Posted by Nick on Friday, October 18th, 2024,
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(From top left: Mike DelGuidice, Chuck Burgi, Andy Cichon, Tommy Byrnes, Carl Fischer, David Rosenthal, Billy Joel, Crystal Taliefero and Mark Rivera.)
Deep Purple does Dylan (with a King Crimson/Bad Company member).
Interesting hearing Boz Burrell on vocals a few years before he joined King Crimson. His Crimson vocals are sublime & very different to this recording, a wonderful singer was Boz & a rather good bass guitarist to boot. Interesting that the cover of ISBR has Carlo Little listed on drums where many other articles say it was Ian Paice. And also Chas Hodges from Chas & Dave fame on bass guitar, not Nick Simper. Hard to find anything else that officially says either way, from what I found online Cheers.
I am sincerely annoyed that his dark suedeness doesn’t mention Ian G among the best singers!
I adore RB’s guitar playing, no doubt about that, but man he is not fair regarding Ian G!
Well enjoy this bright and sunny Saturday 😉☺️
There’s too much tennis that was played between IG & RB for him to mention IG over the years as a favourite… Lot’s of double-faults played-out, though a few Aces snuck-through from time-to-time from both players…
His initial liking of IG joining the band in the early 70’s was because of his ability to scream in the unique way that he did, & that the girls loved him. DP’s change into a heavier musical direction needed that scream.
I’ve played in a few bands over the years as a guitarist, & have to say that you’re generally concerned with your own delivery of the music, ( call it quality control ), & without a doubt, hearing the same voice ( male or female ) night after night, gig after gig, can get annoying over a period of time, even if you’re very-good friends. You’re always happy to see them again, but loath when it’s time for them to let-it-out & sing…
Karin, Blackmore has preferred Paul Rodgers to Ian Gillan since at least 1971 when DP first toured with Free in Australia, it’s no secret. It was the reason why Mk III even came into existence.
Paul Rodgers is a great singer, but takes. Totally conventional, even conservative stance to singing – the exact opposite to Ian Gillan who always ventured for the more outré stuff. Most of the vocal lines you heard on GILLAN albums would have never been allowed on Rainbow ones.
Lieber Herr MacGregor, there is nothing in that ISBR bass line that sounds remotely like Nick Simper, it’s also not his microgroove. You’re the drummer, you tell me if it sounds like Ian Paice drumming – to me as a layman it appears IT COULD BE him, but I submit to your view (as I always do).
@5
Thanks Gregster, you have cleared up a few things for me 😊
I’ve always thought it was simple jealousy from his Dark Suedeness agains Ian G, because the ladies preferred the hairy singer 😅
But of course it’s without a doubt people can irritate each other beyond their wits being together a long time.
Hopefully it’s not the case for Deep Purple these days.
I seem to remember Uwe saying you live in the Scandinavia region, may I ask where?
@6
Oh you’re of course right Uwe 🙌🏼 I do know RB had some difficulties with Ian G’s wonderful voice!
But if he liked Paul Rodgers that much, how come Ian wasn’t fired?
As far as I remember Ian took leave, in ‘73, after having fulfilled the contracts the band had (this is from his autobiography)
Was it really more a question of RB having problems controlling Ian G?
Would RB have loved a singer like Brad Delp? What do you think?😊
@4
He often praises Big Ian, but to name him among his ideal singers, his vanity will not allow. He said in one interview that he turned down a singer (I can’t quickly remember who now) who did not have 4 octaves, but he stubbornly continues to repeat that Rodgers is the singer of his dreams; he himself told Shoshana Feinstein that he does not accept female vocals, but his longest collaboration has been with a female singer, and one with not very outstanding data; he says that he never wanted to perform with others, but he does not have projects where he is alone; he was jealous of cameramen who filmed others during his solo, but he himself kicked them off the stage. I can not always understand when he is deadly serious and when he is mocking the audience with a serious face.
The current band is certainly being well-received, & no-doubt, most of us here wish them a long-as-possible ride together. The new album hopefully will be completed over the festive season, (if it isn’t already), & I look forward to that one too.
Some people are showing some heat to the lack-of-respect shown to Steve in the set-lists, but they have to remember that DP is a new band now, & most people “need”(?) to hear the old 70’s classics / hits, & blend the current music in too when they go to a show. Steve’s input imo will by default have him regarded as the best recruit / guitarist ever for the band, but time moves on, & the band isn’t delivering a 3-4 hour show to include everything.
I do live among some smaller mountains & a couple of rivers, but not in Scandinavia, but here in deep southern Australia, on the apple-Isle, or if you rather, Van Diemen’s Land lol !
@10
Yes Nino, you’re right 😊
I remember from Ian’s autobiography that RB asked Ian to join him in Rainbow!
But maybe RB wants to feel being no 1 and it’s a bit difficult when both himself and Ian G are Alfa types (according to his Dark Suedeness himself 😉)
No matter what kind of rivalry there has taken place, and why – RB is, was, a phenomenal guitarist 🤩 I love listening to the old records with him in the band. In my unexperienced ears he sounds poetic, wonderful, like a genius, not many can measure up to him.
@11
Oh sorry Gregster, I must have been reading about another one in here. But Australia must be beautiful, wild and rough compared to my flat country ☺️
Yes, we are insatiable, we want more records from them 🤩
Steve is an amazing guitarist, no doubt about that 😊
He is very talented and also very different to RB.
I also really like SMcB, he is so talented and so full of passion, very very adequate to the style DP has now.
It doesn’t give a lot of meaning to compare them, they are 3 very different personalities regarding their music, and each of them fulfilled the place as a guitarist in my favourite band ⭐️
Ian wasn’t fired by Ritchie first time around, Karin, but he would have been had he not handed in his papers himself – otherwise Blackmore would have left DP (he played with the idea).
Ritchie grew tired of the Mk II sound sometime in 1972. He wanted Purple bluesier and more funky (yes!), with Jon a less dominant part of the sound. Paul Rodgers was pencilled in as the successor to Ian Gillan, but by the time he was officially approached he was in the midst of getting Bad Company together – he also felt that he wasn’t perhaps the right singer to follow Ian Gillan and his falsetto screams. DP’s Hammond emphasis wasn’t his cup of tea either, he certainly vetoed Jon Lord joining Bad Company a few years later when Ralphs, Burrell and Kirke all wanted him in post the 1976 DP split. Rodgers wouldn’t have it, fearing Jon’s Hammond would date Bad Co’s sound. In a 1976 interview with German Musik Express he mocked: “How’s music in Germany? Are you still listening to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep?!”
