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All my life it seems just a crazy dream
Wikimetal celebrates 50th anniversary of Rainbow Rising with a short compendium of 6 interesting facts about the album. Which are in no way a surprise to anybody who’s been paying attention.
- Rainbow Mk1 was short lived and gutted way before work started on the second album.
- The artwork for the album has become iconic.
- Munich Philharmonic was hired to play the strings on Stargazer.
- Lyrics for the Stargazer and A Light in the Black form a storytelling diptych.
- Even containing the two epic tracks, the album is surprisingly short at 33 minutes total.
- The impact of Rising exceeded expectations at the time of its release.
Kindly proceed to Wikimetal if you need further elaboration.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Since when is the rainbow-clenching fist on Rising âmechanicalâ?
Protesting against commercialism with the laughably short length length of the album? 𤣠They had nothing prepared, only three weeks to record and didnât have enough material. One acceptable reason why vinyl albums were sometimes very short did certainly NOT apply to Rising: to bring out the bass frequencies more! đ
May 19th, 2026 at 00:23Still the best Rainbow album ever, and beside In Rock and Machine head the best work Ritchie ever laid down on an album.
May 19th, 2026 at 09:05A classic album and the artwork speaks for itself. Some of my mates even took the album with them to school, dont know why, there wasnt a recordplayer around and even if there was, I dont think the teachers would be too happy us playing Rising out loud in the classroom…
Uwe would have worshipped this album and band fifty years ago when he was an impressionable teenager, just like many of us did. Now in his grumpy old man years he continually shows his despisement for something that was simply a true artists statement. Not manufactured to gain financial gain, pure art is just that without any ulterior motive and straight off the bat. Balls to the wall and sod anyone who thinks different, Blackmore, Dio, Powell, Bain and Carey simply throwing caution to the wind and slapping it down on canvas. True art in itself.. The album art cover is iconic too. Now about this grumpy old man who has wounds that simply will never heal. A short album time wise means nothing as there are so many from other artists over time. Roger Glover was really impressed with Stargazer apparently and allegedly said that the Rising album was a genuine new force in heavy rock music, something like that. What happened Uwe. Why are you so scarred by your youthful vigour for this album? Don’t take this animosity to your grave ole son. Let it go and rejoice. See that Rainbow Rising above your grave for all eternity. Cheers.
May 19th, 2026 at 10:47Killer album. I listened to it constantly back in the day. I thought the cover was so cool that I embroidered it onto the back of a shirtâand painted the motif across an entire wall of my room.
May 19th, 2026 at 12:08One of the best records in the whole DP Family Tree and surely the best artwork ever – there’s something epic and mystical about it – I, for one, adore it. It epitomizes power and the music has it in spades. The condensed blast and crunch of it’s 33 minutes is still such a joy when you need a proper hard rock fix. It seems almost criminal that “Tarot Woman” never became a fixture of the live sets around it’s release. And “Stargazer” still makes new generations pick their jaws from the floor, 50 years on, when they hear it for the first time. Timeless, powerful stuff.
May 19th, 2026 at 12:12Another interesting fact:
On the New York 1975 recording Ronnie alludes to the just played Stargazer/Light combo as a single song to be featured on the next album, even ending what we now know as “A Light in the Black” with “I’m a Stargazer! I’m a Stargazer!” shouts, so perhaps it was originally intended as a massive single piece?
Cheers, J.-
May 19th, 2026 at 12:41One review at the time called it “perverse epic grandeur”.
Sums the album up for me 50 years later……
May 19th, 2026 at 14:52The long term strategic reasoning behind Rising I fail to comprehend to this day: So Ritchie records the Rainbow debut to then dismantle Elf because – surprise, surprise – the Yanks arenât bludgeoningly heavy enough for him (after having seen them numerous times as the Purple opener). The newly assembled band is then flown to Munich to record a suitably heavy, soundwise even ruthless album ⌠of which on the following tour (or tours thereafter) almost nothing is played. Iâve heard that Tarot Woman (= best, most developed song on the album and a real classic) was supposedly attempted a few times live but discarded quickly (likely because there was no riff in it for Ritchie to play), The serviceable Run With The Wolf was to my knowledge never played live, Starstruck, the single, confoundingly never promoted on TV and relegated to a short snippet in a silly medley live, Do You Close Your Eyes (= worst song on the album and a really noisy item akin to Sweetâs likewise terrible Turn It Down) was wisely only employed as a an aural backdrop to Ritchieâs immature Strat destruction orgy. Stargazer, according to conventional wisdom the albumâs masterpiece, was only played a few times live as was A Light In The Black, the gonzoid fast number (I heard it performed in Frankfurt). Also, the album was obviously short one song, yet they did not include Kill The King on it (which would have been a thematic and musical good fit) though that was by then already their opening number for a while. Care to explain anyone? Can anybody remember a Purple album with Ritchie where the opening number was not played on the subsequent tour (ok, I can: WDWTWA đ)? What was he trying to promote in 1976 then?
Why I cry? Rising was Ritchieâs eleventh studio album in eight years, you would think that by then he should have known what works live and what doesnât. I remember my friend Markus being irritated at the 1976 gig we saw in Frankfurt because he only knew Rising (which he loved), not the debut, and was not a Purple fan (so Mistreated meant nothing to him). At one point he turned to me exasperatedly and asked: âArenât they gonna play anything off the current album?!â
And whatâs even more baffling: Ritchie then splits up the Rising line-up and proceeds to record LLRnR, repeating the exact same mistake, namely hardly incorporating anything off it into Rainbowâs live set which was by then getting rather long in the tooth. Promotional suicide part two âŚ
May 19th, 2026 at 15:15@7
Wow, are you Roy Davies, the book author?!
If so, I just finished reading the reissued trilogy, great job Sir! đđťđđś
Best regards, J.-
May 19th, 2026 at 15:32Herr MacGregor, truthfully, I never âworshippedâ Rising, I thought the cover impressive and I liked Tarot Woman, but otherwise I was severely disappointed by it, I thought the songs were largely worse than on the Rainbow debut. I went to see Rainbow in the autumn of 1976 not for Rising, but because Ritchie was the ex-DP guitarist and DP by then defunct. Had Tommy Bolin toured Germany then, I would have gone to see him. I listened to Private Eyes more than Rising.
There was never a time in my life where Rainbow came even remotely close to reaching, much less eclipsing DP, Rainbow was to me always âmore of the same, only lessâ. I didnât care for the fantasy nonsense (I preferred reading A Clockwork Orange to Lord of the Rings), I found Cozy (c)rushed the music, Dio was unsexy (I would have liked to look like Rick Parfitt, but not Ronnie Dio! đ) and I missed Jon Lord like hell. Rainbow always sounded stiff and ungainly to me, goose step heavy rock, very Teutonic even, nein, wir kĂśnnen das selbst, vielen Dankâ.
You want to know which album I âworshippedâ in 1976, age 15, because it sounded like no music I had heard before? This one here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0StpeWAXHP4
Perhaps you now understand why I was not magically drawn to the Rainbow sound, there was nothing playful or smart to it. But I have always liked that. Rainbow otoh was dumb-serious.
And when it came to sheer energy, I preferred these guys:
https://youtu.be/sOvaMd5jbnM
(On a good night, Status Quo could in the mid-70s wipe the floor with Rainbow as far as communal spirit energy went.)
You guys always fall into hushed silence and act like Rising was the proto-metal gospel and manna from Ritchie heaven. Iâm sorry, but to me it was a flawed and rushed album with a great cover, one excellent song and a piss-poor, unpleasant mix. I prefer both the debut and LLRnR to it.
PS: And me not standing up to music I used to like as a teen? Nothing could be further from the truth, to this day I even still like this here (= same year as Rising):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yJUi6ke71I
It pleasantly reminded me of this classic which I also continue to love:
https://youtu.be/Z8fhciUojQ0
(And yes, even a teenage Uwe found a lyric about a prison inmate worrying whether his loved one still wants him more relatable than some Babylonian hogwash about – predictably – lousy aeronautical engineering! đđ¤)
See, you provoked me, now thereâs blood on the sand âŚ
May 19th, 2026 at 16:32I only realize this now, but does anyone agree with me that Tony Orlandoâs and Joe Lynn Turnerâs voices sound similar? đ Well, theyâre both from New Jersey too.
May 19th, 2026 at 18:28Hello.
Wow.
This is my desert island record, THE one, if there exists any at all.
I just don´t get it Uwe – Die Geschmäcker sind verschieden – or something like that?
I´ve own my own copy, the first one (LP that is, firstly), of Rainbow Rising for 45 years. Bands and trends they sure come and go, but this is one of a kind, musical masterpiece, statement, brilliant achievement without a doubt, ask anyone who knows or understands anything about music, or feels anything happening at all, when the record is on. Spot on. Marvellous music.
So many different professional musicians (of different styles) themselves over the decades have testified that this is one of the most important milestones of music of it´s time and still is. How cares a heck of the duration of the recording. There´s not too little and not too much.
The individual performances of the musicians involved…My son! You can mix and/or remaster the results on and on, forever, but all the ingredients are already there, you don´t have to search for them anywhere.
