Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - Selftitled (1975)

(U.S / U.K 1975-1984, 1993-1977, 2015-Present)

Rainbow was formed in 1975 by Deep Purple's guitarist - Ritchie Blackmore. The band lasted from 1975-1984 and then 1994-1997. The reason there was a sizeable gap between the years is because in 1984 Deep Purple had reunited to record Perfect Strangers and The House of Blue Light. Unfortunately, old tensions never die. Ritchie Blackmore and singer Ian Gillan once again started fighting. This went on until about the early 1990s.

In 1974, Ritchie Blackmore publicly announced his dislike of the funk/soul (or as Blackmore called it, "shoeshine music") elements being introduced to Deep Purple by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, as well as the disappointing Stormbringer album where his favourite musical style wasn't adequately captured. Blackmore originally intended to release a solo single, the Steve Hammond-penned "Black Sheep of the Family", with "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" on the B-side.

He recorded these during a studio session in Tampa Bay, Florida on 12th December 1974 with singer/lyricist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll from the blues-rock band Elf, former Procol Harum keyboardist Matthew Fisher, and cellist Hugh McDowell of ELO. Satisfied with the two tracks, Blackmore decided to make a solo album, replacing the keyboardist and bassist with Elf members Mickey Lee Soule and Craig Gruber, respectively.

 A full album was recorded in Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany in about 3 weeks in February 1975. And, of course, Blackmore got his cover song "Black Sheep of the Family" on this album. Though it was originally thought to be a solo album, the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's R-A-I-N-B-O-W. Blackmore finally decided to leave Deep Purple and form his own band 'Rainbow'. The name of the band was inspired by the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood that catered to rock stars, groupies and rock enthusiasts.

Rainbow's debut album also featured the minor hit "Man on the Silver Mountain". This first line-up never performed live. Blackmore and Dio did all the promotional work for the album.

Ritchie Blackmore (Guitar)

Rainbow's music was partly inspired by classical music since Blackmore started playing cello to help him construct interesting chord progressions, and Dio wrote lyrics about medieval themes. Dio possessed a versatile vocal range capable of singing both hard rock and lighter ballads. Although Dio never played a musical instrument on any Rainbow album, he is credited with writing and arranging the music with Blackmore, in addition to writing all the lyrics himself.

Ritchie Blackmore’s R-A-I-N-B-O-W entered the US chart at No.79 on September 6, and went as high as No.30 in a 15-week run. Two weeks after that debut, the album peaked at No.11 in the UK, on its way to silver certification from trade body the BPI. By the autumn, the new band were on the road with Blackmore at the helm, as they grew into one of the big new rock names of 1975.

Ronnie James Dio (Vocals)

Album Review
(by Christian Collins at Metal-Archives.com)

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is an instant classic, as they say. The opener "Man on the Silver Mountain"', is a catchy song with a crunching Blackmore riff reminiscent of 'Smoke on the Water.' This song will always be a favorite of mine. Even near the beginning of Dio's career, his voice is so strong, developed, and articulate. You can tell Blackmore is having fun with this album because it's just so enjoyable. The union of Dio's voice and Blackmore's riffs and neoclassical style is just magical. The next track, "Self Portrait", is another great song. The way Dio shouts, 'DOWN!' and leads into the guitar solo is amazing. Next comes the cover, "Black Sheep of the Family" It's a shame Blackmore's idea was rejected by Deep Purple, I can totally picture Coverdale and Hughes harmonizing the lyrics to this song. However, I am ever grateful for the Rainbow project, and the Blackmore-Dio union. This is a great song, and Rainbow does it justice.

Craig Gruber (Bass)

Next comes, "Catch the Rainbow". This track is the softest on the album, but it's one of the best, maybe the best. Nope, it is the best. Especially listening to this song more than a decade since Dio's passing... almost brings a tear to my eye.

And sail away on ships of wonder
But life's not a wheel
With chains made of steel
So bless me, oh, bless me, bless me
Come the dawn...

