RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW

Not much to add here other than this is my favourite Rainbow album(along with "Difficult To Cure" 1981). It combines a nice mixture of Mark-III era Deep Purple and the direction Ritchie Blackmore would take Rainbow on "Rising" - which IMHO wasn't entirely successful. It sits right in between both of them, really. "Temple Of The King" is a classic(Ritchie Blackmore on acoustic guitar), as is "Catch The Rainbow" which is one of Ronnie James Dio's all time best performances on vocals in ballad format(great mellotron on this track as well). Most of you have heard "Man On The Silver Mountain" which I tend to like more and more for its unique character when I hear it. Many have complained about "If You Don't Like Rock & Roll" which is really a throwaway track on par with ELP's "Are You Ready Eddy?"...so it doesn't take away from the album compared to the rest of the quality on "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow". Recommended.