Rainbow Rising - Song By Song

[Zzzptm]

He flies to the moon and stuff like that. You know Ronnie was rolling D20s back in the 70s!

[Zzzptm]

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.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

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.

[Tyr66]

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 !!

[Zzzptm]

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!!! 

[Vyn]

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!

[Zzzptm]

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.

[Vyn]

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:

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
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.

[Tyr66]

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.

[Zzzptm]

Playing it again just before my meeting starts, such a treat!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

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!

[Zzzptm]

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.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

A quick ranking of the songs:

1) Stargazer
2) Tarot Woman
3) A Light In the Black
4) Starstruck
5) Run with the Wolf
.
.
.
6) Do You Close Your Eyes

[Zzzptm]

^Bah!

1. Do You Close Your Eyes
2. Tarot Woman
3. Stargazer
4. A Light in the Black
5. Starstruck
6. Run with the Wolf