![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride1.jpg)
New Rainbow singles
two ‘new’ singles are reportedly being released on 26th May
Land of Hope and Glory
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/land-of-hope-and-glory-single/id1237748131 I Surrender
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/i-surrender-feat-ronnie-romero-single/id1237263638
Also available on Amazon and all other similar services.
Thanks to Akemi and Morki for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Land of dopey Tories….!
May 22nd, 2017 at 14:36Harps back to the instrumental break on a certain track from Perfect Strangers…
May 22nd, 2017 at 14:39Under the gun…
May 22nd, 2017 at 14:40Never seen you putting so much effort into an article than this one… Shows where the taste is news-wise.
May 22nd, 2017 at 15:04Covering JLT…..not easy. Interested too see if RR can pull it off.
May 23rd, 2017 at 06:34Nice to see one new song at least, not sure why I Surrender is being done again! Still good news indeed from the maestro! Cannot wait to hear them though! Cheers.
May 23rd, 2017 at 06:52Off topic but the AMC series Better Call Saul gave a good shout out to Ritchie in tonight’s episode – season 3 episode 7, it was awesome’
May 23rd, 2017 at 09:08@6 MacGregor, “I Surrender” was not only (I think) Rainbow’s best selling single in the United States, but rerecording it will knock Joey off of his perch!. Hot Ronnie did a great version of it & that was seen on youtube by both Candice & RB, which was a huge contributing factor as to why Hot Ronnie landed the gig in the first place….
May 23rd, 2017 at 13:59MacGregor, do you remember TISM?… I was checking out a couple of their albums on Youtube, with songs like “Greg, the stop sign” & “What are ya?” & so on. Funny stuff. I wonder how Ron Hitler Barrassi would have handled singing for Rainbow?…. Hmmm, maybe not!. Lol.
Bloody ‘I Surrender’? Awful cheesey song! Why not write a decent rock track or cover something he actually wrote?
May 23rd, 2017 at 17:47Hopefully this will inspire him to make a new whole album.
May 23rd, 2017 at 18:08I Surrender – really? Makes you wonder where Blackmore’s head is at.
May 24th, 2017 at 01:42I said it before and I say it again. Keep milking the cow till the money dries out. Whitesnake did it with the purple album and Ritchie is doing it with this half Rainbow half deep purple saga. While one the other hand the true respectable Deep Purple guys records new albums and tour with dignity.
May 25th, 2017 at 16:59Judge for yourself.
Hmm…Ronnie shines here! Not sure what i was expecting…Rainbow 2017 are definitely a different kettle of fish 😉
Surely Land of Hope and Glory should be a Blackmore’s Night track? It certainly sounds like it should be, especially as they are playing on it.
May 26th, 2017 at 07:51The Land of Hope and Glory is a waste of 1.29 on Amazon. Blackmore night opening with a slide guitar closing. Very uninspired. There are couple of moments right at the end where it threatens to be Interesting. I expected more but don’t kmow exactly why I should have.
May 26th, 2017 at 15:09So we knew that Mr B had been in the studio and recorded tracks for “Blackmores Night” and “Rainbow”… but I think the printers got confused on one track !
Land of Hope and Glory is a jolly little ditty … but its not a rip roaring “Still I’m Sad” rendition a la on stage … and has no vocals. I quite enjoyed it … but as Rik says, it should be in the BN session!
What then of “I Surrender”, do we have a version as Rainbow 76 with RJD would have done it? Well, no… but Its good to hear it with RR’s voice and I actually prefer the vocal. The production to my ears is light, and the fact that its BN style drumming rather than rock drumming is a shame.
Anyway, well worth 79p…..
May 26th, 2017 at 18:01Land Of Hope & Glory may well have been recorded for a Blackmore’s Night album…. It’s pretty, the way RB has played it… like Carry On Jon. However, I figure he is intending to use it as an opening/closing number at the concerts. I think this reflects where he is musically these days, at his time of life. He’s an old man now & very set in his ways, so you either buy it or you don’t buy it. RB doesn’t give a shit.