Conceptually, Mk III was getting Free-soundalikes into DP: DC sang closer to Paul Rodgers than to Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes’ bass style was closer to Andy Fraser than to Roger Glover. Free really left a mark on Ritchie, more so than probably any other contemporary band at the time.
@14
But do you really believe RB would have left DP? Wasn’t it just an empty threat? You know: if I don’t get it my way I will go sulk in a corner…
Of course I’m no psychoanalyst but he seemed way too absorbed in Deep Purple to would have thrown everything on the floor!
When he did leave, wasn’t it ‘because of’ and not ‘in spite of’?
I have another question:
Do you think RB would be able to play all the tunes Steve Morse originally played for DP as good as SM did?
Btw: the drums on Kiss tomorrow goodbye are breathtaking 🤩
There is loads of stuff Steve Morse can play that neither Blackmore, Bolin, Satriani nor McBride will ever master. Morse has all these different techniques, influences plus a huge musical vocabulary at hand, the other four are just (very good) rock guitarists compared to him. None of them have his dexterity and his fingerpicking is beyond all their abilities. Steve’s approach might sometimes be a little academic/learned, but there is no denying his chops. Blackmore, Bolin, Satriani and McBride would all agree with that. Even Gregster will! 😘
Ritchie did leave DP after less than two years of Mk III, the line-up he had created, pushing out all Prog influences with Gillan. He has always been good with throwing toys out of the pram and destroying functioning line-ups. Yes, he’s a withdrawn man, but he also tends to believe that only he knows where to go and other people don’t. He hasn’t always been right about that.
Bad Company were a great band…Really, really good. The only problem was their consistency song-for-song with the albums, where there was too much hit & miss imo. They have most excellent greatest hits albums however, all you need is “10 from 6″…
@15…Back in those days, even successful bands were lucky to last more than a couple of years, eg, Mk-I DP ( a superb band for sure )…But once the revenue started coming-in from the success of SotW, MiJ, & even MH afterwards, RB had different ideas, & wanted to stretch-out, now that he was finacially ok, was a recognized guitar-force…With Rainbow, it seemed he was following Chris Curtis’s idea with “Roundabout”, where there would be a steady rotating membership of musicians coming & going as needed.
@16…Steve’s a monster player, & everything he’s delivered has been very-hard-earned, through a life of sincerely loving music, discipline, & wanting to never stop evolving with it. That said, Joe Satriani is an equal in that respect too, don’t ever doubt Joe’s abilities…Joe’s made a life-long career out of making mostly instrumental music, & he had the decency to to take Leslie West ( RIP ) on tour with him in the late 2000’s. What a monumentally kind thing to do, & that likely added a few more years to Leslie’s life imo. And let’s not forget here, that Leslie West delivered the goods as well as anyone of his generation, right up until he sadly checked-out.
Steve is very controlled in his playing – he’s like a US athlete at the Olympics -, he leaves little, preferably nothing to chance. Blackmore could be sloppy, mischievous and reckless, Tommy showed wild abandon and frenzy, even Satriani had more raunch than Steve and Simon has this punky/quirky attitude.
Gregster, Satriani is likely as technically good as Steve in the rock idiom, but not in the fields of C&W, Bluegrass, Classical and Jazz, can we agree on that?
@19
Ok now I guess I understand: it’s very very good to be professional but if the professionalism takes over the playful is lacking, and if the playful isn’t there then the excitement is gone – right?
I think Steve is extremely devoted to his craft, that always shines through. His playing isn’t emotionless, as some people say, he just wants to be excellent at what he does to give people best imaginable quality. That is commendable (and quite unlike Blackmore punishing the audience if only he himself was in a bad mood), but it’s essentially athletes’s ethics.
I believe that Satriani, like Steve Vai, like Petrucci, like Morse can play anything…even things you’ve never heard them play, if they want, they can play it…they are extraterrestrials with the added experience of decades of top music.
that said my favorite guitarist will always be Ritchie
@18…When you’re a mostly self-taught musician, you follow your nose / ears & take chances with where a tune goes, & guess that you’ve got-it-right, & have great difficulty in sharing your acquired knowledge…You don’t know the “language” of music though you can play something quite well.
If you have had formal schooling of some-sort regarding music & its theory, you’ve hopefully gained an understanding of its mechanics over the years, & learned to “speak the language & break the rules” to your advantage, whilst being capable of not only knowing what you’re doing, but you can explain so, simply & effectively to others. You can also take this knowledge & apply it to other instruments quite simply, since you know what you’re trying to do, & you can generally write out music or at least a chart to help others out. This means you can also read music, which allows you to access the whole library of songs, styles & composers, to help incorporate them into your own unique musical identity.
@19…I can’t comment to be honest Leiber Uwe, since I honestly haven’t listened to the wide variety of styles & albums that both Steve & Joe have created over-the-years…There’s just too much available, & not enough funding or want…
There’s been a video of Steve in here recently where he played electric-acoustic for a promo video, & that blew me away with his classical abilities. He nailed all the greats like Bach effortlessly, whist incorporating elements into his own tunes. I didn’t know that he was so proficient in that area(s).
I only have Steve within the bounds of DP on CD, & 5-albums of Satch that were a “Classic Albums” release. I was about to put-the-money down on a 6-CD DP live set featuring Satch, but DiscJapan.com went down as I went to order….Bummer…And the next set was going to be DP live with JLT that was available also…Bummer…
Ritchie also had a musical education, a teacher and some points of reference. Anyone who thinks he is not a cultured musician and that he does not know (or did not know how to) play anything is very wrong.
What Ritchie has been missing is the consistent practice since the 80s, and an upgrade in his guitar technique with tapping and such that came from Van Halen and all the other Guitar Heroes.
but from the 80s onwards he considered himself fine as a guitarist, he wasn’t interested in new styles, he wasn’t interested in training too much to be more precise (it was a period where he cared more about the show on stage and the fun-feeling) and he wasn’t interested in making solo instrumental albums at all.
he considered himself fine with making the hard rock he knew and that he had invented, and that was enough for him.
for example, if he wanted to make a fusion record, he would have done it, if he wanted to play faster or explore new territories with the guitar, he would have done it.
