Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Rainbow
Label: Polydor Records
Released: 1975
Length: 36:54
Rating: 4.5/5
By founding his own hard rock band, Rainbow, the legendary English guitar maestro Ritchie Blackmore put a curse on the funk experiments of his former Deep Purple bandmates, who had decided to carry on without the man in black. He was the one most convinced he was in the right, and together with Ronnie James Dio (real name Ronald Padavona; 1942-2010), the former singer of the American blues rock band Elf, a little man with a huge voice, he suddenly plunged into a fantasy world of castles, elves, goblins, knights and princesses of every stripe.
Originally the band was supposed to include keyboardist Matthew Fisher (ex-Procol Harum) and cellist Hugh McDowell (ELO), but Blackmore decided he didn’t want to create yet another rock supergroup. Ritchie, a big fan of classical music and folk, came up with the band’s name while wandering around the popular California rock bar Rainbow Bar and Grill. He had met Dio and the rest of the Elf members, who were all notably short, when they opened for Deep Purple. At first the Elf members, led by Dio, were just Blackmore’s backing band, which is reflected in the solo-flavored title of the Rainbow debut, but they soon became a proper band with a clear and recognizable concept. It’s worth noting that the original Rainbow lineup never played live.
One of the best guitarists and one of the best singers of all time were already hatching plans for Rainbow before Blackmore officially said goodbye to Deep Purple, planning to pour all of their romantic mysticism into it. Dio’s lyrics were among the first hard rock examples of telling gripping fantasy tales about mystical places, battles, enchanted towers, tyrants, sleeping beauties and knights, which later inspired countless power metal bands. Meanwhile, on the Rainbow debut Blackmore finally managed to realize the compositional ideas he couldn’t get off the ground in Deep Purple, grafting plenty of classicism onto them.
Alongside his traditional devotion to bluesy melancholy and hard rock, which marks most of the compositions on »Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow«, he built most of the arrangements on a classical foundation, taking his cues, by his own account, mostly from the legacy of the legendary composer Johann S. Bach. He also spent some time learning to play the cello during this period. Dio, who didn’t play any instrument, even though he helped Blackmore almost as an equal in writing individual arrangements, was already an incredible singer with his mighty vocal approach, marked by an exceptionally wide range and a generous dose of charisma, and simply one of the best in the history of hard rock. Blackmore’s complex guitar technique and astonishing knack for inventing innovative riffs made countless unforgettable, epic moments possible throughout the entire Dio era of Rainbow, starting with this album.
»Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow« featured quite a few beloved classics that still rank among Rainbow’s high points today, starting with the evergreen opener »Man On the Silver Mountain«, marked by an iconoclastic, punchy guitar phrase that, with the help of Dio’s epic singing, sucks the listener into the core of the album in an instant. The intense, uplifting mood is spiced up with a mighty chorus soaked in a mystical lyric about a man on a mysterious silver mountain. Ritchie’s sizzling guitar solo cranks the temperature up another five degrees, while the effective rhythm partnership of drummer Gary Driscoll and bassist Craig Gruber supplies solid rhythmic nuances. Keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule is buried so deep under Ritchie’s guitar in the production that his contribution here is more or less symbolic.
The no less energetic hard rocker »Self Portrait«, which has a relatively atypical, introspective lyric for Dio, is marked by a mighty bluesy guitar phrase and a determined drum buildup. Dio’s striking vocal keeps lifting the dramatic and slightly fatalistic mood, while Ritchie casually shakes a short guitar improvisation out of his sleeve. »Black Sheep of the Family« is a cover of the cult prog rock band Quatermass (their only hit), which Ritchie liked so much back in the Mark III era of Deep Purple that he tried by every means (unsuccessfully) to convince his comrades to play it and put it on the next studio album. Given that Quatermass were a versatile prog rock band with a pronounced hard rock edge, it really wasn’t hard for Ritchie, Ronnie and the rest of the gang to turn the original into an exceptionally convincing cover. The lyric about the ‘black sheep of the family’ probably had a lot to do with Blackmore’s inner feelings during his last days with Deep Purple. At its core it’s a rhythmically bouncy song with a cheeky, slightly mischievous mood and bluesy guitar passages, while yet another phenomenal Ronnie vocal performance peaks right before an epic tempo change in the closing section.