May 26th, 2017 at 19:27I prefer it as a Blackmore’s Night piece, but obviously he’s having a go at the hard & fast Rainbow fanatics. Decades ago, music was very old fashioned… & then loud, fast rock & roll came along & shocked the establishment. Nowadays, rock & roll is the establishment. So all RB has done is turn it all on it’s head & found that the new way to surprise/shock a modern audience is to play the music like they did when he was just a small boy. Slow & folky!. There’s two fingers up at ya!. Hahahahaha. Nice one Ritchie, well done sir.
As for I Surrender…. Well, it’s a pop song, so what did you expect?. Hot Ronnie will happily take his turn with RB… he’s a fine vocalist. We almost certainly won’t get a new Rainbow studio album from RB. He may choose to redo the odd track or two… but that’s probably about it.
We all know that RB is melancholic… nostalgia has a strong hold on his heartstrings… The man is just having some fun in his old age & making a bob or two along the way. Seriously, who could blame him for that?. Show some respect. Smiles to ya!.
even the most die hard fan will find this hard to stomach, “i surrender” is dire , I’m almost speechless at how bad this is , I saw Romero at Birmingham last year and will go again this and live regardless of what your views of this incarnation were, RR still cut the mustard, but this ! he sounds dreadful like a very poor Karaoke ,just very half arsed from RB why bother really and thats even before we’ve got to Land of Hope and Glory ,something tells you he saw all the great press DP had and thought well i suppose i better do something in case they forget me, i have bought all Rainbows output ,even Stranger in us all when it surfaced this is simply garbage.
May 27th, 2017 at 20:28Wow, this really sucks!
I’m sorry but both tracks lack the energy connected with Rainbow.
May 28th, 2017 at 00:55Don’t know why Ritchie wanted to go there, but it does suck… ( I recommend Infinite)
Ronnie does have a great voice, I always loved Ritchie’s guitar playing, there’s nobody else who plays like that. His guitar playing is kind of mellow these days even with the recent live recordings. Not so much of a fire, more like a simmer. It’s OK, I still like it.
May 29th, 2017 at 00:02Drum machines???????? Never in an eternity would I have thought I would hear that, woeful! Taking the piss or what??? Have always detested them, even before I started drumming! Well, they actually didn’t exist back then, not to my knowledge at least! I will have to contact Blackers & tell him I will drum for free & I will definitely NOT have fun doing it! Surely that should land me the recording! Cheers.
May 29th, 2017 at 11:39Good lord.
About as grim as it gets.
May 30th, 2017 at 16:23Herr Romero sounds like an oversinging Joe Lynn Turner on it – when will we hear the real Romero singing? – and re-recording that song in 2017 with the same late 70ies/early 80ies hammering piano sound makes it sound so incredibly dated. What on earth possessed Blackmore to do that, his penchant for practical jokes? Makes the original version with Joelene sound like a work of genius (and that already fell behind how Bonnet would have sung it, there must still be a version with his orignal vocal in the vaults, Turner overdubbed his voice on that version, hence it sounds a little too high for him to feel comfortable).
And indeed, Land of Hope and Glory sounds like a Blackmore’s Night bonus track for one of their Japanese CD releases. Pleasant, but pointless.
Compared to this, Infinite is a current, daring and even edgy album even where it sounds safest.
May 30th, 2017 at 19:17Very sad for this productions. Ritchie is not a rock guitarist anymore. Come back with your poor minstrel and your sad B’N band…Long Live Deep Purple.
May 30th, 2017 at 22:34It is the end of a traitor that deserve.
May 30th, 2017 at 22:37@23 AndreA, yes, that’s it exactly…. “Ritchie is not a rock guitarist anymore”….. So perhaps a public lynching is the only way to satisfy the mob?. Sadness….
May 31st, 2017 at 11:47He doesn’t have to be rock guitarist anymore in my book. I’d be perfectly happy with an instrumental album where he plays with another guitarist in his league acous´tic guitar. Couldn’t be too sophisticated for me either, one of my favourite solos of his is what he did on Gates of Babylon where the backing pretty much does away with traditional chords in his solo part.