Mickey Lee Soule

Such a beautiful song. Just pure bliss for me. Slow and melodic guitar parts, and Dio matches it well. Some may think it goes on a little too long towards the end and kind of peters out, but I love that part. It just adds to the song's beauty. Moving on to "Snake Charmer" (which was by the way the B-side to the single "Man On The Silver Maountain".  This song is a great example of Blackmore's eastern playing style. This would fit right in on the "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll" album that would come three years later. Very upbeat song, similar to "Black Sheep of the Family", but I don't like this one as much. Still a great song in my opinion. The next song "The Temple of the King", seems to appeal to a lot of fans. I tend to agree, but a bit overrated I'd say. It's another slow song, and it's acoustic. Very stripped down, and displays the fantasy/medieval lyrics of Dio, which will continue to be ever present in Dio's career. The song builds up very nicely, and is well crafted overall.

Then comes "If You Don't Like Rock N Roll". This is a very short piano rock tune, that seems like they pulled from an Elf album, but they didn't. I'd prefer a lot of Elf's music over this song. This hurts the album slightly as it's the only song that isn't up to scratch. It can still be enjoyable, but it kind of goes against the mood of the album. Next is "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves".  This is definitely one of my favorites in Rainbow's discography. So much emotion on Dio's voice, the guitars riffs are haunting, and the solo is magical and fits the mood of the song so well. This songs builds up so well, however, I wish it didn't fade out. It deserves a proper ending.

No more night
We have seen the light
Let it shine on bright
Hang him HIGHER, HIGHER
Put a man on the fire

Drawbridge down
Cut it to the ground
We're going to dance around the fire
The FIRE, FIRE

Gary Driscoll

The last song, "Still I'm Sad" is an instrumental and is a Yardbirds cover. It's a great tune. Not much to say, but Blackmore does a great job of making it very epic with his unique playing. When Blackmore revived the project in 1995 and released "Stranger in Us All", he rereleased the song, but with lyrics. I recommend that version.

Well that's it, a review of one of my favorite albums of one of my favorite bands. The Blackmore-Dio combo is truly amazing, and the other musicians from Elf did an adequate job of supporting, but they are no Cozy Powell or Jimmy Bain. Just listen to their next album "Rising". Truly a masterpiece. 

The artwork for this album is very cool and fitting for the music, but it's so vintage, it hurts my eyes. The album marks the birth of Dio's career. I don't quite count Elf or his previous bands, though I do enjoy the three albums they released, particularly their first. What an amazing start.

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

Man On The Silver Mountain '45' Anomaly

It was my intention to include a recording of Rainbow's first single as a 'bonus track', because the 45 label indicates the track length to be 3:54min long, and shorter than the album version which is 4:33min. (see label scan left)

However, after ripping the single I discovered that the length of the single is in fact the same as the album release - so there is no difference. 

Perhaps a typo mistake during the pressing process OR maybe it was done on purpose, to trick the radio stations into thinking it was shorter, so they would be more likely to play it. 

I've had this single for nearly 50 years and never noticed this discrepancy !

This post consists of FLACS ripped from my gatefold vinyl (U.S pressing) and includes full album artwork for CD and vinyl and label scans. Sadly my copy was released on the Polydor label and not the 'cooler' Oyster label (shown below).  But I'm still happy to own this album. I have most of the Rainbow collection on vinyl and it is my intention to post these in the future, especially 'Rising' and 'On Stage'.

