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Decent bloke with a reputation
The Bass Player magazine (part of the Guitar World stable) has a short interview with Bob Daisley. It inevitably steered towards his stint with Rainbow, before turning the sights on Ozzy.
The Rainbow record you appeared on, 1978’s Long Live Rock & Roll, you played on only a few tracks?
“The reason I just played on some of the tracks was because some of them had already been done with Ritchie playing bass on them ‘cos they didn’t have a bass player while they were recording.
“I played my ’61 Precision bass on Kill the King and Sensitive to Light, and on Gates of Babylon I used an early ’50s Fender Precision. Amp-wise, I used Ritchie’s 20 watt Marshalls and 4x12s.”
“Ritchie and Ronnie were great songwriters and they didn’t need any input. They wrote the stuff, put it together and we just played it. Though I had a fairly free hand; I wasn’t told to do that much. But Ritchie did have strong set ideas on what he wanted.”
Read more in Bass Player.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Nice interview. For me, “Gates of Babylon” was always my favorite piece, with its beautiful rhythm and great middle section/solo, and I could never understand why so many people preferred “Stargazer.” I also like that Bob speaks positively about Ritchie. I’m also sure that RB only played jokes on people he didn’t respect. Tony Carey and Big Ian come to mind immediately. I don’t think he would have dared to do that with Jon or Cozy, for example.
March 26th, 2025 at 14:07Unfortunately, I only got to see Bob live once, back then with Ozzy, Jake E. Lee, Don Airey, and Tommy Aldridge. One of my favorite albums with him is the short-lived project “Living Loud” with Steve Morse, Lee Kerslake, Don Airey, and the fabulous Jimmy Barnes on vocals. Unfortunately, it only lasted for one studio album and one live album.
March 26th, 2025 at 14:08Sorry, mistake in #1, that should be Ritchie of course 🙂
March 26th, 2025 at 18:19@ 1- I don’t know about other people ‘preferring’ Stargazer over Gates of Babylon. It is what people like in different ways. Many fans enjoy both of those songs including myself. At least Rainbow played Stargazer in concert a little back then, as they never did that with Gates apparently. It could have been performed live but for whatever reason it wasn’t. Other bands have accomplished that years later. Probably Ritchie and his ‘moods’ again. Cheers.
March 26th, 2025 at 21:45@ 1 – you are probably right thinking about it upon reflection. Many rock music followers don’t like it when different genres are brought into the picture. Some just want to hear hard rock per se, so yes, Gates of Babylon is not looked upon as a hard rock song as Stargazer very well could be. Regarding Bob Daisley I managed to see him performing with The Hoochie Coochie band in 2003 with Jon Lord. A wonderful night that was. Had a quick chat with Bob as he stood all alone after the gig. Many were trying to talk with Jon of course, including myself at one point. Those were the days. Cheers.
March 26th, 2025 at 22:32I think GoB is the more mature and developed, complete-sounding composition. More dynamics too. Stargazer is a great idea and could have gone much further, but what went to tape was still a little half-baked, no doubt due to the extreme time pressure to get Rising done and out into the record shop racks.
I’m not sure whether Ritchie hadn’t heard Bob Daisley’s bass playing already before Bob played with Widowmaker. When Bob fled the convict island in the South Pacific in the early 70s (on self-built raft one assumes), he first played with Chicken Shack, only then with Mungo Jerry, but returned to Chicken Shack for a shorter stint before co-founding Widowmaker. During his return to Chicken Shack they opened for Purple on some dates in Germany on the final MK III tour.
https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/chicken-shack-live-in-germany-1975
Unleashed, Bob plays “lead bass” on that well-recorded album. If Ritchie heard him, I’m sure he made a mental note.
“I recorded this gig 40 years, so this has been sitting in my archive since 1975. I’m pleased to be able to share it and air it. This show epitomises Chicken Shack at the time – raw Blues, Rhythm and Blues and a bit of Funk thrown in. It was my second stint with Stan Webb, I’d been with the Shack from early 1972 until mid ’73, when I left to join Mungo Jerry, which didn’t quite satisfy my lust for real Blues, hence my return to Stan. On this show Stan and I are joined by the aptly named Bob Clouter on drums and Robbie Blunt on slide guitar. Robbie went on to be Robert Plant’s guitarist in the early ’80s after Led Zeppelin became defunct. Stan was a legend, and is still highly regarded by many of his Blues peers. This lineup, to me, was one of the best, we’d been gigging a lot, our musical communication was almost telepathic. Stan and the ‘three Bobs’ were on tour with Deep Purple and an American band called Elf. Their lead singer, Ronnie James Dio, and I ended up in a band called Rainbow two years later with Deep Purple’s discontented lead guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore. During our time touring with Deep Purple in March 1975, we did some shows on our own in small theatres and clubs; this is a recording of one of them. In those days bands used to jam on songs when they played live, so this is typical of how we played the basic structure of a song then improvised and had fun with it; I’m very proud of how we sound on this. At the end of our show the tape ran out, but only the tail-end of the last song was lost. So until that point comes, sit back, relax and enjoy; these are ‘those days’…”
Bob Daisley, 2015
And here is Widowmaker live, Bob had a prominent role and contributed songs too:
https://youtu.be/uTd2OQWg-yc
Saw them open for Ted Nugent. I’ve been lucky enough to have witnessed Bob with Widowmaker, Rainbow, Ozzy (after he rejoined after Randy’s death) and with Gary Moore (once or maybe even twice with Chris Slade on drums too after Cozy bowed out in a huff).
