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El Arco Iris
A new book about Rainbow has been published in Spanish. Titled Bajo el Arco Iris (Under the Rainbow), it covers all Rainbow lineups, discography, 20 pages of photos, list of live performances, as well as the early years of Ritchie Blackmore, his tenure in Deep Purple, summary of Blackmore’s Night, and reviews various guitars he has played in his career, all updated up to 2024.
The back cover blurb, translated into English, reads:
Ritchie Blackmore, unpredictable, temperamental, blessed with a mischievous, sometimes perverse — and occasionally destructive — sense of humor, has been a man of complex personality, a nonconformist always in search of perfection, unable to tolerate so much of the fool as of the recording studios. Due to all this, in 1975 he decided to leave Deep Purple and make both his dreams and his obsessions come true, whether musical or personal, and founded the musical entity known as Rainbow.
The group, and its famous logo, would become iconic, and over the years it would be the protagonist of fabulous performances, give rise to a good number of juicy anecdotes and produce several seminal albums such as Long Live Rock’n’Roll, Down To Earth , On Stage or the legendary Rainbow Rising. It would also be the school where two dozen great musicians were molded who, on their own merits, would leave their mark on the history of music. Among them, Cozy Powell, Don Airey, Graham Bonnet, David Rosenthal, Joe Lynn Turner, Roger Glover and the always missed Ronnie James Dio stand out. Fifty years later, this is the story of a legendary group that continues to surprise with the quality of its compositions and the intensity of its live performances.
Bajo el Arco Iris is written and published in Spanish, has 320 pages in 21 x 15 cm format, and can be ordered through Lenoir Libros for €20 + postage.
Thanks to the proud author Jose Galván for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
That is a very good blurb from the back cover & sums it all up rather well. All that is missing is the Robin Hood outfit. Or perhaps not when one can peruse through the images in the book. Good to see this release. Cheers.
May 7th, 2024 at 01:52Yeah, but is there anything we haven’t heard a thousand times? Any post-dinosaur interviews with the Man in Black? Most of the recent books are last-minute, money-making grabs.
May 7th, 2024 at 02:19hi James
May 7th, 2024 at 13:10not a single interview. it is a biography, not an oral history. don’t like them. and cannot write like that. also I’m not trying to make money or get fame. I sent Nick/the highway star info about how this project started as a fan thing done with the help of rainbowfanclan webmaster, frans van arkel, some 10 years ago. also had input from some old fans along the way and tried to tell the story as it was, not as I would have liked to be. my own opinion on any fact is not on the book. anyway, it’s in Spanish so I don’t hope you can have the chance to read it and see if what I’m telling you is the truth (try it!!!). if you like/need more info just let me know and I’ll be more than glad to serve it.
Rainbow was the “school” where Roger Glover was “molded”? Last I heard, it was the other way around and Roger came on a rescue mission to an outfit of dwindling record sales that couldn’t even get arrested in the US or employ a lengthy tour opening for REO Speedwagon to break nationally + had been death-spiraling with the same debut-album inspired stage set for years because the boss couldn’t write songs he felt he and his minions could replicate well enough live. Harrumph.
That is of course a slightly contentious take but I thought I would share it with you all for your collective benefit. 😇 Historical revisionism isn’t good, you know. We did have a moon landing and Ritchie’s outfit was NOT a great success given where he started from. The mighty Rainbow reached about as high as that self-taught-in-aeronautics wizard guy in Stargazer who landed with a thud (and, consequently, a splash).
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3c/14/f0/3c14f0a84100f37e7e548fc4b48059e1.gif
May 7th, 2024 at 13:13Cómo conseguirlo en México ????
May 7th, 2024 at 14:21Rainbow was big and drew big crowds in most countries except the US where they started to get attention at the very end when they started to write radiofriendly music. But they were so much bigger than the Gillan band and Whitesnake..even Roger Glover admitted that in an old interview when he talked about the ex Purple members bands. Ritchie had lots of loyal fans out there at the time. No need to paint the Rainbow history black….
May 7th, 2024 at 14:54Of course more books about musicians are printed in, translated into all kinds of languages.
Appearantly there is a market for it.
I unfortunately, did not get around also learning Spanish.
I m relatively happy my English is good enough to be able to read most things on the Net.
My love for the music indirectly embellished my learningcurve. Never reached a level of people who have English as their first language though.
I project possibly and ought to have respect for different contexts in other countries, but still…
I cannot help thinking….
If these people have been able to be a fan of this music, often with English lyrics, why didnt they learn the language after all?
I know Spanish is spoken in big parts of the world but I do have the idea that nonetheless English did become Lingua Franca in the recent decades.
I see Frans van Arkel joined in somewhere down the line. Does he know Spanish or did you correspond in English?
Like with many related books on our heroes the question if it really adds something to what we know is a valid one.
For now I m happy to see excerpts translated into English.
Hell, I cannot even afford all books in English, so yeah,books in Spanish will not be soon acquired.
Do you feel its interesting enough to get it published /translated for English prone countries?
I think, feel you did a labour of love and maybe it deserves more recognition, buyers?
May 7th, 2024 at 17:14It say “reviews various guitars”-
Slightly off topic, but does anyone know whatever happened to that beautiful natural finish California Jam Strat Ritchie had?
Hope he didn’t destroy it!!
May 7th, 2024 at 17:30I can appreciate the work that goes in to a project like this. Cred.
May 7th, 2024 at 19:01@ 4 – Rainbow reached higher than any other ex Purple member associated acts at that time. We all know there isn’t a pot of gold at the end of it. Unless some people sell out of course & that usually has other more business like minded people behind it. Rainbow were big in Europe & other countries as you know Uwe, enough said. But that could also depend on how ‘big’ is big. You keep repeating the lack of USA supposed ‘success’ just to keep putting the boot in, sad really. That ‘boss’ man, he just couldn’t write those songs could he. Now don’t start mentioning cover songs or we will have to go to other ex members also. Careful now…… I must be over the Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow……….Cheers.
May 7th, 2024 at 23:06Hi Jose, I got “Un Mundo Purpura: biografia completa de la saga purple”, one monster of a book. I’ll buy this one, too. I guess it’s the perfect complement, in some way the final part -given the period it covers-. Even if you didn’t get into the final Purple -Ezrin- years, I bet it’s worth the buying.
May 7th, 2024 at 23:35In the last page of “Un mundo purpura”, you wrote “the final of Deep Purple may be near, but it’ll be hard to keep this five musicians out of the stage…” That was 2011. I’d like to know what do you think of what’s been happening so far and the fact that DP’s still going on and on the edge of releasing a new album with a new guitarist (s/t that in 2011 I’m sure you COULDN’T have believed to be possible).
Congratulations for the book!
Wiktor, by the time that Rainbow had made some inroads with the AOR market in the US, that market was already deteriorating again and West Coast Hair Metal was the next big thing. Compared to, say, Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot and Ratt, Rainbow were an old hat in 1983. Ritchie had missed the train once again.