The amount of joy listening to this record over and over again is just so massive. And furthermore, as so many of You have already said here…the mighty cover art! Exellent. (Purchased the t-shirt in the 80´s and the hoodle in Birmingham 2016).
Thorsun @5 already said many things I would have said here myself. Thanks, mate. Timeless, powerful… Healing, I may add, describes this record just in one word. True healing of one´s soul, not being Soul Music literally. Hard Rock Fix. Could you say any better? Thanks again, Thorsun.
Lyrics. Fantastic, genuine escapism with sharp sense of life from one of the true geniuses of the genre. Nowadays I feel that I myself need that more than ever, and I think I´m not alone with that thought here.
Peace, love and I see Rainbow Rising.
Kippis and thank you so very, very much Ritchie, Ronnie, Jimmy, Cozy and Tony!
May 19th, 2026 at 19:59Great album but I have always preferred the first Rainbow album over Rising.
May 19th, 2026 at 20:28Communal spirit????????What has Status Quo performing have to do with the album Rising from Rainbow. Forget all the distractions that Uwe throws up folks, he is desperate for any comparison to put down this album. His grudge, not ours. I am not sure how long an artist is in the studio has to do with anything. Does everyone have to spend forever on a recording, embellishing it with all sorts of ‘floss’ to make it sound nothing like what it was intended to sound like! Spontaneous combustion Uwe, improvising even. Coming up with things on the spot and getting it down on tape. Anyway, we are not going to beat our heads against a wall of suffering now are we? We are all aware of the mix and as noted recently many of us are lamenting the recent re-release not having that. But it still doesn’t change the original record from 1976 and its impact on heavy/hard rock music. That is what is being celebrated. By the way, we are NOT “falling into silence and acting like Rising is the proto-metal gospel and manna from Ritchie”. Symbolic that you only mention one musician, don’t we think. The old chip on the shoulder again Uwe. There were four other musicians involved don’t forget. Tony Carey has let go of any issues he had with Rainbow and he was actually there! Time for Uwe to as well. I am going to change your headstone Uwe. Maybe I will leave the tablature of Bonzo’s opening drumming from Led Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks on it as well. I am now adding a huge Rainbow, with the Tower of Stone being your headstone, reaching all the way up into the sky.
May 19th, 2026 at 22:21“Look at my flesh and bone
Now, look, look, look, look,
Look at my tower of stone
I see a rainbow rising
Look there, on the horizon
And I’m coming home, I’m coming home, I’m coming home”
Hiza, I know that the album is dear to many people and also that it is influential. More power to all of you. But I find it sounds rushed and a lot of the songs on it underdeveloped, Stargazer being one of them (I much prefer Gates of Babylon as a composition). Jimmy Bain does not play a single memorable bass line on that album except for a few runs on A Light In The Black, and any type of groove between him and Cozy is sorely absent. It’s like he played along to a drum machine. Tony Carey’s rhythm keyboard playing is unremarkable, only his synth solos stand out (and those are actually very good).
But the cover is a stunning piece of fantasy art, I’ll give it that. I also like the inner sleeve picture and the back cover pictures of the band, especially Tony in his keyboard fortress of solitude. He was also fun to watch on stage, something that could not be said for anyone of his successors.
And there is another thing: Rising sounds to me a lot more dated and old-fashioned than Stormbringer (the album) which in contrast has aged really well.
May 19th, 2026 at 22:45BTW, when JP released their Ram It Down some twelve years later, my immediate thought was oh my, the Walsall boys have been looking a bit too long at the Rising cover art. đ¤Ł
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0jVb9TmfRM
May 19th, 2026 at 22:52If it had been released during the NWOBHM Rising would have been even bigger.
May 20th, 2026 at 01:03Rising sounds bad with thin sounding bass production and mainly filler songs. It is, quite rightly, highly rated (musically) for Stargazer, Light In the Black and maybe Tarot Woman. I can’t suffer the lyrics but there you go. I agree with Uwe on Be-Bop Deluxe btw.
May 20th, 2026 at 01:41@ 12 – Hiza, (and on @ 4 – Steve) and the ranting, grumpy Uwe đ
my pleasure in sharing the feelings and attitude towards this landmark album, only to express them out for you đ . And may I add – that’s what this particular artwork does to people – we want to wear it on the shirts (although in homophobic areas of the world it isn’t as safe now to do it – as it was some decades ago) and paint it on the walls. I know a few people who commissioned this marvelous motif painted for them as a picture to hang it on their living space walls. It’s just majestic.
Some of the points and issues that Uwe is, ahem, rising đ are well heard – i. e. not exposing the material properly in the live sets. But Led Zeppelin also had this bad habit of putting the current material to their concerts with delay. The wonderful “Ten Years Gone” – big favourite of mine! – never appeared on the 1975 Physical Graffiti Tour, only to be in 1977 Presence Tour setlist and then twice in 1979. And there were more examples of this weird approach. Almost seems like you have a killer material to put into a live setting, but you don’t recognize it and omit it. Weird. Artiste’s right to be wrong still, one would say.
All in all – “these foolish things” đ – can’t deter us from acknowledging the sheer impact of the album and it’s iconic statue.
May 20th, 2026 at 05:31A travel through time. When I first played tarot woman (the intro by Tony Carey ) I knew that this album should be different. There are cover versions of stargazer…by Dream theater…and the last one by sherinian and marty friedman (ride the rainbow)…No match to the original. This album is still new and working for me.
May 20th, 2026 at 06:29But Gentlemen! Please … there is a german phrase – der goldene Mittelweg – that may be in place here. As it often is. Having hearing troubles since the release year of In Rock (DP not to blame, I had an bicycle accident … ) it took me decades to put my finger on what was wrong with Rising: The lack of bass. I only really found out through one of Uwe’s countless rants about Rising I have to admit. Something always had bothered me – and that was it. So Rising is NOT the answer to all questions and that gift from th gods that some still see in it. Well in my book. But is isn’t a rushed piece of rubbish either!
As MacGregor thankfully made clear the time a band stays in the studio doesn’t say anything about the results. I guess Uwe’s beloved Beatles speak volumes here as do other gret artists. Vice versa I get the impression that the longer an album is worked on the more sterile and less relevant it gets.
Hearing troubles or not I never understood how the first album can be prefered soundwise … it’s just the opposite to Rising: muddy. Only with LLRR things started to light up. Oh, On Stage of course did not sound too bad either.
But the impact Rising had on young …well … mostly men back then was huge. And it showed in all the praise it got from musicians that had been inspired by it. And while I share the thought that side 2 plus Tarot Woman are the main tracks here the 3 so called fillers still are very enjoyable. And what album does not have weaker tracks? Come on …I am a die hard all things Purple fan for almost 50 years but havn’t found one albums that I think has no fillers on it. The playing, the aggression, the sheer power and dedication make Rising stand out for me. Plus the cover, yes. Although I am glad something told me back then it could be a mistake to get a tatoo of it …
Ok, I really understood by now that those lyrics may not be every laywer’s cup of tea, still there is a market for the more, let’s say, Wagnerian style of music and subjects. Consult David Coverdale if you’re more into the flesh and blood (not on the sand necessarily) side of things. As I am too.
On tht desert island on the other hand … I would love to take it easy a bit … calypso anyone?
May 20th, 2026 at 09:17Oh… and that set list thing … I guess noone gets it. Rising was treated like the holy grail by the followers back in the day … my buddies and me were in awe – and I remember to this day how dissapointed we were when On Stage came out and none of the tracks had made it on that live album. With the exception of Stagestruck in a “silly medley” as Uwe wrote. What has that song to do with Man on the Silver Mountain? Why chose a rather weak track and then even cut it o one verse? What was so hard about getting Tarot Woman on stage and on On Stage? Dio played it decades later with Doug A. and it worked (though his voice had suffered a lot by then). My only guess: RB was lazy and didn’t give a fiddler’s fart to work out a new set. A pattern not unknown to certain musicians he used to work with in that other band …
May 20th, 2026 at 09:35This is an album that I hold dear to my heart, but to this day I ask myself: apart from the moments where Carey dominates with the keyboards – Stargazer, A Light In The Black, Tarot Woman – can you hear him in the remaining songs?
May 20th, 2026 at 10:30Rising is simply a work of art: time has always recognized that. I can’t read so much nonsense, especially all at once.
May 20th, 2026 at 10:45Uwe,
May 20th, 2026 at 10:50Every time “Rainbow Raising” is discussed on this blog, you are always negative, bitter and disparaging. I cherish and respect you more than anyone else on this site. He deserved it, with his knowledge, love for Deep Purple, and the Deep Purple family. You’re an encyclopedia, I’m wondering about the Rising album, if something bad happened to you privately when the album was released, maybe the girl of the day left you… (I’m kidding, maybe not), so you disparage Rising. This is still Rainbow’s best album, even for fans from all over the world, that’s how it is. Your reasoning as a musician and as an artist for Rising is not something special.. Sorry, but I don’t agree with you, and probably neither do you. I wish you well..
