![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/paice1.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse.jpg)
Universe sitting on his shoulder
Tony Carey (once a regular on our site) talks to a fella called Cassius Morris. They spoke about Mandoki Soulmates, how the show business has changed since the 70s, “introverted extravert” Ritchie Blackmore, Dennis Rodman, cost of that giant rainbow across the stage, starting a retirement home for ex-Rainbow musicians, and many other things. Enjoy!
Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
See, everything too fast, like I always said, Herr MacGregor! Lovely picture that Tony draws up to it too …
https://cdn.dribbble.com/userupload/21847212/file/original-d5f2390ba9f02f144a6511a7f53a1443.gif
I like Tony (and have met him), but that doesn’t mean his word is gospel. That Ritchie’s and Cozy’s practical jokes got out of hand, I can easily believe however. They also very often had more than a whiff of entrenched power structures – with Blackmore and Powell on top of course. Every one knows the story of an enraged Roger Glover chasing Ritchie down the hall with a knife (or was it an axe) one night and threatening him with physical harm should he try one of his stunts again. Since Tony was a cocky Californian who wouldn’t take no shit, I can see how things quickly escalated. As Ian Gillan once put it so perceptively: “Ritchie likes obedience from the servants at his courts.”
Oh-oh, that comment of Tony about Jon not swinging will prove divisive! I don’t agree, actually I think that Jon was – after Little Ian – the second-greatest swing-provider within Purple. On the other hand I’m trying to make sense of Tony’s criticism. I think it comes down to the difference in approach when playing rhythm keyboards. Tony is a melodic and fluid solo player on the keys (that Wakeman influence was already spotted on the first Rainbow UK tour where the NME attested him “Wakemanesque lines” in a concert review), as a rhythm player I find him lazy or if you want to be nice about it: sparse (“making notes mean something” as he puts it). Now that is exactly the department where Jon in my ears excelled, I love those – often percussive -“clusters of notes” (as criticized by Tony) that percolated through his rhythm work – “jam stew” indeed!
Tony’s observations about how the mandatory modern day subdivision of music into clicks on a click track is not just key to the music (triggering backing tracks etc) but to the performance as such (lights, explosives) are eye-opening.
Finally, Cassius Morris says he’s 28, but looks like he’s 16! I want more of what he’s having!!! 😎
May 5th, 2026 at 01:03Fantastic interview with Tony Carey, thanks ever so much. A life well lived and good on him for his way of dealing with things in his life. Cheers.
May 5th, 2026 at 10:56Tony does say “(Jon)..was better than me.”
May 5th, 2026 at 15:49Tony Carey’s comments a bit too close to the bone for Uwe, how predictable. Do you need a musician who was actually there, to clarify what is widely known Uwe. By the way, Tony is NOT criticising Jon Lord, he is saying it how he sees and hears it. That is his take on it. We knew that one would hurt you, oops. Cheers.
May 5th, 2026 at 16:47Him saying Jon Lord was a great showman but couldn’t swing I disagree.
May 6th, 2026 at 01:15Perhaps, I haven’t heard enough of Carey’s playing to judge him as a musician.
David Rosenthal was fantastic, and David Stone played fantastically.
In a technical sense, my guess would be that both Davids (Stone and Rosenthal) were technically more accomplished keyboard players than Tony, but Tony had a real gift for snazzy synth solos that oozed rock feel, he played like a lead guitarist. He also looked and moved cooler than the other two who to me always appeared on stage as if they considered themselves in a neverending audition, never truly relaxed. Tony, crouched behind his keyboard fortress of solitude, was something else.
I remember from an older interview that he said that his home instrument was actually the bass guitar and that he enjoyed that more than keyboards. Tony also had vocal, songwriting and production skills (if all three untapped by Ritchie), he built his career in Germany on them, so he really is the complete package. And that is also how he sees himself, his stint as Rainbow’s keyboarder is for him a minutia of his early career as a professional musician, nothing more. (I remember meeting him in the early 80s together with his then English manager and when I had him sign my copy of Rising his manager turned to him and said in astonishment: “You never told me you were in Rainbow! And Tony, at that point already established in the Frankfurt music scene which centered at the Hot Line Studios and with Why Me and Fine Fine Day in the charts, waved it off and played it down, replying: “Aw, that was ages ago and I was real young!”
If you listen to the 1976 live recordings of Rainbow in Germany, his organ playing when he is backing Ritchie (and not soloing himself) has none of Jon’s groove, dexterity and density, but maybe back then Ritchie welcomed a less prominent role for keyboards in Rainbow after having to share the spotlight with Jon in DP for so long.
May 6th, 2026 at 07:53You are correct Timur, Lord could certainly swing. Rosenthal, Stone and Carey are all very good but, IMHO, Lord was the best!!
