RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW

The album opens with Man On The Silver Mountain which is one of Rainbow's most notorious stage numbers that sound fantastic in a live setting. The studio version offered here might not come close to the great energy of the live versions but at least this is the track's origin that should be respected in its own right. My personal favorite Rainbow gem off this album is known as Temple Of The King. This composition featuring some dual guitar action doesn't seem to get the appreciation it deserves among the fans who usually prefer Catch The Rainbow or Self Portrait and forget completely about masterpiece performance.

When I heard this album for the first time I was surprised to hear Black Sheep Of The Family which was originally written and recorded by Quatermass. I guess that it was hard to resist not to play this strongly Deep Purple flavored rocker especially since Rainbow does an excellent job of making a completely different take on this classic. Albums like these are not without their flaws and there are a couple of forgettable rock & roll performances that the listeners have to withstand in order to get to the good stuff. After all, this was still the early days of Hard Rock meaning that the bands needed to experiment with their sound in order to achieve greatness later on in their career.

"Richie Blackmore's Rainbow" is an interesting debut album since it features the powerful collaboration between Dio and Blackmore still in the developing stages of their career. I would recommend this album to fans of the two follow-up releases since this album comes close to the quality seen on Long Live Rock 'n' Roll while giving us an early indication of the band featured on Rising.

***** star songs: Temple Of The King (4:42)

**** star songs: Man On The Silver Mountain (4:37) Self Portrait (3:12) Black Sheep Of The Family (3:19) Catch The Rainbow (6:36) Sixteenth Century Greensleeves (3:29) Still I'm Sad (3:53)

*** star songs: Snake Charmer (4:30) If You Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll (2:36)

Share this RAINBOW review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Rune2000
• Report this review (#278424)
• Buy RAINBOW music online with PA partners
• Show all RAINBOW MP3/Stream
• Go to RAINBOW page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for RAINBOW related discussions