And eyeing the US market came at a cost for Rainbow in Europe too, the Joe Lynn Turner line-up was less a draw in German concert halls than the Dio-fronted line-up. German audiences didn’t warm to Joe at all. They actually filled the largest hall on the Down to Earth tour when Roger Glover’s return generated some excitement.
With the exceptions of Down to Earth and Difficult to Cure which reached #19 and #13 respectively, Rainbow never made the Top Twenty in Germany (Rising was a mediocre #38) – the country where DP had reigned supreme. None of their singles charted.
In the US, no Rainbow album climbed higher than #30. Only two albums even got that far: the debut and Straight Between The Eyes. Stone Cold was the only single to ever just about reach the Top 40, hitting the last spot.
May 8th, 2024 at 03:55Aber Herr MacGregor, I was simply presenting facts! I did not say that Ritchie can’t improvise, that was the other guy. 😂
I can’t help it if Ritchie was best when he played guitar for the two Ians, Jon, Roger, Glenn and David! The sales figures and chart placings simply document that Rainbow in whatever configuration did not have DP’s mass appeal even though the second half of the band’s career was spent chasing commercial trends rather than setting them. Ritchie went over the Rainbow, but he never recaptured the magic of DP. Nor did the Rainbow resurrection in the 90ies or the nostalgia reunion some years ago reestablish the band in a way that might put the past in a light warranting reappraisal.
Say what you will about DC but at least his master plan to establish Whitesnake in the US eventually worked and he stepped out of the Purple shadow. And nothing on 1987/Serpens Albus sounds more desperately commercial/anodyne than Rainbow’s Turner era. Plus that album had certainly more chest-beating virility than anything Rainbow put out in the 80ies. The proof is in the pudding, DC had simply more stylistic nous what American kids wanted to hear.
May 8th, 2024 at 05:54I know what you mean regarding being not as successful Uwe, but then neither were any of the other Purple off shoots at that time. Ole Cov’s certainly cracked the USA eventually & he succeeded in what he wanted to do. All those musicians from the Purple tree in the later 1970’s & early 80’s were trying to get away from the albatross hanging around their neck. There are not many rock music artists that actually succeed the popularity & commercial success of their initial band. Ozzy, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, David Coverdale & Sting are a few that spring to mind. I suppose Eric Clapton in certain aspects, there could be more no doubt. Cheers
May 8th, 2024 at 08:58LOL !!!
@13…Leiber Uwe, you think I give GH a hard time ??? Although it’s true imo that RB is a hell-of-a-guitarist, yet a poor improviser, he was keeping hard R&R via Rainbow during the very bleak mid-1970’s very much alive & well until its demise…Especially when compared to the variances in styles & tastes found during that time-period with people such as KISS for example…( Though the work of KISS wasn’t to bad at all really, it just upset the early die-hards )…Rainbow wasn’t DP in any real measurable way really, but it was a better-band than most others trying to fill the void DP left. And some would argue more true-to-roots than say where Black Sabbath were venturing.
@8…I’m pretty-sure that out of the 4-5 instruments that got sacrificed at the Cal-Jam, the last one managed to survive, in that RB walked off the stage with the guitar on-the-deck, foot-stamped, plugged-in, & feed-backing like crazy…Whether it saw a guitar-case & the airport back home or to the next gig remains a mystery…Probably he gave it a way to someone in his circle, as he pretty-much discovered his life-long-love that grew & grew year for year with the Oly-white / rosewood-fret-board guitar, once he’d had enough of the maple-board sunburst-finish guitar…And even then, he used a sunburst with rosewood board guitar too through ’75-’77 ish…Others will know more definitively than myself however.
RIP all those wasted Stratocasters 🙁 …
Peace !
May 8th, 2024 at 10:52@8 Last thing I read on the natural Strat a long while ago ( and I don’t remember where) it was stolen out of his home during the early Rainbow days.
May 8th, 2024 at 11:53“… yet a poor improviser …”
Tsk, tsk, tsk, such wanton stubbornness in the heretic! Sooner or later our cleansing hand of virtue will be forced. And you know how the Spaniards have in-depth experience therein. 😂
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRLvvK04X3YvfsC-An0Vg5pQe_nk_c_N0hsQUrpgCqyu1NaHXj0JWchNznGilPG7PKd4YgbqNMB0sBb0v9-OcDLusQ5aYKJcV3RYHPyVbGRRfR4UuRk25ZL3pmwTc2LUG7dlxpqnP_xK2/s1600/The-Name-of-the-Rose-1986-Sean-Connery-11.jpg
May 8th, 2024 at 15:11In my personal taste, by 1979 both fledgling Whitesnake and Gillan had overtaken Rainbow. Both outfits had more of a band feeling to them than Rainbow.
That said, my first three Rainbow gigs (2x Dio and 1x Bonnet) were all good to great, the two gigs I saw with Joe Lynn Turner not so much. Not that they played badly or that Ritchie wasn’t in the right mood, but there was no spark and Joe is an oafish front man. I didn’t think the Turner era songwriting too hot either, it was neither here nor there, stuck between the commercial AOR aspirations and Ritchie’s inability to really stick to the rules of AOR.
And it’s not that I dislike AOR, far from it. I saw Billy Squier give Whitesnake a hard time on the Come ‘An Get It tour; now that was AOR done proper, all soaring melodies and infectious chorus parts presented by a shit-hot band.
I also enjoyed seeing Def Leppard on the Hysteria Tour sometime in the 80ies – a band I had ironically seen first when they were the opener for Rainbow on the Difficult To Cure Tour – at that point sounding still like an overenthusiastic garage band from Sheffield (which is exactly what they were!). Though never a Def Leppard fan, I’ve never seen another band progress as much from very humble beginnings in such a comparatively short time. In comparison, Rainbow seemed to be stuck and not really moving forward as a band in the Turner years. Listen to High ‘N Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria in sequence and then do the same with Difficult To Cure, Straight Between The Eyes and Bent Out Of Shape – THEN tell me where you hear development in leaps and bounds.
May 8th, 2024 at 15:37well my dear Uwe..thers more countries than Germany… and if you compare the halls that IGB and Gillan and early Whitesnake played in compared to the halls venues that Rainbow played.. thers only one winner..
May 8th, 2024 at 17:27But I agree..Ritchies best work was in MK II no doubt about it!!
True, Wiktor, but Whitesnake was on an ascending arc, Rainbow on a descending one! Turner era Rainbow played smaller halls in Germany than Dio- and Bonnet-era.