May 6th, 2026 at 17:36If Jon Lord had expressed swing to the extent that Tony values he would have been a jazz player and Purple .. ya heard it here first .. weren’t a Jazz outfit. 😀
Jon had soul, and I hear swing in his playing. Ian Paice, it’s well known, is the closest thing to a big band swing drummer in hard rock.
Rick Wakeman looked up to Jon. I have a limited edition biography of Jon, where all copies were signed by Rick. What does that tell you?
The intro to Tarot Woman is one of the best pieces of synth playing on record, that I’ve heard .. his playing over the whole album is wonderful.
Isn’t it amazing that Ritchie couldn’t make Tarot work live so didn’t play it .. ditto .. Gates of Babylon .. not forgetting Woman from Tokyo (he didn’t like the lyrics) or “when a blind man cries” (poss Ritchie’s best blues track and solo) .. the show stopper song for Purple for decades after he left the band.
YET .. A SCANDINAVIAN RAINBOW 🌈 TRIBUTE BAND I SAW, PLAYED ALL THOSE RAINBOW TRACKS BRILLIANTLY. Only Ritchie eh! I suppose that why we love him. 😀
May 6th, 2026 at 23:04I will say that I found it rather amusing that Tony said he didn’t really like any British keyboard players, or words to that effect. That raised a smile and then when he mentioned the ‘no swing’, I smiled again. Thinking of course that ‘someone’ here is NOT going to enjoy those comments. And to add a little sprinkling of fairy dust to complete the trilogy, Tony mentions Rick Wakeman as the one British keyboard player that he doesn’t mind, something along those lines. I loved it! I really shouldn’t be like this but I just cannot help it. Knowing that a certain ‘grumpy old man’ aka Uwe Hornung is sitting at his computer or perhaps his mobile phone, hammering at the keyboard or keypad in exasperation. Thanks Tony. Does humour belong in music, you bet it does. Cheers.
May 7th, 2026 at 06:21I love Tony Carey but him saying that “Jon couldn’t swing” is a bit like Cozy Powell (great as he was) saying “Ian Paice is a great showman but he cannot groove”
May 7th, 2026 at 08:22That Tony had a Rick Wakeman influence is an old hat, Tasmanian, go back and read a NME Rainbow concert review from 1976 for chrissakes, that was 50 years ago. I never found Tony Jon Lord’ish. The absence of someone sounding like Jon was one of Rainbow’s great predicaments in fact.
I wasn’t offended by what Tony said (I like the guy), just puzzled. Because to me, Jon Lord was to DP what Keith Richards is to the Stones or Rick Parfitt was to Status Quo as far as the band groove goes. I deem Jon’s rhythm work in the band more important than playing some novelty classical piece as a song intro (that has been kind of overdone in the last 60 years) or a flashy solo mid-song. Jon’s Highway Star and Burn solos are all great of course, but I find it more fascinating what he plays in the verses of SOTW, where he is basically ad-libbing and no two verses are alike. Jon was so “swingy” that he was bordering on Keith Richards’esque “gifted sloppiness” sometimes. 😂
There are certain aspects in Jon’s Hammond playing (like his penchant to almost completely avoid thirds because he found them “too sweet-sounding”) that have always grated with other keyboard players – Gregg Rolie of Santana/Journey has also said that Jon’s “choice of notes” wasn’t exactly his cup of tea, but that he rated pretty much everything else Jon did -, but “lack of swing” is an astounding statement. I mean listen to Jon on piano here @04:53, no swing, what the fuck?
https://youtu.be/NBmXWLaLP6c
True, he’s playing piano here, not Hammond, but in this particular solo he employs his “cluster of notes”-approach from the Hammond too. You might not like the individual notes he plays (I do!), but I don’t get the “no swing” reprimand at all.
As for Rick Wakeman, great player, but he’s WAAAYYY too floral for me. 😖
https://youtu.be/u4PxjNE7zv4
https://youtu.be/ojQaOejYkhE
I get sugar tooth aches listening to him! 🤣
And Tony can sometimes be a bit on the too sweet side too …
https://youtu.be/h7S_eXi707g
but at least he doesn’t over-embellish like Rick W.
May 7th, 2026 at 14:16Very apt, Manic @10! 😂
That said, Tony had (and has) real strengths as a musician though rhythm keyboard playing wouldn’t be on the top of my list. But I do still find it highly ironic that in 1977 Ritchie intimidates/bullies a band member out of Rainbow with undeniable, yet untapped (by Ritchie) AOR writing capabilities only to then decide a year later “this is all wrong, we need more accessible music and less dungeons & dragons lyrics” and buy in third-party-penned hits from Russ Ballard. Case in point: A Fine, Fine Day charted higher in the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fine,_Fine_Day
than any of the Bonnet- or Turner-era AOR single attempts (whether self- or Ballard-penned). And while Ronnie Dio would have likely not sung it, just imagine what Joseph Linquito aka Joe Lynn Turner aka with his New Jersey/Hacksensack Italo-American ethnic background (he’s mentioned in interviews that he grew up with The Sopranos type relatives as a child) could have done with Tony’s song!
