Rainbow

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

I went to a party on the weekend and found myself in the middle of a bunch of younger guys (mid 20s?) that were discussing heavy metal. I said that I liked some of the old school metal, like Rainbow.

 

And was met by a bunch of incomprehending stares.

 

"Rainbow! You know..? Ritchie Blackmore? Well, after Deep Purple, he put together Rainbow."

 

"Oh, yeah... Deep Purple. Yeah... Were they before or after Rainbow?"

 

"Look, Rainbow were a famous band. Ronnie James Dio on vocals! Cozy Powell on drums. Haven't you guys ever heard of 'em?"

 

"No."

 

 

So now I am curious. Did I fall through some weird rabbit hole and am the only person left who remembers Rainbow? Were they crappier than I think and thus, consigned to the trash-heap of history? I was so blown out that The Kids had never heard of Rainbow and only vaguely of Blackmore. It was like they'd never heard of Times Square. Or was it? How many of you are familiar with them?

 

[GuitarPlayerFL]

I've been a member of the Deep Purple Appreciation Society since '89 and Deep Purple is my favorite band of all time, so I'm well aware of Rainbow! Most fair weather fans only know either Since You've Been Gone (Bonnet) or Stone Cold (Turner).

 

Real fans know the Dio era...the first album and Rising are classic R&R...Blacker's best. Although the Turner-era albums are poppier, they're still head and shoulders above the rubbish produced by other bands.

 

Your friends need a history lesson and need to quit listening to Korn! :wink:

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Yeah, the Dio era's the one I'm most familiar with.

 

The Live (double) album doesn't sustain the energy of the first side, but then, that first side is a pretty hard act for anyone to follow. It's so intense!

[revolead]

Well, I have heard of Rainbow, but I did not know Blackmore was in it. I'm shocked people barely knew Deep Purple though. Strange...I'm not a huge fan, but I know Ritchie is now part of his own band, Blackmore's Night, with his wife Candice, who has a pretty voice, if I do say so myself.

[miroslav]

I saw Rainbow back in the late '70s...at the Capitol Theater in Passiac, NJ.

 

Saw a few other bands there...

Johnny Winter (3 times)

Muddy Waters, James Cotton and Johnny Winter

Forigner

 

...maybe a couple more...?...it was awhile ago.

 

[bennyguitfiddle]

I never heard of Rainbow. I've heard of Blackmore and Deep purple and even Ronnie James Dio, but never Rainbow

[The Geoff]

I remember Rainbow & all the shinanigans.

 

Geoff

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

I never heard of Rainbow. I've heard of Blackmore and Deep purple and even Ronnie James Dio, but never Rainbow

 

I think they tried to go "pop" for a while and that must have left them in a sort of no man's land. They wound up being neither really metal or pop.

 

But their live album, with Dio on vocals and Cozy Powell's HUGE, HUGE drum sound (esp for the 70s) is pretty good.

[trader56]

Kramer,

 

Rainbow! Dio! Wow, that brought back memories!

 

Now that I'm past the big five-oh, I am less and less suprised when I find I have little in common in many ways with people in their 20's or even 30's.

 

Think about it:

If you're 35, by the time you were born (and who remembers much of their first 4-5 years?):

The Beatles had broken up

Hendrix was dead, Morrision was dead, Janis was dead, Mama Cass was dead

Vietnam was winding down (less drafting to be scared of!)

And on and on and on...

 

Didn't mean to get off track, but no, you didn't fall in a rabbit hole - the rest of the world did, LOL!

 

We're just all getting older I guess (sigh...)

 

Dave

[Phil W]

Yeah, I used to listen to them back in the day. I dn't think they went pop as much as hired a succesful songwriter and had a couple of hit singles - Since You've Been Gone (Russ Ballard)and another I don't rememeber. At the time they got a riduclous amount of stick for hiring a relatively short-haired singer: at least we seem to have moved on from that kind of silliness.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_%28band%29

 

 

[Gruupi]

Yeah I remember Rainbow. I thought they were a pretty good band.

[Justus A. Picker]

 

Weren't they known as "Blackmore's Rainbow" or is that just my aging braincells? I saw them with Aldo Nova in Pittsburg and was really disappointed with the show. The most memorable thing was a drunken chick, dressed in pink feathers, trying to get on stage. She was escorted from the venue....

[dreibel]

I'm mostly familiar with Rainbow from the Dio years and also from the album Difficult To Cure (the first Joe Lynn Turner record), which was pretty hot, with I Surrender and the title track, a metallized Beethoven symphony with Ritchie playing the melody on slide guitar!

 

I only became aware of Since You've Been Gone after seeing Brian May cover it on his solo tour! (Cozy was the drummer in his band), then hearing it on the radio on a trip to England. Not a bad song at all (Russ Ballard was the vocalist and co-songwriter in Argent) and I like a lot of the bends in Ritchie's solo.

