Rainbow (band)



"I'm a wheel, I'm a wheel, I can roll I can feel

And you can't stop me turning

'cause I'm the sun, I'm the sun, I can move I can run

But you'll never stop me burning

Come down with fire

Lift my spirit higher

Someone's screaming my name

Come and make me holy again"

- Man on the Silver Mountain

Rainbow is, to put it shortly, the lovechild of Everything's Better With Rainbows and The Power of Rock.

Actually, it is the solo project of former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. It initially started as a quick off-shoot project of Blackmore (backed by Elf, a Power Trio fronted by Ronnie James Dio) because he wanted to record a cover of Quatermass song "Black Sheep of the Family". After Blackmore left Deep Purple, the band became fulltime project. During the 70's they played Hard Rock but in the early 80's they adopted more AOR-ish sound.

Discography:

 * Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)
 * Rising (1976)
 * Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978)
 * Down to Earth (1979)
 * Difficult to Cure (1981)
 * Jealous Lover (1981, EP)
 * Straight Between the Eyes (1982)
 * Bent Out of Shape (1983)
 * Stranger in Us All (1995)

Rainbow provides examples of:
"44 calibre rock and roll
 * Album Title Drop: For Straight Between the Eyes (from "Rock Fever"):

Fever deep inside her

Hits me straight between the eyes

When she opens fire"


 * "I see a rainbow rising" from "Stargazer" on Rising (also called Rainbow Rising because of that line and the way the title was written on the album cover).
 * Stranger in Us All gets name-dropped on the track "Black Masquerade".
 * Cover Version: "Black Sheep of the Family" (Quatermass), "Still I'm Sad" (Yardbirds), and "Since You Been Gone" (Russ Ballard).
 * And if you were wondering, "I Surrender" by Russ Ballard was written by him for Rainbow, so it doesn't really count as a cover since they were the first to perform it.
 * Epic Rocking: "Stargazer", "a Light in the Black" and "Rainbow Eyes".
 * Heavy Meta: "If You Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll" and "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll".
 * Heavy Mithril: Rainbow is one of the earliest examples of the trope.
 * I Am the Band: Ritchie Blackmore.
 * In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It
 * Instrumentals: "Still I'm Sad" (sometimes performed with vocals during live-concerts), "Vielleicht Das Naechste Mal (Maybe Next Time)", "Difficult to Cure", "Weiss Heim", "Anybody There?" and "Snowman".
 * New Sound Album: Difficult to Cure introduced the more commercial sound for the 80's.
 * Rock Me, Amadeus: Difficult to Cure's title-track is an arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth.
 * Sampling: "Difficult to Cure" ends with a sample of Oliver Hardy's (of Laurel & Hardy fame) laughter.
 * Signature Song: "Man on The Silver Mountain", "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll" and "I Surrender".