Pedal to the metal
In a recent interview, singer Marc Storace of the Krokus fame talks about his audition for Rainbow circa the Down to Earth sessions:
Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan8.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride1.jpg)
In a recent interview, singer Marc Storace of the Krokus fame talks about his audition for Rainbow circa the Down to Earth sessions:
Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I do remember Krokus & ‘Eat The Rich’ etc. A few metal heads I knew back then were into them big time. A good interview with Marc, a very down to earth chap. Thanks for enlightening my rather ordinary historical knowledge of that period of Rainbow. I had no idea he auditioned for them. I had forgotten all about that song Eat The Rich, I do remember it well though as it has already entered my memory, that chorus and all. First thing in the morning with my coffee, a different way to start the day. Nice to hear Marc talk about inspiration for ideas, it can be anything & it depends on what ever happens at the time where it ends up going to. Bloody Vikings again eh, just about to wind up & he mentions them, ‘Screaming in the Night’ indeed. Sheeesh, we can never get away from them it seems. Cheers.
December 17th, 2024 at 20:31Most people know Krokus after they had adopted their “Long Stick Goes Boom” mock-AC/DC sound,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y5N3f1WVDc
but early Krokus was less simplistic, more in a Scorpions vein (a band Blackmore, germanophile he is, has always rated as “more melodic than other bands of their ilk”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNu9bVytBKo
And before Krokus, Mark Storace had of course sung in Tea, another Swiss band, and they were even prog’ish in places:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH_f0yPKQwo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0np5IPVZx0
Storace had a bit of Dan McCafferty of Nazareth in him, he also had quite a tenor range (something Blackmore was actively searching for at the time to make Rainbow sound more like Foreigner; RJD was a high baritone/low tenor singer in comparison), so had his audition been more fruitful, it might have worked. I do remember that he once named DP ‘s Burn among his desert island albums.
His Rainbow audition must have been around the time ex-Trapeze/future Uriah Heep lead vocalist Pete Goalby also auditioned for Rainbow, Pete came so close that his name was already circulated by German music papers as RJD’s successor in Rainbow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyo6mIFtSco
Here’s a bit more on Marc’s Rainbow episode:
https://vinylwritermusic.wordpress.com/2021/07/13/an-interview-with-marc-storace-of-krokus/
Andrew: You mentioned you auditioned for Rainbow between Eazy Money and joining Krokus. How did that opportunity arise and what are your memories from the audition?
Marc: With my band Eazy Money, we used to rehearse in this place where many bands were rehearsing there in different rooms. I was called into the office one day, and it was this guy, Bob Adcock, who was a talent scout. He asked me if I’d like to fly over to Geneva and audition for Rainbow. I thought to myself, “Well, I’m not stupid,” … “Of course I will. But don’t tell my band, just in case I don’t get the job.” And off I went. But I was unprepared; it must have been a Thursday and I flew on a Saturday or something.
Anyway, I landed in Geneva and Cozy Powell picked me up. He was a racing driver; he had a license for racing. So, then he asked me, “Do you mind if I do a little bit of rally driving on the way to the castle?” And I thought, “Holy shit. Here we go.” I said, “Well, you have a license, so I guess I can trust you.” We got there with screaming tires; he was an incredible driver. He was sliding – you know how you slide the back into the corners? Ah, man. I got used to that; made me nervous at first. We came into these castle grounds, and I noticed there was a mobile studio there, with all the wiring going down into a cellar window. So, I thought, “Hell, they’re recording everything.” Roger Glover came down the steps to greet me and we walked in, and there’s a couple of the others there in the sitting room. We had tea, as usual with English people and even me at the time, living in London. In Malta, we drink tea like water.
