After years of strife, Ritchie Blackmore finally left the band he helped found and consecrate, DEEP PURPLE.
It was 1975. Blackmore then had been responsible for the departures of Rod Evans, Nick Simper, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. Now it was his time. Becoming friends with PURPLE's opening act ELF (fronted by an unknown Ronald Padavona, a singer and composer who matched Blackmore's grandiose ancient wet dreams), disenchanted with PURPLE's Funk and Soul incursions, the man in black left acrimoniously after an European tour promoting the uneven Stormbringer. Hiring ELF as his studio band (minus the guitar dude, David Feinstein) RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW was born. Ritchie Blackmore, guitars and compositions. Ronald "Ronnie James Dio" Padavona, vocals and compositions. Craig Gruber, bass. Gary Driscoll, drums. Mickey Soule, keyboards. It is interesting to notice ELF had a song named Rainbow in their 1974 sophomore record, Carolina County Ball (a soft Honky Tonk number!).
ELF presented a Folk-Hard Rock hybrid that provided RAINBOW a working framework. The band never strayed enough from Folk ballads to rival PURPLE in decibels - but it played hard, earnest and abrasive. This is not CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH. Definitely, there is no Funk and Soul here, whereas medieval and renaissance mini-epics abound. It sounds closer to what JUDAS PRIEST and BLACK SABBATH were doing by mid-1970s - songs with a dark bent, built on guitar (electric/ acoustic) licks, but growing to coalesce into ambitious mini suites with commanding vocals (what becomes a little more interesting in the wake of remastering).
The song that marked BLACKMORE's split with PURPLE - Black Sheep of the Family - belonged to FAT MATRESS, Progressive band lead by JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's Noel Redding. Following Redding's lead - who broke bonds with Funk, Soul and R&B in favor of Psychedelic Progressive Rock - Blackmore re-recorded the song with RAINBOW. Hendrix himself proved another huge influence in RAINBOW's debut, with virtuoso Bluesy showmanship providing the foundations for many tracks here, Little Wing in particular for Catch the Rainbow (a virtual follow-up, or at least a paraphrase).
The eponymous album is not that varied. It fuses Blackmores' main sources - late 1960's Rock N'Roll infused with medieval mystique. But it is a startling fusion. One that would spark a handful of Heavy Rock subgenres in the 1980s and 1990s, especially Melodic Metal.
Part of the influence arrives from the mature playing and overall high level of compositions (some of them, versions). "Borrowing" ELF's sonority and inspired by his PURPLE split, it is not that hard to understand why RAINBOW gelled so quick. Arriving at a new place coming from well-known starting points, veterans Blackmore and Dio compose and play as if their lives depended on it. Supported by PURPLE engineer Martin Birch, the compressed sound placed urgency on vocals and above all, the mesmerizing guitar. Dio and Blackmore companions' excelled in reliability - so much that proceedings become increasingly predictable, convincing Blackmore to find a more challenging (virtuoso) set of players for 1976' Rising.
Coaxing a perennial riff, Blackmore opened the proceedings with back-to-basics Man on the Silver Mountain. Dio's pedestrian lyric was less important than his confident, broad vocals. Bass, drums and keyboards remain humble. The song is a huge riff boosting another memorable Blackmore soloing. A Hard Rock classic, maybe - but differing substantially from DEEP PURPLE dynamics, that is.
Narcissistic Self-Portrait was another inescapable RAINBOW number, this time heavier and more percussive. Another showcase for Dio clear-dark vocals (he would keep this sullen Folk approach in his solo career). But more than anything else, another excuse for a tormented Blackmore soloing. He would recap the number for his BLACKMORE'S NIGHT era with beloved Candice Night. Here it goes down, too deep down to qualify as a classic. But it is a satisfying downer, more earnest than PURPLE attempts.
Black Sheep of the Family changed a little bit since its inception as a British late 1960s-Progressive-Psychedelic chestnut. Here with ELF Blackmore brings the track to boogie territory. It is the most straightforward approach displayed in RAINBOW's debut as well as the least interesting alchemy from the man in black's book of tricks. But it is relevant for this band's inception, as well as the sole proof that this band had been assembled all in a hurry.
On the other hand, Blackmore displays his virtuoso craftsmanship as brief, alluring HENDRIX's Little Wing is turned into an earnest, slightly depressed Catch the Rainbow. The level of trans-creation which Blackmore arrives at is fascinating, reinventing the beautiful acoustic lick in a different setting without sounding rip-off or parody. Few guitarists could work this out; Blackmore proves to be in Hendrix's league. Somewhere between HENDRIX and David Gilmour's harmonies, Blackmore builds a landscape for Dio melancholy (sounding positively Bluesy). Somber keyboards compliment the mood. Even guitar solos (no less than 2) get restrained - as in PURPLE's Soldier of Fortune. Seaside rumination.
Snake Charmer is a more in-your-face affair, a shaky Hard Rock number with Bluesy tones, a streamlined DEEP PURPLE maybe (but some lead breaks remind you, bizarrely enough, of AC/DC). Dio sings too straightforward, as if he was a hired gun. Keyboards remain important, but here they don't remind you of Jon Lord. Not destined to classic status, but a display of Blackmore hard credentials.
The Temple of the King is the acoustic rapture Blackmore tried a handful of times with PURPLE but never quite got at, once Gillan and Coverdale didn't delve in medieval imagery enough for Blackmore's and song's taste. Dio provides a perfect tone for this melancholic delight in imaginary golden ages. He seems even playful in his Tolkien-esque narrator role. But the most noticeable feature is Blackmore's mandolin riff - astounding for the setting and quickly mirrored by a weeping guitar solo. RAINBOW somehow manages to avoid over-the-topness with this serene number. The remaining members are just supporting roles - really.
If You Don't Like Rock N'Roll - just that. A 1950s Rock N'Roll with all the clichés and none of the grit - much like uncountable ELF numbers. It becomes evident why Dio had no success back in late 1950s and 1960s - he is too earnest, as if Rock N'Roll parties were a growing pain. Blackmore (a studio musician across the 1960s) plays professionally. But the only noticeable thing here is Mickey Soule's boogie piano.
JEFF BECK GROUP's version of Greensleeves (1968) provides the blueprint for Sixteen Century Greensleeves. A folk song (says the legend) penned by King Henry VIII of England, here Blackmore (boosting an ego twice that of the king) does his Catch the Rainbow trick again - he elongates the original composition (which he has played uncountable times, including in his PURPLE days) and fuses the original folk licks with Paganini arpeggios and the likes YINGWE MALMSTEEN loved to death. What could have been a, say, Jazzy impromptu here assumes earnest contours, as if Blackmore was a 16th minstrel. Then the remaining RAINBOW members arrive and turn the song into gloomy Hard Rock. Too pretentious and maybe too accommodated next to BECK's revealing take. Blackmore would go on with unusual takes, including a BEETHOVEN's 9th symphony with gurgling synths in his decadence days with Joe Lynn Turner. Only BLACKMORE'S NIGHT would find a more interesting way of showing Blackmore's affiliations.
An instrumental, mysterious take on THE YARDBIRDS' Still I'm Sad closes the record in satisfying fashion. Blackmore would use the song again in his 1995 reformation - this time as a frantic Melodic Metal motif. Here the man in black unleashed another magnificent riff, keyboards provide exquisite droning, and finally you notice there are a bass player and a drummer in the forefront. But there was no need - Blackmore alone equals what THE YARDBIRDS had achieved previously, with tone and taste, and prowess, engendering curvaceous melodies where the original was all Gregorian monophonic linearity. Another impressive showing of credentials. See ya.
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