmsteen, etc., but this guy invented a guiar sound that no one can match. No one was doing the stuff he was back in 1972 even, when Machine Head came out. You also have Ronnie James Dio delivering some killer vocals on this, what more could you want? 10 STAR BLACKMORE RATING FROM SCRAGGY'S TOMB OF POWER METAL, USA. (ANY MALMSTEEN FANS SHOULD HEAR THE INTERVIEW DISC ON HIS RELEASE, INSPIRATION, TO HEAR HIM CONFIRM WHAT I'VE JUST REVIEWED.)

The first track "Man on the Silver Mountain" is a heavy track. (4.75/5) "Self Portrait" is a little bit too bluesy. (3.25/5) "Black Sheep of the Family" is a cover track, not so special.(2.5/5) "Catch the Rainbow" is a beautiful ballad.(4.75/5) "The Temple of the Kings" is very much too peaceful. (3.75/5) "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" is very powerful both lyrically and musically. (4.75/5) "Still I'm Sad" is weird finsih for the album: it's instrumental. It's also very boring: just drumming. (1.75/5) "Snake Charmer" is too weird lyrically and musically.(2/5). "If You Don't Like Rock 'n ROll" is basic rock! (0.75/5)

[THIS IS NUMBER FOUR IN MY SERIES OF DEFINITIVE REVIEWS FOR RONNIE JAMES DIO ALBUMS.]

After he left Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore wanted to pursue a new musical project. He joined forced with the Ronnie James Dio fronted band Elf, and Rainbow was born. This is where Dio got his first true hard/power rock experience, which ultimately got him where he is today - one of the gods of the genre. On this debut album, the line-up consisted of the following members:

Ritchie Blackmore - Guitar

Ronnie James Dio - Vocals

Mickey Lee Soule - Piano/Keyboards

Gary Driscoll - Drums

Craig Gruber - Bass

All of these band members came from Elf, with the exception of Blackmore, who came from Deep Purple.

Now, onto the album. This, as stated before, is where Dio got his first real taste of the hard/power rock genre. However, unlike future Rainbow albums, just about every member of Elf is present, so there is a bluesy sound present in many places. Black Sheep Of The Family, Snake Charmer, and If You Don't Like Rock And Roll symbolize that Dio's blues rock influence is far from dead, even though Elf is no more. The star attraction of this album is the hard rock masterpiece, Man On The Silver Mountain. This is easily the best track on the album and damn near Rainbow's best song. Another masterpiece is the slow and melodic rocker Self Portrait. There are two songs with a medieval theme to them - Sixteenth Century Greensleeves and Temple Of The King, and each one is a melodic rock masterpiece. The album is closed out with the mid-fast tempo instrumental track Still I'm Sad, which whips out some pretty awesome guitar riffs.

Rainbow's debut album is excellent. Though it isn't quite five-star material, it is more than worthy of a place in every fan of hard rock, classic rock, or power rock. If you're a fan of Blackmore or Dio, this is an album essential to your music library. An interesting note - this and Rising, the next Rainbow album, fit on ONE CD! If you buy them both, combine them, and give the originals to someone, so you can show them what REAL Rock and Roll is.

"Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" is the best Rainbow album ever, and it's also one of the best rock albums of all time. The material is top quality. Leaving Deep Purple and hooking up with Ronnie James Dio was clearly the best alternative for Blackmore as well as for the music world. This album is vital and it seems that it was a fuel injection for both Blackmore and Dio (ex Elf). Listen to "Man on the silver mountain", "Self portrait", and "Temple of the king" and you'll discover that you won't find anything equally great these days. My only objection is that the last track "Still I'm sad" is instrumental since there is an alternative version with lyric - a real gem!

I may be partial, Craig being my bro,but being that Craig and I rarely speak,and I'm an accomplised guitarist of my own,I still say this is the best post Purple band Ritchie could have hoped for hands down! Great, great album! I still remember the tears I had in my eyes the first time I heard the rumble of Man On The Silver Mountain! I only wish this lineup would have toured.I think Blackmore was affraid of the musicianship and individual recognition this lineup was about to attract. He did'nt want that, he left that in Purple,and remember this was "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow! Problem is, WE all lose whan a decision like this is made with ones ego at the core of that decision, not the product/music! I think an artist has an obligation not only to oneself but to his/her listeners. Other musicians for that matter! Thanks May Gary Driscoll reast in peace!