The whole atmosphere was pretty intimidating. I’d never been to the USA at this point, and it was like, “Wow, this is how the real thing is,” compared to our little house in Switzerland with TEA in the earlier days. So, Cozy said, “Let’s go up to my room and listen to some songs and pick one up.” So, I picked “Man on the Silver Mountain,” Dio’s masterpiece. And Richie [Blackmore] came in – he poked his head in with a bottle of whisky … “Would you like a shot? It’s good for your nerves.” I said, “No, I never drink before I sing – not whisky anyway. If you have white wine, a drop of white wine will do.” We went down into the cellar, and it was Cozy and Richie and Don Airey on keyboards, and it was like, “Wow, is this for real?“
We went through the paces and stuff, and when we went up for dinner afterward, Richie sat in front of me and I said, “You know, Richie, I didn’t unpack yet.” He said, “No, no. Calm down. Enjoy your food.” It was the band and crew in this big room. And then Don Airey comes up and says, “I would lock your room tonight.” I said, “Why? What’s happening?” He said, “You know, Richie gets up to his pranks. So, you never know.” So, I locked both sides; there were two doors to my room. I looked outside my window, and there were these nice, white horses out there on the field and I thought, “Wow, am I dreaming? Is this for real?“
Anyway, I didn’t get the job and I carried on with my band. Then, this thing happened with Chris calling me. I thought, “Another audition? If my band finds out, they’re gonna really wallop me. And I deserve it,” because I kind of felt guilty doing this behind their backs. But the problem was, I wasn’t too happy with the way things were going internally with Eazy Money; although, Chrysalis was thinking of signing us and sending us on tour to the USA as an opening act for Genesis, which was something. But still, I didn’t feel so comfortable and so confident that Eazy Money would make it in the long run. I spent seven years with TEA; I’ve been married 30 years; been with Krokus for over 40 years. It’s like I look at it as a long-distance love affair.
December 17th, 2024 at 23:16Herr Uwe ..the man who knows the most about DP family and DP family secrets ,I’m surprised he didn’t mention ..”The bombshell secrets year 1979 …and that is
December 18th, 2024 at 11:07Ritchie Blackmore first asked Ian Gillan to join in Rainbow to replace RJD , but Big Ian coldly refused.
Herr U H share your vast knowledge ..I know you have it
Headhunter very good, underrated album, with the MTV hit Screaming in the night.
December 18th, 2024 at 12:51Screaming in the night, a great track, has two riffs in it that to my ears inspired both the intro to Slow down sister and Call of the wild.
December 18th, 2024 at 15:35Marc is a nice guy, now touring with his own band.
December 18th, 2024 at 16:50Krokus are still a guilty pleasure when I’m in the mood for a bit of foot-tapping boogie.
The last few of their albums are well worth checking out, as are the videos!
Voodoo Woman and Dog Song especially!!
Ivica, of course I knew that, but I don’t think Blackmore ever expected Gillan to say yes! They were pulling each other’s leg with their reverse invitations. Gillan joining Glover and Blackmore would have been the death knell for Rainbow as a self-standing band, public pressure for them to play MK II material would have been insurmountable, I don’t think Ritchie was ready for that just yet.
And Gillan would have been extremely ill at ease singing Dio’s melodies and lyrics. Gillan as the man on the silver mountain? In your dreams.
December 18th, 2024 at 23:35@7 Still, Ritchie had that love/hate type of attitude towards Gillan. He admired his masculine attractiveness and knew how much commercial value there was in it. And if you fancy someone, you inevitably approach that person and make suggestions, even if you are pretty sure that person will say ‘no’.))
I think that in his German mediaeval castle dreams Ritchie saw Ian something like this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder_-_Duke_Henry_the_Pious_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Alas, it wasn’t reciprocal.
December 19th, 2024 at 12:40@ 8……. LOL!😂🤣
December 19th, 2024 at 13:10I’ve thought about this, but had Gillan actually joined Rainbow in 1979, I would have been seriously miffed at hearing him do MOTSM rather than, say, Highway Star on following tours. Alas!, I was even miffed on the Down To Earth tour when Roger didn’t bring out his trademark Ric 4001, but rather the much darker sounding Gibson Thunderbird he played on that tour (before he broke the headstock off, the klutz!).
The whole Down To Earth concept wouldn’t have worked, I don’t believe Big Ian would have readily sung SYBG, All Night Long or a Mistreated clone like Love’s No Friend Of Mine. Graham otoh came from a pop background, he was used to interpreting other people’s songs, his two pre-Rainbow solo albums consist of only covers. He was also totally naïve upon his arrival in Rainbow as regards the world of touring heavy bands, he had never done a lengthy tour with a band prior to Rainbow, Graham was a studio singer and used to miming his songs on TV as opposed to the touring life, he was a singles artist. That naïveté made DTE sound so fresh at the time.