Uwe,
May 20th, 2026 at 11:50The bass is recorded really low in the mix, plus I think that in the Stargazer song Blackmore is the one playing bass. You have to notice though that Blackmore and Dio shine throughout the album. Epecially at the ending of every song and despite the fact that Blackmore said that at the time he had lost interest in the guitar.
I ve noticed that Blackmore’s playing significantly improved (technically) between 1974 and 1978 and in 1976 it was at its peak. He was doing quite a few new licks, runs and tricks that remain impressive even for today guitar players.
I think this lineup should have done more things together, mainly because of their live performance captured in the “On Stage” album and less because of the “Rising”. My only concern was whether that was the result of Martin Birch’s “divine” editing. When Live in Europe was released I realized that I was right. Blackmore’s playing and Dio’s singing in 1976 were stunning. To my liking they were never better.
@Uwe: Rising was not only influential for other musicians (– and I never got the hype about the artwork–), but more importantly for RJ Dio who found a sound for himself, which he more or less stuck to for the rest of his career. Especially the lyrics are interesting in that concern. Stargazer opens up one of Dio’s lifelong topics: The self-deification of mankind, derived from the the Old Testament’s stories about the garden of eden and the tower of babylon. So you’re right about the babylon part. But I like RJD poetic approces on elementary metaphysical subjects (Where does evil come from?). Of course many famous fantasy stories take inspiration from the same biblical toppics. I never liked fantasy books or movies, but Dio’s voice and his words work well together here.
But surely that might not be for everyone. Some people just have a better connection to more down to earth (2 puns intended) lyrics. Oh, btw: What clearly prosaic, every-day-life toppic was IGB’s Five Moons about again?
May 20th, 2026 at 13:04Iâm happy that Rising exists, it is of historical value in the Purple Universe. Flawed as it is (and I believe it would have benefited from a longer gestation period), I cannot deny its impact over time. Timur is right, it would have done better during the NWOBHM era a few years later though it would have always had a difficult time on US radio because it just doesnât sound great. There is also some light in all the black: Dio sings well on it, perfecting his style, the synth solos are great and suitably flashy, the Blackmore solos largely inspired or at least clever plus – if bombastic, military style drumming is really your thing (itâs not mine as most of you here will know by now) – then I guess you are probably happy with the overbearing drum sound (just donât expect me to like it as I hear no communication between Jimmy and Cozy).
At the time I was somewhat surprised that it didnât do better. It reached a meager #38 at the end of the German Charts (the debut hadnât even charted at all) which for the guitarist of the band who had once reigned them (In Rock #1, Fireball #1, Machine Head #1, Made in Japan #1, WDWTWA #3, Burn #1, Stormbringer #10) was a very poor showing (Rising sales never attained gold or silver status in Germany either). It also proves my point that Ritchie lost more leaving DP than he gained with Rainbow – undiluted Blackmore who has everything his own way is a less commercial and universally appealing commodity than the constantly bickering DP were – that tells you something, doesnât it? Blackmore, it has to be said, never realized DPâs and specifically Mk IIâs magic.
The album has reached deity status in, yes, Iâm using that term, arcane Heavy Metal circles over time, but that doesnât change the fact that in 1976 it made anything but a great splash in the pond of music. Ritchie had lost his commercial nous and he really didnât find it again until DP reconvened in 1984. All help from Russ Ballard, Roger Glover, Graham Bonnet and Joe Lyn Turner could not change that.
Now go and enjoy the anniversary of an album that means so little to Ritchie today he could not even get his arse up for someone to find the superior LA mix of it in the recent box set (which none of you seemed to have bought in droves). đđ
May 20th, 2026 at 13:51@1 @ 8 @10 @15
Uwe, you do post a lot of misinformation and seem to be in the middle of a Rising existential essay crisis.
Elf were never “in” Rainbow, they were hired hands to complete a Ritchie Blackmore solo project. Rainbow formed after that.
The band spent a few weeks in a warehouse rehearsing all the Rising songs before entering the studio. Yes there were time constraints but the album is not rushed, that interpretation is on you.
Whatever reasons they had for the setlist you got a few things wrong. Do You Close Your Eyes weas the original gig opener. Self Portrait was aired, If You Don’t Like Rock and Roll popped out a couple of times. A Light in the Black was in until it wasn’t at Cozy’s behest. In 78 US tour LA Connection made the set. In all they play 220 gigs ish from 75 to 78 so the setlist staying tghe same is hardly surprising. And in 1979 it all changed again. You are miscalculating.
Rainbow Rising is a landmark album. Accept it, constantly ranting isn’t going to change history
May 20th, 2026 at 14:41Rising may not have a great mix, for many of you it lacks bass, but that makes me smile, because most of the productions of the nascent NWOBHM sounded like demo tapes compared to Rising!
May 20th, 2026 at 15:13@ 28- “Blackmore, it has to be said, never realized DPâs and specifically Mk IIâs magic.” What a load of crap. Blackmore just like many other musicians, was always looking for something else. So many other musicians leave their so called ‘success’ behind in pursuit of something different. True artistic pursuit is one way of looking at that scenario. Resting on your laurels and playing it safe is never as rewarding for that type of artist. They are everywhere and not only in music. In regard to your bitter comment Uwe that no one is buying the new box set, we don’t have to, we all purchased the original album. Not everyone pays out for over priced products that don’t have what they may desire, meaning a remix or two. And not everyone is prone to buying repeated releases of the same product. Comparing chart positions and sales is pointless. It is art that people enjoy, whatever that may be. Cheers
May 20th, 2026 at 15:56Ah, my dear brethren Rubber:
The musicians in Elf were never in Rainbow? News to me, but how awfully nice of Ritchie then to let himself be extensively photographed with his pre-âreal Rainbowâ motley crew of sessioneers:
https://ritchieblackmoresrainbow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/rainbow-1-1975.jpg
https://share.google/5fZ7insYKhJUDa5KJ
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRcDy-TIkPQ-maW2_-e4PIubEVIXSDB42ToqS3kAsT68DC1qzbVzXY8E1M&s=10
https://vhx.imgix.net/x-streammetal/assets/78dc793f-bc9c-4050-9b51-22b522df780e.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=360&q=70&w=640
Itâs a bit out of character for him, but if you say so. I can just imagine Craig Gruber tipping Ritchieâs shoulder and asking âHey, can I be on the promo pics for your album too?â and Ritchie graciously answering âSure, Craig, and bring the cleaning lady from the studio too while youâre at it!â
âThey were hired hands âŚâ – as was everyone else who ever played in Rainbow, if I may remind you, Ritchie excepted, only he had equity, everyone else was on a wage.
So according to your count Rainbow added/deleted a handful of songs from/to their set list in the course of how many years? A-ma-zzzing!!! đ¤ What magnitude of diversification. And really only comparable with a Bob Dylan set list where you never know what youâre gonna hear on any given night either. I must have pulled a short straw when I saw Rainbow Mk II in the fall of 1976 and Rainbow Mk III in the fall of 1977 and the sequence of songs was exactly the same, with the only deletion being A Light In The Black and the only addition being a pre-album rendition of LLRnR (which, let it be said, went down well).
May 20th, 2026 at 15:57Lil Tilly, the way I interpret it (–> Hermeneutik), Five Moons is a Sci Fi ballad abouut a new beginning against the odds, it is a song about hope. And that seems to be one of IG’s core themes just like you rightly observed RJD’s penchant for the perils of man’s self-deification.
Pacuha, yours was one of the cutest replies to one of my postings ever, danke schĂśn! đĽ°
I’m not bitter about Rising, why should I be? I just thought both the debut and LLRnR were markedly better in songwritng and was disappointed at the time. However, I am well aware that the album means the world to a whole lot of people, but we’re not in church are we? Did Ritchie play well on Rising? Yes. Did Dio sing well? Of course. Did Carey excel with his synth solos? Sure! But that still leaves a drum style I did not like and non-descript bass playing plus flat rhythm keyboards. It amazes me that everyone seems to be such a fan of Cozy’s playing, he’s the kind of drummer who would have me turn around immediately at an audition and say: “Sorry, I don’t think this is gonna work!” I have never ever heard
(i) an elegant drum fill from Cozy, or
(ii) an intricate, interesting and groovy bass drum pattern.
That makes it hard for me to adore him as a drummer, I honestly prefer Keith Moon because he was at least unpredictable and had a chaotic musicality around him. Someone once said that Cozy knew exactly ten fills which he would remasticate – that is grossly unjust, I think it was more like a dozen.
Was I unhappy in love as a teen? Pretty much consistently from 1975 to 1979 I would say. Mostly with Edith, who is today my wife, but that is another and rather long story! đ¤ Did that affect my like/dislike for Rainbow? Not that I know of though a couple of more ballads like this one might have helped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrudT410TAI
I did like Rainbow Eyes btw.
But largely Rainbow was not romantic music, the Little Wing rip-off Catch the Rainbow (and of course Temple of the King) aside. You couldn’t dance to most of their music either which would have been nice to get my mind off the heartbreak now that you mention it. But for that I had to turn to Maxine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsHO1btU_kc
Maybe my issue with Rainbow in the mid 70s was that I found their music very little urban. While I’m a country boy myself (only moving to a bigger city in the early 80s), I was always drawn to more metropolitan music like, say, (MC5ish) The Dictators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE12qenJMt8&t=610s
Forgive me for finding that music more relevant to me as a 16-year-old than Rainbow’s stately and stern-browed fantasy metal. I’ll try to do better next time round!