You have a point Fla76 with what you’re saying. I remember a review where LLRnR (the album) was panned and the critic wrote something scathing but true. It went something like this: “And before all Ritchie devotees now fall into breathless rapture at what he plays on this record: There is nothing new here, it’s all been heard before, the maestro is repeating himself.” And I thought ouch, but it had more than a ring of truth to it, even then. Ritchie peaked in 1974 or so, but since then nothing much ever happened again. Rainbow became Deep Purple minus Jon Lord and Ian Gillan, like a piece that broke off, and later line-ups of the band morphed into this half-arsed AOR outfit with a guitarist playing eastern-tinged solos a little too long for most songs.
The only major change that has happened since then is Ritchie discovering first Candice and then the world of acoustic instruments and becoming quite adept at playing them. Fair enough, that is quite a step away from what he did with Purple and Rainbow, but in a way even more constrained and limiting.
PS: Re the tapping thing and Ritchie not incorporating it in his playing, I know from a reliable source 😎 that in the late 70ies there was a secret get-together by all notable Brit guitarists (Clapton, Beck, Page, Blackmore, Gallagher – ok, he was Irish … -, Trower, Iommi, Frampton, Holdsworth, Hackett, Howe, Oldfield, Gilmour, May + who have you) – and they all solemnly agreed and wrote down in their own blood: “None of us will incorporate this newly found dark magic of the fret-board-fingers-Flying Dutchman from Pasadena into his playing!” It was a boycott and it held. Solely Jeff Beck got a partial exemption because he had already done it before, but only a little. 😂
the transition from the Dio era to the commercial Rainbow era is actually a big evolution for Ritchie, an evolution in songwriting.
he certainly wasn’t the only one to do it, Rush did it, Whitesnake did it and other bands did it too.
you surely know that Ritchie one day reading some old words of Hendrix that says about “you’re famous when in a club in the jukebox they play your songs” decided to take the AoR turn to try to conquer America (when at the beginning of Rainbow he said that America was fine across the ocean)
even the newly hired Roger Glover (as well as Cozy Powell) didn’t want to play Since You’ve been gone, but Ritchie had by now taken the path of adult rock without Dio’s dragons!
I think that the change of style of Rainbow was a huge job on Ritchie’s part, and musically he was always very inspired.
but how many people here know about the brawl between Ritchie and David backstage at Rainbow in Munich in front of astonished members of Queen?
I love The Man in Black and the other Purples for the million crazy anecdotes and their story is certainly not boring!
@25…Plenty of guitarists were using the finger-tapping-technique well before EVH’s time, its just that Eddie was the first to be doing it with world-wide-success from his debut album, courtesy of the aid of Gene Simmons…
Bill Nelson springs to mind as incorporating it into his playing as early as 1974 on Be-bop-Deuxe’s debut “Axe Victim”, & likely before that too on his “Northern Dream” solo effort.
Yes, people would occasionally tap even long before EvH did it, even Bill Gibbons of ZZ Top did. But Eddie turned it into an integral and frequent part of his playing, he developed it into a real technique and played whole solos with it, it’s like Hendrix used the whammy bar, sure that had existed before him, but he took it to another level.
Give credit to Eddie where credit is due. That is not to say that tapping was the only remarkable thing about him, he was all round an excellent guitarist, his rhythm guitar prowess is hardly ever mentioned, unjustly so.
Fla76, yes, Ritchie made an earnest attempt at becoming an AOR songwriter, but Mick Jones, Steve Perry/Jonathan Cain/Neal Schon, Jim Peterik, Kevin Cronin, Jack Blades, Tom Scholz or David Paich he really wasn’t. If the Yanks (ok, Mick Jones was a Brit, but had been living for so long in the US …) know one thing well, then it is to write proper AOR hits, Blackmore attempting to do the same was a bit like dragging coal to Newcastle. And, frankly, the songwriting of Street of Dreams and Can’t Let You Go sounds labored to me, forced AOR from the drawing board, none of the ease of touch of, say, Jim Peterik writing a song …
“Caught Up In You” wins hands down the award for cheesiest early 80s “Southern bar room scene with blonde who looks like she just walked off a Charlie’s Angels set while her hunk wants to be John Travolta”-vid ever!!! Great guitar solo though.
dear Uwe,
even in the AoR there are many differences, assuming that Rainbow with Bonnet & Turner are actually AoR, they cannot be compared to Survivor in my opinion…
I consider Rainbow’s songs with Joe on vocals to be beautiful British AoR songs with a beautiful American voice.
For me Street of Dreams, Stone Cold, Stranded, miss Mistreated, Power, can’t let you go, Rock fever, Tearin’ Out My Heart, Fool for the Night, Desperate Heart are songs that have nothing to envy to those of the most famous American AoR groups.
for example, if Street of Dreams had been made by Journey it would be a classic of theirs as much as Stone Cold would be a classic of Foreigner.
but the beautiful thing is that Blackmore was never interested in the success of other groups, and even in his commercial period he never copied the style of any other group.
By the way: Steve Hackett is a brilliant guitarist and musician – with or without the tapping. I only now realize how he did some of the parts on those early Genesis albums with that technique.
So he probably said at the secret meeting: “Why is everybody so excited about this little Dutch expat kid in California?”
“… but the beautiful thing is that Blackmore was never interested in the success of other groups, and even in his commercial period he never copied the style of any other group …”
I once read that on the last US tour of Rainbow’s Dio line-up – that fateful one with REO Speedwagon which failed to break them in the US – Blackers was crawling up the wall at Foreigner’s success. It drove him nuts that a at best workmanlike guitarist like Mick Jones would meet such success with his band. I believe Ritchie was giving US AOR a very careful listen at the time. Journey, Styx, Toto, Foreigner, Loverboy (Canadian), REO Speedwagon – there was no escaping that music on US radio in the late 70s/early 80s. I do believe that after Dio, Ritchie was very consciously looking for a Lou Gramm style singer to carry those anthemic chorus parts over FM radio speakers. Pete Goalby, later of Uriah Heep, almost got the job with Rainbow (German magazines already announced him as the new singer) and he had a voice similar to Lou Gramm too (and was a self-professed Lou Gramm fan).
I actually have a soft spot for AOR if it is well done. I’m a huge Night Ranger fan.