 

Graham was an interesting vocalist, and probably one of the biggest hard-luck stories in metal. Fired from Rainbow, he then becomes the vocalist with Michael Schenker Group and puts out the brilliant Assault Attack, only to be fired after a wardrobe malfunction onstage at a festival. Then he forms Alkatrazz, where he runs into a revolving door with guitarists (Yngwie and Steve Vai), and discovers the label he initially signed with was set up as a tax scam by their owners.....

[fantasticsound]

I was always aware of Rainbow by name, but I couldn't tell you one song they played. I was vaguely aware that Blackmore and other musicians who achieved other fame were in Rainbow, but I had no idea Ronnie James Dio was one of them. I probably would've been unaware of Dio had my roomate, freshman year in college, not been a freak for the music of Dio.

 

I think much of what passed for the origins of hard rock and heavy metal had a rabid, if niche, market. Kinda like bluegrass. Those who are rabid fans of bluegrass know all kinds of amazing bands nobody outside bluegrass has ever heard of. And those that do cross over into wider acceptance are only fairly well known to the general public after their hey-day. To me, Deep Purple is a band I expected people to know well long after the early to mid-1970's, but they've faded to moderate obscurity even within musician ranks.

 

I, myself, can't name a Purple song other than Smoke On The Water. I'd be surprised if most people under 40 could do better. But within musicians just a bit older than me I'd be surprised if the guitarists didn't know at least a few Deep Purple songs. IME that's the difference just a few years makes.

[Phil W]

Always fascinating to see which arre the bands that last.

 

Of the 70s heavy rock crowd it seems Led Zep (although they were obviously more diverse than just Heavy Rock) and AC/DC seem to have had the most impact on later generations. Maybe add Motorhead to that.

[Mudcat]

...I, myself, can't name a Purple song other than Smoke On The Water. I'd be surprised if most people under 40 could do better...

 

I'm 44 and can only come up with a couple more - "Highway Star" and "Space Truckin'." These were staples on Detroit radio in the late 70s/early 80s.

 

The only Rainbow song I know is "Stone Cold" although I do remember a video for another song with that short haired singer they briefly had in the band (Mr. Turner, IIRC). I always thought he looked pretty cool in his snazzy 80s era shades and sport coat.

[Shoes]

Ya... it was Richie Blackmore's Rainbow or at least it started out that way.

Man on the Silver Mountain, 16th Century Greensleeves, Self Portrait..

 

I was given this by me sister's boyfriend, actually an entire crate of LPs and was completely take by the cover art. I used it as an art project in school.

 

My thinking as I grew older and listened to more Deep Purple was that this "project" or sorts gave Richie the room and control to truly express himself and play what I consider his best work.

IMO

 

I only saw Dio when he fronted Black Sabbath and he was a perfect showman. Very theatrical and convincing as an evil guy. He even looked evil and twisted with that mop of hair.

[Billster]

Very theatrical and convincing as an evil guy.

 

Rumour has it that's not an act

 

Little guy, big voice, big ego.

[Hardtail]

I listened to quite a bit of Rainbow in the early 80s; mostly "Difficult to Cure" and "Straight Between the Eyes". I also liked the early stuff with Dio too.

 

"Deep Purple" was and continues to be one of my favorite bands. Though I thought Rainbow was a decent project of Blackmore's, his guitar playing sounded way cooler when Jon Lord was jamming with him in DP.

 

[Zuben]

Off the top of my head, and I was never a big Deep Purple fan but like them enough to have a few albums and see them live. I only recall one name of an album, and that was the album they were touring when I saw them, Machine Head.

 

 

I do remember Rainbow

 

 

Smoke on the Water

Strange Kind of Woman

Woman from Tokyo

Highway Star

Space Truckin'

 

Peace

 

 

 

 

[fantasticsound]

...I, myself, can't name a Purple song other than Smoke On The Water. I'd be surprised if most people under 40 could do better...

 

I'm 44 and can only come up with a couple more - "Highway Star" and "Space Truckin'." These were staples on Detroit radio in the late 70s/early 80s.

 

Funny thing is, 'Cat, I'm aware of Highway Star only because it was featured in Guitar For The Practicing Musician magazine back in the 1980's and again as a "classic" tab in the 1990's. I probably even know the song by hearing it, but didn't know the name. Never tried playing it from the tab either.

 

 

[jackpine]

I saw Richie Blackmore's Rainbow some time in my drug crazed youth in Chicago. It was the Auditorium theater, right downtown. One of the nicest venues in the city. Rainbow came out 45 minutes late and did 25 minutes. I got the hell out as the riot started. People were tearing the seats out and throwing them all over the place.

 

Needless to say Richie ended up on my shit list and I haven't given him another thought .

[Eric VB]

In my last band the guitarist was a big Deep Purple fan. The only songs I remember trying to cover though are the ubiquitous "SOTW" and "Highway Star". For that latter I had to cover the organ solo on bass.