Getting Ian back in 1979 would have also been a total negation of everything Blackmore had worked at before – pushing Ian out of DP in 1973, creating Mk III with a whole new vocal identity, ditching the DP albatross around his neck in 1975, committing adultery in plain sight with the opening act to get his point across etc. And while Ritchie is always good for jerking the wheel around via some radical career step, in 1979 realization had not yet dawned on him that Mk II would be his career commercial pinnacle, back then he still believed that Rainbow might be handed a new deck of cards if they stopped singing about swords & sorcery and did love songs – as SYBG, All Night Long (well, more of an inane sex topic song really), I Surrender, Jealous Lover, Stone Cold, Street of Dreams and Can’t Let You Go all were. Do you really think that Big Ian would have been up to confining his lyrics like that to one subject?
December 19th, 2024 at 14:19@8: The likeness is indeed striking, Georgivs!
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/45/77/3c/45773c1708530676391535484ff1b55c.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCO_8US0Dvp4zo4P0n2OY43VcmXIAEP0zBpNUy2V_YElEHZm-qUMXNk5nrKz6WJiSGywaO7IQYINgCk16TbNVfeSHCh1efI90YAFLoS0NeUy7ZXpyvvwViD_TV9PRBKCtBXpVXAclslBM/s1600/d.png
https://www.stripes.com/migration/migrated.image.36559_417221323.jpg/alternates/LANDSCAPE_910/Deep%20Purple%20lead%20singer%20Ian%20Gillan%20left%20and%20bass
I actually agree, I think Ritchie was simply trying to flatter Ian and vice versa. But really: Nothing that Ritchie could have seen and heard at a Gillan club gig in 1979 (I saw them too in that year, they were punkish-no holds barred, but hardly refined) could have given him any sort of assurance that his nemesis would have been the right singer on Blackmore’s path to becoming more Foreigner. And in the papers it would have been described as a DP reunion from day one, there would have been no getting away from it.
December 19th, 2024 at 14:47Of course, having Ian Gillan on stage, always bears a certain lyric memory loss risk, Ritchie must have been very cognizant of this … 🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OogL-78xz1o
What a car crash of a band, one dude can’t remember his words, the other guy can’t replicate the solos he did on record. 🙄 They could have toured together as “The Amnesiacs”.
RB: “Darn, how did my solo go again, Ian?”
IG: “Twiddly-twiddly something. Not sayin’ more unless you help me with the words!”
December 19th, 2024 at 16:08I heard somewhere that David Coverdale was also approached.Don’t know how true that is but it is intriguing. He was more of a commercial singer than Gillan.
December 19th, 2024 at 18:10Storace says he picked Man On The Silver Mountain for the audition, perhaps not the greatest choice as I have never heard another singer do that song real justice. Not Bonnet, not Turner, not Doogie, not Chilean Ronnie …
… not Biff …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1APHxoCftE
… not Udo …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HOViT9Ze68
… and not even – it pains me to say – my beloved Auntie Roberta!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SJpdRWd9A0
Just as I thought that (the real) Ronnie could never sing Coverdale’s Mistreated proper, none of all these other singers could muster the calm authority Dio had with that song. Credit where credit is due.
Honorary mention: Next to Ronnie, Alexx Stahl (of Purple Rising) does the best job here with Ingolstadt boys Bonfire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dU-Mk-mJQw
Unlike this Pasadena resident:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FXxpSesZs
😂
To be fair (and I always aim to be), he does a better job here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq_PzXy2LGc
December 19th, 2024 at 18:20@7….Herr Uwe
December 19th, 2024 at 19:48Gillan, in an interview he gave to a Yugoslav rock magazine “Džuboks” (eng.Jukebox) in November 1979 (Mr Universe tour), said that Ritchie visited him at his home in England for Christmas 1978 and stayed with him for 4 days (Ritchie was already living in America). Only after the third day did he tell him the main reason for his arrival… to join him in Rainbow to replace Ronnie, come live in America and create commercial music modeled : Foreigner, Van Halen, Boston, Journey… Ian considered that music sterling… and he said… “That it did not have the energy that British hard rock bands had. They did a great job technically but lacked heart and passion. That’s why he preferred American bands like Little Feat”…..
