As everyone knows, Rainbow is the band Ritchie Blackmore formed after leaving Deep Purple. The lineup changes reflect Ritchie's runaway ego, nearly every album has completely different performers! The band's currently on "permanent hiatus" now that Ritchie's formed a new solo project called Blackmore's Night.

"Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow"

1. "Man on the Silver Mountain" (4:37)
2. "Self Portrait" (3:12)
3. "Black Sheep of the Family" (3:19)
4. "Catch the Rainbow" (6:29)
5. "Snake Charmer" (4:30)
6. "The Temple of the King" (4:43)
7. "If You Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll" (2:35)
8. "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" (3:29)
9. "Still I'm Sad"--instrumental (3:52)

You should already know that the lead singer here is Ronnie James Dio, what you may not know is that the entire lineup (minus Ritchie) was taken from Ronnie's old band, Elf! (BTW, the music of Elf is pretty funny, sort of a down-home rock-n-roll feel, sounds incongruous with Dio singing!) Not much else to say, every song here is great, especially the classic "Man on the Silver Mountain".

"Rising"

1. "Tarot Woman" (6:08)
2. "Run with the Wolf" (3:47)
3. "Starstruck" (4:04)
4. "Do You Close Your Eyes" (2:58)
5. "Stargazer" (8:27)
6. "A Light in the Black" (8:11)

The classic Rainbow lineup, in my opinion. The bass player is Jimmy Bain (later to play with Dio in...well, Dio), keyboards are done by Tony Carey (later to form Planet P Project), plus the consummate drummer Cozy Powell (Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, etc. etc. etc.) Easily the best Rainbow album ever, thanks to the tracks "Stargazer" and "A Light in the Black", which are purely AWESOME!!

"Live in Germany 1976" (dbl. live set)

An expensive import purchase but it was worth it. Certainly much better than the domestic 2LP live set On Stage, containing all the songs from that album PLUS "Stargazer", the band's best song ever! Rainbow sure plays LONNNNNNNG versions of their songs in concert, don't they? "Mistreated" is from Ritchie's Deep Purple days, but for some reason Dio still sings it at his own concerts! The same classic lineup from Rising performs here.

"Long Live Rock & Roll"

1. "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll" (4:19)
2. "Lady of the Lake" (3:37)
3. "L.A. Connection" (4:58)
4. "Gates of Babylon" (6:46)
5. "Kill the King" (4:28)
6. "The Shed (Subtle)" (4:45)
7. "Sensitive to Light" (3:04)
8. "Rainbow Eyes" (7:11)

Tony Carey isn't credited on this album, but apparently he did play on a few tracks. The credits also include bass player Bob Daisley, who's done studio work for just about every band in this genre (including Ozzy Osbourne and Uriah Heep, just to name two.) The sound here is more ponderous and dinosaur-ish than their previous two releases, but still manages to rock nevertheless. Besides the two songs everybody knows ("Kill the King" and the title track), my favorites here are "Gates of Babylon" and "Rainbow Eyes". Dio left the band after this one to join Black Sabbath, but you already know that, don't you?

The Dio tribute, Holy Dio: A Tribute to the Voice of Metal, contains cover versions of several songs from Rainbow's first three albums: "Man on the Silver Mountain" (Hammerfall), "Temple of the King" (Angel Dust), "Still I'm Sad" (Axel Rudi Pell), "Long Live Rock'n'Roll" (Gamma Ray), "Gates of Babylon" (Yngwie Malmsteen), "Kill the King" (Primal Fear), and "Rainbow Eyes" (Catch the Rainbow). Additionally, "Kill the King" has been covered by Heathen and Liege Lord; hey, I can't blame 'em, it's a damn cool song! "Gates of Babylon" has also been covered by Majesty.

"Down to Earth"

1. "All Night Long" (3:49)
2. "Eyes of the World" (6:39)
3. "No Time to Lose" (3:41)
4. "Makin' Love" (4:36)
5. "Since You Been Gone" (3:16)
6. "Love's No Friend" (4:51)
7. "Danger Zone" (4:27)
8. "Lost in Hollywood" (4:51)

This album featured singer Graham Bonnett, who later formed the band Alcatrazz, which featured a young guitar virtuoso named Yngwie Malmsteen, who later did an album with Rainbow's Joe Lyn Turner! Also from Alcatrazz came Steve Vai, who of course became world-famous by playing with Van Halen's David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake. Graham, on the other hand, remains a complete nobody. Gee, life sucks sometimes, doesn't it? ;-)

Oh yeah, I put off buying this one for a long time because...well, it sucks. There's only three songs here worth mentioning: "All Night Long", "Since You Been Gone", and "Lost in Hollywood". The rest is utter crap.

