Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

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What Customers Say About Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]:

They're much better than the short versions on this album.While I owned this record on vinyl as a kid in the 70s, I feel no urge to get it on CD, especially after listening to the samples of the songs I don't have on live albums here on Amazon. This was Rainbow's first album and featured a version of the band which essentially was Ronnie James Dio's Elf with Deep Purple guitar god, Ritchie Blackmore, replacing Elf's guitarist. I didn't even recognize any of the songs, which suggests that they were pretty forgettable. While there are some good songs on the album, better versions of those can be heard on live albums from the second Rainbow lineup which replaced the Elf instrumentalists with hard rockers Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain, and Tony Carey. In particular, you can hear "Man on the Silver Mountain", "Catch the Rainbow", "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves", and "Still I'm Sad" in terrific extended versions on "On Stage", "Live in Europe", or other live albums from Rainbow's 1976 tour. Unfortunately, this was a faint Rainbow before they really rose and shined with their full brightness. It's an album you can live without.

Or maybe I'm just one of those Dinosaurs whom believe a great album is tantamount to one where almost every track is a winner.Despite the first album's flaws (and the basic dissolution of the band after Graham Bonnet left), Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow remains my favorite band ever. I inherited from my Dad (I got all his rejects) back in 1975 at the age of 9. This song seems to set the bar higher than Deep Purple for extremely well crafted yet intricate songs."Black Sheep of the Family" is one of the stinkers on this one, a cover of a very goofy song by Quartermass that would have been embarassing on a Spooky Tooth album."Catch the Rainbow" is a hauntingly beautiful ballad; at least in part an ode to Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing", but for me a far more effecting song than anything Hendrix ever did. In fact, this song, "Man on the Silver Mountain", and "Temple of the King" easily match the best songs by Deep Purple, and that's saying one heck of alot. It's just, when an album has three seriously weak songs on it (Black Sheep.,If You.,and yet another useless cover,Still I'm Sad), I start to lower my estimation significantly. Ritchie Blackmore's guitar solo on this song is one of those that is better left eternally unchanged; it is completely perfect for the song, spine chilling and monumentally BIG. Ronnie James Dio's use of religious symbols in his lyrics make them particularly powerful for me; it doesn't hurt that his voice was the best in Rock/Metal at the time.

Like Richard Wagner on guitar. Blackmore's Bach-ian patterns during the pre-chorus was a massive influence on the neo-classical movement in the '80's."Self Portrait" is an example of what an outstanding progressive band Rainbow could be. This album was my first "official" heavy metal album. Fortunately for us, Dio writes some of his most clever lyrics, even more clever than Ian Gillans' own portrait of Blackmore, "Smooth Dancer".If anyone is at all familiar with or likes the Neo-Classical-meets-Renaissance stylings of Blackmore's guitar playing, he or she will absolutely love "Temple of the King". Just a brilliantly composed, played and sung song.this is one of the songs thatmade Rainbow the greatest Rock/Metal band in history for me.I don't have much to say for "If You Don't Like Rock 'N Roll", which is really awful Deep Purple meets REO Speedwagon (yes, it's that bad).The track "16th Century Greensleeves" is easily as heavy as anything Deep Purple did, and right up there with that band's best, in my opinion. Driving power, an imaginative storyline, intense vocals, and a fabulously mammoth guitar solo.Were it not for the covers and the Trying-For-American-Radio drivel, I would rate this album as the equal of any album released in the '70's. At their best, they were THE best. They formed the blueprint for the entire career of Yngwie Malmsteen, as well most of the '80's and early '90's Shrapnel guitarists, and finally the entire Power Metal and (along with Deep Purple) Progressive Metal genres.

Man on the Silver Mountain was the first song that completely fascinated me in the genre, and to this day it holds a very revered place in my heart. The Dio and Bonnet-eras are overall the greatest Rock/Metal music ever in my opinion. Very beautiful and poetic. For the most emotionally moving version of this song, though, check out "Rainbow Live in Germany".The second half of the disc opens with "Snake Charmer", an obvious leftover from Deep Purple, Coverdale could have written the vocal line for this, it's so close to his style. Full of drama and power, as well as some of the best vocals (and the absolute BEST guitar playing) in the genre ever, the 1970's Rainbow is a trailblazing juggernaut. Period.In any case, if you don't have this cd, get it, you're losing out if you don't, with four absolute classics of incredible magnitude enshrined within the Purple Castle walls.

An interesting moment in rock/metal history, when links back to Deep Purple and forward to the masters, Black Sabbath, converged with the presence of both Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow. A lot of talent, for certain, though this first effort isn't their finest. While they do some interesting things on "Catch the Rainbow" and the raucous "If You Don't Life Rock 'n' Roll," the album is a little more tame than would be expected, given its pedigree. Not bad, but the band doesn't seem to have challenged itself to write truly great songs.