You get what you deserve regarding success, & it’s always unpredictable…Many get lots that perhaps don’t deserve it, others get little that do…
RB’s attempts at the “crown” over the years though enjoyable, have really been hit & miss, with never a steady stream of highest quality R & R except with DP…eg. – Rainbow have excellent “Greatest Hits” records. “Fynyl Vynyl” is a worthy testament / summary of Rainbows best efforts imo. Well produced by RG & made by Polydor.
To this day I find the listening experience with Rainbow compilations uneven, the musical connection between the Dio era and what followed is tenuous at best. The Dio stuff still has a Prog edge to it due to Ronnie’s singing style and also a certain quaint earnestness that I don’t hear with Bonnet’s rabble-rousing roar (it just strikes me, but Graham’s approach to singing is quite a bit like Noddy Holder’s was) or Joe’s AOR-emoting.
Much like Mk III/IV have long been deserving of an encompassing compilation, so does sword & sorcery Rainbow. You could actually get a good CD or two together. How about calling it “Now Where Do We Go?” in commemoration of the fact that Ritchie & Ronnie built the tower of Rainbow only to then see the elusive wizard of commercial success land in the sand with a Cozy Powell-hammered thud? 😝 (Now if that wasn’t poetic!)
@ 37 -what happened to the Ian Gillan Band? The demise of Gillan as a band, thud thud. What about the original British Whitesnake, slithered into an abyss. Same scenario Uwe, ‘where do we go to now’? Cheers.
Some historical revisionism going on here, my Tassy friend!
Both the Marsden/Moody/Murray version of WS and the Towns/McCoy incarnations of GILLAN lasted longer than Dio era Rainbow. And they both inched up in sales and success. WS was still on its way up in Europe when DC made the first purge, they did not face declining sales, neither did GILLAN who did well in the UK, but only there. (Plus, apparently, the Kingdom of Denmark, I hasten to add!)
With Dio era Rainbow is was the other way around: Every consecutive Rainbow album with Dio sold less than its predecessor, they were on a downward spiral from the still Purple-fame-fueled debut onward. Which is all fine if Ritchie had said “I don’t want Rainbow to ever be as popular as DP”, but he didn’t, he wanted the band to take DP’s place (he said as much when Mk IV folded). And in that he failed miserably. He believed he was doing something commercially viable, when in fact he was driving away fans. Dio Rainbow ploughed too narrow a field.
What all three bands shared was, at least initially, a commercial failure in the US.
– GILLAN had a motley crew (not Mötey Crüe!) image that made them near unsellable in the US market which has clearly defined expectations + their music was too weird in places (I liked them for exactly that, but I’m not an American).
– British Whitesnake still looked 70s in the early 80s and for some reason never managed to grab a hold of Bad Company’s US audience, their music was closer to 70s Cocker than 80s Foreigner. I still think that the Marsden/Moody/Murray line-up could have gone further had they had the exposure Dio era Rainbow enjoyed when opening for REO Speedwagon – unlike Ritchie, I believe DC could have capitalized on that more. DC was just the more attractive and charming frontman to a female audience (REO Speedwagon attracted a sizable female azdience) than the by and large asexual RJD.
– Dio era Rainbow’s dark and brooding image, their lack of ballads (neither Temple of the King nor Rainbow Eyes were ever performed live back then), the confinement of their lyrical subjects to sword and sorcery topics with no “muscular-bare-chested-boy-in-tights-meets-girl-in-flared-sleeves-and-laced-top-plus-corset”-romance. That cost them the whole “bodice ripper” audience. 😁
Hell, you couldn’t even move your butt to most of Dio era Rainbow’s music.
And before “Please-have-her-put-something-on-for-chrissakes!”-Herr MacGregor accuses me once again of seeing everything through an oversexed lens, I dare him to take a peek at the All Night Long vid with the butt-moving blonde dancer in hot pants and crop top …
Sex sells and Dio era Rainbow didn’t have any of it. Music for Incels.
Say what you will about DC, but he did conquer America with WS eventually. It took him ten years, but it was a multi-pronged attack on all relevant fronts: the right revamped image, the right advisor (John Kalodner),
the right streamlined songwriting, the right visually appealing line-up, the right larger-than-life production, the right glamorous videos and eventually the right glamorous trophy girlfriend/wife, all coupled with loads of playful, but never threatening male machismo and lots of “luuuuv'”- and “babe”-singing to latch onto. As a corporate offensive that deserves admiration and makes everything Rainbow did look amateurish and half-arsed in comparison.
Spot the two Rainbow members in Billy’s band!
https://cdn-p.smehost.net/sites/4788b7ad6b5448c1b90d9322361f98f3/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/K51A9656-Edit.jpg
(From top left: Mike DelGuidice, Chuck Burgi, Andy Cichon, Tommy Byrnes, Carl Fischer, David Rosenthal, Billy Joel, Crystal Taliefero and Mark Rivera.)
Deep Purple does Dylan (with a King Crimson/Bad Company member).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2AYtXCwnA
With Jon’s mellotron + Ritrchie’s solo licks and all, that was a good version.
The Band original of course had brilliant harmony vocals …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRQXjwsaHo
No autotune or pitch correction either.
October 18th, 2024 at 14:39Interesting hearing Boz Burrell on vocals a few years before he joined King Crimson. His Crimson vocals are sublime & very different to this recording, a wonderful singer was Boz & a rather good bass guitarist to boot. Interesting that the cover of ISBR has Carlo Little listed on drums where many other articles say it was Ian Paice. And also Chas Hodges from Chas & Dave fame on bass guitar, not Nick Simper. Hard to find anything else that officially says either way, from what I found online Cheers.
October 18th, 2024 at 23:36Yo,
I think RB forgot to mention Lowell George…Genius for sure, though casualty of R&R…
Adonai vasu !
October 19th, 2024 at 01:06I am sincerely annoyed that his dark suedeness doesn’t mention Ian G among the best singers!
October 19th, 2024 at 06:33I adore RB’s guitar playing, no doubt about that, but man he is not fair regarding Ian G!
Well enjoy this bright and sunny Saturday 😉☺️
@4…
There’s too much tennis that was played between IG & RB for him to mention IG over the years as a favourite… Lot’s of double-faults played-out, though a few Aces snuck-through from time-to-time from both players…
His initial liking of IG joining the band in the early 70’s was because of his ability to scream in the unique way that he did, & that the girls loved him. DP’s change into a heavier musical direction needed that scream.