But the most telling thing to me is Rainbow’s gargantuan failure to capitalize on the opening slot for REO Speedwagon on that fateful 1978 tour with them. After that tour REO were superstars in the US while Rainbow de facto disbanded. Mk II broke America opening for the Faces, AC/DC opened for Rainbow in 1976 und used that as a stepping stone in Germany, Billy Squier opened for Queen on the Hot Space Tour und knocked them dead, Whitesnake opened for Mötley Crüe in the wake of the 1987 album und became the main draw as the tour developed. And Ritchie was unable to show some Midwest bar band (sorry REO!) the ropes, that must have hurt. I think he suffered an identity crisis after that and blamed everyone but himself of course. Long Live Rock’n’Roll became the worst-selling Rainbow album in the US while they were playing filled-to-the-brim stadiums every night with REO, now if that doesn’t tell you something …
May 8th, 2024 at 23:44Yo,
Herr Uwe stated…
qt.”Listen to High ‘N Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria in sequence and then do the same with Difficult To Cure, Straight Between The Eyes and Bent Out Of Shape – THEN tell me where you hear development in leaps and bounds”…
***That’s actually an unfair comparison, though the time-line runs parallel(ish)…
Better to compare Mk-II “In Rock, Fireball & Machine Head” imo to the Def Leppard trio-of-albums, as the age & experience of the band-members is more comparable imo, where youth = hunger…
RB & Rainbow, was always a band made-up of experienced, successfull & generally agreeable employees, who had been-there & done-it-all already.
Peace !
May 9th, 2024 at 07:23Uwe your comparisons are all over the shop old son. ACDC in Germany, indeed they should use a support slot as a stepping stone. Most bands do don’t they, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Rainbow were not that new, they had already shown their cards & were on the downward slope. As we all have said before, time waits for no one. The music scene was changing fast. Van Halen blowing Sabbath away in 1978 brings this to mind. It happens & it always will. It doesn’t mean that the music or musicians are bad or not worthy. Different times, different tastes. Def Leppard & I did prefer Rainbow compared to them, even if JLT looked into the camera far too often. Millions of others didn’t, it is called fashion, the latest trend etc. Horse for courses again. Hair metal with Whitesnake, again another era & new fad. Out with the old & in with the new. Dio the band became more popular than Sabbath after the Mob Rules album & tour. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is better or worse, it is the luck of the draw or being in the right time & place. Jethro Tull supported Led Zep in the USA in 1971 or thereabouts & went onto bigger things after that exposure. Yes supported Sabbath back then & then eclipsed Sabbath’s popularity in the States. But it can go the other way also. Slade are a good example of that. Cheers.
May 9th, 2024 at 09:29Gregster really puts his finger on it:
“RB & Rainbow, was always a band made-up of experienced, successfull & generally agreeable employees, who had been-there & done-it-all already.”
While it misses the fact that Ritchie often hired young talent of humble fame who were supposed to be hungry and susceptible to his mind games as well as non-questioning re his position, the keyword is really “employees”. Ritchie failed in nurturing a climate of cohesion, creativity and gradual band evolution. He had his musical visions (first guitar hero-centric dark and doomy heavy rock with neo-classical influences bordering on heavy metal, then guitar-centric AOR intended for the airwaves) which he tried to implement ruthlessly, but it was always development via knee jerk band upheaval, not an organic collective process of achieving a common goal.
I wonder if he ever realized that even he, flashy and gifted maverick he was, flourished in and benefitted more from such a climate than when he called all the shots himself. Ritchie got what he wanted short term with Rainbow to then fail in achieving what he strove for long term. High-flying aims (to build a tower of stone to take him straight to the sky), ruthless implementation (in the heat and the rain, with whips and chains), yet a sobering outcome (blood on the sand). 🙁
May 9th, 2024 at 12:52BTW: I thought they were dull – AC/DC I mean in 1976 as opener for Rainbow. The seemed to be on the other end of the scale: If Dio era Rainbow tried to take heavy rock into new spheres, AC/DC’s knucklehead primal simplicity sans any songwriting elegance left me speechless and numbed. I liked Status Quo and the Ramones at the time because they had good pop melodies that shone through, but AC/DC’s songwriting was back then still very formative. I really thought they were a hopeless bunch and they didn’t go down very well that night either. People were bemused, but not really entertained by Bon’s and Angus’ antics. All the components of an AC/DC show that haven’t changed in the last 50 years were already there: Angus’ schoolboy shtick, Bon’s hairy chest leering machismo, Angus showing his naked (and back then still pimpled) butt, Bon carrying Angus around on his shoulders, Angus’ unfiltered and largely unprocessed SG playing plus the numbskull sameness of the individual songs. I remember them playing It’s A Long Way To The Top, TNT, The Jack etc.
(Later) AC/DC fans would have probably died to be there! For me it was the beginning of a lifelong healthy distance to AC/DC, I could never understand what the fuss was about. I would later on see them twice more (in 1979 at one of the last Bon Scott gigs in Germany before his untimely death, I only went to see Judas Priest as their opening act and was again bemused by AC/DC’s overt primal simplicity) and much later in 2008 on the Black Ice Tour to see if anything had changed in three decades – I need not have unduly worried, it hadn’t! 😂 Save for the fact that by then they had mastered writing a few songs in major keys. 🙄
May 9th, 2024 at 14:27Maybe you’ll throw stones at me, but I think that Rainbow’s greater success compared to other branches of Deep Purple was due to the fact that management relied on Blackmore and left the rest to their fate. We must not forget that Coverdale was able to achieve success only when it broke free from the hands of Purple and HEC. I think if others had received the support that Blackmore received, they would have overtaken him at the first turn. In any case, Gillan and Coverdale were able to do this on sheer enthusiasm and with bad recordings in England, where they could be heard.
May 9th, 2024 at 16:17Don’t worry Uwe, I am NOT a ACDC follower at all, never have been. One of the reasons I was told that I should be supporting ‘Aussie’ bands much more back in those days. So I do agree whole heartedly with your assessment of them. How do you think we felt when they appeared on the tv in 1974/5 era. Regarding Blackmore & other acts not making it in the USA, it means nothing to me, I have never cared for that at all. He was his own worse enemy though as we know. If he wasn’t so up & down with his attitudes, he may have been able to sell out if he was that way inclined. However as he isn’t prone to being told what to do, by managers, record companies, promotors & band members etc, he was never going to really sell out was he? I was shocked when I heard Rainbow were opening for another band, I often was in regards to my favourite bands. I looked at it as though something was wrong, that shouldn’t be happening etc. These days I am not shocked at all as it all has been watered down so much from the glory days. That 1976 ACDC opening for Rainbow would have been the tour that resulted in another fight wouldn’t it. Between certain people back stage or something like that. After Sunbury in 1975, what was Blackmore thinking or had he forgot who they were. Have to laugh at that. Cheers.
May 9th, 2024 at 21:47I’ve always had a soft spot for Oceania rock/pop bands and artists: Skyhooks, The Easybeats, Baby Animals, Split Enz, Angel City, Midnight Oil, Jet, INXS, Crowded House, Heaven, Nick Cave, Bee Gees, Shona Laing, even Kylie Minogue is good at what she does – if there is one thing that all these bands and artists share it is that they didn’t sound DUMB. Alas!, AC/DC proved that there are exceptions to the rule everywhere.