He rejected Ritchie’s offer…
Although it seemed strange to me that Gillan was singing in Ritchie Blackmore’s band…later a new miracle happened, Roger became the producer and bassist of the RB band, “The Man” who kicked him out of DP
Maybe it was an option o MK 2 reunion 79/80 ?..Blackmore-Gilllan-Glover….Ian Paice was free for a good part of 1979..only in August 1979 he joined Whitesnake on the Japanese tour (Love Hunter tour). Big stories about a reunion started, especially in the following year 1980…when the compilation “The Very Best of Deep Purple” was released, which sold well and was at the top of the charts, and the successes of the bands Whitesnake, Gillan and Rainbow were the headliners of the program at the biggest summer festivals in England (Reading and Donington)…the guys didn’t even want to hear about a reunion when they were doing well in their own bands
I am not sure Blackmore would want to see Gillan brandishing a sword at all. The ale or beer drinking mug shots, possibly ok, depending on the mood. Cheers.
December 19th, 2024 at 21:30“Foreigner, Van Halen, Boston, Journey …”
I have severe doubts that Brits can do that type of music and especially sing it as well as Yanks, Ivica. Foreigner was Brit in part, but Lou Gramm, whose voice was key for their success, was an Italian heritage Yank (born Louis Andrew Grammatico) from Rochester, NY. Journey were from the Bay Area, Van Halen from Southern California (where it never rains, just pours) and Boston were from – well, your guess is as good as mine! I think Ian made the right choice, he’s not really an AOR singer (just as Ritchie isn’t really an AOR guitarist or songwriter, he just wanted to be).
There was no great plan by Ritchie to get Roger into Rainbow as a bassist. Chiefly, he wanted a different production sound from Martin Birch (not an AOR producer) and Roger had by the mid-seventies a reputation for making bands sound more commercial with his productions: Nazareth, Judas Priest, Rory Gallagher and MSG can all bear testament to that. If you listen to Nazareth’s trio of Roger-produced albums Razamanaz/ Loud ‘n’ Proud/Rampant, you know where the Down To Earth sound came from, it still had that slight glam rock touch, which by 1979 wasn’t really current anymore, but still more commercial and radio-friendly than Martin Birch’s very dry, no frills productions.
Roger played bass on the DTE sessions by default – to get a move on with recording because no bassist could be found meeting Ritchie’s exacting standards (good-looking, long hair, plays with a pick, is fast and accurate if need be, but doesn’t clutter, can make himself heard beside Cozy Powell, does as he is told + doesn’t ask for too much money). Glover was not intended to be the touring bassist until Bonnet and Airey both asked Ritchie why he wasn’t in the band (and the search for a bassist still ongoing) given his pivotal role in the making of DTE. Ritchie thought about it, then asked Cozy (who was ok with Roger as part of the rhythm section) and ONLY THEN invited Roger to join (who had by then be waiting for such an offer as the band bug had bitten him again).
December 19th, 2024 at 23:36David @13: I know of Ritchie attempting to unsuccessfully poach DC in 1975 for what became Rainbow, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t further attempts in 1979.
I agree, DC is the more conventional singer as melodies go than IG, but also more accessible. His voice also sounds great over a radio, even without double tracking (which IG did a lot in the 70s). That doesn’t mean that IG can’t sound commercial if he puts his mind to it, but he also likes to do outlandish stuff. Ironically though, Mk III never had a single hit while Mk II had several: Black Night, Strange Kind Of Woman, even Fireball had considerable airplay in Germany, SOTW of course and lastly the very commercial Woman From Tokyo, one of the few Mk II songs in a major key throughout.
December 19th, 2024 at 23:50I guess this somehow fits here, he was after all Marc’s chauffeur …
Never knew of these live vids, nor that Dance With The Devil was ever performed live, much less by Bedlam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSkaAxdy0NM&t=112s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewybnGR5Zns
Frank Aiello wasn’t the most handsome front man on earth, but a fine singer.
December 20th, 2024 at 02:33Uwe
to add my 2 cents about Gillan joining Rainbow. I heard that Blackmore jammed with Gillan during Christmas of 1978. Although the occasion was friendly, and they shared some fond memories of the days of Purple, Blackmore was glad that Ian declined the invitation. I think already he started to sense the old problems starting between the two.