I’ve played in a few bands over the years as a guitarist, & have to say that you’re generally concerned with your own delivery of the music, ( call it quality control ), & without a doubt, hearing the same voice ( male or female ) night after night, gig after gig, can get annoying over a period of time, even if you’re very-good friends. You’re always happy to see them again, but loath when it’s time for them to let-it-out & sing…
Hmmm….
Adonai vasu !
October 19th, 2024 at 13:09Karin, Blackmore has preferred Paul Rodgers to Ian Gillan since at least 1971 when DP first toured with Free in Australia, it’s no secret. It was the reason why Mk III even came into existence.
Paul Rodgers is a great singer, but takes. Totally conventional, even conservative stance to singing – the exact opposite to Ian Gillan who always ventured for the more outré stuff. Most of the vocal lines you heard on GILLAN albums would have never been allowed on Rainbow ones.
October 19th, 2024 at 13:12Lieber Herr MacGregor, there is nothing in that ISBR bass line that sounds remotely like Nick Simper, it’s also not his microgroove. You’re the drummer, you tell me if it sounds like Ian Paice drumming – to me as a layman it appears IT COULD BE him, but I submit to your view (as I always do).
October 19th, 2024 at 13:22@5
Thanks Gregster, you have cleared up a few things for me 😊
I’ve always thought it was simple jealousy from his Dark Suedeness agains Ian G, because the ladies preferred the hairy singer 😅
But of course it’s without a doubt people can irritate each other beyond their wits being together a long time.
Hopefully it’s not the case for Deep Purple these days.
I seem to remember Uwe saying you live in the Scandinavia region, may I ask where?
October 19th, 2024 at 17:00@6
Oh you’re of course right Uwe 🙌🏼 I do know RB had some difficulties with Ian G’s wonderful voice!
But if he liked Paul Rodgers that much, how come Ian wasn’t fired?
As far as I remember Ian took leave, in ‘73, after having fulfilled the contracts the band had (this is from his autobiography)
Was it really more a question of RB having problems controlling Ian G?
Would RB have loved a singer like Brad Delp? What do you think?😊
October 19th, 2024 at 17:09@4
October 19th, 2024 at 22:53He often praises Big Ian, but to name him among his ideal singers, his vanity will not allow. He said in one interview that he turned down a singer (I can’t quickly remember who now) who did not have 4 octaves, but he stubbornly continues to repeat that Rodgers is the singer of his dreams; he himself told Shoshana Feinstein that he does not accept female vocals, but his longest collaboration has been with a female singer, and one with not very outstanding data; he says that he never wanted to perform with others, but he does not have projects where he is alone; he was jealous of cameramen who filmed others during his solo, but he himself kicked them off the stage. I can not always understand when he is deadly serious and when he is mocking the audience with a serious face.
Yo,
@8…
The current band is certainly being well-received, & no-doubt, most of us here wish them a long-as-possible ride together. The new album hopefully will be completed over the festive season, (if it isn’t already), & I look forward to that one too.
Some people are showing some heat to the lack-of-respect shown to Steve in the set-lists, but they have to remember that DP is a new band now, & most people “need”(?) to hear the old 70’s classics / hits, & blend the current music in too when they go to a show. Steve’s input imo will by default have him regarded as the best recruit / guitarist ever for the band, but time moves on, & the band isn’t delivering a 3-4 hour show to include everything.
I do live among some smaller mountains & a couple of rivers, but not in Scandinavia, but here in deep southern Australia, on the apple-Isle, or if you rather, Van Diemen’s Land lol !
Adonai vasu !
October 19th, 2024 at 23:49@10
Yes Nino, you’re right 😊
I remember from Ian’s autobiography that RB asked Ian to join him in Rainbow!
But maybe RB wants to feel being no 1 and it’s a bit difficult when both himself and Ian G are Alfa types (according to his Dark Suedeness himself 😉)
No matter what kind of rivalry there has taken place, and why – RB is, was, a phenomenal guitarist 🤩 I love listening to the old records with him in the band. In my unexperienced ears he sounds poetic, wonderful, like a genius, not many can measure up to him.
October 20th, 2024 at 00:13@11
Oh sorry Gregster, I must have been reading about another one in here. But Australia must be beautiful, wild and rough compared to my flat country ☺️
Yes, we are insatiable, we want more records from them 🤩
Steve is an amazing guitarist, no doubt about that 😊
October 20th, 2024 at 00:25He is very talented and also very different to RB.
I also really like SMcB, he is so talented and so full of passion, very very adequate to the style DP has now.
It doesn’t give a lot of meaning to compare them, they are 3 very different personalities regarding their music, and each of them fulfilled the place as a guitarist in my favourite band ⭐️
Ian wasn’t fired by Ritchie first time around, Karin, but he would have been had he not handed in his papers himself – otherwise Blackmore would have left DP (he played with the idea).
Ritchie grew tired of the Mk II sound sometime in 1972. He wanted Purple bluesier and more funky (yes!), with Jon a less dominant part of the sound. Paul Rodgers was pencilled in as the successor to Ian Gillan, but by the time he was officially approached he was in the midst of getting Bad Company together – he also felt that he wasn’t perhaps the right singer to follow Ian Gillan and his falsetto screams. DP’s Hammond emphasis wasn’t his cup of tea either, he certainly vetoed Jon Lord joining Bad Company a few years later when Ralphs, Burrell and Kirke all wanted him in post the 1976 DP split. Rodgers wouldn’t have it, fearing Jon’s Hammond would date Bad Co’s sound. In a 1976 interview with German Musik Express he mocked: “How’s music in Germany? Are you still listening to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep?!”
Conceptually, Mk III was getting Free-soundalikes into DP: DC sang closer to Paul Rodgers than to Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes’ bass style was closer to Andy Fraser than to Roger Glover. Free really left a mark on Ritchie, more so than probably any other contemporary band at the time.
https://youtu.be/n1QT7kAIkIk
You could hear Rodgers’ vocal style not only in DC’s, but also in Joe Lynn Turner’s voice.
https://youtu.be/fFW1CY97sOg
October 20th, 2024 at 07:53@14
But do you really believe RB would have left DP? Wasn’t it just an empty threat? You know: if I don’t get it my way I will go sulk in a corner…
Of course I’m no psychoanalyst but he seemed way too absorbed in Deep Purple to would have thrown everything on the floor!