They weren’t even mentioned on the gig poster at the time, it just said “+ OPENING ACT” – AC/DC’s first vinyl in Europe had just come out and wasn’t yet widely available.
http://www.deep-purple.net/posters/rainbow/frankfurt-76.jpg
But one thing you can say for them: They were undeterred and cocksure playing in Europe for the first time. And they had a clean, crisp sound, not the usal opening act mud emanating from the PA.
There was some public confusion as to what they were initially: Some critics referred to them as “a poor man’s Status Quo”, others as “decidedly working class punk with hard rock overtones for the denim brigade”.
Anyway, much to my surprise, they established themselves quickly in Germany. The tour with Judas Priest in 1979 was the last time they played medium-size halls in Germany, by 1980 they were filling the largest halls and open airs and had Whitesnake opening for them. I actually wanted to see them again just for Whitesnake on the 1980 tour, but they had already sold out so I couldn’t go! I remember how baffled I was seeing AC/DC go from unknown opening act to headlining + filling the largest German halls in little more than three years. Goes to show how little I know! 🤣
May 9th, 2024 at 23:17Nino, that is a good point, Bruce Payne, Purple’s US tour manager, decided to take Blackmore under his wings (and is reputed to have sought out SYBG as a song for Rainbow to cover), while DC stuck with Edwards/Coletta (before breaking away from them in acrimony) – Ian Gillan (once bitten, twice shy) kept his distance from the Purple management, but would return to Bruce Payne’s stable upon the DP reunion, albeit retaining Phil Banfield as his personal manager.
May 9th, 2024 at 23:33Here are some pics from that first AC/DC tour … I now remember Bon’s little faux fur animal print vest!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/khiltscher/albums/72157618503828645/
Their look reminded me a bit of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band at the time – I believe Bon was a great fan.
May 9th, 2024 at 23:42Yo,
Leiber Uwe, all you need is “Power age” from AC/DC to discover how good the band was…”Power age” is “Back in Black” featuring the late Bon Scott before he left for greener pastures…
AC/DC were huge in Australia & likely the UK for 2 x reasons ( apart from the hard-rock-music )…
1. There were plenty of people that went to secondary schools that had uniforms incorporating shirts, ties & blazers, along with shorts & long socks. So they saw Angus as a counter-reaction to that set-of-circumstances. And so, like KISS & other bands, they found life-long fans via this connexion.
2. The band for years played the “Pub circuit”, & Angus was well known for his exciting stage antics from jumping on tables off-stage, to mimicking Jimi by playing with his teeth, to circling round & round on his back on said tables whilst playing a solo faultlessly. So they had a stage-act that interacted with the audience.
3. Lyrically, they spoke the truth about their experiences, like it or not, & all that resonated with many. DP had the world in their hands through the early 1970’s, it was simply AC/DC’a turn by the 1980’s, surprisingly with a new front-man.
Whether one likes the music or not is irrelevant. Their world-wide success continues to speak volumes for the masses, & their likes.
Peace !
May 10th, 2024 at 00:16Found this article about Dio & Carey comments regarding ACDC supporting Rainbow 1976.
I am nor sure about a fight with these bands or roadies, but I have a very distant memory of reading about that from one of the England gigs back in the day. Unless I am crossing my thoughts with the Coverdale incident with Ritchie. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/rainbow-acdc-1976-tour
May 10th, 2024 at 00:43Weird, I always understood Rainbow were always big in Germany.
I can only speak for myself, seeing 1980. 1981, 1982 in Rotterdam, Brussels.
In hindsight I should ve taken the boat from Hoek van Holland , try to visit one of my Helen’s overthere, and attend the BOOS show.
Wasnt clever enough to see the end coming but probably Frans van Arkel told us…..
I m not always paying attention.
SBTE was one of the best shows I witnessed.So I dont think it was lack of fans that BOOS did not reach our shores.
Weird was that I had to go to Belgium for the DP reunion tour.
In 87 DP played 2 sold out shows in Rotterdam, one excellent and the other uhhhhhh, bent out of shape?
Rainbow shows were filled to the rafters, like the SIUA show in 1995.I thought that 95 attendance said something.
Saw Gillan solo but on smaller locations.
NAKED THUNDER.
He skipped us after he released an all and out rocker , back to high singing levels with TOOLBOX.
Didnt go to the last so called Rainbow shows. Maybe I should ve but I felt it d be a dissappointment.
Based on countless boots from the 80 s JLT sang great, audience oozing enthusiasm.
DC made a loving out of 87. Not sure he forsaw that.
But I really regret that since he stuck to that formula.
May 10th, 2024 at 00:48Answer to #4. Dear Uwe, not on my intentions or in the publisher’s to make anyone think Roger Glover got fame and fortune out of his Rainbow days. No, he was not molded on Rainbow, just some sentence to make the book atractive, I’m afraid. Roger had a career of his own previously. anyway, to rescue him from dark work as producer may had help a bit to increase his reputation, don’t you think so? also his work side by side with Ritchie’s helped to keep alive the Deep Purple flame till the right moment arrived for the sleeping giant to came back.
May 10th, 2024 at 05:15answer to #5:
May 10th, 2024 at 05:18Me temo Juan que la unica manera de conseguirlo es través de Internet. No habrá una edición en librerías. Estos son los tiempos que nos toca vivir. A mi me gustaría mucho verlo en la estantería o en el escaparate de una, pero hoy dia todo se hace en impresión digital y venta directa a través de la red de redes. Supongo el precio de envio hasta Méjico será elevado, pero me temo que no hay otras opciones de conseguir el libro. Gracias por tu interés.
Answer to #7:
May 10th, 2024 at 05:59You see, Rock, this is not a book translated from English nor is it like most of them. When I started writing, and I did it in 2003, I decided to write about music because it was what my body asked for. On the other hand, I wanted to give the reader exactly what I could not find in bookstores when looking for a musical biography: a book written in strict chronological order, based on real events, with verified data, with all possible information made available to the reader, made with true love and, especially, always written with a critical spirit (I grew up in the shadow of Simon Robinson in Darker Than Blue). But the most important thing for me was to leave out my opinions, tastes or ideas. I have tried to be, in everything I have written, scrupulously objective. It is not easy, and the first thing you face is realizing that you will never again be able to give your opinion on the topic you write about, because any potential reader will think when reaching the text that you speak well of this musician because you like him or her. bad for that other because you can’t stand him. Anyway, fortunately, about music you can talk about many things without expressing your opinions on matters of taste, and my conversations on the subject, abundant, there is no doubt, have not suffered in all these years.
