FINYL VINYL

This was my first Rainbow album. An odd choice but with my very limited resources at the time (1994, early 95) I thought it was a good opportunity to know the "other" band of my dear Mr. Blackmore.

For a newbie the disaster was more related to the multitude of changes in the sound than the just ok sound quality of the album. What was the real Rainbow, the Miss Mistreated one, the Spotlight Kid or the heavier Man on the Silver Mountain? Of course in my next Rainbow acquisition I discovered the right answer but by then it was real confusing the almost contradictory mix of music produced by this single (?) band.

No comments on the track list since it was clearly based on the Turner era. If Rainbow was that of course the two opening tracks are the best of the pack. Both are far better than their original versions. I even like the use of backing singers since they help poor little Joe Lynn to keep on course. The other Turner tracks rate from mediocre versions (Can't happen here) to weak ones (Stone Cold). Since that was the vynil edition I had no Bent out of shape tracks on this record to coment (and had no idea that things could become worst).

I really liked the Jealous Lover song, don't know why so side 2 of the vynil was played a lot. But after that only the Since you been gone live version - even with their awful sound - was worth mentioning.

Then came the real "treat": the live Difficult to cure. My late and beloved father liked it so much that almost every day we had to listen to it what make the whole family avoid it like the plague. From this point of time I just can say how kitsch the orchestra playing was, adding little if any value to an interpretation of dubious valour per se. Roll over on your grave, Beethoven.

Finally side four show what this band was all about: the Dio tracks are clean air in a mud atmosphere. From now on I knew what Rainbow I needed to know and even if I have by now all their studio albums and a good pack of live recordings this is most to my completionist syndrome than to any real admiration of their late output. I do believe that the best tracks of the three Turner albums could make a very good hard rock album worth of the Blackmore name (even if inferior to any of Dio's individually) and Down to Earth really could grow with a better singer. All in all I must put the blame on Roger Glover since it was after his arrival that things became disintregated, saving Blackmore's reputation. It's a false assumption, I know, but who cares?

Two stars for the Dio tracks and the firts two songs in side 1.