When he did leave, wasn’t it ‘because of’ and not ‘in spite of’?
I have another question:
Do you think RB would be able to play all the tunes Steve Morse originally played for DP as good as SM did?
Btw: the drums on Kiss tomorrow goodbye are breathtaking 🤩
October 20th, 2024 at 19:43There is loads of stuff Steve Morse can play that neither Blackmore, Bolin, Satriani nor McBride will ever master. Morse has all these different techniques, influences plus a huge musical vocabulary at hand, the other four are just (very good) rock guitarists compared to him. None of them have his dexterity and his fingerpicking is beyond all their abilities. Steve’s approach might sometimes be a little academic/learned, but there is no denying his chops. Blackmore, Bolin, Satriani and McBride would all agree with that. Even Gregster will! 😘
Ritchie did leave DP after less than two years of Mk III, the line-up he had created, pushing out all Prog influences with Gillan. He has always been good with throwing toys out of the pram and destroying functioning line-ups. Yes, he’s a withdrawn man, but he also tends to believe that only he knows where to go and other people don’t. He hasn’t always been right about that.
October 20th, 2024 at 23:46Yo,
Bad Company were a great band…Really, really good. The only problem was their consistency song-for-song with the albums, where there was too much hit & miss imo. They have most excellent greatest hits albums however, all you need is “10 from 6″…
@15…Back in those days, even successful bands were lucky to last more than a couple of years, eg, Mk-I DP ( a superb band for sure )…But once the revenue started coming-in from the success of SotW, MiJ, & even MH afterwards, RB had different ideas, & wanted to stretch-out, now that he was finacially ok, was a recognized guitar-force…With Rainbow, it seemed he was following Chris Curtis’s idea with “Roundabout”, where there would be a steady rotating membership of musicians coming & going as needed.
@16…Steve’s a monster player, & everything he’s delivered has been very-hard-earned, through a life of sincerely loving music, discipline, & wanting to never stop evolving with it. That said, Joe Satriani is an equal in that respect too, don’t ever doubt Joe’s abilities…Joe’s made a life-long career out of making mostly instrumental music, & he had the decency to to take Leslie West ( RIP ) on tour with him in the late 2000’s. What a monumentally kind thing to do, & that likely added a few more years to Leslie’s life imo. And let’s not forget here, that Leslie West delivered the goods as well as anyone of his generation, right up until he sadly checked-out.
Adonai vasu !
October 21st, 2024 at 11:32@16
October 21st, 2024 at 11:34I’ve heard/read that before, that Steve Morse is academic/learned. What does that mean exactly 😊
I can’t hear the difference.
Steve is very controlled in his playing – he’s like a US athlete at the Olympics -, he leaves little, preferably nothing to chance. Blackmore could be sloppy, mischievous and reckless, Tommy showed wild abandon and frenzy, even Satriani had more raunch than Steve and Simon has this punky/quirky attitude.
Gregster, Satriani is likely as technically good as Steve in the rock idiom, but not in the fields of C&W, Bluegrass, Classical and Jazz, can we agree on that?
October 21st, 2024 at 16:39@19
October 21st, 2024 at 18:18Ok now I guess I understand: it’s very very good to be professional but if the professionalism takes over the playful is lacking, and if the playful isn’t there then the excitement is gone – right?
I think Steve is extremely devoted to his craft, that always shines through. His playing isn’t emotionless, as some people say, he just wants to be excellent at what he does to give people best imaginable quality. That is commendable (and quite unlike Blackmore punishing the audience if only he himself was in a bad mood), but it’s essentially athletes’s ethics.
October 21st, 2024 at 21:07#19 Uwe
I believe that Satriani, like Steve Vai, like Petrucci, like Morse can play anything…even things you’ve never heard them play, if they want, they can play it…they are extraterrestrials with the added experience of decades of top music.
that said my favorite guitarist will always be Ritchie
October 21st, 2024 at 22:54Yo,
@18…When you’re a mostly self-taught musician, you follow your nose / ears & take chances with where a tune goes, & guess that you’ve got-it-right, & have great difficulty in sharing your acquired knowledge…You don’t know the “language” of music though you can play something quite well.
If you have had formal schooling of some-sort regarding music & its theory, you’ve hopefully gained an understanding of its mechanics over the years, & learned to “speak the language & break the rules” to your advantage, whilst being capable of not only knowing what you’re doing, but you can explain so, simply & effectively to others. You can also take this knowledge & apply it to other instruments quite simply, since you know what you’re trying to do, & you can generally write out music or at least a chart to help others out. This means you can also read music, which allows you to access the whole library of songs, styles & composers, to help incorporate them into your own unique musical identity.
@19…I can’t comment to be honest Leiber Uwe, since I honestly haven’t listened to the wide variety of styles & albums that both Steve & Joe have created over-the-years…There’s just too much available, & not enough funding or want…
There’s been a video of Steve in here recently where he played electric-acoustic for a promo video, & that blew me away with his classical abilities. He nailed all the greats like Bach effortlessly, whist incorporating elements into his own tunes. I didn’t know that he was so proficient in that area(s).
I only have Steve within the bounds of DP on CD, & 5-albums of Satch that were a “Classic Albums” release. I was about to put-the-money down on a 6-CD DP live set featuring Satch, but DiscJapan.com went down as I went to order….Bummer…And the next set was going to be DP live with JLT that was available also…Bummer…
Adonai vasu !
October 21st, 2024 at 23:50Ritchie also had a musical education, a teacher and some points of reference. Anyone who thinks he is not a cultured musician and that he does not know (or did not know how to) play anything is very wrong.
What Ritchie has been missing is the consistent practice since the 80s, and an upgrade in his guitar technique with tapping and such that came from Van Halen and all the other Guitar Heroes.
but from the 80s onwards he considered himself fine as a guitarist, he wasn’t interested in new styles, he wasn’t interested in training too much to be more precise (it was a period where he cared more about the show on stage and the fun-feeling) and he wasn’t interested in making solo instrumental albums at all.
he considered himself fine with making the hard rock he knew and that he had invented, and that was enough for him.
for example, if he wanted to make a fusion record, he would have done it, if he wanted to play faster or explore new territories with the guitar, he would have done it.
