Rising was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.  If featured one song that completely blew everything else away....this classic, Stargazer, would continue to inspire the masses for many years to come.  And still, the sound here is the one of the most copied in the metal circles.  This cd also had the epic Tarot Woman and the song I consider to be the "sequel" to Stargazer, Light In The Black.  If the first one carved itself out a piece of metal history, then Rising took out a chunk.  Dio's vocals were absolutely HUGE, and the lyrics, mysteriously enchanting, belted out by the powerhouse voice of the mighty dwarf, and were written by him as well.  After that, Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore joined forces once more, and created the legendary Long Live Rock 'n Roll, and the breathtaking Lady of the Lake.  Lady of the Lake has a sound that reminds me of a sly snake slithering, a rhythm that makes you move, and guitar that captures the imagination.  Other notable tracks are Gates of Babylon, another epic anthem song (which has some of the best lyrics I have ever heard), and the crunch and headbanging power of Kill the King and Subtle (The Shed).  Ronnie James also sings a gorgeous ballad, Rainbow Eyes, complete with strings and flutes.
 

Ritchie and Ronnie James had a tiny misunderstanding during the recording of a 4th album, and Dio left in the middle of it to join Tony Iommi in Black Sabbath for the recording of Heaven and Hell (and later the Mob Rules, before he moved on to a solo career).  Ritchie continued onward, recruiting Graham Bonnet for Down to Earth, which was a cross between the heavy sounding first cd's and what was to come in the future.  Since You Been Gone was a hit, and so was All Night Long, both pop friendly radio tunes, with distinctive sounds to make the masses take to them a bit better than the epicly sounding Dio material with the cryptic lyrics.  I personally like the sweet sounding blues stamped song Making Love and the other blues based track, with Graham howling away, Love's No Friend. Bonnet left during one of the gigs, and was snapped up by Michael Schenker to replace Gary Barden in MSG.  But on to the Rainbow legacy.
 

Ritchie Blackmore made a very smart move, by luring stellar vocalist Joe Lynn Turner away from the band Fandango.  With ex-Deep Purple bassist, Roger Glover producing and co-writing some of the songs with Turner and Blackmore, they released Difficult to Cure in 81.  Difficult to Cure had its ups and downs....the best tracks being the ones not written by the band, I Surrender and Magic.  However, by the time 1982 came around, the band had sharpened their writing skills and produced a true masterpiece, Straight Between the Eyes.  This cd was pure brilliance, blending in Ritchie Blackmore's bluesy signature guitar riffs, and Joe Lynn Turner's distinctive and adorable voice, the combination was spectacular in a different way then the Dio era Rainbow stuff.  Stone Cold is definately the stand out track, a bluesy ballad masterpiece.  The lyrics are wonderful, sung by Joe Lynn Turner in such a heartfelt way, and the guitar riffs and solo just seem to mold right into the song.  Other worthy cuts are the naughty rocker Tite Squeeze, the rhythm feeding Power, and the soulfully sounding Tearin Out My Heart (sounds painful doesnt it?).  This cd became a classic in some people's minds....it was Rainbow's most solid album since the Dio stuff.
 

Then came Bent Out of Shape in 1983, another great cd with Joe Lynn Turner in the vocal spot.  Several classics came off of this release, including Street of Dreams, a song that has some of my favorite lyrics bits in it, and the ballad Can't Let You Go, which had a hard rocking edge.  There is also Desperate Heart, which is a sing your lungs out kind of metal song.  Rainbow toured with the Turner/Glover lineup until 1984, then Deep Purple was starting to reform in the 84-85 area, and Ritchie dumped Rainbow.  As a grand finale, Polygram released Finyl Vinyl, in 1986, a collection of their live material, mostly with Joe Lynn Turner, since Ronnie James Dio with Rainbow had several live albums released in that time frame.  But just as the world was becoming used to the idea of Rainbow being the past...a piece of the past to never come about again...a band to be remembered for their past greatness and not what could be in the future....

Ritchie becomes bored.

Playing Smoke on the Water for the zillionth time had clogged up his brain.  Boredom had set in, and this was something Ritchie could not, would not tolerate. It was time for a change...it was time to reform Rainbow.  So out of the ashes, Ritchie selects several top notch musicians, including Londoner Doogie White, the 4th vocalist in the Rainbow legacy, and together they toss together a release in 1995, called Stranger In Us All.  It was another solid Blackmore disc, nothing less could be expected.  Doogie White's vocal style is a cross between Joe Lynn Turner and Ronnie James Dio (if that can be imagined!) and the material that was produced from this lineup was superb.  Black Masquerade, a rewritten version of the completely screwed up Deep Purple tune, Anya, has the greatest acoustic riff Ritchie has ever performed.  Ariel, is a hauntingly beautiful ballad, while Hunting Humans (Insatiable) has that sexy groove that some metal writers can pin down so perfectly.  There is the fabulous Hall of the Mountain King, and the hard as nails rocker, Wolf to the Moon.  Overall, it was great, a disc to listen to over and over again.  Then what does Ritchie do?  After a nice little tour?  He ditches his band and goes out into some empty courtyard of a castle on a black night with his fiancee, sweetly singing Candice Night, and they record a medieval record of acoustic sit-around-the-campfire-and sing-a-long tunes.
 

Well Rainbow is gone again, in favor of the Blackmore's Night projects, so we are left with the legend of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, that band that put such a deep mark into what we think of as being "the metal sound".  Blackmore with Dio especially redefined the metallic perspective.  It put the rock hard edge there and mixed it up with classical beauty and mystic lyrics and served up a solid dose of metallic bombast and brilliance.  Rainbow will forever be remembered as a superior band....one that is eternally loved and cherished.  "If you don't like rock and roll...its too late now."
 
Ritchie Blackmore Page

Joe Lynn Turner Page


Rainbow Album Reviews

 

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