As for other books, I consider that Roy Davies’s paved the way for Rainbow fans, but it seemed very short to me and I decided to put much more into mine, there was so much to tell… And of course Jerry Bloon’s is sensational. A great piece of research. Also Martin Popoff efforts are interesting, eventhough with some mistakes (I got in touch with him years ago, corrected some and in exchange he sent me his info on Gillan band to be used on my own projects). But do not think based on this that I have limited myself to copying them and translating them into my own language. Nothing is further from reality. And I have also tried not to use everything they say but to do so under my own parameters and eliminate, as I have already said, my own opinions. My first book was a biography of Deep Purple & split groups called Un mundo purpura. 600 pages in double column DIN-A4 format Bookman Old Style Font and letter size 9, so you can get an idea of the breadth of the book and the effort involved. It took me four and a half years and I did it with great pleasure.
About your second idea, I will tell you that I have never paid attention to English lyrics at first. I like a song for its melody, and the voice has to adapt to the melodies, to the music itself. If it doesn’t, I don’t care what it talks about. Generally, it is much later when I stop to read the lyrics (if they come on the album, that is, which is not always the case). I continue, I speak three languages and I am seriously thinking about starting to study a fourth. But I decided to write in Spanish about Deep Purple and its saga because, after Chinese, it is the most widespread language in the world as a native language (and Chinese is only spoken in two countries) and in my own language there was practically nothing of interest about the group. So I decided to write it myself, for my personal use. It was going to be a paperback of about 200 pages, in my mind, but things got out of hand and I ended up with this huge book that weighed more than two and a half kilos.
As for Frans Van Arkel, I was in the middle of updating the original book when it occurred to me that publishing a book with photos taken by fans themselves would be a great idea to celebrate Rainbow’s 40th anniversary. I contacted Frans and we started looking for the photographers on his website. That took several months. At the same time, I was writing a book about The Allman Brothers Band, upon completion of which I dedicated myself to getting my publisher to publish it, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Rainbow. Various delays led me to establish myself as a publisher, and after various problems with the printing press, and with a year of delay, in 2016 I issued a book in DIN-A4 format so that the photos came out large. It was sold at cost price, I didn’t make any money (a lot of friends yes) and I lost a little. It reached the United States, Japan and half of Europe. The deal with the photographers involved destroying all unsold prints after one year of publication. So I did it. It was the best experience of my life.
In January 2024, my publisher suggested to me, since he knew that I was working on a book project in English about Deep Purple and its saga, to release said project in Spanish in the part concerning Rainbow fully updated (the contents last until July 2024). ). And so we did.
As to whether this book adds anything to what you already knew, I don’t know. I don’t know what you know. I can only tell you that it is not full of wonderful photos (well, Frans’s are, and Marc’s, and Tonny’s, and René’s…) but rather a sincere text that avoids rumors and tries to provide everything possible information. And I say all. I haven’t left anything out, I assure you.
Finally, Rock, I will tell you that I don’t care if it sells or not. I write for only two reasons: the pleasure of doing so and the urgent need to share what is inside me, the things that have made me happy throughout all these decades. It is something similar to the “friendly meetings” between MacGregor, Gregster and Uwe. All of us need to share the fire that burns within us. It is a peremptory need. And yes, it is a labor of love. I do it because I love that music and because it changed my life. I have been immensely happy writing every line of this book, as of all the others. Finally, I hope that in the coming years this new initiative in English will see the light of day, but there is no finish date. I continue to update all the contents of the book, a biography of Deep Purple and individually of each of its members throughout its existence, periodically and adding the result to the book. The idea is to issue two volumes in DIN-A4 format of more than 400 pages each. Just text, no photos. I’m not looking for a coffee table book. I’m not interested in them and they are very expensive. I seek to share all the (verified) information possible and make it available to whoever wants to read it. A difficult goal, but not impossible. In this forum it was said not so long ago that these books are very expensive and the fans are already of a certain age and running out of money to burn. They are absolutely right and I even put that in a paragraph in the final chapter of Rainbow’s book (the information on this web has been used frequently to acquire data, by the way).
Thanks for reading this far, Rock.
answer to #8:
May 10th, 2024 at 06:07I’m sorry, Allen, but I don’t remember exactly at this moment what became of that guitar, but I assure you that in the book or rather the books (Deep Purple and split groups and this Rainbow one) I have followed the trajectory of those guitars as far as it has been possible for me. It all started with an article issued on the Internet where his guitars were analyzed. After reading it I became curious and for a long time I scrutinized all my videos about Blackmore in search of those guitars guided by their physical appearance. And little by little a text emerged that I included throughout the main text. The same is true for Jon’s organs or Ian’s drumkits, for example. Or about Roger’s basses, dear Uwe…
answer to #9:
May 10th, 2024 at 06:09Thanks a lot, Michael. I really appreciate your input. Labours of love are always full of ingratitude, I’m afraid, so to know about someone who can understand it, it is really wellcomed.
answer to #11:
May 10th, 2024 at 06:28Hi John:
It’s always a pleasure to hear from someone who has read (let alone invested his money) one of my follies. Yes, it was a real savagery to write that book, but it was so gratifying… especially when it was finally finished!!!! but no, it is not the final part. The story, at least for me, will not end in this book. As I have already said in another answer to the participants in this forum, I am writing in English a complete update of everything that was narrated in that book. The last update arrives until 12/31/2023 and I will get to the next one after the summer, while I continue with other projects, although I must admit that the Deep Purple and split groups book is my main interest today. There is no completion or publication date and I don’t want to reveal much about this project, because I don’t want to create excessive expectations about it, just what was discussed in a previous intervention.
Regarding the other fact you mention, it is virtually impossible to keep these octogenarians away from the stage, as time and events have shown. Almost 15 years have passed and they are still there every night. As for my opinion on what has happened in these thirteen years, without going into my intimate likes or dislikes, I will tell you that in July 2022 I was preparing the second updated edition of Un mundo purpura for the publisher, published just two months later, when Steve Morse announced that he was leaving Deep Purple. I went into shock. It took me months to overcome that strange feeling of loss. I miss him very much, honestly. In my opinion, expressed by many other people and therefore reflected in the text of that future book, Deep Purple should have continued touring with Simon and continued recording with Steve until their personal and family situation had ended, as has finally happened. That said, that updated second edition ended exactly on the tenth anniversary of the death of Jon Lord, to whom the book is dedicated, and it is only added as a footnote that Steve leaves the group on this or that date. In reality I limited myself to summarizing in 30 pages everything that happened in the 11 years since the end of the previous book, leaving the original text untouched (it was my decision and both the successes and the failures present in the first text remain, since I was already working on this new version in English, completely updated and corrected).
No, John, I wouldn’t have thought then that Deep Purple would continue without Steve. It hadn’t crossed my mind. I thought there would come a day when they would leave it and that’s it. That day has not yet arrived, and like most I believe that the setlists need a greater presence of songs from all eras and that they are too repetitive, but that will not prevent me from going to see them in a month and a half in my own town, Bilbao (I hope so, I haven’t bought the tickets yet…). For the rest, I’m really curious to see where Deep Purple goes with the new album, because each new release is different from the previous ones and a new guitarist makes the possibilities multiply.
Take care, John and enjoy the good spring weather that finally arrives (at least here in Spain).