PS: We learn from all this: Don’t listen to Rainbow if you are heartbroken!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85swqiuWLek
May 20th, 2026 at 19:48âLook at my flesh and bone
Now, look, look, look, look,
Look at my tower of stone
I see a rainbow rising
Look there, on the horizon
And Iâm coming home, Iâm coming home, Iâm coming homeâ
Oh please MacGregor, be an adult for once, seriously, what a load of utter escapist bollocks!
https://media1.tenor.com/m/jvAuBK9Qp0AAAAAC/daria-emotion.gif
BTW, I agree that Tarot Woman, Stargazer and A Light In The Black (in that sequence) are – relatively – the strongest tracks on the album. A Light In The Black is kinda silly, but at least life-affirming in its dumbness. Run With The Wolf is mediocre, Lady Starstruck is a strained attempt at replicating the commercially successful shuffle hits of Black Night and Strange Kind Of Woman (with none of their charm) and Do You Close Your Eyes is an excruciatingly unpleasant barrage of noise. Strategically located at the end of side A so you could lift the needle just in time. To then ask your juvenile sex partner: “Would you now like to hear side B?” đ No wonder I didn’t score with Edith. đ
May 20th, 2026 at 21:15“Rising may not have a great mix, for many of you it lacks bass, but that makes me smile, because most of the productions of the nascent NWOBHM sounded like demo tapes compared to Rising!
Dunno, cherished Fla76, but I can hear the bass chugging along here plenty fine …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L397TWLwrUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKuuHfMx3CQ
Ian Hill doing his best “I am a metronome!”-Roger Glover! đ
Even bands lesser endowed than Judas Priest seem to be able to get the bass heard, just listen to these hapless unknowns from the Ruskin Arms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7WAmOyuuCM
And over on the other side of the Atlantic, the art of making a bass guitar audible was well-known too around the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIAS9mygJi8
It is not really any more difficult or daunting than, say, jumping off a tower of stone in an arid region, hoping for thermal lift and expecting to fly, people have even written songs about it, just sayin’.
More 1976 antique artefacts of audible bass, this time courtesy of Roger Glover (both producing and playing bass):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82_jIzWHPUY
The in these quarters for his abilites much derided Bob Ezrin wasn’t too bad in getting a bass heard either in 1976 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkyqa7FS4Co
May 20th, 2026 at 22:20“True artistic pursuit is one way of looking at that scenario. Resting on your laurels and playing it safe is never as rewarding for that type of artist.”
Hear, hear, you wordwaffling wombat! “Artistic pursuit”, sure lasted a long time – all of three years – before Ritchie heard this …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hWNHqaMrJM
I can really feel the “artistic pursuit” weighing ole Ritchie down as he labored with that number. A man dying for his art, no less.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saqkS_pSEWI
PS: Never mind girls, I liked your songs, “artistic pursuit” or not (and disregarding the despicable Apartheid back home for a moment). Nicely audible bass btw too, South African recording studios must have been far ahead back then …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJEXyfwa20g
Speaking of South African bands, anybody remember these guys?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkTed9BNkt4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAHFVz9Q8ys
May 20th, 2026 at 22:53Mr. R. Rising: “Man, they warned me that hitting the big Five-O was hard, but this has to be the worst birthday party ever!!!” đ
May 20th, 2026 at 23:34Simon Robinson of the DPAS wrote once that the period of Ritchie Blackmore’s best and most innovative playing was from 1973 until 1978, and I agree with this statement.
May 21st, 2026 at 00:59It appears his playing became stagnant afterwards.
@33
And yet, even though The Dictators had 2 Eric Bloom’s they never quite made it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gpi8PxoQPg
Fun Fact: Al Bouchard who co wrote the above would later join the band.
May 21st, 2026 at 02:15@33
âWas I unhappy in love as a teen? Pretty much consistently from 1975 to 1979 I would say. Mostly with Edith, who is today my wife, but that is another and rather long story! đ¤ â
Awww Uwe! đđ¤
You are such an old romantic after all!
I would simply love to hear the whole story đĽ°
I know of a similar story between a man and a woman, but there is no result there yet.
I am a sucker for true love and romance đđĽâ¤ď¸
Letâs celebrate with a beautiful love song:
https://youtu.be/3OJL_rIjXlg?is=lhywZFtIQ0gCse4P
đđ
Have a lovely and hopefully earthquake free day today everybody đ¤ đ
May 21st, 2026 at 04:44May the warm coffee be with you all â¤ď¸
@ 34- so you don’t like the inscription that I am going to have set on your headstone Uwe. At least you have given me a heads up, thanks for that. I will contact the Stonemason and keep him on hold. Mind you, how long do we have to wait? I would have thought you would have been proud to have the tallest headstone in history. Looking at your tower of stone, shining on the horizon……………Cheers.
May 21st, 2026 at 05:31I understand the assessment of the Rising album as fundamental. Given the circumstances in which hard rock found itself in 1976, and times were difficult, there was no Deep Purple, ……Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep and others were not creative, punk was on the rise, Rainbow got a historic opportunity to save or bury HR. It was not enough to preserve the ‘old’ hard rock, it needed to be modernized in order to bring it closer to new generations, It also had to sound different from Deep Purple. It was a difficult task with an extremely uncertain outcome, Ritchie together with Ronnie with the Rising album succeeded .. and that is the fact.
May 21st, 2026 at 07:23Personally, for me, the first album is the best (the band’s history has shown it..it has three of the five most listened to Rainbow songs (“Man on the Silver Mountain, The Temple of the King and Catch the Rainbow) Sixteenth Century Greensleeves is very close (On Stage is a better version) and two groove songs..first “funky” (as if it were from the album Stormbringer) “Snake Charmer” ( Craig Gruber’s virtuoso bass line )and the cover of Still I’m Sad the best first version of the band (out of three)…better than the Boney M cover haha). Ronnie was still a great rock singer back then..before he turned into an HM singer, an icon
In the end..if you are a fan of DP musical heritage, there is no bad Rainbow studio album.It’s all a matter of personal musical taste.
Ritchie knew
Didn’t really follow Rainbow music, but “Stargazer” is one of the most unbelievable rock vocal performances I’ve ever heard
This epic track might be the twin-brother of “Kashmir”, but Dio’s exceptional vocal made it another level. He is of course exceptional in all the songs he sang (Dio is synonym of “giving his all”). But if one threat me with question what’s the best Dio vocal performance, I will quickly answer “”Stargazer”.
The song’s appearance in Rising was like Infinite (“Time for Bedlam”) or Slide it In (“Slow ‘n Easy”). Those songs were too good, different level compared to the rest of the album. I’m not saying the rest are mediocre mind you, just different level.
Never get bored listening to this brilliant song, including the covers of it like the one by Dream Theater.
May 21st, 2026 at 09:57@ 27, Tilly, headshot!
I love “Five Moons” by IGB, but for the love of me – I don’t know how and why Gillan came up with such lyrics for the track. The music, however – is a pure bliss. It just flows.
@ 43, Andre – to the point! Most everybody cries out the guitar solo in “Stargazer” (which IS amazing), but Ronnie is really killing it, some of the corners of his vocal performance are surely of those once-in-a-lifetime thing. Graham did it later on with real aplomb (the Alborg, DK bootleg from few days before Donnington, August 1980 – has much superior live version to the Castle DT take), although even for him the “ooh, I see his face! where is your star? Is it FAAAAR?” highs were too tough to handle cleanly. JLT blew it – as he used to over-do and piss take the older Rainbow material. I remember that Tony Martin did “Stargazer” with Cozy Powell Band live in the… 1992 – it was? and he sounded surprisingly pretty well in it…
But Ronnie’s vocal level on this one? Untouchable!
May 21st, 2026 at 11:38For folks wanting more bass in Rising, if you can find a copy of CD that was mixed in Los Angeles it has a longer intro and the bass is more up front. Supposedly, when the record was first mixed there, it also had a longer intro and more bass but the record company nixed this version and it was then mixed in NY with the bass much lower in the mix. I was lucky enough to find a CD mixed in LA. I started typing this earlier but had to leave screen.
May 21st, 2026 at 11:38#35 Uwe:
I said NWOBHM…I didn’t say “the old Judas” with big budget production!
May 21st, 2026 at 12:561. I’m gonna win today’s Mr Unpopularity contest easy! Andre S, I didn’t like Kashmir either! đ I thought it was plodding. My favorite Physical Graffiti tracks were In My Time Of Dying (great track) and Boggie With Stu (great fun).
I’m not a great fan of all that leaden stuff, on Slide It In, my favorite track is not Slow ‘n Easy (bo-rrring!), but predictably something much more poppy with a Trapeze’ish riff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND2nkwQq1gw
Hey, I like my hard rock to be tuneful!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SQmLxr5x2s
I’m just like Joey Ramone (who also dug DP’s In Rock), he loved that BCR song too. đ¤
2. Ivica, you have a point, Rainbow didn’t have it easy when Rising was released. There was a heavy rock drought in the mid to latish 70s and Rainbow were one of the few acts who kept the flag flying. That was commendable, so danke Ritchie! I also agree that Blackmore’s guitar playing peaked in the mid 70s though it also became somewhat diva’esque around that time and lost some of the fluid, bluesy humor it had in the early 70s.
