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ROCK AND ROLL! => All Them Other Guys => Topic started by: Zzzptm on July 26, 2021, 04:04:07 PM
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Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975 and basically bumped out Elf's guitar player, changed their band name to be Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and did Man on the Silver Mountain and launched his next band quite successfully. For the 1976 Rising album, however, only Dio remained from Elf, with Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain, and Tony Carey coming in to really up the game of Blackmore's Rainbow. The sound took a new, much harder direction, with fans and critics alike considering it to be one of the most important albums to define the concept of heavy metal.
TAROT WOMAN
This song kicks off the album with a take-no prisoners set of solos from Carey at first and Blackmore in the middle, with Dio coming into his own as the Voice of Metal. This is Dio singing like never before - Elf was hard rock as was the first Rainbow album, but *this* is metal! Cozy and Jimmy do solid rhythm work. The whole track is a master class and shows that Blackmore doesn't necessarily need Deep Purple behind him to take things to the next level.
I love this song, it has always been electrifying to me.
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A return to my youth, guys:
1979 was the year of my discovery for Heavy Music. First AC/DC then Van Halen, Scorpions Motörhead. My father seeing his 2 sons discover this style of music which he didn't appreciate more than that knew a friend of him who was a a fan, a guy who walked around with a belt with a steel buckle forming the Kiss logo. One day, my father brought us a whole pile of vinyls that this Metalhead had lent him for us to discover the bands of the 70s. I will remember all my life the albums : Uriah Heep Live, Grand Funk Live, the first Montrose, Sammy Hagar live and .... Rainbow Rising ! I already knew Ritchie Blackmore but not Ronnie James Dio, well not really because I already knew his voice : I remember this video song "Love Is All" cartoon video which was shown from time to time on the tv when there were a few minutes to fill in the program. This powerful voice had captivated me.
Back to Rising : First of all, this magnificent gatefold cover. At the time, the majors were putting everything in place to please the fans. 3 years ago, I had also seen this fantastic work of Ken Kelly in record store windows without knowing anything about this band but the picture had necessarily marked me.
Then this inner band photo that has become iconic. You know it as well as I do. Only huge musicians who have become cult with Ronnie in the middle with his stars. Magic !
I put the vinyl which starts to spin, the diamond arises and catches the groove and it's gone: this sound of Tony Carey brings us directly 10 years later. From the first notes of this intro - undoubtedly one of the best -, we feel that something is happening. So much ahead of its time. Then Ritchie's Stratocaster in the distance first then ramping up, Tony comes back, Jimmy , Cozy .. and Ronnie arrives in apotheosis. The chorus is unforgettable. We are only in the first minutes of a legendary album. it was done, I was a fan.
My first listening of Tarot Woman will remain an unforgettable memory for all these reasons.
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^^^ Awesome ;)
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I'll do my piece tomorrow!
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My first listening of Tarot Woman will remain an unforgettable memory for all these reasons.
Same here. I had already bought all the Black Sabbath albums before Born Again and all the DP before Perfect Strangers, so I needed some more records to discover... at the local half-price book store, that Rising album was always in the racks, and I'd always liked the front. But wasn't Rainbow that band with Joe Lynn Turner in it?
Not on this album, he wasn't. :smug: When I looked at the back, I flipped out when I saw Dio was the vocalist, and this was from *before* he was with Sabbath? Whaaaaaaaat? I didn't know Cozy Powell, but his drumkit looked awesome... so I bought it and took it home. Went upstairs to my room, put the vinyl on, put on my headphones - big Nova cans - and sank into my black beanbag... it was during summer vacation, so I had the whole rest of the day to jam out. Good times.
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^^^
Thanx Zzz, I love to read these shared personal moments. We all have these memories within us that have built us as we are today.
God Bless this no download era ! To discover something, you had to read, walk on the street, push the door of a record store, look for our favorite rack labeled Hard Rock, browse albums relying on covers and names, asking to listen to it on headphones, sometimes in a cabin. The boss accepted most of the time. Then this pure moment of discovery once isolated by hearing the first seconds only this little crackling of the contact of the vinyl. Indescribable.
I remember perfectly in which record store I bought all my vinyl albums and the little moments that go with them. Regarding CDs, it's less clear.
Now we do everything by clicking on the mouse. Much more choice, of course, but what a loss of feeling.
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Memory is one reason why I try to do new things or drive new roads when I get new music. Then I have a memory to go with the songs. If I just listen to it, there's a chance I will have to rediscover it some day when an adventure needs a new soundtrack.
As a result of my philosophy, whenever I hear Will Smith's "Welcome to Miami", I think of El Paso, Texas. I was coaching students at a competition, and we had the Big Willie Style CD in the car I was hauling everyone in.