I can’t believe what I’m reading on this website sometimes. To say that Rainbow wasn’t the most influential and popular Deep Purple offshoot band is just ludicrous. I was in the grocery store the other day and they played since you’ve been gone in between rap crap. Man on the silver mountain in the 70s and 80s was on the radio constantly not that I care about chart success but I’ve never heard an Ian Gillan band, Whitesnake, PAL track from the early days EVER played on the radio. Rainbow Produced so many stars that went on the greatness it’s a long list, we all know who they are. Jose Galvan is a true dedicated fan his attention to detail is immaculate. Although I don’t speak Spanish, Jose was kind enough about 10 years ago after released his DP book, to send me a printout of the appendix in the back that shows every members contribution to every album they’ve ever done the attention to detail is second to none. I taped them in to end it reaches 20 yards !Thank you, Jose
May 10th, 2024 at 07:45hi Scott
May 10th, 2024 at 10:41a long time indeed!!!. well, believe it or not my publisher told me just three ours ago you bought a copy of the rainbow book, hahahha. a pleasure to read you. well, what can I say? thanks a lot for your comments, REALLY. on the other hand, maybe today it’s not 20 yards long but double that quantity, as the individual projects and tours are countless in the last 10-15 years. of course I still continue adding them to the family tree you talk about. I love to work on it.
about the rest, ws were really popular with the 1987 line-up and record and sold more than rainbow, but the epics in rainbow albums were not in ws at any time. a pity. but coverdale lyrics I liked a lot on my teenage era. gillan, the band, was the most simpathetic of them all, and the closest to fans, in shows and in records. finally, glenn hughes have given us so many magnificente records for the last 20+ years…
take care Scott, yours truly, Jose.
Hi Jose
I must say being impressed by your passion and willingness to reply.
Wow, so much to say.
Espescially for me being someone who tends to get lost in the jungle due to associations triggered by anything in sight.
Before I forget …..
I think like you I often did not make much work of trying to work out the often multi interpretable lyrics.
Right on, some were/are clear but still I managed to become aware of meanings in a so called dirty lyric, decades later.
No, I feel besides getting drowned in the Netherlands by things in English I really learned a lot from reading articles and mags in English.And ofcourse through the Net.
I stepped in much too late reading DPAS.
And though the small lettering was already an energyconsuming thing way back I devoured them, also the ones I bought from the back catalogue.
Just one thought, imho your namedroppings signal someone who knows his shit, on the pictures.
I sent concertpics to both the Diep Peurpel fanzine in Belgium and some to Frans in the 8o s.
Frans when he dediced, being frustrated by the end of Rainbow also printed some of mine in the last edition.
I now wonder if you ve seen some of mine.
I m one of the people having bad experiences with using my own name on the net.
Can we connect somewhere/somehow without writing my data here?
May 10th, 2024 at 16:52Lot’s of stuff here, let’s go one by one:
Estimado Jose, I didn’t even think you were responsible for the back cover text, I thought that was the publisher’s do! All good, I admire you putting all the time into it and hope it’s successful.
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“To say that Rainbow wasn’t the most influential and popular Deep Purple offshoot band is just ludicrous.”
Scott, to quote GILLAN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoTMQAHcsV0
Influential to a degree, but only in niche genres. European melodic metal owes a debt to Rainbow no doubt. But other than that? I heard no Rainbow influence in, say, NuMetal. And with bands like Bon Jovi or Metallica (which are both in their different way closer to Deep Purle than to Led Zep), it is hard to discern the Rainbow- from the Deep Purple-influence.
The most popular offshoot? In the Dio era yes, but by the early 80ies Whitesnake was overtaking Rainbow and the success of 1987/Serpens Albus and Here I Go Again in the US + worldwide a few years later dwarfed anything Rainbow had ever achieved.
https://bestsellingalbums.org/artist/14201
Like DC’s music or not, but compared to Whitesnake’s 1987 Rainbow’s Bent Out Of Shape sounded badly dated and from another time.
In Germany, Rainbow started falling behind in the early 80ies: Whitesnake played larger and larger halls and festivals, Rainbow was stuck in medium-sized halls (Whitesnake also toured more regularly in Europe while Ritchie was hoping to crack the US market with the Turner line-up). Already the original version of Here I Go Again from the more or less contractual obligation album Saints & Sinners picked up more airplay in Germany than any Rainbow song before or after. Since You’ve Been Gone is probably the Rainbow track played most often on German radio (past and present), but while even casual rock fans know that song because it is so mind-numbingly catchy, it is not really automatically identified by them with Rainbow or Ritchie (“Which band played that song again?”).
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“Weird, I always understood Rainbow were always big in Germany.”
You’re forgiven for thinking that, RV, and I used to think so too, but a closer look at sales figures amd market penetration seems to indicate to me that Rainbow were actually most popular in the UK, but more of an also-ran in Germany. And it is true: If you in 1974 professed to be a Deep Purple fan, nearly all people would say, “oh I know them” + have an opinion (good or bad) on DP (they would also assume that you had a more or less mainstream rock taste, you were not perceived as outlandish if you liked them). Stating the same in 1980 about Rainbow would be met more likely with an incredulous look and a “Isn’t that the band of the Deep Purle guy, I remember them …”. Rainbow had (not nearly all) old DP fans in their fan base and also new converts who dug the “Daisy the Dragon meets Patti the Princess with her rainbow eyes in the Tower of Torture and together they then proceed to kill the King of Babylon”-Excalibur humbug, but they never reached mainstream status in Germany.
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It’s all good if having to wear a schoolboy uniform in your childhood and adolescent past has left permanent fetish scars on you, lieber Gregster, who am I to criticize?! 😂 You likely also assume that Angus Young is a better inproviser than that Ritchie guy and that Brian Johnson screams less than Glenn. I would personally sacrifice my life for you to be able to say all these things!
That said, I still find AC/DC boring and unrefined as hell (Hell’s Bells is actually their best song, I like that).
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Herr MacGregor, you again! That Louder Sound article is a piece of history revisionism. As an eye and ear witnes at the times I can attest to the fact that
– AC/DC did not help sell one Rainbow ticket more in Germany in 1976, nobody knew them, their product wasn’t widely available and they weren’t even announced by name in the tour promotion at the time. (I cannot rule out though that their record company paid good money to the Rainbow organisation for them to be on the tour with Rainbow, that happened frequently.)
– There were no shouts for an encore at the gig I saw, the attitude of the audience can best be described as “watching with arms crossed”. People were impatient for Ritchie. To be fair, the gig at Jahrhunderthalle was strangely enough seated at the time (and the bouncers did not allow people to stand front of stage until late into Rainbow’s performance), not a natural environement for AC/DC’s headbang riffage to thrive. I think they would have done better in a seedy rock club.