3. Russ, you never cease to amaze underneath that ole dusty muscle shirt: Someone who knows The Dictators! But wasn’t pretty much everyone in the band NYC-Jewish? Sandy Pearlman, BĂC’s svengali/manager/co-songwriter, was also their manager. I loved that band, somewhere between Punk/Garage/”urban college Hard Rock”/Stooges/MC5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST5uWbbmjsM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LOol4HLc5c (What a piano riff!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLuXiedNBBc
Of course there were parallels to BĂC, but then BĂC are great (mostly Jewish) sons of the Big Apple too. You simply have to love a band consisting of Jewish New Yorkers and writing a song like this … đ¤Ł
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgzB83KBMaY
(BTW, that is the later Twisted Sister bassist Mark “The Animal” Mendoza aka Mark Glickman – not the former Whitesnake/Thin Lizzy guy of the same name – adeptly playing the Gibson Grabber bass!)
Handsome Dick Manitoba aka Richard Blum would have had a hard time getting a job with Don Henley’s outfit as a background singer, but his less than note-perfect voice has endless charm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG4WyOcjDlA
4. Mr. R. Rising: âMan, they warned me that hitting the big Five-O was hard, but this has to be the worst birthday party ever!!!â đ
Faraway J, that comment is priceless!!! đ¤Łđ But debate culture is precious too. đ We’d be in Red China if we all agreed on everything.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1008xn/p06y1c0w.jpg
PS: Did I tell you that one of my vinyl copies of Rising (I have like half a dozen + five different masters of the CD) is signed twice by Tony Carey, several decades apart?
May 21st, 2026 at 14:01After a destroying afternoon I thought….
Ok, lets visit THS.
Thinking the vinegar d be sqeezed out of me. Or ought I call it vitriol.
Jeeez, for 50 years this album has been a chestnut and then again to see it almost get butchered…
Btw, I see Steves PIC on top of the page.
I thought we d agreed to leave that behind us after 3 decades of masochism?
Dont recall a Roundabout incl Blackers,without whom we all d not be here,talking for the zillionth time about the same thing again.
Are GH, DC, Evans and Simper on the menu?
I did buy new spectacles for the first time ever, maybe I ve been almost blind before?
May 21st, 2026 at 15:34Hello.
Phew!
We have a man on a mission here, don´t you think. And don´t get me wrong, he has been there and done that, but…
Like I said before, we do like different things and everybody has an opinion to share.
Being a drummer, well sort of, at least, I think I understand a bit of playing drums.
In a live situation, it´s so (too) easy to rush things up. So did the late great Cozy. And he is not the only one whos´s rushed the tempos. BUT! Ritchie has always had his fondness to tease Cozy with ever faster tempo. For example in Lazy. He enjoyed to play that song or the riff at least, so fast as possible. He tested and teased, or shall we say challenged Cozy with his way to play too fast on purpose. Blackmore´s pranks, once again. And what could you do in that kind of situation? You play just the very same tempo.
Cozy´s style is very personal and immediately recognisable. Every drummer´s is not. He was not (and I think he didn´t want to be another) Art Blakey, Steve Gadd or Billy Cobham.
Cozy had a couple of trademark fills he used and always wanted to play, but he did it with sheer POWER. I have told this before, but one time I had the pleasure to talk about these things with Bobby Rondinelli. He had the same opinion. Cozy hit it HARD. And that was one thing Blackmore absolutely wanted from his drummer. He couldn´t get Bonzo, Cozy was the second best choice.
Kippis.
May 21st, 2026 at 15:37@36 Uwe – there was quite a bit of good South African rock in the 70s. Thanks for the Stingray footage, never saw them in action before.
Circus was another good SA group, maybe you know them?
Their only LP, “In The Arena”, was an interesting mix of prog, hard rock and glam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2asbQAqnI0&list=RDV2asbQAqnI0&start_radio=1
But Clout’s success caused Circus’ demise – some members jumped ship to become Clout’s backing band, and the rest went their separate ways.
@49 Hiza – “Cozy’s style is very personal and immediately recognisable” – yes! His power and ahead-of-the-beat playing gave him a very distinctive sound.
While I prefer Rainbow’s debut to “Rising”, can’t imagine the latter record would have had the same impact without Cozy. Nor “Slide It In”.
May 21st, 2026 at 18:33Hiza, I agree that Cozy’s drumming was a physical sensation and how that is what made his playing stand out, Neil Murray, his longtime rhythm section partner in crime has said the same thing when asked how he compared to Little Ian. He also said that Little Ian was actually sensitive to what the bassist played which made it a joy to play with him while playing with Cozy was more like working out, which could also be joyful.
But answer me this: If you were like me and thought that CTTB and PAL’s Malice In Wonderland were pinnacles of nuanced and smart, yet forceful rock drumming, then what should have attracted me to Cozy’s drumming? I didn’t even like his RAK solo singles before he joined Rainbow, deeming them novelty records!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csFw4RdacxE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SENIl8GIn8
I had no issues with Gary Driscoll’s drumming, the guy was groovy. A word the many Cozy Powell supporters have yet to use when describing the style of their idol drummer. Someone else rather than me once said it: Cozy drummed like you think a rock drummer must play if you’re a teenager. (I obviously wasn’t sufficiently one, it must have been the heartbreak thing.)
I disagree on the speed/tempo thing: It’s not the job of the drummer to follow the lead guitarist’s lack of timing and appropriate bpm. Blackmore’s accuracy suffered when he speeded the songs up too much. Live he couldn’t even play the sixteenths in MOTSM’s “Come Down With Fire”-part anymore, which he had laid down to great effect in the studio, rather relegating those to his keyboarders. Am I the only one who hears this? Playing a song too fast is to me like changing the key – you can ruin it that way.
And hitting hard might be relevant in boxing, but I fail to see the musical aspect of it.
May 21st, 2026 at 20:02I don’t think that Blackmore fired Elf members because of musical abilities or poor performance. Driscoll was far more closer to Bonzo than Cozy but was clumsy, unsure for himself. Lee Soule was asked to stay but decided to leave.
May 21st, 2026 at 21:37I get Uwe’s preference to the first album. It was a Purple-like approach and so did Dio and Blackmore themselves.
But i can’t help noticing that Rainbow MKII live was on fire. I have never ever heard a ballad sound so dangerous like Catch the Rainbow. I think somewhere in the middle of the song they play a quiet part and you get complete silence from the crowd and suddenly Cozy and Ritchie come with full power reminding me of Child in time solo climax in the LP in Rock. Cozy uses the high hats beautifully. Tony is at another scale but for some reason it fits wonderfully. Power and Emotion.
Ritchie, Cozy and Tony never played better
South Africa, while I am unaware of their bands in rock or pop music per se. Eddie Kramer was from that neck of the woods. Trevor Rabin with the band Rabbitt before he headed to old Blighty and no doubt many other musicians who have been successful when emigrating to Britain, Europe or the USA. A good new interview with Kramer is at Rick Beato’s site and also one with Karin’s favourite vocalist Geddy Lee. I watched the Dweezil Zappa one last night. His take on EVH’s technique etc, good stuff. I will now check out some of the SA links here at present. I am still not game to click on all those links Karin sent. Very intimidating that is! All I hear when approaching that list is Will Robinson “warning, warning” ‘danger, danger’. Cheers.
May 21st, 2026 at 22:29Of course it is the robot in Lost in Space that warns young Will with that catch phrase. Maybe we could have a robot here warning us, it has been mentioned before in regard to Uwe’s lists at times. Karin’s list takes the cake though. A new horizon has dawned. Or a new Hell has opened up in front of us innocent folk. Cheers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_(Lost_in_Space)
May 21st, 2026 at 22:39@ 47
“…you never cease to amaze underneath that ole dusty muscle shirt: Someone who knows The Dictators!”
Yeah, my head is crammed chock-full of useless facts.
Didn’t know that Dick did a cover of Eve of Destruction. It’s as relevant today as it was 60 years ago.
Someone should resurrect this gem as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3REXu1ZO3BY
RE: Master Race Rock… The way things are today, if someone released a song with a title that they would get cancelled in a New York minute. Even though it has about as much to do with national socialism as Back to Africa has to do with Racism. People are so quick to get upset about stuff without bothering to get the facts… Some things never change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUT_lsdV3o4
Hope I’m not sounding too opinionated or political. It just sort of involuntarily came spewing forth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVFtr5pbOGM
May 21st, 2026 at 23:04Uwe, Iâm willing to believe the sixteenth notes in Man on the Silver Mountain caused civilisation to wobble on its axis, although most of us were busy enjoying the actual gig rather than conducting a forensic investigation into Ritchie Blackmoreâs picking hand.
Somewhere, Ritchie has already walked off stage, donned a pilgrim hat, retired to a quiet life sipping Pilsner not giving two hoots about someone tilting over a musical arrangement that worked.