October 22nd, 2024 at 10:45You have a point Fla76 with what you’re saying. I remember a review where LLRnR (the album) was panned and the critic wrote something scathing but true. It went something like this: “And before all Ritchie devotees now fall into breathless rapture at what he plays on this record: There is nothing new here, it’s all been heard before, the maestro is repeating himself.” And I thought ouch, but it had more than a ring of truth to it, even then. Ritchie peaked in 1974 or so, but since then nothing much ever happened again. Rainbow became Deep Purple minus Jon Lord and Ian Gillan, like a piece that broke off, and later line-ups of the band morphed into this half-arsed AOR outfit with a guitarist playing eastern-tinged solos a little too long for most songs.
The only major change that has happened since then is Ritchie discovering first Candice and then the world of acoustic instruments and becoming quite adept at playing them. Fair enough, that is quite a step away from what he did with Purple and Rainbow, but in a way even more constrained and limiting.
PS: Re the tapping thing and Ritchie not incorporating it in his playing, I know from a reliable source 😎 that in the late 70ies there was a secret get-together by all notable Brit guitarists (Clapton, Beck, Page, Blackmore, Gallagher – ok, he was Irish … -, Trower, Iommi, Frampton, Holdsworth, Hackett, Howe, Oldfield, Gilmour, May + who have you) – and they all solemnly agreed and wrote down in their own blood: “None of us will incorporate this newly found dark magic of the fret-board-fingers-Flying Dutchman from Pasadena into his playing!” It was a boycott and it held. Solely Jeff Beck got a partial exemption because he had already done it before, but only a little. 😂
October 22nd, 2024 at 13:36@ 21 & 23
Thanks guys 🙌🏼
I envy you for being able to understand music on a much deeper level than I can.
October 22nd, 2024 at 19:16And I’m really happy for what I learn in here ☺️
@ 25 – Steve Hackett???????? He was tapping way before the known culprits Uwe, you had better leave him off that list me thinks. Cheers.
October 22nd, 2024 at 20:21Of course the tapping guitar technique does go further back in time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmTQYquqxSY&t=98s
https://www.loudersound.com/features/steve-hackett-eddie-van-halen-finger-tapping
October 22nd, 2024 at 21:59#25 Uwe
the story of the secret meeting is fantastic!!!!
the transition from the Dio era to the commercial Rainbow era is actually a big evolution for Ritchie, an evolution in songwriting.
he certainly wasn’t the only one to do it, Rush did it, Whitesnake did it and other bands did it too.
you surely know that Ritchie one day reading some old words of Hendrix that says about “you’re famous when in a club in the jukebox they play your songs” decided to take the AoR turn to try to conquer America (when at the beginning of Rainbow he said that America was fine across the ocean)
even the newly hired Roger Glover (as well as Cozy Powell) didn’t want to play Since You’ve been gone, but Ritchie had by now taken the path of adult rock without Dio’s dragons!
I think that the change of style of Rainbow was a huge job on Ritchie’s part, and musically he was always very inspired.
but how many people here know about the brawl between Ritchie and David backstage at Rainbow in Munich in front of astonished members of Queen?
October 22nd, 2024 at 23:05I love The Man in Black and the other Purples for the million crazy anecdotes and their story is certainly not boring!
Yo,
@25…Plenty of guitarists were using the finger-tapping-technique well before EVH’s time, its just that Eddie was the first to be doing it with world-wide-success from his debut album, courtesy of the aid of Gene Simmons…
Bill Nelson springs to mind as incorporating it into his playing as early as 1974 on Be-bop-Deuxe’s debut “Axe Victim”, & likely before that too on his “Northern Dream” solo effort.
Adonai vasu !
October 23rd, 2024 at 11:57Yes, people would occasionally tap even long before EvH did it, even Bill Gibbons of ZZ Top did. But Eddie turned it into an integral and frequent part of his playing, he developed it into a real technique and played whole solos with it, it’s like Hendrix used the whammy bar, sure that had existed before him, but he took it to another level.
Give credit to Eddie where credit is due. That is not to say that tapping was the only remarkable thing about him, he was all round an excellent guitarist, his rhythm guitar prowess is hardly ever mentioned, unjustly so.
October 23rd, 2024 at 17:38Fla76, yes, Ritchie made an earnest attempt at becoming an AOR songwriter, but Mick Jones, Steve Perry/Jonathan Cain/Neal Schon, Jim Peterik, Kevin Cronin, Jack Blades, Tom Scholz or David Paich he really wasn’t. If the Yanks (ok, Mick Jones was a Brit, but had been living for so long in the US …) know one thing well, then it is to write proper AOR hits, Blackmore attempting to do the same was a bit like dragging coal to Newcastle. And, frankly, the songwriting of Street of Dreams and Can’t Let You Go sounds labored to me, forced AOR from the drawing board, none of the ease of touch of, say, Jim Peterik writing a song …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOFxUM7aOzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg21Rkew874
“Caught Up In You” wins hands down the award for cheesiest early 80s “Southern bar room scene with blonde who looks like she just walked off a Charlie’s Angels set while her hunk wants to be John Travolta”-vid ever!!! Great guitar solo though.
October 23rd, 2024 at 18:14dear Uwe,
even in the AoR there are many differences, assuming that Rainbow with Bonnet & Turner are actually AoR, they cannot be compared to Survivor in my opinion…
I consider Rainbow’s songs with Joe on vocals to be beautiful British AoR songs with a beautiful American voice.
For me Street of Dreams, Stone Cold, Stranded, miss Mistreated, Power, can’t let you go, Rock fever, Tearin’ Out My Heart, Fool for the Night, Desperate Heart are songs that have nothing to envy to those of the most famous American AoR groups.
for example, if Street of Dreams had been made by Journey it would be a classic of theirs as much as Stone Cold would be a classic of Foreigner.
but the beautiful thing is that Blackmore was never interested in the success of other groups, and even in his commercial period he never copied the style of any other group.
October 23rd, 2024 at 22:41By the way: Steve Hackett is a brilliant guitarist and musician – with or without the tapping. I only now realize how he did some of the parts on those early Genesis albums with that technique.
So he probably said at the secret meeting: “Why is everybody so excited about this little Dutch expat kid in California?”