That said, I’ve never really seen an opening act do well with Rainbow in the 70ies and 80ies. Whitesnake, it has to be said, where intrepid in offering stronger opening acts on their tours, I remember Motörhead, Slade, Ozzy Osbourne (with Randy Rhoads!) and Billy Squier all opening for DC and his boys over the years. They all had a good sound and went down well (Slade and Billy Squier even excellently well).
– What Ritchie thought of AC/DC and Angus Young is anybody’s guess, but I doubt he was a fan. I remember an interview with him during the Turner era in some US magazine, was it Hit Parader or Creem, and he was asked to comment on the opening acts Rainbow had at the time and he said something along the lines of: “I think the Scorpions are really the best of the batch, they have a real sense of melody. Saxon and Krokus are a little heavy-handed to me.” Now if he thought those two bands, who both owe a considerable debt to AC/DC, “heavy-handed”, where does that leave AC/DC? Ritchie doesn’t really care much for rhythm guitar or is easily impressed by it, but AC/DC’s music is wholly rhythm guitar centric. And I don’t believe that Phil Rudd’s sparse drumming would let Ritchie lose any sleep either. Angus Young’s style is for Ritchie likely too derivative and basic, but what does he (Ritchie) know, the guy can’t even improvise as we have all learned here some time ago! 😁
May 10th, 2024 at 18:32no problem, Rock, use this e-mail if you like. dp586@hotmail.com. it’s not a secret, the adress I mean, as it is on the book also for anybody to contact me if they like to do so.
May 10th, 2024 at 19:04@42 – I am not advocating ACDC at all Uwe. That article I stumbled upon looking for any feed back on that tour. And also looking for a bit of sensationalism of that supposed backstage brawl that I thought about, if it did happen (my tabloid journo instincts again). Cheers.
May 10th, 2024 at 22:13I do think that ACDC in the 1970’s had some good riff based songs though & they were not too bad for a jam or two on a few classics. The Bon Scott era. At first I couldn’t stand them, they did a cover of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. However after a little while they didn’t sound too bad on certain songs. Not enough to become smitten by them though. Cheers.
May 11th, 2024 at 03:52@20 being from the Midwest I agree that REO was a bar band, could never figure out their popularity…oh well! My friends and I thought Rainbow blew REO off the stage in ’78 but we were in the minority. You are right Rainbow did not cash in on their chance but after reading between the lines of Colin Harts book Rainbow and DP could have been as popular as Zep if it were not for a particular guitarist and his treatment of the press and to some extent fans?
May 11th, 2024 at 11:24You could get a decent Greatest Hits out of AC/DC’s body of work, I’ll give them that. Thunderstruck wasn’t a bad anthem.
And they did “dumb” a lot more convincing than Rainbow. Rainbow’s attempts to dumb their music down such as the abysmal Power rank among the nadir of Blackers’ songwriting – yuck!
May 11th, 2024 at 12:45Liebe Herr Uwe,
Rainbow played music. Music is for listening. When I listen to Rainbow music I find it likable, be it dungeons and dragons stuff from the Dio era, or fire and desire stuff from the JLT era. That’s all there is to it.
Dixi et animam meam allevavi.
May 11th, 2024 at 12:48Joe Lynn Turner has never written a lyric that moved me or that I found witty. Coverdale could at least be fun sometimes like with Wine, Women & Song or transport grand emotion like in Here I Go Again. Gillan OTOH has written countless stuff that has moved me, was perceptive, told a good true story, had clever wordplay or was just plain hilarious. (Black Night features one of the few bad lyrics of him, but then he was drunk when he wrote it!)
Dio’s lyrics were at least well-written in syntax and vocabulary, if thematically narrow. Never mind why a wheel, why a wheel, it should roll, it should feel, or why the sun, why the sun, it could move, it could run. Even as a 15-year-old, I had a hard time imagining “running suns”. 😂
It pained at the time that someone who had written a composition as smart as Man On The Silver Mountain in its chord structure, would release a few years later utter rubbish like Power.
May 11th, 2024 at 18:11All good songwriters and lyric writers come up with some rather ordinary material occasionally. As long as it isn’t very often, we can forgive them. It is the same as when a musician playing their instrument makes a mistake, when they usually appear to make very few if any in what we hear. They are human after all, is the thought that springs to mind. Cheers.
May 11th, 2024 at 23:45@49 said…
qt.”It pained at the time that someone who had written a composition as smart as Man On The Silver Mountain in its chord structure, would release a few years later utter rubbish like Power”.
“Man on the Silver Mountain” is a good riff, but like many of RB’s tunes, they’re in C-Maj when you break-them-down to simplest form. C is a good key, it allows for all the white-notes on the piano, & many open strings on the guitar to ring through sounding good, even if not played…
“Power” is great live, it grows & grows in delivery, & has a nice slow solo from RB…
RB’s biggest error with Rainbow was not releasing “Jealous Lover” as a single if he was looking for chart success imo. Great tune, sadly overlooked, & it had a really good catchy riff that worked most excellently over the funky, slick drumming & groove made by the band…Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath-water yo !
AC/DC come from an Aussie pub background, where people are angry, abusive & generally like to get sloshed-to-the-eyeballs & beyond…Their music made it through that
intoxicated state-of-mind, & got peoples heads-banging…They know what works, & they found success through this dangerous Aussie environment…And it mostly worked around the world also.
Though I really like “Power Age”, “Back in Black” is a 1st-class-ticket in heavy blues-rock, & has never been bettered imo. It’s the “Jim Beam Bonded” of bourbons, & remains untouchable to this day. It’s accessible by everyone who listens to it, & every track is a winner, no duds. “Power Age” falls maybe a 2nd place to it, though it is the bands best effort with the late Bon Scott imo.
And if you’re a young aspiring guitarist, you’ll go far if you can play some of these riffs found on these AC/DC records. They’re a primary source, & will help you with all the other stuff out there, because you can learn them quickly & remain inspired.
Peace !
May 12th, 2024 at 00:14Lieber Gregster, it must have something to do with you being an Antipodean, but your assumptions about what keys songs are played in never cease to amaze! MOTSM is in G minor – not in C Maj or its parallel key A minor. It’s the same key as SOTW, but then you hold minority views on what key that is in as well! 🤣
May 12th, 2024 at 11:03But while we may have to agree to disagree on keys, lieber Gregster, I‘m pretty sure we‘re on the same page as regards this amazing acoustic guitar cover of the song …
https://youtu.be/q31IraDDu2E
May 12th, 2024 at 13:43Thanks for the MOTSM acoustic version, very nice & good to see & hear first thing in the morning. Life was restored back in 1975 when we heard that song for the first time on 3XY Melbourne radio. The anticipation of waiting every day for the ‘premiere’ of the new Rainbow song after the utter despair of Blackmore quitting Purple. A Light in the Black indeed. Cheers.
May 12th, 2024 at 22:52@52…
Perhaps your correct about the key Leiber Uwe, I often figured-out Rainbow & DP tunes after watching or listening to a live show. And in any case, I often practice everything in all 12-keys, so anything goes for me.