“And hitting hard might be relevant in boxing, but I fail to see the musical aspect of it”……this is exactly the kind of statement Dietrich Bonhoeffer had in mind when he warned that stupidity is more dangerous than malice.
Music isnât a laboratory exercise in note density and harmonic motion. Sometimes âhitting hardâ is the whole point. Deep Purple, Rainbow, Sabbath, Zeppelin â they werenât trying to win a conservatory prize, they were trying to make the walls shake.
And honestly, I still donât read most of your comments in full. Life contains enough unavoidable spam already.
May 21st, 2026 at 23:28Skippy, I agree that Cozyâs cartoon style drumming is a part of Risingâs sonic furor. He contributed greatly to how that album sounded. Iâve never said that his drumming style wasnât immediately recognizable.
I donât think he sounded anywhere as idiosyncratic on Slide It In or with MSG for that matter. He was a better fit with Black Sabbath and especially, yet surprisingly so, with Emerson, Lake & Powell. His Ăźber-dramatic drumming proved a good fit there and apparently he enjoyed playing with Keith and Greg (personal issues aside) the most in his career. I actually enjoy his playing on the ELPowell album, it makes me smile in its military parade splendor.
But if someone asked me to play an album to him that overtly showcases Cozyâs style, yeah, Iâd play him Rising too! You canât really get Cozy sounding better on record.
Slide It In in its original form sounded distraught to me. Mel and Micky didnât gel, neither did Colin and Cozy, Jon was somewhat in midair. They then overpainted the original with Sykesâ (but he didnât gel with Mel – rhymes! – either) and Murrayâs guitar and bass parts, but the outcome wasnât really cohesive either. Things no longer interlocked as smoothly and naturally as they had done in the Marsden-Moody-Murray-Paice era.
May 22nd, 2026 at 06:17I think Cozy’s stint with the Jeff Beck Group showed that he was more than just a hard hittin’ PrĂźgler. He surely made the drummer a star in his own right, he became a trademark and much more recognised than other drummers – but I guess that wasn’t the only reason people like Blackmore, Brain May, Jeff Beck, Michael Schenker or David Coverdale called for his services. He was one hell of a showman (his Tschaikowksy solo in WS was absolutely out of place there, ridiculous!) with his looks, his big bad bass drums and drumsticks the size of a boy’s arms. But he sure provided some nice drumming too. “He plays through my songs like a hot knife goes through butter!” as DC once put it. There are many drummers out there that really hit hard – and ONLY hit hard (and fast that is) but I don’t think that verdict does Cozy justice.
Of course I always prefered IP by far. But I don’t know (and I guess I don’t want to) how Rising would have sounded had little Ian played on it. And I enjoy Slide it in to this day.
May 22nd, 2026 at 08:30But Rubber, you are perfectly free to judge my posts without reading them fully! Ignorance is strength after all. I otoh devour every word you write, your rants are often of revelatory nature.
And let me divulge a musical secret to you: There is no need to hit hard to make the walls shake. Let Paicey explain that to you more in depth. Or Wagner. đĽ°
May 22nd, 2026 at 08:57mac gregorđđż
May 22nd, 2026 at 10:271. See Skippy, and I had never heard of Circus and just ordered their CD via Ebay, vielen Dank.
2. Russ, now you’re really piling it on! Steppenwolf’s Monster? What a great album that was. It also broke their neck commercially, guess US radio stations didn’t find a bunch of German origin Canucks mouthing off about the Vietnam War all that hot.
3. Manos, absolutely no contest from me that Rainbow Mk II and III were live exciting (albeit On Stage did not capture that at all) or that Dio sang well on Rising (actually on all Rainbow albums). And Cozy drummed Catch the Little Wing, a lovely song even if purloined from Hendrix, wth a rare sentiment of his: feeling. So there was some light in the black and I did enjoy both shows at the time – live you could at least hear Jimmy Bain or Bob Daisley, that was an added bonus. BTW: LLRnR (the album) is liked by me, the only song I regard as a little naff is Sensitive To Light, but Lady of the Lake, Gates of Babylon and Rainbow Eyes are all favorites. Even The Shed, typical Powell stomp that it is, is kinda fun.
Some of Blackmore’s live solos were awe-inspring around that time. What he did lose compared to the Mk II heydays was however a willingness to communicate and interact with other players in the band. Within Rainbow I thought that Ritchie mostly played for Cozy and Cozy for him – were they perhaps the original role model for The White Stripes? đ
May 22nd, 2026 at 11:35Cozy was amazing.
I saw him, along Neil Murray, with Brian May in the early 90s (I was the only idiot shouting “Rainbow!!” in the ->FOOTBALL<- stadium crowd).
They played "Resurrection" with thunderous drum solo included, and later, of all songs, "Since you been gone" (which supposedly he hated!)
He was regarded as an energy boost (both musically and personally) by every band he joined but was not granted co-leadership by neither Ritchie, Michael or David. Thus, he kept moving on.
Only Iommi gave Cozy an almost equal stature only to see it all crumble away by the frustrating Dio reunion.
Much like Thorsun says about Jon Lord, Cozy had "IT", that incredible thrust of energy and attitude that made them legendary and unforgettable as musicians.
Guys like Cozy and Jon didn't just play their instruments, they played their BANDS.
Best regards, J.-
May 22nd, 2026 at 13:45Hello.
Thank you Skippy O´Nasica @50.
Uwe @51. I (don´t and) didn´t compare Cozy to Ian Paice. Why on earth I should? It´s just the same thing, if we compare Hughes to Glover. Marvellous players, but sure they are different. Talked once with Ian. He did say something like that when playing with Roger, he got the chance to play more. And with Glenn (yes you guessed it right) he thought that it would be wiser to play less, because Hughes was playing more (than Glover).
Drummer and bassist are mainly there to back up other players. The rhythm section is the foundation of the band or the orchestra. They follow the leader. Because everybody can´t lead. In principle of course.
Thanks Rubber Haddock @56. “They weren´t trying to win a conservatory prize.” YES.
Someone once told me that being academic (player) kills the improvisation. I think he had the point. But, I´m not putting down any skilled musician that reads music (notes). I myself being just lazy. I have no time to learn to read notes. I just want to play!
Max @58. You´re quite right, and it´s of course important to remember Jeff Beck here and Cozy´s time with him. But when I wrote about Cozy´s style, (one of) his trademark(s), of hitting hard, I didn´t mean that that was all he did. Not at all. He was and IS very versatile. It was good for him to have the chance to play in for example Emerson Lake and Powell, too. Very different stuff once again.
J From Far Away @62. Good that you mentioned Brian May. It´s a big shame that they have not released that Brixton Academy 1993 gig officially as a DVD and/or Blu-Ray yet!
Time to make some coffee.
Kippis mates!
May 22nd, 2026 at 17:19@59
Uwe, âignorance is strengthâ only really works if someone is refusing knowledge, not selectively avoiding another 4,000-word symposium on Rainbow tempo variations and sixteenth-note trauma.
And nobody said music has to hit hard all the time. But pretending impact has no musical value in hard rock is bizarre. Cozy Powellâs timing, weight and attack changed the whole feel of Rainbow. That was the point. Rock music evolved because different players brought different energies, not because one universal theory of âcorrectâ dynamics existed.
You prefer swing, groove and nuance â fair enough, big band jazz, modern jazz is in my collection and I have seen some of the greats.
Other people love the sheer force and drama of Rising-era Rainbow. Preferences are personal, not evidence that everyone else misunderstood the music for fifty years while you alone decoded it correctly.
Thatâs the huge leap here. Most people visit The Highway Star because it gathers news about their favourite band and its offshoots in one place, not to be informed that their enjoyment is technically flawed by a self-appointed musical review board of one.
Paicey understood dynamics better than almost anyone â which is precisely why, when the moment demanded it, Deep Purple could still sound like a collapsing steel mill.
Also, âI devour every word you writeâ sounds less like a compliment and more like a hostage situation.
May 22nd, 2026 at 20:04One of the interesting developments with the critique of Rainbow Rising’s (lack of) bass is no one in the whole wide world mentioned it until Ritchie said in an interview circa 2015, for the Ritchie Blacmore Story, he would like to redo it with more bass.
39 years no one asked for more bass and now all anyone talks about is the lack of bass.
There is bass, you’ve duped yourselves into not hearing it. The only not so good version of Rising is the first CD release, flat as the disc.
May 22nd, 2026 at 20:24Hiza, I did not think you meant Cozy was only hitting hard.
May 22nd, 2026 at 21:14I had the feeling he was getting some stick from one or another member here and was just out to protect poor Cozy. RIP
Yup, that co-leadership thing, Faraway J. I’m not even sure that was an ego issue of his and not more of an outflow of the adopted kid wishing to belong. He wanted something to call his (co-)own. He once bristled in a Rainbow era interview at the question how it was to “work for Blackmore”: “I don’t WORK for Blackmore. I worked for two years of my life for Jeff Beck and it got me nowhere!” But neither Bedlam nor Strange Brew (his project with Clem Clempson and Greg Ridley from Humble Pie) took off – nor the envisaged (and rehearsed) trio with Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer (on bass).