Tracklisting:

01 Man On The Silver Mountain 4:33

02 Self Portrait 3:16

03 Black Sheep Of The Family   3:20

04 Catch The Rainbow 6:40

05 Snake Charmer 4:30

06 Temple Of The King 4:46

07 If You Don't Like Rock n' Roll 2:36

08 Sixteenth Century Greensleeves 3:35

09 Still I'm Sad    3:53

Band Members:

Ritchie Blackmore - Guitar

Ronnie James Dio - Vocals

Gary Driscoll - Drums

Craig Gruber - Bass

Mickey Lee Soule - Paino, Mellotron, Clavinet & Organ

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow Link (205Mb)

Ralph McTell - Not 'Till Tomorrow (1972)

(U.K 1968 - Present)

One of the great storytellers, Ralph McTell, is now celebrating more than 50 years on the road. Known for his virtuoso guitar style, he is primarily a prolific and gifted songwriter. With a style that invites you into a unique world, he weaves a narrative that is both significant and poignant.

Ralph made his debut in 1968 with the album ‘Eight Frames a Second’ and in 1974 the release of ‘Streets of London’ earned him an Ivor Novello Award.

'Not till Tomorrow' (1972) was McTell's fifth album to be released (aside from the remixed compilation Revisited) – and first album to chart – in the UK; and his third album to be released in the U.S. 

Ralph had been phoned and asked if he had decided on a title for the album and, wishing to give himself another day to come up with a title, responded "Not till tomorrow" which was misunderstood to be the name he had given to the album. By the time the mistake was found it was too late.

Reprise Album Release Notes:

Ralph McTell's first album for Reprise is the one his English following critics and civilians, alike-has been waiting for, and the one his soon-to-be American fans will one day realize they had been waiting for.

Producer Tony Visconti has triumphed in reconciling the recorded McTell with the live McTell. Not 'till Tomorrow has the former done credit to the latter.

Visconti (who produces T. Rex in his spare time, yet not without ministering tastefully to Tom Paxton in that same role) has used the minimum of personnel to fullest effect.

Ralph sings, plays acoustic guitar, keyboards and harmonica-just as he would on stage. Danny Thompson (borrowed from Pentangle), plays double bass, and Laurie Allan, percussion Tony Visconti and wife (nee Mary Hopkin) supply backing vocals.

Mary & Tony Visconti

There are a couple of themes that dominate his lyrics-specific personalities (often misfits), rovers and outcasts in general, and, of course, autobiographical things (making it clear why he's attracted to rovers and talented misfits).

Danny Thompson

The album leads off with "Zimmerman Blues," a not too disguised reference to Bob Dylan, sung in the first person by Ralph. His voice ripples hypnotically as he recounts the hazards of success, the nostalgia for bare beginnings.

On the same side he includes a terribly, terribly sad but lovely tribute to American-born poetess Sylvia Plath, who took her own life a number of years ago.

The song "Birdman." though it mentions no names. concerns George Jackson. It is a rebellious and gritty Delta-style blues, with some hairy slide playing, The vocal is subtly echoed, as if to reinforce the sense of a jail cell The integration of a verse from the traditional "John Henry" is an especially good touch.

Singing of more random anti-heroes, Ralph lives out his Wild West fantasy in "When I Was a Cowboy" (of the drug-store or midnight variety?)  It has a jaunty, if somewhat crippled, gait and the lonesomest harmonica this side of the Rio Grande (...er, the Thames?)

Ralph McTell UK Tour 1972

Taking this theme more seriously is the lengthy last track, "Gypsy," a spirited, if bitter, summary of the gypsies' right to be, calling on their magic. ("We fit in your landscape as the sixth to the five senses. ")

"Barges" and "Nettle Wine" are auto-biographical country reveries, one from childhood, the other from now. The barges and leather-skilled boatmen that absorbed a younger Ralph still ply England's network of inland canals. Older, he gives concise instructions for brewing nettle wine and stalking sunsets. A less inviting scene is conjured by "Standing Down in New York Town," suggesting it's not even a nice place to visit any more

Some James Taylor-type guitar picking leads into an altogether personally McTell tale, "First Song." A love song to a song, and to whoever caused him to write it Judging from "First Song's" companions on Not 'Till Tomorrow, it was the start of something big.