"Draw me away to the night from the day" is a lyric of superlative intellect. Sometimes after a rock and roll fan endures, a horrifying storm there can still be a Rainbow when the last drop falls from the sky.Ritchie Blackmore's departure from Deep Purple after the 1974 "Stormbringer" record was devastating to millions (To this day I wish it were a dream) but when he resurfaced with the debut Rainbow album "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" he afforded us thirty-seven minutes of a mystical journey that was brilliant from the first note to the last crackle on the LP.You heard the story of him joining forces with ex-Elf member Ronnie Dio, but what is often left out of the equation was Blackmore's ability to foresee Dio handling the challenging role of singing in a formulated (Mythical) project and not simply straight ahead rock and roll. "The Temple Of The King" is mesmerizing. The energy level is exhausting (I mean for the listener, never mind the band).

It comes out of the speakers with such fury it decapitates all in its path. "Self Portrait" is an oxymoron. It is haunting in its shear beauty. As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" and a former radio disc-jockey, I am often asked to write and or discuss various music supplies and recordings from the 60's and 70's. His solos and riffs aren't about how many notes per second he can achieve but the tasteful craftsmanship the guitar can bring to a song. "Snake Charmer" brings back the rock and roll and the band clicks on all cylinders.

To fully digest the vocals "One day in the year of the fox" several plays are required. To the critics that enjoyed panning Blackmore since 1968 you can tell them "If You Don't Like Rock & Roll It's Too Late Now." The sound of Blackmore's Stratocaster as the story unfolds during "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" is a blowtorch.

If they would listen, learn, and read on they would actually appreciate his superlative ability to often blend classical with rock and how deep the colors become. The opening track many to this day consider Ritchie's premier post Purple tune "Man On The Silver Mountain." The riff became one of the most recognizable in the last thirty plus years.

To end the journey one of the finest rock and roll covers and as an instrumental. "Black Sheep Of The Family "is a fun tune and Dio delivers a different way of expressing a rockers success with the ladies- "You get a little black book and it grows and it grows." Up next, "Catch The Rainbow" is magnificent.

The words seem to freeze us in our tracks as we lean on every word. Rainbow takes the Yardbirds gem "Still I'm Sad" and Blackmore cuts loose for some of the best four minutes the ears will ever encompass.The numerous haters of Blackmore have little to no knowledge of his musical history.

Enjoy the music and be well, Craig Fenton Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"

I reserve five-star ratings for albums that are perfect or very close to it, and if I give something four stars that means I like it a lot. Maestro Ritchie Blackmore whips out his patented guitar histrionics while displaying a level of subtlety and finesse only hinted at in his previous work. The bottom line: Dio, Blackmore, and "Man On The Silver Mountain". Secondly the band isn't very well suited to the material; the obvious jazz and blues influences of the previous members of Elf don't always work in this context.

With Dio as a songwriting partner and using the other members of Elf (except for the guitarist) as session musicians he recorded Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Miraculously he managed it with Rainbow, recruiting singer Ronnie James Dio from Elf, a band that had been opening for Purple for several years. Dio's former Elf bandmates deliver here as well. Some of the songs here are amongst either man's best, with highlights including "Man On The Silver Mountain" (a staple of Dio concerts to this day), "Catch The Rainbow" (a gorgeous ballad), "16th Century Greensleeves" (melodic yet brutal), and the introspective "Self-Portrait".

Two reasons. Ronnie James Dio proves immediately that he is one of the two or three finest rock vocalists ever, letting loose in a captivating and powerful way. Drummer Gary Driscoll and bassist Craig Gruber make for a funky and grooving rhythm section, and pianist Micky Lee Soule comports himself well, although he seems a bit restricted by the guitar-oriented sound Blackmore was trying to acheive with Rainbow. The album is reasonably well recorded, but not spectacularly so. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had his work cut out for him trying to put together a project that would do justice to the work he had done in Deep Purple.

Most of the other tunes are also very good, and there's a very cool instrumental cover of the Yarbirds classic "Still I'm Sad". It should be pointed out that Rainbow was still trying to feel out their direction, and there are are obvious leftover elements of both Elf and Deep Purple that make this Rainbow's most interesting and varied release.So with all these good things to say, why only four stars. Firstly there's a couple of stinkers here. "If You Don't Like Rock'n'Roll" can only be described as generic filler, and the cover of "Black Sheep Of The Family" isn't any better (it wasn't a great song to begin with). One assumes that deadlines and budgetary restrictions compromised his efforts somewhat.The songwriting team of Blackmore and Dio is immediately a winner, producing some of the finest rock music in the history of the genre. Released in 1975, this powerful debut is at least as good as anything Deep Purple ever recorded and a springboard for even greater things to come.First the performances. Fortunately these men would soon be replaced by the world-class lineup that appeared on the follow-up release "Rising".

This is suprising considering that it's the legendary Martin Birch in the producer's chair. Dio's melodic sense and sword-and-sorcery lyricism works very well with Blackmore's trademark classically-inspired heavy riffage. Don't let these reservations throw you. This is an album no rock fan should be without.