I don’t blame him for leaving my countryman Michael eventually – Schenker is excruciatingly difficult and just not consistent. And Coverdale’s decision to sever ties with Cozy before the recording sessions for 1987/Serpens Albus began was just a very, very cold one – as DC was prone to take whenever he was asked to relinquish control (or money).
Brian May at least treated Cozy well, but never wanted to go out on the road for long to establish himself as a solo artist. ELPowell floundered because Cozy and Greg Lake didn’t get along on a personal level and Carl Palmer’s shadow of course loomed large all the way from Asia. I agree that Sabbath was a home at least for a while.
And that he and Neil Murray resurrected Peter Green from apathy and hiatus only for Cozy to then hear from Peter’s “minders” that his drumming was too loud and not right for the group, ousting him in the process, was tragic.
May 22nd, 2026 at 23:04Errm, call me professionally deformed, Rubber, but I noticed the absence of an audible bass guitar already when the album came out in 1976! But I thought for the longest time that it was a conscious decision: Turn Ritchie, Cozy and Ronnie up as loud as you can at the expense of Jimmy’s and Tony’s bass and rhythm keyboard playing. Yet these days it seems that no one in the band bore responsibility and not Martin Birch either (Bain has said that his bass was plenty loud on the original Munich mixes), but that the US record company went off the rails messing with the Munich mix. Apparently no one from the band heard the final mix before it was released. Time was of the essence, maybe Ritchie wanted the album out before DP made their dissolution known (he must have heard something earlier than the public given his contacts to the purple organization). And then there are those two different mixes, the more prevalent NYC one and the LA one which features indeed a more audible bass though it is still not great. And exactly the latter mix was not – infuriatingly so – included on the recent boxed set release.
I’m in agreement with you that Cozy’s drumming had a huge impact on Rainbow. And also that that was what Ritchie wanted at the time. But I prefer a more refined drum technique, Cozy clobbered too much for my taste. And I don’t think that Rainbow’s Rising is necessarily heavier than DP’s Burn album or even Machine Head, it’s perhaps more massive and monolithic, but I find MH and Burn the much more dynamic, yet not bludgeoning records. But that is a matter of sheer taste, just as some people like the density and impenetrability of Nickelback’s or Rammstein’s wall of sound while other people find it quickly tiring and all too much.
Anybody who loves Rising for what it is, is free to do so, it’s not like I have to leave the room when I hear it playing. Rainbow in the fall of 1976 was my first rock concert ever and I did not come away disappointed.
May 23rd, 2026 at 01:32Uwe, I admire the confidence required to retrospectively position yourself as the lone 1976 audiophile prophet who detected the Great Rainbow Bass Crisis decades before the rest of humanity caught up.
But this is exactly the issue people keep reacting to. Every discussion somehow becomes a sprawling demonstration of how your hearing, your taste and your analysis operate on a higher plane than the mere mortals who simply loved Rising as one of the greatest hard rock albums ever made.
You hear âabsence of audible bassâ, others hear atmosphere and space. You hear Cozy âclobberingâ, others hear one of the defining drum performances in rock history. Neither is objectively correct because music isnât a lab report.
And thatâs the leap you keep making: assuming your preferences amount to deeper understanding rather than just⌠your preferences.
Honestly, the image of you sitting in 1976 gravely diagnosing the bass response on Rising while the rest of us peasants were busy having our faces melted by Stargazer is unintentionally hilarious.
At some point itâs okay to let legendary albums be legendary albums without conducting a 50-year forensic inquiry into their sub frequencies and sixteenth notes. Otherwise enjoying rock music starts to resemble an insurance assessment.
Somewhere, Ritchie Blackmore has quietly left the stage again whilst my original vinyl is spinning. And hark, it’s as fine as ever, has enough bass and is still one of the greatest albums ever released.
May 23rd, 2026 at 12:42My fading and feeble memory seems to indicate that the issue âWhere did the bass go on Rising?â was frequently discussed already in the early 90s in the Darker Than Blue/Simon Robinson era. It was there where I first heard the terms âLA Mixâ as opposed to âNY(C) Mixâ and I remember thinking what the hell that meant because as a European I only knew the inferior NY Mix. I didnât hear the bassier LA Mix until some time after the Millennium. For people who wonder what this is all about âŚ
Tarot Woman LA Mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qIlHo_fyis
Tarot Woman NY(C) Mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEpyLLL10qo
The LA Mix wonât go down in the eons of time as a Jimmy Bain solo album either, but his bass is markedly more present.
Lieber Rubber (if you have read that far ⌠đ), when you say that the âlack of bassâ-issue was resolved for you with the second CD reissue of Rising, does that mean you already had back then access to the LA Mix? Getting a hold of that Mix in Europe was difficult for a long time.
And then they donât include it on the new Temple of the King set ⌠đđ¤ Iâm not even sure Ritchie knows it exists or has ever heard it. Like many artists, he doesnât take much of an interest in his work once it has left the assembly line.
May 23rd, 2026 at 13:56Uwe, this is actually much more reasonable because now weâre discussing different mixes and mastering history rather than treating Rising like a failed engineering project requiring a UN inquiry.
And yes, I had heard later CD versions and better transfers by the time the whole âmissing bassâ discussion started surfacing more widely online. My point was never that the mixes are identical â clearly they arenât â just that for decades most people still experienced Rising as a towering hard rock album rather than sitting there traumatised by insufficient Jimmy Bain frequencies.
And context matters. In 1976 Rising sounded absolutely immense compared to most of its peers. It had space, power, atmosphere and clarity without turning into mud. Cozyâs drums sounded like artillery, Ronnie was towering over the whole thing and Ritchieâs guitar cut through with that icy precision Martin Birch was brilliant at capturing. Nobody at the time was putting it on and thinking: âTragic really, but if only the bass guitar were 2dB louder this could have worked.â
The thing that keeps amusing me is how these discussions can drift from:
âinteresting alternate mixâ
to
âthis legendary album was secretly sonically broken all alongâ.
It wasnât. It sounded like Rising. Which is why people still talk about it fifty years later.
The audio quality of Rising on the new boxset is good, no disappointment here
May 23rd, 2026 at 17:39M2C:
I honestly can’t remember if I got “Rising” on CD or vinyl first, but I immediately noticed the timing difference on “Tarot Woman”, the final low D drone hanging around much longer before the guitar riff on the CD version that on the vinyl one.
To me it was normal that CDs had more bass frequency response than vinyl LPs so I thought nothing of that.
And, as stated above, could have never made any difference as I was MESMERIZED by “Stargazer”, the olympic gold medal standard for rock vocal performances and an amazing song in every way.
Did the rest of the LP live up to it? No.
Both previous and succeeding LPs are more balanced affairs and PERSONALLY I prefer LLRNR, an album I truly love.
When the Rising Deluxe version came out, I listened to the mixes back to back and I still do prefer the NY one. I mean no slight to either Jimmy Bain or Martin Birch (whom I adore) but I prefer the spotlight on the Ronnie-Ritchie-Cozy triumvirate and not on the bass.
Again, just personal preference.
Nevertheless, TMIB’s mention of REDOing the album (instead of “remixing”) does intrigue me. Could the master tapes have been lost and he is aware of it, perhaps?
Have a great weekend y’all
May 23rd, 2026 at 17:43Cheers.-
On another (sub)topic:
Do you guys have a favorite live rendering of the meagerly aired Rising tracks?
For me:
Best SG/ALITB performance -> Miami 1976 (aka. Miami Wizard), they REALLY got the tempos right (no plodding) and Ronnie’s final “STAR!!” shout is like “THAT’s how it’s done kids!!!”
Best Tony Carey solo spot -> Cologne 1976.
(Won’t bother with Starstruck’s lone verse or Do You Close Your Eyes)
Best, J.-
May 23rd, 2026 at 18:44Gee there is a big difference in those two mixes to my ears. It drives home my frustration as to the latest box set NOT having that LA mix as an alternative. Isn’t that what box sets these days are all about, well some of them at least. Providing an alternative take on a product. Still pissed off and still resisting purchasing that set, especially for the price it is. I wouldn’t hesitate if that LA mix was in it! Cheers.
May 23rd, 2026 at 23:15#68: Would Stargazer have benefitted from having IP on drums? Would it have had the same intro that gets such a big response whenever it’s played by tribute bands? All this considered, Cozy was probably the right drummer for Rainbow at that time. However, if I had to choose between Stormbringer, CTTB and Rising, I would choose SB and CTTB. Those albums have no “skippers” (Run with the Wolf on Rising) and are consistently strong from start to finish, CTTB even more so with the way its sequencing builds the momentum, culminating in YKOM, which sits so well together with TTA/OTG. A perfect album if there ever was one, subjectively speaking.
May 24th, 2026 at 05:57Fair enough, Cozy was the right drummer for Ritchieâs vision at the time and Stargazer would have turned out completely different had David, Glenn, Jon and Litte Ian gotten their hands on that riff.