December 20th, 2024 at 02:44@18 I imagined how IG would adapt the Rainbow lyrics to his style and image and made an attempt to rewrite some accordingly. I wasn’t able to, though, because IG’s double entendres and witticisms are pieces of art. Instead, what I wrote looks Cov style. I was also surprised how few words one needs to change to completely twist the meaning. See this:
It’s only been an hour
Since he locked her in the shower
The time has come
She must be done
By the morning
Many times before
The lady opened up his door
Then she cries
They both close their eyes
Yet again
Meet me when the sun is in the western skies
The loving must be done before another affair starts
Crossed bodies in the fire light
Green lingerie waving
Mama raving
Through the shattered night
Yeah yeah yeah
Flames are getting higher
Make her leap unto the spire
Draw Bridget down
Cute to be unbound
We shall dance around the fire
No more night
December 20th, 2024 at 08:04We have seen the light
Let it shine on bright
With satisfied desire
17@ Herr Uwe
1979 yers in that interview Gillan mentions those bands.
His story goes like this…
“America is the homeland of RnR, RnR comes to Britain and has a great influence, English bands are created that dominate the sixties: The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, The Kinks, at the end of the sixties in Britain bands with a heavier and louder style are created like Zeppelin , Sabbath , Purple … who had a great influence on American bands from the second half of the seventies, all these American bands (AOR) are technically perfect but they don’t have the heart and passion like HR bands from Britain. He likes more American bands like Little Feat, The Doors, or Southern rock (ZZ T, LSB, ABB). Ian Gillan also said at the time that he doesn’t like to sing hits for American radio stations, and his lyrics deal with other topics.. from life, work, relationships in society..
I think it’s with team cut short their career in their progressive band, which broke up due to financial debts to the members (there were no commercial hits?) unlike his colleague Blackmore who made a musical turn in his career with songs like “All Nigh Long,” Since You Been Gone”,”I Surrender”, Street of Dreams, “Stone Cold”, Can’t Let You Go ..gained new fans of his music
I know that Foringer is a mixed British-American band…but they sound American
I don’t know why Bob Daisley objected to Ritchie..Bob was a good bassist and musician, it turned out later and successful in collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne, his best albums co-production, songwriting. “Blizzard of Ozz” , “Diary of a Madman”,,,then play and writers Uraiah Heep AOR albums “Abominog” and “Head First” (for me the best UH albums without David Byron) . Then collaborated with Gary Moore ( ohhh intro in guitar solo “Empty Rooms” Live in Stockholm 1987) . And that’s not all… Bob had wonderful hair, pleasant appearance, I don’t know? 🙂
December 20th, 2024 at 13:13How Roger ended up in Rainbow..I was more surprised by Roger…he was quite busy with Gillan,Coverdale (both solo albums),Gallagher,Judas,Nazareth,Quo etc etc
“It’s only been an hour
Since he locked her in the shower”
😝
Contents aside, there is a huge difference in how Dio writes words over music and how either DC and IG do it. Dio recites his own poetry and the lyrics are paced to the music in a very “stately procession” way. There are no quirks in Dio’s poetry rhythm, it’s very straightforward, his poetry “marches” to the music. Together with Cozy’s drumming and Ritchie’s – in early Rainbow decidedly unfunky, he was trying to escape the Stormbringer experience after all – stern guitar playing that made Dio era Rainbow in my ears sometimes irritatingly stiff and, jawohl, very Germanic in a not so great way. Maybe Anglo-American listeners heard that differently and even saw an exotic appeal in it, but I sure was always bothered by the lack of “n’ roll” in Rainbow’s rock. We can do Rammstein and Accept in Germany plenty fine, vielen Dank, we don’t need Anglo-American bands as stiff as our own! 😎
In contrast, DC’s lyric rhythm to Whitesnake’s (and before that DP’s) music was always very smooth and flowing, but hardly exciting. DC is no Mick Jagger, Robert Plant or Steven Tyler when applying words to music, but he isn’t gravitas-leaden like Dio either. He rolls and glides.
And then there is Big Ian – and he defies convention as usual. He breaks rhyme rhythm rules, he talks and raps over the music, leaving the meter, it’s like slam poetry. That aspect of his singing would have sooner or later collided with what Ritchie was aiming to do with Rainbow post 1979. It’s just not very AOR.