"Difficult to Cure"

1. "I Surrender" (4:00)
2. "Spotlight Kid" (4:52)
3. "No Release" (5:31)
4. "Magic" (4:05)
5. "Vielleicht das Nächste Mal (Maybe Next Time)"--instrumental (3:16)
6. "Can't Happen Here" (4:56)
7. "Freedom Fighter" (4:19)
8. "Midtown Tunnel Vision" (4:30)
9. "Difficult to Cure (Beethoven's Ninth)"--instrumental (5:50)

The Rainbow "Mark III" lineup featured new singer Joe Lyn Turner, who defined the band's sound for the next three albums. Also, Ritchie's former Deep Purple band-mate Roger Glover joined in on bass duties. The keyboardist is Don Airey, who's done work for Phenomena and Jethro Tull, among others. Some pretty good music here, much different from the Dio era, with "Can't Happen Here" and "Spotlight Kid" being the best tracks. The Beethoven song is a nice plus, too. :)

"Straight Between the Eyes"

1. "Death Alley Driver" (4:42)
2. "Stone Cold" (5:17)
3. "Bring on the Night (Dream Chaser)" (4:06)
4. "Tite Squeeze" (3:15)
5. "Tearin' Out My Heart" (4:03)
6. "Power" (4:26)
7. "MISS Mistreated" (4:27)
8. "Rock Fever" (3:50)
9. "Eyes of Fire" (6:37)

This was the first album where I became aware of Rainbow's existence. The cover art seemed a bit gruesome at first, but I was just a high school nerd back then... "Stone Cold" is a great song, eerie and melodic, the best from the Joe Lyn Turner era.

"Bent out of Shape"

1. "Stranded" (4:26)
2. "Can't Let You Go" (4:21)
3. "Fool for the Night" (4:04)
4. "Fire Dance" (4:29)
5. "Anybody There"--instrumental (2:37)
6. "Desperate Heart" (4:03)
7. "Street of Dreams" (4:26)
8. "Drinking with the Devil" (3:43)
9. "Snowman"--instrumental (4:32)
10. "Make Your Move" (3:56)

"Street of Dreams" sounds way too much like "Stone Cold", I think, and in fact this album sounds rather generic as a whole. "Drinking with the Devil" is pretty cool, though. The Deep Purple reunion in 1984 put the band on hiatus for a long, long time; Joe Lyn Turner did a crappy solo album, then joined Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, then Deep Purple, and now sings for Brazen Abbot.

"Finyl Vinyl"

Talk about bad timing...I had *just* caved in and bought the original one-disc version (which omitted 2 songs from the crappy vinyl 2LP), and once I got home, got email from a Rainbow fan saying they had *just* reissued this thing on 2 CDs!! Jesus. Well, I considered ordering this from CDNow and returning the 1-CD in its place for a refund, but figured that trick wouldn't work more than once...instead, it got mysteriously scratched and returned to the store where I bought it from. :))) Of course, what I *really* think is that my purchase of this CD somehow reverberated backwards through the space-time continuum and influenced the record company's decision to remaster this thing some six months ago...yeah, that must be it.

In any case...this one's a compilation of sorts, with live songs from each period of the Rainbow era (Dio, Bonnet, Turner), plus the two songs from the rare "Jealous Lover" EP, plus a previously unreleased track, "Bad Girl".

"Stranger in Us All"

1. "Wolf to the Moon" (4:16)
2. "Cold Hearted Woman" (4:31)
3. "Hunting Humans (Insatiable)" (5:45)
4. "Stand and Fight" (5:22)
5. "Ariel" (5:39)
6. "Too Late for Tears" (4:56)
7. "Black Masquerade" (5:35)
8. "Silence" (4:04)
9. "Hall of the Mountain King" (5:34)
10. "Still I'm Sad" (5:22)

Apparently Ritchie is no longer with Deep Purple, and has turned his attentions back to Rainbow, with a completely new lineup featuring totally unknown players. I wasn't going to buy this at first, since the used copy I found had a big ugly SCRATCH on it, and the music isn't in any way remarkable. But I got it just because I figured I would never see it again (and, in fact, I haven't.)

on crappy vinyl:
• "On Stage"

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