March 27th, 2025 at 09:27“Some just want to hear hard rock per se, so yes, Gates of Babylon is not looked upon as a hard rock song as Stargazer very well could be.“
Tasmanian truth intrepidly told. GoB approaches PROG territory, one of the few occasions where Rainbow did. If they had developed into that direction a bit more I would have even forgiven them the fantasy lyrics nonsense (mind-expanding to some, so I’ve heard, during my adolescence I spent my days wondering whether I was “a wheel, a wheel” that could “roll & could feel”, unless I was busy reading Marx or Ayn Rand 😂).
But of course, Ritchie could have never mustered the discipline live to present something like that. He didn’t want to have to concentrate while on stage, but rather throw shapes and look dramatic & commanding. Plus wiggle his satin pants-enshrined bum a little. Fair enough, it was why people bought tickets.
March 27th, 2025 at 12:10Chicken Shack in 1975 weren‘t just some laidback blues combo, they really rocked hard:
https://soundcloud.com/bob-daisley/sets/chicken-shack-live-in-germany
March 27th, 2025 at 13:31…wiggle his satin-pants-enshrined bum….:-D …köstlich! Spot on, Uwe.
March 27th, 2025 at 15:35A pity Dio recorded the song when he wasn’t on top of his game anymore…2005 I seem to remember… … but that live version shows it can be done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63BmkAQEjZo
Here is a great live version from GoB / Sons of Apollo with Orchestra
March 27th, 2025 at 17:51Uwe…the Man on the Silver Mountain you are not. 🙂 You made that perfectly clear. And may I add I experienced exactly the same… a wheel that turns and feels plus a sun that can – among other things – run…but hey wouldnt have made ‘a wheel that turns and a sun that burns’ a perfect line for any other singer, say DC?…did confuse me a bit, well, lot. Being 15 and seeking for answers to the enigmas of life in the songs of the poets of my choice.
March 27th, 2025 at 19:16Ain’t it amazing how one of a kind we think we are while we’re birds of a feather? (Sorry …not wanting to be disrespectful…😄) I decided back then MOTSM could have been a killer track if it wasn’t for the rather silly lyrics.
But: Unlike your Uweness I could…and can…retate to other Dio songs very well and would not want to miss those songs and the lyrics. Catch the Rainbow is lovely to these ears and romantic sides for instance. And there’s more…
BTW: As you declared, there is no groove, sexiness or humour in Dios music. Almost. ‘…at the bar there was the usual lady – and she was dressed the way the stories tell…’ was not without Witz.
Given that fact…what’s missing in Dio’s body of work…things I treasure more than most…it is umso mehr sayin’ something I like many of them. Must be something about that stuff. It’s more or less the only artist filed under metal I listen to.
@ 10- that would be the one I have watched a few times years ago. A very good version musically, however Jeff Scott Soto ‘s voice is shot beyond redemption. I guess they had to keep going with that at the time or get in someone else or cancel the performance. Anyway all that considered it is a rather good version, the best I have heard live in concert. The Dio version is not too bad at all and at least we get to hear the original vocalist and co- composer of that epic song. Cheers.
March 27th, 2025 at 21:34I thought Dio’s lyrics back in Elf days fine. I also don’t mind a fantasy lyric once in a while – Heep and Zep did that too, but not friggin’ all the time. Lyrically, Ronnie painted himself into a corner from 1975 onward.
Something like Lady Starstruck about a stalking female fan of Ritchie was a breath of fresh air.
March 28th, 2025 at 12:01Well Heep’s fantasy lyrics are really dreadful to me. There you go… whereas those of RJD suit me just fine. And I don’t think he could have done it half time. The cover art, the titles, the stage appearance – it was his concept.
March 28th, 2025 at 15:11Ronnie was very much a narrator in his lyrical style, that always bears the danger of sounding a little ponderous, especially if you are essentially singing fables all the time. Add to that the very mature nature of his voice, he always sounded older than he was (not a put-down), Ronnie never really gave a youthful appearance vocally or visually, that was the other side of the coin of his immaculate control of voice.
Both Coverdale and Gillan are more conversationalists in their lyric-writing (even with DC’s palette being somewhat narrowed down in topic and content along the lines of “You look drop-dead gorgeous and make my heart + other assorted organs throb, what do I have to do to get you into bed, pleeeze?”). Now Big Ian can be a storyteller too, but he has a more journalistic or diaristic approach than Dio, more social commentary and observations too, less metaphor-drenched.
March 29th, 2025 at 14:02A lot of Dio’s lyrics aren’t even fables or fantasy stuff, in fact dragons and wizards do appear rather sporadicly…
March 30th, 2025 at 14:57There are songs about the downsides of everyday life, abused children, mean womomen, vein guitar players…you name it.
Speaking of Dio’s lyrics, I think ‘Do You Close Your Eyes’ is a fine song, musically good, too. Short and sweet, like a good one night stand. Too bad he ain’t got many song of this type in his discography.
March 30th, 2025 at 15:28“I used Ritchie’s 20 watt Marshalls and 4x12s.”
That’s a typo (not a bingo)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wJSZqSfloEE ,
you have to insert another 0 😂, Bob having used Ritchie’s modified 200 (!) watt “Marshall Major” amps (which were initially ironically released as bass, not guitar amps) to record. A 20 watt Marshall – not that Ritchie would have gone even near one! – wouldn’t have moved the four 12 inch speakers of the Marshall cab much, especially when played with a bass (a bass needs to be amplified four times – or even more – as much as a guitar to even get remotely near it in volume and projection).
That said, someone reduced Richie’s 200 watts to 20 watts and got pretty good results (for recording use, not for live), he also has quite a good grasp of Ritchie’s playing technique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEH3OHRQSP0&t=376s
March 30th, 2025 at 21:50