What I did find however, especially with the Rainbow tunes, is that I’d be playing one tune, only to finish it playing another one…( So-similar they are to my ears, or at least flow one into the other )…Not a negative thing, simply an observation.
And as for the key that you’ve mentioned, it’s no big deal, as you’re now in Bb instead of C.
And as for SOTW, it’s RB who has the trouble determining the key, not myself. I won’t repeat myself fully, but have to state that it’s best to treat the G-chord as a Dom-7 chord, since that allows both a Maj & min 3rd to exist, which is what Jon & Ritchie play independently of one-another. And yes, once again, if I was an aspiring young player, struggling with RB solo, I’d hint at using the F-Major scale without question.
That was an excellent clip ! And btw, if you didn’t notice, the gentleman is playing in A-min ( C-Maj ), so he shot-you-down my friend, not me LOL !
Peace !
May 13th, 2024 at 00:14Señor Jose Galván support (question for you what is Barón Rojo? big HR band, do they still play?
I don’t belong to the generation that was lucky enough to follow DP from album to album (because of age and adolescence, so the “iron curtain” policy (records were delayed, guest rock bands appearances were rare).. I discovered DP only in 1976) I followed Rainbow from the first generation and then were the pool position of the family” in the absence of parents” :)) By age for a DP fan it went like this pool position .. Rainbow (1975-1979) Gillan (1979-1981 and Black Sabbath 1980-1982 ) Whitesnake (1980-1984) Rainbow success with a change sound in AOR ..respect.. but it was no longer the band I adored in Blackmore-Dio-Powell triangle.
May 13th, 2024 at 07:54All ex-members (probably they were very angry at the time) when writing and speaking in the media, they were followed by ex-Deep Purple” that was the main bait, DP as a forever brand.
PS
As for AC/DC… I think a lot of credit for their breakthrough and their entire career goes to Paul Kossoff and that famous riff from “All Right Now”.
“What I did find however, especially with the Rainbow tunes, is that I’d be playing one tune, only to finish it playing another one…( So similar they are to my ears, or at least flow one into the other )…Not a negative thing, simply an observation.”
No argument from me, lieber Gregster, Ritchie certainly had a recipe for writing songs and there is a common thread running through the gamut of his compositions. And I know quite a few people who found his writing formulaic as early as Mk II; to some people the riffs of SOTW, Woman From Tokyo, Burn, Might Just Take Your Life, Sail Away, Man On The Siver Mountain, Long Live Rock’n’Roll, All Night Long, Spoitlight Kid and Knocking On Your Back Door all sound uncannily similar with always the same notes from the minor scale being used (Woman from Tokyo being the exception as it is a major scale riff). I wouldn’t go as far as that (but I know what they mean), to me they sound more like they are “from one and the same furnace”. And with the riff being the centerpiece of Ritchie’s songs (and regularly the canvas for Big Ian, Glenn & David or Dio to sing a chorus over) he’d add a few chords (regularly not very many, DP were never The Beatles as abundance of chord changes go) that rarely included the unexpected (though it did sometimes happen). And he had of course his preferred keys, G minor (SOTW, Burn, MOTSM, I think All Night Long too, unless that was in A minor) among them, though A minor (Space Trucking, Might Just Take Your Life, Lady Doubledealer) ad E minor (Black Night, Sail Away) were frequent as well.
Speaking of keys, I notice that you have the habit of viewing songs as written in major keys that I would personally describe as the relative major key to the minor key the respective riff is in. That is why you say Bb Major where I say G minor or C major where I say A minor. I tend to define the key of a song by the intro and recurring riff theme (which in Blackmore’s case means minor scale riffs in 9 out of 10 cases), even where the chords then jump to the relative major scale (as they do in All Night Long) or another major scale altogether (as they do in My Woman From Tokyo where the riff is in E Major, but the verses are then hiked three half-steps up to G Major).
PS: Sure I realized that Thomas Zwijsen had transposed MOTSM’s original key (so he could employ empty strings in his clever arrangement). Having played the song myself on bass, I know how its finger pattern is “supposed to look”. G minor sounds in my ears also considerably darker and more foreboding than A minor – it’s actually my favorite key too, I find a bass sounds better in the key of G than in the keys of either A or E.
Music class over!
May 13th, 2024 at 14:33Leiber Uwe said…
qt.”Speaking of keys, I notice that you have the habit of viewing songs as written in major keys that I would personally describe as the relative major key to the minor key the respective riff is in. That is why you say Bb Major where I say G minor or C major where I say A minor”.
*Very true. I do this deliberately to help anyone out who struggles with learning music, so as to expose the “secret” for what it is, a transference within a Major key, of what is simply a numerical exchange, where chord I, takes the position of chord VI, yet the key-signature remains the same, & the chordal qualities remain the same. It’s just the chord numbering sequence that is moved.
And by referencing the Major key, people will simply know what scale fits, & hopefully the rest falls into place as they play through the tune. I hope to uncomplicate something back to its primary form.
Peace !
May 14th, 2024 at 07:14hi Ivica.
May 14th, 2024 at 07:36last year Baron Rojo were still playing but discussing among them to call it quits as time and age are there. Armando de Castro, lead guitar, discovered Ronnie Romero and put him in a Rainbow tribute band of some success around here. those were the tapes Candice Night found on the net and then you probably know the rest… Anyway, after Sherpa, bass and vocals, left nothing was the same again. the Castro brothers kept touring and recording with a lot of people to complete the line-up but the chemistry in new songs was not there. some years ago they all reunited for a nostalgia tour very welcomed among us, but the differences, personal and musical still were there and they went separte ways again. last I knew bass player and drummer were together in a band playing Baron Rojo songs (went for a show and people got crazy with them, but it was all nostalgia trip and a walk down memory lane).
cheers, Jose
Key-switch-Greggie @58: I see, so the Oceanian, as is his his sunny nature, deems the Major scale as mother of all!
I’m one of those brooding Europeans. It rains a lot here, so we think everything is minor scale with short streaks of Major.
And that’s why you like Bolin and Morse as well, they are both creatures of Major too.
May 14th, 2024 at 12:53@60…
LOL ! You have to play & then understand many tunes to actually see the actual simplicity of music, & yet the complexity & difficulty of trying to explain & / or learn music through books etc etc is all we have.
Yes, the Major scale & theory go hand-in-hand, & is the primary source you learn & expand from. Every key signature refers back to a Major scale origin.
Modified key signatures exist also, but only to express a new sound / scale, & are not primary. ( Or they are known as accidentals, & work for 1 x bar of music usually ).
The Major scale is to music what Blue, Red & Yellow are to painting, (or Blue,Red & Green for physics).
Peace !
May 14th, 2024 at 23:33“Wiktor says:
well my dear Uwe … there’s more countries than Germany …”
Jawohl, I’m aware, one of our many historical omissions/failures!
https://media0.giphy.com/media/3o84ssTboZMabbg8U0/giphy.gif
May 17th, 2024 at 00:04