CD Odyssey Disc 743: Rainbow

I am writing this a few hours after coming back from getting another tattoo, and I can now definitively say that getting your elbow tattooed sucks. It marks the first time since I started getting tattoos that I had to tap out (over four hours in, mind you) and the thought of another two hours in the chair a few weeks from now doesn’t appeal.

But I’ll do it because…art! Speaking of which, here is some musical art to consider.

Disc 743 is….Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow

Artist: Rainbow

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover?  A whole lot of awesome. My new (not quite complete) tattoo has a Dracula’s castle on it. This looks more like Dr. Strange’s castle, if Dr. Strange did a lot of LSD.

How I Came To Know It: I’m a big Dio fan and I wanted to check out what he did before he joined up with Black Sabbath. My friend Spence, who is a seventies rock aficionado, encouraged me to do the same.

How It Stacks Up:  Rainbow has eight studio albums but so far I’ve only been interested in the first three (the only ones to feature Ronnie James Dio). Of those three, I put their self-titled debut first, narrowly beating out “Rising” (reviewed back at Disc 625).

Ratings: 4 stars

I’m note feeling 100% at present (see “tattooing your elbow” above) but I think seventies hard rock is even better when you are feeling a bit woozy, so I’ll give it a go.

Part of that woozy fun is the heavy guitar sound that Blackmore brings to Rainbow’s debut album from the very first track. “Man on the Silver Mountain” is a riff for the ages; the kind of song that makes you lift up your goblet of rock, your crimson wide-cuffed robe spilling off your arm as you majestically declare “behold – this rules!” “Man on the Silver Mountain” doesn’t get the same ubiquitous praise of equally riff-heavy tracks like Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.” or Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” but it deserves to be in that conversation.

I don’t know a lot about Deep Purple, “Blackmore’s previous band, but from what I do know “Rainbow” is a departure. The keyboard-heavy sixties vibe is gone, replaced with a whole lot of Blackmore’s signature guitar sound. I guess when you name the band after yourself, you get what you like.

That said, there are still songs that remind me of sixties Who at their heaviest, including “Black Sheep of the Family” showing this album still has its foundations in that decade. They’ve just been made bigger.

A big part of making everything bigger is vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Blackmore has gone through a lot of musicians that didn’t follow his strict vision (I guess the big hint is he called the band “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow”). Whatever the band’s name is, Dio is a big part of what gets created here and I suspect when Dio left Rainbow (voluntarily, according to Wikipedia – which as we know is never wrong) I expect he took some of the furniture with him, musically speaking.

Dio soars on the majestic “Man on the Silver Mountain” and on many of the other songs his wacky warlock lyrics take centre stage as well. Hell, the band is named “Rainbow” a visual that RJD has put centre stage throughout his career. Of course, Dio doesn’t need a rainbow to write something crazy and mythic. Consider the opening lyrics to “The Temple of the King”:

“One day in the year of the fox

Came a time remembered well

When the strong young man of the rising sun

Heard the tolling of the great black bell”

When was the year of the fox? What great black bell? It doesn’t matter, my friends – relax in the robed arms of RJD and accept that magic doesn’t have to make sense. “Temple of the King,” more than any other on the album, shows the great combination of Dio and Blackmore’s talents. Dio adds the majesty, and Blackmore’s guitar on this song is sublime, trilling through the melody in a style that has elements of blues, folk and even flamenco, but never loses its rock edge.

The album ends with a cover of the Yardbirds’ “Still I’m Sad” the core of which always sounds to me like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Give it a Youtube listen and see if you agree.

Rainbow’s debut is responsible with its time, clocking in at only nine tracks and 37 minutes. It is yet another reminder that vinyl did us all a favour by limiting the amount of playing time an LP could have. My copy is a remaster, and I’m pleased to say they didn’t add any additional content – just the original songs, with better sound.

While you could argue that Rainbow’s second album, “Rising” rocks harder, I default to their debut partly because of the manifold ways they explore this new sound. Dio and Blackmore are like two long lost musical twins finding each other like a rainbow in the dark – maybe after being separated at birth by an evil sorcerer. Now that they are united and ringing that great black bell of rock, striking a tone that lets the world know once and for all that if you don’t like rock and roll, it’s too late. It’s here to stay.

Hmmm…I’ve been listening to too many Dio lyrics today…

Best tracks: Man on the Silver Mountain, Self Portrait, Snake Charmer,The Temple of the King, Sixteenth Century Greensleeves