Another team, this time in Houston... we were a little let down by our performance, but we all needed to come together, so I put on Three Dog Night's "Shambala". They loved it and set it on repeat for the full drive back to the hotel. That's one of my favorite memories of coaching, finding that companionship in time of loss.
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A return to my youth, guys:
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Great story!
Tarot Woman is a good opener, and sets the tone for the entire record. It seems like they put all they had into this song, but they don't, because there are other songs that prove they had more :)
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Tarot Woman
A really good start to this album... everyone is on form, a magical song.
Two things 1) if asked what song would best define Dio's vocals this would be a good choice to use as an example. 2) After hearing the synthesizer intro I can almost hear Blackmore saying to himself: "Ha! Do that with your Hammond organ Jon!"
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RUN WITH THE WOLF
This song is more in the style of the first album, but the heaviness from Cozy and Jimmy helps it to stand out. I just love hearing Dio sling out those verses and get all majestic in his delivery. I love the rhythm change-up between the main verses and the chorus, as well. It's not a complicated song, just a simple tune very well and very heavily played with Blackmore released from his rhythm guitar duties for the second half, and he LOSES HIS MIND with that outro solo.
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More in the vein of the first album, indeed. And this is where the power of Cozy makes all the difference. Tony is also closer to the typical Lord game.
Blackmore will cover this riff 6 years later by composing Tite Squeeze on Straight Between the Eyes.
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Run With The Wolf
I was coming to this thinking it was little more than filler, but after a couple of quick listens it is much better than I remember. A good effort far from being filler!
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Run With The Wolf
I was coming to this thinking it was little more than filler, but after a couple of quick listens it is much better than I remember. A good effort far from being filler!
Kind of like "Never Before" on Machine Head. Not the best track from the album by a long shot, but it's still a right good rocker!
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Yeah, Run with the Wolf is reminiscent of their debut album. I always thought it was pretty cool for that reason - the band has obviously progressed, even to the densest of listeners. It's just about the right length and fits in well with the ret of side 1.
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STARSTRUCK
Lots of wham-wham-wham in the intro, so in case you didn't know this was a metal album by NOW, you should have that message received 100%. Guitar is very prominent in the mix... you wouldn't suppose that Ritchie had a say in that, hmmm? It even plays across Dio's lyrics, so there are two melodies to follow- the voice and the guitar.
Lyrics are more great D&D stuff, which Dio always seems to pull off with no problem at all.
Nice to hear Cozy's double bass and snare work in those fills.
Ritchie does a great solo and it's back to the main song... it's rocking along great and Cozy cuts loose even more after the solo, extra fun there.
I like this tune better than Run with the Wolf, but I know what's next, so it gets 5th place in the 6 songs that make up the album.
In fact, *because* I know what's next, I'mma play that track now. :smug:
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Starstruck
Lyrics are more great D&D stuff, which Dio always seems to pull off with no problem at all.
"D&D Lyrics"! Where! This is surely a song about a groupie or a stalker fan!
It is a great song though, witty lyrics and great musically too.
I would say it is better than Run with the Wolf, so will probably rank 4th for me... because there's a massive turd on the way! ;) :D
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He flies to the moon and stuff like that. You know Ronnie was rolling D20s back in the 70s!
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DO YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES
My absolute favorite from the album, so I know it's on *somebody's* list at the bottom. That's just how it goes, it's rock and roll, I'm cool with that.
No solos in the studio version, but it's still a tight rocker of a song. The energy and drive in it gets right to the point. While the lyrics are a bit, well... sophomoric?... Dio's delivery is nevertheless as impassioned and professional as ever. It gets in, gets the job done, stops on a dime and gives you nine cents change.
And even though there are no solos, Ritchie still finds little breaks here and there where he can put in a little touch, a few extra notes that aren't part of the rhythm line.
Tarot Woman got me interested in the album, but Do You Close Your Eyes sealed the deal and made me love it even before I got to side two.
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Yup!
Do You Close Your Eyes
Proof that even good albums can end up with a floater in the swimming pool!
Musically it's fine, nothing special but a nice rocking rhythm, but the vocals are far from RJDs best, he almost phones it in really, and lyrically it's atrociously bad.
Often "filler songs" are fine if nothing special but this... this almost drags the album down with it.
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The weakest song of the album because of the melody of its chorus frankly not up to the pitch of the rest. It kills the track. Too bad... but the other side of Rising is coming !!
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:haha1:
Yeah, I saw that coming! No worries, all, I'm in good company with the positive comments on YouTube for this song. :) If there's nothing else we've learned in the years together, it's that our likes/dislikes don't always align 100%, to say the least.