October 24th, 2024 at 10:08“… but the beautiful thing is that Blackmore was never interested in the success of other groups, and even in his commercial period he never copied the style of any other group …”
I once read that on the last US tour of Rainbow’s Dio line-up – that fateful one with REO Speedwagon which failed to break them in the US – Blackers was crawling up the wall at Foreigner’s success. It drove him nuts that a at best workmanlike guitarist like Mick Jones would meet such success with his band. I believe Ritchie was giving US AOR a very careful listen at the time. Journey, Styx, Toto, Foreigner, Loverboy (Canadian), REO Speedwagon – there was no escaping that music on US radio in the late 70s/early 80s. I do believe that after Dio, Ritchie was very consciously looking for a Lou Gramm style singer to carry those anthemic chorus parts over FM radio speakers. Pete Goalby, later of Uriah Heep, almost got the job with Rainbow (German magazines already announced him as the new singer) and he had a voice similar to Lou Gramm too (and was a self-professed Lou Gramm fan).
I actually have a soft spot for AOR if it is well done. I’m a huge Night Ranger fan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-4hp5HZ2aU
Or Rick Springfield …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65RhoLlbw1s
October 24th, 2024 at 16:23Yo,
@35…
You get what you deserve regarding success, & it’s always unpredictable…Many get lots that perhaps don’t deserve it, others get little that do…
RB’s attempts at the “crown” over the years though enjoyable, have really been hit & miss, with never a steady stream of highest quality R & R except with DP…eg. – Rainbow have excellent “Greatest Hits” records. “Fynyl Vynyl” is a worthy testament / summary of Rainbows best efforts imo. Well produced by RG & made by Polydor.
Adonai vasu !
October 26th, 2024 at 00:08To this day I find the listening experience with Rainbow compilations uneven, the musical connection between the Dio era and what followed is tenuous at best. The Dio stuff still has a Prog edge to it due to Ronnie’s singing style and also a certain quaint earnestness that I don’t hear with Bonnet’s rabble-rousing roar (it just strikes me, but Graham’s approach to singing is quite a bit like Noddy Holder’s was) or Joe’s AOR-emoting.
Much like Mk III/IV have long been deserving of an encompassing compilation, so does sword & sorcery Rainbow. You could actually get a good CD or two together. How about calling it “Now Where Do We Go?” in commemoration of the fact that Ritchie & Ronnie built the tower of Rainbow only to then see the elusive wizard of commercial success land in the sand with a Cozy Powell-hammered thud? 😝 (Now if that wasn’t poetic!)
October 27th, 2024 at 15:51@ 37 -what happened to the Ian Gillan Band? The demise of Gillan as a band, thud thud. What about the original British Whitesnake, slithered into an abyss. Same scenario Uwe, ‘where do we go to now’? Cheers.
October 27th, 2024 at 20:52Some historical revisionism going on here, my Tassy friend!
Both the Marsden/Moody/Murray version of WS and the Towns/McCoy incarnations of GILLAN lasted longer than Dio era Rainbow. And they both inched up in sales and success. WS was still on its way up in Europe when DC made the first purge, they did not face declining sales, neither did GILLAN who did well in the UK, but only there. (Plus, apparently, the Kingdom of Denmark, I hasten to add!)
With Dio era Rainbow is was the other way around: Every consecutive Rainbow album with Dio sold less than its predecessor, they were on a downward spiral from the still Purple-fame-fueled debut onward. Which is all fine if Ritchie had said “I don’t want Rainbow to ever be as popular as DP”, but he didn’t, he wanted the band to take DP’s place (he said as much when Mk IV folded). And in that he failed miserably. He believed he was doing something commercially viable, when in fact he was driving away fans. Dio Rainbow ploughed too narrow a field.
What all three bands shared was, at least initially, a commercial failure in the US.
– GILLAN had a motley crew (not Mötey Crüe!) image that made them near unsellable in the US market which has clearly defined expectations + their music was too weird in places (I liked them for exactly that, but I’m not an American).
– British Whitesnake still looked 70s in the early 80s and for some reason never managed to grab a hold of Bad Company’s US audience, their music was closer to 70s Cocker than 80s Foreigner. I still think that the Marsden/Moody/Murray line-up could have gone further had they had the exposure Dio era Rainbow enjoyed when opening for REO Speedwagon – unlike Ritchie, I believe DC could have capitalized on that more. DC was just the more attractive and charming frontman to a female audience (REO Speedwagon attracted a sizable female azdience) than the by and large asexual RJD.
– Dio era Rainbow’s dark and brooding image, their lack of ballads (neither Temple of the King nor Rainbow Eyes were ever performed live back then), the confinement of their lyrical subjects to sword and sorcery topics with no “muscular-bare-chested-boy-in-tights-meets-girl-in-flared-sleeves-and-laced-top-plus-corset”-romance. That cost them the whole “bodice ripper” audience. 😁
https://preview.redd.it/m73xusol38561.jpg?auto=webp&s=a3ceefa43e39aa37ee5046d6e2ed7d1b142399b8
https://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1325319612l/959233.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOtReQW4YW9qCCFj1zM1_Exuo5SqqfQvz7jg&s
Hell, you couldn’t even move your butt to most of Dio era Rainbow’s music.
And before “Please-have-her-put-something-on-for-chrissakes!”-Herr MacGregor accuses me once again of seeing everything through an oversexed lens, I dare him to take a peek at the All Night Long vid with the butt-moving blonde dancer in hot pants and crop top …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2XDORONuuY
Sex sells and Dio era Rainbow didn’t have any of it. Music for Incels.
Say what you will about DC, but he did conquer America with WS eventually. It took him ten years, but it was a multi-pronged attack on all relevant fronts: the right revamped image, the right advisor (John Kalodner),
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Q4RElNJ3G86cvCyfJUDc3ykLevq5m4ItdjTeDTbdZotQFz62RErI_Ygm9eN3S3IwmYjVeAr6e_2ooXoGCx4ZMTrWAsYNMbOICgFGVA3397OFp3dAIA
the right streamlined songwriting, the right visually appealing line-up, the right larger-than-life production, the right glamorous videos and eventually the right glamorous trophy girlfriend/wife, all coupled with loads of playful, but never threatening male machismo and lots of “luuuuv'”- and “babe”-singing to latch onto. As a corporate offensive that deserves admiration and makes everything Rainbow did look amateurish and half-arsed in comparison.
October 28th, 2024 at 19:24