December 20th, 2024 at 14:23@23
December 21st, 2024 at 14:52“And then there is Big Ian – and he defies convention as usual. He breaks rhyme rhythm rules, he talks and raps over the music, leaving the meter, it’s like slam poetry. That aspect of his singing would have sooner or later collided with what Ritchie was aiming to do with Rainbow post 1979. It’s just not very AOR.”
– well in my humble and Nordic opinion Ian is simply great, and anyone thinking different, well they’re allowed to that 🤣 I just don’t agree!
Esteemed Ivica, not for a second did I think that you thought Foreigner were 100% American!
Mick Jones was a Brit as were drummer Dennis Elliott and ex-King Crimson multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, but the rest of the guys were Yanks. Ironically, on paper at least, the band became more British as Mick Jones jettisoned everyone who was not willing to follow his masterminded blueprint of Foreigner becoming a less bluesy, singles-oriented poppy Bad Company (which had been successful in the US like nowhere else). Ed Gagliardi (b, US) and Al Greenwood (keyboard, US) were both let go together with McDoanld to slim down the line-up AND the music, and Rick Wills (b, UK) was brought in, turning a hitherto 50:50 UK/US six-piece into a 75:25 UK/US four-piece, with Lou Gramm being the last Yank standing.
I actually saw them live once in their heyday – Urgent had just been in the charts – in 1981 at a rock festival with bands largely heavier than them, inter alia, BÖC, Kansas, Motörhead and Iron Maiden (still with DiAnno), they were the headliners and played a set of their already back then numerous hits, but it left me cold, no improvisation whatsoever and Lou Gramm had an iconic voice in AOR terms, but hardly an iconic stage presence. But they sure were able to replicate their studio sound and had the polish of countless US tours. I left before they finished their set, something I rarely do. I had basically come to see BÖC, Foreigner was by then something I barely considered hard rock anymore and I was 20 and in my heavy metal phase – forgive my arrogance of youth!
But that doesn‘t change the fact that Foreigner was a project for the US market thought up by a Brit – Mick Jones – who had been living in the US for years and knew prevailing tastes.
December 22nd, 2024 at 00:40@23 Wow! Hats off to you analysis, Sir. It takes a native speaker of a Germanic language to look at lyrics in such an insightful way. Now I see the DP and Rainbow lyrics under that angle, too.
BTW, I read it that in an old Germanic tradition on solemn occasions singers would sing the songs of triumph and grief in duos taking turns from verse to verse. I wonder if David and Glenn had any idea of that when they repeated that on Burn.
December 22nd, 2024 at 09:32I’ll also give my opinion on the moment Ritchie asked Ian to join him:
when Ritchie saw Gillan’s concert, a little voice inside him said: throw away everything you’ve done with Rainbow so far, forget the past with Ian, and go back to having fun like you haven’t had since 1970!
but then Ritchie after a few hours took that little voice and pushed it into the depths of his soul, also thanks to BigIan’s refusal, and then he didn’t think about it again until 1984.
December 22nd, 2024 at 13:11It must be said that in ’84 the money was very convincing for the whole MkII!
Ivica, ie letting go of Bob Daisley, Ritchie has a knack for seeking out talent, but not for letting it develop, he likes to run a tight ship re the creative prospect. To his detriment often enough. Just imagine if Tony Carey and Bob Daisley had stayed in Rainbow and contributed songs? Conquering the US market would have been a whole new game: Tony could do AOR songs easy and Bob Daisley – as his work with Ozzy amply proved – had the talent of even making heavy metal commercially accessible to US ears without having to turn it into AOR.
“Nordic opinions”, Karin? Last I heard, aren’t those mostly formed under the influence of alcohol on Baltic Sea ferries or at solstice events where people dance around pyres chanting pagan incantations? 😈
December 22nd, 2024 at 16:51@28
Oh my dear Uwe 😃 your ignorance is alarming 😆
No no no! My opinions are formed by reading your essays in here, and then taking whatever I find interesting (often the opposite) and after drinking a serious amount of my excellent coffee, I come up with my opinion 😄😄
Btw: sad to hear about that awful incident at the x-mas market in your country 🥺😥
December 22nd, 2024 at 21:24Georgivs, I assume the origins of DC’s/GH’s lead vocal swapping to be decidedly ungermanic! 🤣
https://youtu.be/Fowldx4hRtI
https://youtu.be/6_jH-TXUhzU
https://youtu.be/fTY6RKE8rdU
What Mk III did was really to apply the Sam & Dave recipe to heavy rock. There had been rock bands before where the lead vocal is more or less harmonized throughout as with a lot of early Lennon/McCartney songs or in the way Jon Anderson and Chris Squire of YES operated or when Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt sang with their voices mixed together on many Status Quo hits )
(very much part of the classic Quo sound), but swapping lead vocal lines on a more or less consistent basis like Mk III did on Burn (the album) was uncommon at its time and really didn’t find a lot of followers thereafter. In bands like The Cars, Ric Ocasek would sing some songs and Benjamin Orr would sing others, but they didn’t swap from line to line. Likewise in ZZ Top with Billy Gibbons’ and Dusty Hill’s lead vocals.