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my super clean vinyl and as usual includes full album artwork and label scans. It is interesting to note that my copy has a release date of 1972 on the back cover while the Reprise vinyl labels state 1973.  I wonder whether this discrepancy is somehow related to the delayed date of the album because Ralph couldn't decide on the album title !   

I quite like this album - especially the catchy track "When I Was A Cowboy", however for some reason I don't really like the last track "Gypsy", as the riff really annoys me and it drags on for ever. But I'll let you be the judge..... it's probably just me !

Side One

1. ZIMMERMAN BLUES 3:50

2. FIRST SONG 2 39

3. WHEN I WAS A COWBOY 4:00

4. NETTLE WINE 2:28

5. SYLVIA 3:40

6. BIRDMAN 6 10

Side Two

1. BARGES 4:28

2. STANDING DOWN IN NEW YORK

TOWN ONE DAY 3:58

3. ANOTHER RAIN HAS FALLEN 3:57

4. THIS TIME OF NIGHT 4:27

5. GYPSY 6:14

The Band:

Ralph McTell - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Harmonica, Organ

Danny Thompson - Double Bass

Laurie Allan - Percussion

Tony Visconti - Sitar, Recorders, Organ, Backing Vocals, Producer

Mary Visconti - Backing Vocals

Ralph McTell Link (247Mb)

Billy Thorpe - Stimulation (1981)

(Australian 1956 - 2007)

In 1981, things began to slow down again for Thorpie. In March, Billy Thorpe turned thirty-five and it seemed to give him pause. He returned to Australia to play shows for the first time in two years, and was more than a little taken aback at the number of ‘old’ people who recognised him in the street. While the always youthful lad, Billy sometimes appeared to live in a ‘Peter Pan’ world, his audience was ageing in real time.

[Billy]  'It’s frightening. Because when you’ve been around so long people tend to think you are much older. I mean, I’m thirty-five but people think I’m fifty-five!

‘I realised America was a challenge, that there were no challenges left for me here, and people were taking me for granted because I’d been around so long. But in America if people didn’t like me it was just that. It wasn’t because of something they’d read or heard about me or something I’d done in the past . . . I’m established in America now. I’ve reached that level where I automatically get airplay. I’m over the first hurdle and off and running.’

However confident Billy sounded to Australian reporters, 'Stimulation', his third US album, hadn’t exactly delivered more hits. On this album, the ‘sci-fi androgyny’ even carried over to several incredibly high-pitched, almost feminine vocals. Billy was of course simply breaking out of his comfort zone and it was no more than any other artist of the period would have done. Disco and country music were the two most popular music forms among the wider listening audience that year, even though in the cooler parts of town, the young people were listening to the so-called New Wave bands, punk and post-punk artists and singer-songwriters who had something to say and a new—or at least interesting—way of saying it. 

[Billy] ‘With the second side [of Stimulation] . . . I tried a slightly different approach. We open up the second side with a track called “Syndrome DOA”, which is an acoustic . . . Well, it’s got an African flavour to it.’

Gil Matthews (drums), Billy Thorpe, Leland Sklar (bass)

Billy had been inspired by a documentary he’d seen about Ethiopia, and the North African motif was one that would surface again later. 

[Billy] ‘We used a couple of African drummers on it. It’s very “chanty”. Lots of voices singing the chorus and there’s a big percussion breakdown in the middle of it.’

[Cotton Bowl, Texas, 1980] With Leland Sklaar and Gil Matthews

As always, it made sense to Billy to keep developing his songwriting and image collectively as an artist, no matter what the consequences. Without the safety net of his faithful Australian audience, he had to keep pushing himself to renew his approach to music each time he made an album. This time, he’d gone as far as to record nearly every instrument on the album himself. He played bass, guitar and keyboards and programmed the ‘drums’ on some of the songs. 

[Billy] ‘On a couple of tracks on the second side, we used a drum machine and a drummer together. And it’s very effective.’ 

L to R-Billy Thorpe, Lauren Brown, Spencer Proffer

Making records that allowed him to experiment kept him interested, and he took the crowds with him. That desire to innovate is what allowed him to succeed as he did in America.

