Fresh from the pen (or rather the MAC) of Simon Robinson, exclusive to the readers of this newsgroup (for now) here is his review of the new Ritchie/Rainbow offering:
STRANGER IN THE US ALL (at least this is the title I have, what it means is anyone's guess) sadly fails to deliver anything like the goods necessary to enable Blackmore to recover some of the standing lost during the final Purple debacle in 1993.
WOLF TO THE MOON sets the scene, a standard medium paced Rainbow rocker. On first hearing Dougie White sounds almost identical to Joe Lynn Turner - at least to these admittedly not too expert ears. Indeed if you'd told me it was Joe I wouldn't have argued. The track is a very one dimensional inauspicious start.
COLD HEARTED WOMAN is even more familiar in a Stone Cold-ish way, with the hook from Sail Away in there. Blackmore keeps to a tried and tested formula.
HUNTING HUMANS is a real plodding effort. Some atmospheric clicks and runs from Blackmore scream out to be answered by a real rock voice or even better to be left to speak for themselves - there an instrumental classic here for the taking had Blackmore wanted. The singer manages to rhyme "mirrorball" with "inexcusable" - amazing.
STAND & FIGHT opens with a Gillan-like blast of harmonica before getting back to the regular Rainbow formula - a few bars of riff, a pause, and back to the riff. Blackmore's nimble fingers begin to tumble over one another during a brief solo but little of interest is allowed to escape, he seems too wrapped up in the format to risk much. Seeing how many riffs you can spot in here would take forever, or perhaps that's the point - he's trying to erase the last ten years altogether.
ARIEL is GATES OF BABYLON 2, absolutely blatant. Forget that for a moment (it isn't easy) and the band are trying to at least sound a little more grown-up here. The vocals ride in and kill it dead. Instrumentally there is something happening but Blackmore seems not to have the vision or interest to run with it. To make matters worse, we get a spine-tingling pay-off. A gorgeous closing section where a female voice breathes the song title and Blackmore strolls over the top to knock you dead. There's enough here to inspire a rock symphony. Within 60 seconds it's gone.
TOO LATE FOR TEARS (how apt) quickly returns us to earth, or the earth closet. Is there really an audience any more for this dross? All Night Long revisited.
EMOTIONAL CRIME, "Can't get thru in the midnite hour" - mould breaking lyrics and a tune to match. Blackmore threatens to get tough in the solo but it doesn't last long. We even get the old Outlaws "You Keep A Knockin'" line thrown in from the singer.
BLACK MASQUERADE rolls out and this is getting beyond a joke. Been there, heard that, nicked it. Frighteningly ordinary, with an incongruous few bars of flamenco work thrown in and speeded up harpsichord a la Rat Bat Blue. Ritchie tries to regain the balance with some smooth runs but by then the whole number has outstayed its welcome. He comes over with the goods on the final few seconds but then gets faded out.
SILENCE. If only. The high pitched slabs of reedy synth and histrionic vocals bring the horrors of latter day Rainbow back to life.
Nine tracks, finished. "Yeah but Ritch, these days the punters need a bit more, 40 minutes isn't quite enough". "Oh well, let's do - er - Hall Of The Mountain King and Still I'm Sad as extras, I never did like our first go at that..." You think I jest?
Actually HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING is reasonable fun for the most part, adapting the old classic, some nifty guitar, bit of orchestra. Only Dougie then starts singing about "Tales of mystic days of old" in a frankly risible manner. Apart from that there is at least a bit of fun and excitement here, though the speeding up end is pure music hall. 12 year olds will love it; everyone else will shrink from their speaker with embarrassment. Theres even a tolling bell at the end!!
Which just leaves STILL I'M SAD. Heavy guitar riffing, is he going to go for it? No chance, Doogie has boned up on the lyrics and once more we're on very dodgy ground, 'cos the 1976 take wins hands down.
Rumour has it that they'll be doing some of the back-catalogue live. No need to bother. Just play this lot and no-one will be able to tell the difference. If Blackmore is really serious about putting his name to this then he's obviously off where the trams don't run. If he's not, then these crumbs from his table are even more insulting.
I've followed this guy's work now for nigh on - oh all right then - exactly 25 years. It's the worst thing he's ever done. From the unbelievable heights he scaled with his playing in '93 to this in just two years. Frightening.
An expanded review will appear in the next DARKER THAN BLUE. Perhaps.
Simon Robinson - Deep Purple Appreciation Society - 18-7-95
Dunno what my views are, I havn't heard it (and probably won't bother as I found his behaviour at the NEC - UK gig from the last Purple tour here unforgivable. Four musicians gave there all, one didn't).
People wishing to contact Simon and/or the DPAS should, as always, use the usual address:
DPAS
P. O. Box 254
Sheffield S6 1DF
South Yorkshire
UK
The only people who will NOT get a reply are those who send it to the wrong place, people who write and don't include a return address, or those who pester Simon for sets of autographs which - regretably - he simply cannot obtain.
(Ed's note: you should add return postage as well if you want a reply.)
Thanks!
Peter 'I'd rather be out climbing' Judd.
Dave Hodgkinson 19 September 1995.