ARTICLE ABOUT Rainbow FROM Sounds, May 22, 1976

How much more perfect can a recorded album be? Not a whole lot more than this one. The cover, the musicians, the producer, the songs… and among them one of the very best ever… “Stargazer”… What a masterpiece of a song! I could go on and on with praise for this one, but I will let you decide for yourselves.
Read on!

Rainbow`s high-flying sorcery

Rainbow: “Rainbow Rising” (Oyster 2490 137) ****

Album review by Geoff Barton

“WITH RAINBOW’S music I intend to carry on and expand upon the essence of Deep purple — aggressiveness — and at the same time add a kind of medieval feel to it all.’
Thus spake Ritchie Blackmore in a SOUNDS interview dated August 2, 1975 — the last time, to my knowledge, the one-time Deep purple guitarist visited Britain. Of course, it’s been even longer since he actually played here and while this is disappointing I can’t help but feel, in a twisted, abstract sort of way, that this lengthy absence from his home country hasn’t altogether worked to his favour.
Bearing in mind the recent, much-discussed poor British displays of the Tommy Bolin incarnation of Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore is now, to most people, a hazy, indistinct, albeit fond, memory. A good deal of mystique surrounds not only the man but his band as well.
For, at the moment, Rainbow is an uncertain, undiscovered property, not being the band that appeared on last year’s amorphous debut album. Gary Driscoll, Mickey Lee Soule and Craig Gruber have long since left the fold, only Blackmore and vocalist, lyricist Ronnie James Dio now remain. The rest of the group is, to British audiences at least, new and untried.
The Rainbow has, however, been carefully crafted, put together with no small amount of precision by Blackmore and Dio. The outfit now comprises, besides the aforementioned duo, Scottish bass player Jimmy Bain, late of Harlot; Tony Carey, Keyboard player, California-born, ex- of a band called Blessings; and old-timer Cozy Powell on drums, whose past credentials vary from the ‘Ruff And Ready’ Jeff Beck Group to a teenscream ‘Dance With The Devil’ solo career.
What can I say? This new line-up fits together as neatly as the guitar lead into the socket of Blackmore’s well-worn Fender. It works.
‘Rainbow Rising’ is right, it achieves Blackmore’s prime objective, as described in this review’s opening quote, on the button — hard rocking, exciting music with an underlying medieval influence.
The album’s accompanying biography lays great emphasis on Blackmore’s admiration for German Baroque music and this comes through strongly — especially on the LP’s standout track ‘Stargazer’ which has a deep-throated, brooding background (which I take to be Tony Carey’s mellotron work) coupled with some sweeping violins, all of which boosts an already potent, awesome rock sound. If court minstrels of yesteryear had had electric guitars instead of lutes, their odes could well have sounded like this.

But, first and foremost, ‘Rainbow Rising’ is thermo-nuclear rock ‘n’ roll, Blackmore’s boundless enthusiam for his band shining through like the stark oil-painted rainbow on the album’s cover (stylishly conceived by Ken Kelly, the man behind Kiss’ Destroyer’ sleeve). His riffs are fluid, freely-flowing, far removed from the tedious churning exercises that penetrated so many of the songs on his post-‘Machine Head’ Purple albums; his breaks — notably a soaring, searing solo on ‘A Light In The Black’ — are dextrous, never derivative.
Of the rest of the band, Dio and Powell shine above the others. Through his work with Elf, Dio has always been recognised as a talented vocalist. Yet with this album, lyrically, he comes into his own. His words lean towards fantastical, sword and sorcery subjects, the epic tale; his book lines (i.e.: ‘Lady Starstruck, she’s nothing but bad luck/Lady Starstruck, running after me’) make an instant impression. Powell, meanwhile, bruises through the album like Bonzo Bonham, his drum work possessing the finesse of a punch-happy boxer whose fists have been hardened by years in the ring.
This is not to slight either Bain or Carey, both of whom pull their weight and make their respective presences felt throughout.
There are a mere six tracks, four to the first side, two to the second. Unlike the first album, which had the slow, somewhat reflective `Catch The Rainbow’, all are unflagging, powerful numbers — `Tarot Woman’ (refined, many faceted), ‘Run With The Wolf’ (solid and more simplistic), ‘A Light In The Black’, `Starstruck’, `Do You Close Your Eyes’ and the already-cited highlight, Rainbow’s devil-may-care ‘Stairway To Heaven’, ‘Stargazer’.
Playing the album at home, the remark being bandied about the most of all was, “With a few exceptions, this is better than anything Blackmore ever did with Deep Purple”.
I tend to agree, and it’s odds-on that you will, too.

The original music paper this article came from (pictured at the top) is for sale!
Send me an e-mail if you are interested. Send it to: geirmykl@gmail.com
The offer should be 20 $ (US Dollars) to be considered. (This includes postage).
If you order several papers – contact me for a “special” offer.
We conduct the transaction through my verified Paypal account for the safety of both parties.
If you have a large collection of the following magazines, don`t throw them out, but contact me as I would be very interested in these: Creem, Circus, Hit Parader and Metal Edge.

If you have a music-related web-page where this fits – please make a link to the article. With credits to the original writer of the article from all of us music fans!