And, yes, the OTHER SIDE is coming up!!! :jimi: :headbanger: :drummer: :guitar: :death: :beerbang: :yes: :excited: :rockon: :banana: :wootwoot:
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Do You Close Your Eyes seems like an attempt at putting at square peg into a round hole. By itself it's not bad, or memorable. Pretty middle of the road. But it didn't really fit with the rest of the tracks on that album, and certainly did not portend what was about to come on side 2!
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OK, time for side two.
STARGAZER
The opening drum solo blows me away and then we settle into the slower main line. This is about as D&D as it gets, a song about slaves building a massive tower for a wizard. When I first heard it, I kinda wanted it to be faster until after the first chorus, and then I got totally into it. For all the metal with an orchestra backing it up, for all the metal singing about fantastic subjects with very long songs, this is where it all can trace back to.
Blackmore's solo is not fiery fingers playing 666 notes per second, it's a slow, composed, magnificent affair, very much like Iommi's solo in Heaven and Hell - and I'm thinking Dio helped bring that idea from Rainbow to Black Sabbath.
Dio's lyrical delivery tells a compelling story, made better by where he hits the words for emphasis, not necessarily on the same beat as the rhythm section. His ad-libbing at the end as it all slowly fades out is perfect, especially where the violin part comes to the front with the vocals.
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Stargrazer. After Tarot Woman set the bar back on side one, this song just falls down. I'm not really sure wtf they were thinking. The drum intro sounds like a five-year old kid throwing a tantrum, and the drummer's timing is all over the place for the whole song. And speaking of whole song, it's about six minutes too long. You can tell the guitarist's fingers tire out after the first 30 seconds, and the singer's incessant mewling throughout is more annoying than that previously mentioned five-year-old going on and on about finding the Hand of Vecna rammed up his ass during his latest D&D playtime.
Oh wait, this is STARGAZER.
Simply one of the best songs from any genre across time. A tour-de-force of talent. This woman says it better than I can:
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^^^
I think she over thinks things, it's a nice video though. I'm not sure what she's giggling at sometimes it might be an in joke with classically trained singers! The singing comes naturally to Ronnie, I'm not sure he ever analysed it that much himself.
Anyway back to the song, I don't think there's much more I can add other than say it is quite possibly RJDs finest performance... oh and the rest of the band do a neat job too!
The late, great Tommy Vance (BBC Radio 1: Friday Night Rock Show from the late 70s to late 80s) used to have an annual listener vote for their favourite song. For most of the time this came third in the top 10 behind Stairway to Heaven and Child in Time, I can't say I'm surprised.
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Firstly, I first discovered this epic song with the live version of the 1980 Monsters of Rock album with Graham Bonnet and it wasn't until a few months later that I discovered the original studio version. I have always been caught by the peculiar rhythm imposed by Powell, these three bass drum hits between two snare hits . It gives a strange feeling of a slow, forced march, like the regulated footsteps of a cohort of slaves pulling monoliths weighing several tons under a scorching sun. "High Noon, ..." Everything is perfectly in place.
A monument.
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Playing it again just before my meeting starts, such a treat!
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A Light in the Black
Back when I was still new to this album (maybe 83/84) I preferred this song to Stargazer! I have since come to my senses, but this is still a really good song. A coompanion peice to Stargazer in terms of subject matter, but really this is just an extended jam which I is great!
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I thought I would like A Light in the Black more than Stargazer when I first heard it because I always like the faster songs, but on my first listening on the album, I actually got worn down by all the jamming. It was just so much. But I got more and more out of it over the years and really appreciated it, once I had multiple chances to take it all in. It's a great finish to a great album.
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A quick ranking of the songs:
1) Stargazer
2) Tarot Woman
3) A Light In the Black
4) Starstruck
5) Run with the Wolf
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6) Do You Close Your Eyes
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^Bah! :D
1. Do You Close Your Eyes
2. Tarot Woman
3. Stargazer
4. A Light in the Black
5. Starstruck
6. Run with the Wolf
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Well ... I love Tarot Woman !
1 - Tarot Woman
2 - Stargazer
3 - A Light In the Black
4 - Starstruck
5 - Run with the Wolf
6 - Do You Close Your Eyes
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1. Stargazer
2. A Light in the Black
3. Tarot Woman
4. Starstruck
5. Do You Close Your Eyes
6. Run with the Wolf
Z touched upon this a bit, for as good as Stargazer is I think the entirety of side two is one song. The plodding doom of Stargazer contrasted with the upbeat excitement of A Light in the Black just makes for an extra-awesome listen.
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Yeah, that's one progressive piece of work, that side 2 - it is a 16-minute suite.