But instead he insists on resurrecting the Rainbow brand as if to document to the world that he has lost his fire. Or bombards us with the umpteenth Blackmore’s Night song that apes German Schlager rather than going for a more sophisiticated approach there too. Listen to Steeleye Span’s more recent output to hear how folk rock cannot be cheesy.
IMHO, Ritchie is wasting his (still considerable) talent. But then he was never his best advisor when it came down to an optimal musical setting for him.
May 31st, 2017 at 17:58@26 Uwe, Point taken, however….
My lips smile no more, my heart loses it’s lightness,
No dream of the future my spirit can cheer.
I only can brood on the past & it’s brightness,
The dear ones I long for again gather here.
From ev’ry dark nook they press forward to meet me,
I lift up my eyes to the broad leafy dome,
And others are there, looking downward to greet me
The ash grove, the ash grove, again is my home.
Or something like that… Smiles to ya!.
June 1st, 2017 at 01:00I don’t belong to that mob… I’ve never got illusions about him and his last music he plays..
June 1st, 2017 at 18:58Viva la Rainbow Moon!.
June 2nd, 2017 at 09:30I ll nOT pay for this.
June 2nd, 2017 at 18:01Will try to take a listen on YouTube.
Blackers really has gone off his rockers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3j2QKt4wks
June 2nd, 2017 at 19:14Blackwood…i think #26 sums it up well. Rainbows new songs are garbage. I Surrender has a drum machine for heavens sake. That remake is an emnarrasment. He is also retreading the same tired BN songs. He still has talent but his lack of self awareness and his stubborn resistance towards strong voices outside of his sphere has left him a shadow of what he could be..
June 2nd, 2017 at 19:31Sir Blackwood Richmore @ 27 – I enjoyed that, excellent! Cheers.
June 3rd, 2017 at 09:42@32 Chip, perhaps he’s aware of his…. or, our limitations?!….. Hahahaha!. She’s sweet mate, no worries… You lot make laugh….
June 3rd, 2017 at 10:53@33 Macgregor, oh, so doth appreciate mine quotation… Well tryeth this one on for sizeth…
Alas poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio,
a fellow of.. ‘infinite’.. jest,
of most excellent fancy. He hath
borne me on his back a thousand times, & now,
how abhorred in my imagination it is!.
My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft-
Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?.
Not one now to mock your own grinning?
Quite chapfallen?.
Well….., he probably drove a Datsun!. My apologies to the author…
June 4th, 2017 at 02:04Verily & forsooth, for it has come to pass that this Sir Blackwood Richmore (Esquire, don’tcha know!), must hasten to outer & bugger off fast!.
Smiles to ya!.
I remember watching a tv ad in the 1990s for a record by Jerry Lee Lewis. The music suffered from terrible production (read: cheap recording), and most certainly didn’t help his career out any.
I got the same feeling from these songs. They bummed me out; however, this is not how I will choose to remember one of my rock heroes.
June 4th, 2017 at 15:22It is a new low.
After bad production combined with stupid trying to sound “modern” on certain albums in the past(HOBL comes to mind)one wonders…………
Is he really trying to destroy his legacy?
June 10th, 2017 at 13:06@37 Rock Voorne, put very simply…. then the answer is YES. He’s enjoying himself, that’s all. You can choose to buy into it if you wish…. you have the freedom of choice. I’m just amused by the whole shebang!…. It’s like a soap opera… Chuckles to ya!.
June 11th, 2017 at 01:24He is either completely unaware or just grabbing for some extra $.
June 15th, 2017 at 04:25Rock Voorne @ 37- show me an artist from the previous era, that didn’t try to sound ‘modern’ during the 80’s! Everything changed big time as we all know! It doesn’t change the songs though, HOBL is great to my ears! Many an artist dabbled in the ‘new’ sound of the MTV era! It is all ok!
June 16th, 2017 at 09:08Sir Blackwood @ 35 – As the late great Rik Mayall fondly called him, ‘ole Shaky Bill! Classic! Cheers.