 

As I recall, Rainbow was a group that was really hyped in the Detroit market. They did have hits, but I think maybe not as many as were expected from the hype. Kind of like Asia being touted as a supergroup later on. At least for a region that could never get enough Led Zep, Rainbow fit the bill more so than Asia.

 

After reading the Wikipedia article that PhilW links to, I can't imagine ever playing in a band with Blackmore. That whole article paints him as a total control freak with a giant ego. Not to mention a tad hypocritical. He gets Roger Glover removed from Deep Purple, then 6 years later he's good enough for Rainbow? He doesn't like the way Deep Purple's sound is being forced to change, so he bails; later he changes Rainbow's sound and forces his bandmates to bail.

 

I'm guessing that if Deep Purple had remained intact and active it could have at least had a shot at being another Rolling Stones. Being dead on the water for a decade just eroded the fan base and lost a lot of name recognition. Now I'm sure they're viewed as just another reunion band, like Quiet Riot. Too bad.

 

At least Aerosmith was able to reunite and make a run at it again. Unfortunately any AC/DC reunion is doomed because the singer will invariably lose his voice somewhere during the tour. Everybody else had a key member pass away or just faded into obscurity. All that's left to carry the torch now is Jagger and the boys.

[Griffinator]

I was always aware of Rainbow by name, but I couldn't tell you one song they played. I was vaguely aware that Blackmore and other musicians who achieved other fame were in Rainbow, but I had no idea Ronnie James Dio was one of them. I probably would've been unaware of Dio had my roomate, freshman year in college, not been a freak for the music of Dio.

 

I think much of what passed for the origins of hard rock and heavy metal had a rabid, if niche, market. Kinda like bluegrass. Those who are rabid fans of bluegrass know all kinds of amazing bands nobody outside bluegrass has ever heard of. And those that do cross over into wider acceptance are only fairly well known to the general public after their hey-day. To me, Deep Purple is a band I expected people to know well long after the early to mid-1970's, but they've faded to moderate obscurity even within musician ranks.

 

I, myself, can't name a Purple song other than Smoke On The Water. I'd be surprised if most people under 40 could do better. But within musicians just a bit older than me I'd be surprised if the guitarists didn't know at least a few Deep Purple songs. IME that's the difference just a few years makes.

 

I knew quite a bit of Deep Purple. There was quite a "rivalry" of sorts during the early 70's between them and Uriah Heep. I was more a Heep fan, though. I dare anyone under 40 here to name a song by Heep other than "Easy Livin'" that they've actually heard before. No one in my group of friends back in HS even knew who they were until I stumbled across Salisbury at an antique shop - bought it and 9 other records (in varying degrees of terrible shape) for a buck....

[Hardtail]

I was more a Heep fan, though. I dare anyone under 40 here to name a song by Heep other than "Easy Livin'" that they've actually heard before.

 

Stealin'!

 

Whatever band I end up playing in (lining up an audition tonight), if I can get a keyboard player, I WANT to do that tune!

[Griffinator]

Were they crappier than I think and thus, consigned to the trash-heap of history?

 

Pretty much. Blackmore wanted to do Priest-esque riff-driven stuff, while Dio was trying sooooo hard to write epic fantasy lyrics. Problem for both of them was that too many of their peers were doing one or both of these far better than they could.

 

Suffice to say Rainbow was just a little too far behind their time to be viable...

[Big Red 67]

I remember Rainbow. It is strange getting old. It is strange living in a world where allot of kids don't know who the Beatles are. A world where AC/DC is considered butt rock. Very strange indeed.

[Shoes]

Were they crappier than I think and thus, consigned to the trash-heap of history?

 

Pretty much. Blackmore wanted to do Priest-esque riff-driven stuff, while Dio was trying sooooo hard to write epic fantasy lyrics. Problem for both of them was that too many of their peers were doing one or both of these far better than they could.

 

Suffice to say Rainbow was just a little too far behind their time to be viable...

 

I won't argue with where they inevitably went but it was quite removed from where they came from. The first LP was more of a vehicle for Richie and in 1975 there were few discs out there like it. 16th Century Greensleeves and Still I'm Sad were a couple tracks that I picked up and still run through. (actually they've been stuck in my head since starting to read this thread.) Sure it seems simple by todays "speed" standards but where he went or rather took you with that signature style was very moving.

 

The name did change to simply Rainbow and perhaps Richie saw the upcoming shift to a more mechanical and less melodic style of approaching lead work. It is in my opinion where it went and I cared little for it. I found J.Priest, Scorpions, Twisted Sister.. energetic but lacking emotion or feel.

 

IMO

Toss a brick if you must.

[Chunk]

My first concer was Kiss & Uriah Heap

 

Stealin

The Wizard

Magicians Birthday

Lady in Black

July Morning...

 

My parents hated me listening to Uriah Heap

 

Back in the day we went to see Rainbow and Pat Travers opened for them the girl I was with pucked and we had to leave and I missed Rainbow...Travers was great

[Phil W]

Griffinator, have you come across Eddie plays bass on the Lowdown forum? He's a huge Heep fan.