I still think that Mk III get way too little credit for that. It certainly wasn’t widely discussed at the time; in the pre-video age you could only see Mk III perform at their gigs as they shunned TV studio appearances by then. So a lot of people failed to realize that on most of Burn, Glenn sang 50% of the verses with the exception of the song Burn (where he sang the bridge alone and joined DC in the chorus), Mistreated (where Glenn just joins on the coda, the “oohs + aahs”-part mixed down at Blackmore’s request to not interfere with his outgoing solo) and “A” 200 (which featured no singing at all). While people here can most likely tell David’s and Glenn’s voices apart in their sleep, to a lot of casual listeners that wasn’t the case back then and much of what Glenn did was falsely attributed to DC. Both had much blacker voices than their joint predecessor Ian Gillan after all, so people can be forgiven for thinking that both voices were variations emanating from one singer.
I really didn’t get that the higher voice was coming from Glenn and not DC until a year or so after I had heard Burn, Stormbringer and CTTB to death. The first concert footages that I saw of Purple from the CalJam and the 1975 Japan tour were in so far eye- and ear-opening to me.
I’ve never heard a reaction to a mention of Mk III along the lines of “Oh, that was the line-up where they had two different guys alternately singing, right?” It went under the radar with a lot of people, even though it was Mk III/IV’s salient discerning feature in line-up composition to previous and later DP variants. Strange really, these days I cannot hear a single song from that era without automatically picturing in my mind Glenn or David singing it. I really dug it as a concept and was always hoping that one day “Glenn & Dave” would perhaps record an album of Motown covers together to celebrate the beautiful match of their voices. Given DC’s health and vocal issues that seems unlikely now to ever happen. 😟
December 22nd, 2024 at 22:48Karin @29: Thanks re Magdeburg. It’s bitter, the guy seems to be an obvious nutcase who withdrew more and more in his conspiracy world rabbit hole over the years, aided of course by all those echo chambers in social media. These days, there appears to be an increasing amount of people bearing a real or fabricated grievance who believe – egged on by others – to thus have gained a “right” to commit something drastic (with the victims regularly having no relation at all to the perceived prior grievances) to light a beacon for their own personal cause. It’s the most worrisome aspect of an unregulated web.
December 23rd, 2024 at 14:23@31
I’m so sorry for you, it’s unbelievable evil to let one’s hate hit innocent people 😥😥
I just read in the paper that apparently the police was warned against him?
December 23rd, 2024 at 20:12Well no matter what, I’m sure the authorities did the best they could.
In hindsight it’s of course always “could have …” and “should have …”, but unless you want a police and surveillance state, acts like this one are difficult to rule out completely in a Western type democracy. All that said, the perpetrator here had repeatedly made statements in the past that should have warranted a visit from the authorities. Whether that would have kept him from renting an SUV one evening and charging into a Christmas market is another matter though. People like him blot out reality and are fearless in their radicalism, the usual methods of deterrence don’t work with them.
And of course the lies are already everywhere. The man was described as a Syrian refugee – he’s from Saudi-Arabia (Saudi-Arabian authorities even warned their German colleagues about him), having moved to Germany long before the civil war erupted in Syria. A right-wing politician (Alice Weidel) described him as an “Islamist” in a speech on Monday evening in Magdeburg – the guy was a card-carrying atheist and Islam hater who has been publishing his anti-Islamic tirades in the web for years and even given interviews about it. None of this makes of course any sense, but in his world it maybe didn’t have to.
December 24th, 2024 at 01:22