The magnum opus of the whole album, though, is the unforgettable romantic epic »Catch the Rainbow«, on which Blackmore’s Celtic-pastoral guitar melancholy, together with Dio’s epic singing and orchestral mellotron arrangements, reaches its peak. The atmosphere of this masterpiece, marked by weeping guitar passages and mellotron waves, is brimming with indescribable nostalgia that culminates in an epic multi-voice chorus, while Ritchie’s closing solo is a real vein-slitter, a complete triumph of fantasy romance over the rationalism of gray everyday life. »Snake Charmer« is an energetic hard rocker boasting a lyric that’s relatively atypical for Dio, spiced with a dash of eroticism. A driving rhythm rules over mighty drum fills and Blackmore’s complex guitar meanders, peaking in a fast-fingered improvisation. Dio’s incredible singing turns a relatively average hard rocker into a very solid piece of work with an epic mood.
The romantic treat »The Temple of the King«, which once again leads the listener into a fantasy world of kings, wizards, goblins and cursed temples, is yet another highlight of the album with its pastoral, old-timey atmosphere, once again flowing with Celtic melancholy. Mighty orchestral mellotron arrangements keep company with piercing, weeping guitar passages that draw inspiration from traditional folk music and peak in a melodramatic solo. While Ritchie effectively switches between acoustic and electric guitar harmonies, Dio once again conjures up romantic epic with his dramatic singing, and it doesn’t let up until the end of this masterpiece.
Mr. Blackmore wouldn’t be the singular oddball he is if he hadn’t put at least one song on the album that stylistically has no business being there, and this time it’s the basic rock’n’roller »If You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll«, where the only memorable thing is Dio’s vocal. The legendary singer manages to turn even such an average, minimalist song, built on a dance-like piano rhythm, into a decent and listenable effort. The evergreen »Sixteenth Century Greensleves«, whose lyric smells suspiciously like a showdown between Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, who has just locked Lady Marian in a tower, is a typical storytelling product of the eternal fairy-tale spinner Dio, who undoubtedly inspired Ritchie’s much later troubadour excursions with lute and tights. Through Dio’s thunderous singing and Blackmore’s wild guitar improvisations the epic atmosphere grows minute by minute, backed by a combative drum march that fits the lyric perfectly: the tyrant meets a sorry end after the rabble rises up against him, burns down the castle and rescues the terrified maiden from the tower, whereupon the fat bastard gets strung up from the nearest branch.
The closing, fast-paced instrumental masterpiece »Still I’m Sad«, an excellent cover of the legendary Yardbirds, with a wound-up rhythm kept going by cowbell sounds, Driscoll’s massive drum fills and Ritchie’s furious guitar phrases, is yet another one of the triumphant moments of this Rainbow debut. Besides the man in black, who once again cuts loose with insane guitar improvisation, his three instrumental companions also shine to a lesser but noticeable degree, especially drummer Driscoll, who was replaced soon after this album came out by a far more famous drum maestro, the legendary Cozy Powell.
The romantic Rainbow debut is still one of the finest moments of the golden partnership between the guitar man in black and the pint-sized vocal giant, and the start of a triumphant but short-lived hard rock fairy tale that, sadly, ended before it had really begun. Considering how huge both Ritchie’s and Ronnie’s egos were, it was a real surprise that they clicked so well right away and conjured up this kind of unforgettable magic. Lee Soule, Gruber and Driscoll were good enough musicians to help make the Rainbow debut one of the best debut albums of all time, but not technically skilled enough for Blackmore’s perfectionist vision of the ‘perfect’ Rainbow lineup, so he dismissed them before recording of the next studio album even began, the one that would write them into immortality for good.
Lineup
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Ronnie James Dio – vocals
Micky Lee Soule – piano, mellotron, clavinet, organ
Craig Gruber – bass guitar
Gary Driscoll – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Shoshana – backing vocals
Production
Ritchie Blackmore, Martin Birch and Ronnie James Dio
Tracklist
1. Man On The Silver Mountain (4:42)
2. Self Portrait (3:17)
3. Black Sheep Of The Family (3:22)
4. Catch The Rainbow (6:27)
5. Snake Charmer (4:33)
6. The Temple Of The King (4:45)
7. If You Don’t Like Rock n’ Roll (2:38)
8. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves (3:31)
9. Still I’m Sad (3:51)