Not that Tony’s rendition was in any way bad, I found those lyrics intriguing the first time I heard them and they unfolded a movie before my eyes long before I saw the accompanying vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJFh3_jifoA&list=RDZJFh3_jifoA&start_radio=1
“Some time after that, Sunny disappeared for good, and he pulled that old Houdini like we always knew he would …” is for me a lyric of at least Springsteen’esque if not John Steinbeck’esque proportions, sorry that I can’t get as excited about “All eyes see the figure of the wizard as he climbs to the top of the world, no sound, as he falls instead of rising, time standing still, then there’s blood on the sand” but for some reason I can relate better to Mafia drama
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/a5/5f/7ea55f781ddbe9827e1c32d071604bba.gif
than graphic novel Babylonian fantasy!
https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-16-2021/yRpJ12.gif
May 7th, 2026 at 16:13@ 11- good comedy again Uwe. As I stated, how long ago has everyone been privy to that era of certain Rainbow songs being played too fast in concerts. The irony of your comment, ‘ I like Tony (and have met him), but that doesn’t mean his word is gospel.” As if Tony saying that was some sort of ‘enlightenment’ or revelation, joking or not. Not to mention how much you have banged on about it over the years. Secondly, again comedy, the Rick Wakeman comment was ever so predictable, that is why I find it all so amusing. And your predictable ‘reaction’ to what Tony has said. Cheers.
May 8th, 2026 at 18:17#11 Uwe:
Jon’s “famous” avoidance of thirds has been a model not only for many keyboard players, but also for many heavy metal bands with two guitarists (one of the most famous examples being obviously Iron Maiden), and if we consider that Jon did this to fit in with Blackmore’s improvisations and harmonies, I believe that “abandonment of the third” was a crucial step in Jon’s maturation as a musician, it allowed him to play without references, and although it might be an expedient that a cultured musician would consider “convenient” or “easy” or “inadmissible”, at the time it was something new that opened up musical creativity, and not just the dodecaphony of the classical staff.
Jon’s work on Wizard’s Convention is excellent, there’s a fine line connecting this great Hardin funky/R&B album to what Jon did on 1982’s classicist Before I Forget and also to the jazzy work of PAL, and that line is perhaps Jon Lord himself, who has always been like the glue in all the bands he’s played in.
May 9th, 2026 at 23:23Fla76, I’m too much a Wishbone Ash fan to give up on thirds completely! 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjfzybcoCXQ&list=RDBjfzybcoCXQ&start_radio=1 (@03:50)
Not to forget these guys here …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ5yeaf3RaU&list=RDfJ5yeaf3RaU&start_radio=1
Who is Iron Maiden anyhow? 🤣
May 10th, 2026 at 22:40Jon Lord – swing – “Lazy.” All you need to know.
One listen to that track and the evidence of the master’s swing will be more than apparent.
May 11th, 2026 at 01:44Strange that everyone is accusing Rainbow 2006 edition (with Romero) for playing Man on The Silver Mountain on normal speed (closer to the original version). I read comments saying: “I ve put in x2 speed in YouTube and it sounds right”! Fans are fans.
May 13th, 2026 at 09:15Parts of Lazy song in Rainbow sounded 2 times faster perhaps as a demonstration of musical ability.
Strange that Blackmore never played live (in their prime) three of the most iconic ballads that he co-wrote:
1) When a blind man cries: He hated it he demanded to be excluded from Machine Head
2) Soldier of fortune: Maybe because of the sound settings. He had the loudest amplifiers on earth at the time.
3) The temple of the king: Although it worked perfect on the Stranger in us all tour.
Dio once stated that Rainbow’s shows were endless meaningless solos from Ritchie and Cozy. I think short-length ballads give space to singers to shine and less room for soloists, and Blackmore had to be the number one.
Imagine though a setlist with the original solos from the LP’s and not endless improvisations:
Kill the King
The temple of the King
Man on The Silver Mountain
Catch the Rainbow
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
Gates of Babylon
Starstruck
Stargazer (with Ritchie playing cello on stage, Dio guitar and vocals)
Still I’m sad
encore: Long live Rock and Roll
Perhaps better than Made in Japan
“Parts of Lazy song in Rainbow sounded 2 times faster perhaps as a demonstration of musical ability.”
To my ears that was simply unmusical and disregarding the groove and heart of the song. Plus Cozy couldn’t swing and if he had a rope around his neck. Music for adolescents played with an adolescent mindset – can we make this any faster still? 😑
May 13th, 2026 at 16:01