As the eighties progressed, Australian bands had really started competing for radio play in the US market. Little River Band was so big in the late seventies in the US that audiences were often surprised that Glenn Shorrock didn’t have an American accent.

Billy with wife Lynn

Olivia Newton John, with whom Billy and Lynn were close, was likewise huge there not only as a singer but as an actress; her innate charm and success in Grease had made her immensely bankable in Hollywood. AC/DC was also becoming enormous in America’s South, where their unreconstructed Rock’n’Roll was becoming as much a part of teenage culture as it was in the Australian suburbs.

There can be absolutely no doubt that Billy wanted that same success, and he tore after it with his usual flair. He had had years of insecurity in Australia, followed by years when the money rolled in and out in disproportionate amounts. Mushroom took a punt on Billy’s US songs in 1981, releasing the single "In My Room"/"She’s Alive" in February and another, "Just the Way I Like It"/ "Rock Until You Drop", in October. Neither single even registered on the Australian charts, but Thorpe went back to Australia to promote them in October, culminating that tour with an appearance at Tanelorn Festival which is still talked about today. 

The Australian reviews for 'Stimulation' weren’t quite as dire as has been hinted at since; rather, the reception was simply subdued, and no one could figure out why Billy was working so hard to break America when he could have been pushing the Rock’n’Roll barrow here, making a living and keeping the audiences happy. 

The Telegraph in Sydney cited the ‘heavily instrumented . . . breath-grabbing number’ ‘Rock Until You Drop’ as being the sort of approach Billy should continue to take, saying that the title track, with its echoing vocals and slightly reggae-ish instrumentation, was ‘an area that perhaps he should leave alone’.

While touring Australia in 1981, Billy was interviewed by Donnie Sutherland for the T.V music show 'Sounds' and talks about his then current album Simulation and his time in the states, in the YouTube clip below. Sadly, the clip does not feature a track from his Stimulation album, but rather his earlier single from 1976 "Almost Summer".

Rolling Stone’s Toby Creswell was less kind to Billy’s new album, describing side one as ‘watered down heavy metal and boogie’ and accusing Billy of writing lyrics that ‘rarely rise above trite’, although he praised the more contemporary sounds of side two. 

Bruce Elder reviewed the album for the short-lived magazine 'Record', and suggested awkwardly that now Johnny O’Keefe was dead, Billy was the heir apparent, even though he then dismissed the album as ‘half-masticated . . . boring . . . heavy metal schlock’. He rather unkindly used the title of the song ‘Syndrome DOA’ as being something of a prophetic metaphor for Billy’s music and career.

I think Billy had the last laugh - don't you?  [extract from 'Billy Thorpe's Time On Earth' by Jason Walker, 2009. p212-216]

Billy and his family - RIP Thorpie

This post consists of FLACS ripped from my newly acquired vinyl, which I recently purchased while visiting New Zealand.  The album is in mint condition and was sold a old 'new' stock - not bad for a mere $8 (NZ).  Full album artwork and label scans are also included.

I'm sure the wait has been worth it (if you saw my previous WOCK on vinyl 'Teaser' post) - so don't waste anymore time and grab this gem now!

Track Listing:

01  Just The Way I Like It  3:48

02  No Rules On The Road  4:50

03  Rock Until You Drop  4:49

04  You Touched Me  3:45

05  Let Me Outta Here  3:57

06  Syndrome D.O.A.  5:48

07  T.K.O.  3:40

08  Face In The Mirror  3:28

09  Stimulation  5:15

Musicians:

Drums - Gil Matthews / Alvin Taylor

Guitar - Billy Thorpe

Keyboards - Randy Kerber

Synthesizer - Billy Thorpe

Percussion - Geoffrey Hales

Background Vocals - Devin Payne

Background Vocals - Randy Bishop

Vocals - Billy Thorpe

Stimulation Link (243Mb)