If ultimate focus on the Blackmore-Dio-Powell triumvirate is your working assumption, then I guess the NY mix is your wet dream: It showcased guitar, vocals and drums almost to the exclusion of bass and keyboards (ignoring synth intros and solos). What people love about Rising is the relentless ferocity and dedication to cause, but I donât really hear a band operating, not like DP, early WS, IGB and GILLAN operated as bands. I like every instrument to play something vital and interesting and be audible doing it – I guess I heard too much Blood, Sweat & Tears as a teen!
https://youtu.be/NNexeGi8NKg
But to me, Rising simply doesnât sound round with its extreme bare-bones approach, much less round than for instance LLRnR which I consider all-in-all perhaps Rainbowâs best produced and mixed record (better even than what Roger did on the four follow-ups). It is certainly Martin Birchâs best engineering and production job with Rainbow. By a mile.
Iâve been racking my brains, Herr MacGregor, why the LA Mix did not see inclusion on the set. Was it plain ignorance regarding its existence?! It is a well-known fact, at least among us nerds here. Were there issues with the licensing? Apparently not on the previous remaster in 2011 which featured both mixes. Did Ritchie veto it? Why, given his (albeit belated) dissatisfaction with the lack of bass? Iâve never heard him use the terms NY Mix and LA Mix and Iâm frankly not even sure that he knows of their existence and implications, Ritchie doesnât really pay much attention to the sonic-technical aspects of record making.
May 24th, 2026 at 13:06@76
I feel exactly the same way about LLRnR, Uwe.
Yes, Blackers does not seem to be even aware that there are two mixes of his [classic] Rainbow album.
Regarding the laziness of recycling everything already out there as a “new” box on a dead listening format (Compact Disc)…who the hell knows, maybe the well *is* truly dry. I was hoping for a full release of the Tokyo 76 tapes (both shows in full including “A Light”), but alas no.
And no cashing on the “Atmos/Celebrity Remixer” craze either, maybe the masters tapes are indeed lost?
However and on the plus side, I do love having KĂśln 1976 on Amazing Music now, great show!
Best regards
May 24th, 2026 at 19:48J.-
@ 76- I guess I should not have turned a blind eye to the deluxe edition back in 2011. I thought I would wait for a remix then, hoping for one down the track sometime. I can listen online to the LA mix if needed. I don’t listen to a lot of older hard rock anymore, unless in a nostalgic mood and someone mentions (or links) a piece of music and I become curious. Even listening to those two seperate mixes of Tarot Woman and Stargazer yesterday had me wanting to leave it alone for another few years, again. Ritchie never did enjoy studio environments did he? From his days with Joe Meek in the mid 1960’s and he still doesn’t seen to care about all that studio recording, mixing etc all these decades later. I suppose we can’t have everything. Page, Townshend and Ian Anderson and others all were into the studio environment and still have control over and curate their respective bands music. The masters for Rainbow’s music must be either lost forever or are totally out of reach we could think. Cheers.
May 24th, 2026 at 23:46Universal didnât even find the masters when the first generation remaster was done in 1999, Simon Robinson bitterly complained about it at the time. Since then there has been the devastating Universal Fire and what have you.
May 25th, 2026 at 11:29That is one of lifeâs lessons for me: I missed chances to both see IGB and GILLANbath foolishly thinking theyâd be coming round again.
They of course didnât.
May 25th, 2026 at 14:34Thinking that with the Sabbath Born Again tour Uwe was a mistake, that was never going to be any more, as obvious as it was. So yes that is a blip on your radar there. I can understand the IGB though, just like me with Rainbow in ’76. Although even by then Ritchie had the revolving door well oiled and operating. I really didn’t have much choice at that stage of my life and where I was living in the outback didn’t help. Not to worry, as that old saying goes, ‘you can’t have it all’. Cheers.
May 25th, 2026 at 22:30With IGB I lacked money to go (but if I had asked my parents nicely, they would have given me an advance), with Sabbath, I had taken over the work shift from a colleague at the peep show and didn’t want to let him down retroactively. Everyone said in the immediate aftermath how it was a great gig, so I did regret it quickly. By that time some of the allure of the “Lesbian Live Show” had worn off, like if you see it eight times a day at work. đ¤
May 26th, 2026 at 17:40I can’t keep this from you, I – selflessly – found a female who apparently likes Rising!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-20KWYfCdlg
The tongue-sticking-out part is more Little Ian than Cozy though who tended to keep his square jaw locked.
May 27th, 2026 at 01:04Uwe
truly great women, suited for us rockers are rare,
I feek that this girl has the chops to become a great rocksinger
https://x.com/i/status/2059208674204070327
May 27th, 2026 at 20:33@ 82 – So you missed a Black Sabbath with Ian Gillan concert for a ‘peepshow’. The more I hear about this young individual by the name of Uwe Hornung, the more confused I remain. Was that ‘gig’ in Hamburg? Cheers.
May 27th, 2026 at 23:49I was young and needed the money!
I paid penance a few weeks later by buying a boot of the gig for an inordinate amount of money!
Is there no forgiveness?! Did I ever hold your dubious ancestry against you?
https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*6zb1xwJ59OYrRE5qG3MV3Q.jpeg
May 28th, 2026 at 12:00RV, if I wear a truly nasty person I would allow myself the sentiment that our Heinkel 111 bomber squadrons apparently missed the ancestors of the âdeport, deportâ-scream queen on the Blitz 1940/41 and how that was sloppy work. But of course Iâm not, selig sind die Armen im Geiste and sheâll hopefully grow out of it eventually.
May 28th, 2026 at 23:27#85 MacGregor:
Uwe didn’t say it,
May 29th, 2026 at 12:48but he couldn’t miss the Peep that night,
because the number one girl was there, the queen (of ping pong),
her name was Mitzi…Mitzi Dupree…
@ 88- aha, well spotted Fla76. Now we are getting closer to the ‘bottom’ of Uwe’s fascination with Mitzi. I forgot about her. Cheers.
May 29th, 2026 at 23:55I would have announced the inimitable Mitzi Dupree at our peep show no sweat, but when I worked there THOBL was still a few years off! Her considerable and legendary talents were yet unbeknownst to me.
May 30th, 2026 at 00:02You guys, by the time of the Sabbath gig I had been working at the peep show eight hour shifts six times a week for a year with a constant live monitor of the girls rolling on the rug before me as well as a dozen monitors of simultaneously running porn flicks in the video booths which I all had to monitor should one of the VHS cassettes (remember those?) get stuck or blur (as they invariably did). Without wishing to demean Ms Dupreeâs considerable talents, by that time a certain – how shall I put this? – desensitization had set in which would not have had me prefer the spectacle of even moistened ping pong balls flying through midair over IG screaming âWeâre disturbing the priiiiiiiiiiiiiiest!!!â.
Really, it was âhardâ work at the peep show for about the first three days until it simply wasnât anymore. The male mind in all its intricacy, it doth adjust. đ
May 30th, 2026 at 16:21#91 Uwe:
but does all this date back to your youth before you became a brilliant lawyer making 50k a month?
May 30th, 2026 at 22:27the timeline of the Star Wars movies and spin-offs is nothing compared to your timeline!
@ 91- It is no good looking for redemption here Uwe, you have sinned and you should have gone to confession all those years ago like a good little Catholic do-gooder. We will NOT absolve you of your sins, NEVER. In the chorus of Sabbath’s Eternal Idol song, the chorus. “Sinner, say your prayers tonight, your judgment day is here”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aK-Sxuj8Ys
May 31st, 2026 at 06:46@67
I used to be a lefty but the Left isnt anymore what it was.
On the whole spectrum I observe people saying things like” He was right all along.”
I m not among them.
Maybe he s now very happy that his favourite soldiers are devouring GreatBritain and other EU countries, enabled by cultural relativists.
I m not a nihilist and weep about whats happening.
May 31st, 2026 at 14:51Me studying law in the early 80s, playing in a band and my night job at the peep show all converged, Fla76. Eventually (and probably much to the relief of my parents even though they never said a word) I gave up the red light job and became – wait for it! – a part time janitor at a Catholic Church run social center (while continuing both the law studies and the band thing). A real Saul to Paul transition, I was washing my sins away with floor detergent so to speak! đ
May 31st, 2026 at 15:30@ 95 – What about all those drawings depicting ‘titties on a khazy wall’ Uwe. Did you wash them away with all that detergent? My oh my the plot thickens, the youthful shenanigans of a young ‘innocent’ Uwe Hornung. The mind doth boggle. St Pauli worshipping indeed, he he he. Hopefully not kneeling at the ‘shrine’. Cheers.
May 31st, 2026 at 19:00I once did a calculation on the basis of hours worked vs my earnings – pro rata the Catholic Diocese of Limburg paid better than the Sexvisions-Center GmbH!
But it was on Lohnsteuerkarte in both cases! My tax ethics were always immaculate.
June 1st, 2026 at 14:08Now that you ask, lieber Herr MacGregor, I probably cleaned more cum off video screens and the walls of booths in my 18 months or so at the peep show than you have in all your (past and future) life! Arbeit schändet nicht. Cleaning pigpens on farms was definitely more unpleasant in an olfactory sense.
With the Diocese, it was more wanton vandalism I was faced with. People break things.
June 1st, 2026 at 15:51