Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (1975) Review | The Indigo Den of Eden

Kronomyth 1: The elf at the end of the rainbow.

Do you believe in magic? Because I would tell you that the combination of Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio is nothing short of magical on Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Now, the first incarnation of Rainbow is simply the band Elf appropriated by Blackmore to further his own musical designs; nothing magical there. Elf was already familiar to Deep Purple fans as their opening act and the decision to merge the two, if incestuous, was an easy transition for Blackmore and a boost in visibility for the band. Not everyone was enamored of the new outfit, perhaps because Blackmore was a polarizing figure, but this is clearly a step up from Stormbringer in my book. Blackmore’s double-tracked guitars are a double treat, the solos soar, and Dio’s magical imagery is the silver icing atop it all.

And now a word from our AI masters…
Out of boredom, I typed the lyrics of Man on the Silver Mountain into chatgpt and asked it to create a video based on those lyrics. It created an image rather than a video, slowly enough that I felt bad for asking it to make a video in the first place, featuring a Christ-looking prophet behind a mountain and in front of a burning sun. In other words, more or less the same image that GenAI creates for every mystical/magical theme with a few variations (e.g., mountains!). I am, as you might imagine, leery of a world that places so much faith (no pun intended) in AI. As an informal student of philosophy, I know that humanity can’t even agree on the nature of reality (or whether it exists), so the idea of mixing the world’s collective (un)intelligence into one big salad bowl is likely to result in either a tasteless word salad, mealy-mouthed magic 8-ball aphorisms or selected perspectives screened by your local, thoughtful thought police. Also, as a writer, I’m tired of being asked how I plan to use GenAI in the future to do my job. Does anyone ask accountants how they plan to use a calculator or Excel to do their job? Large language models are the engines driving AI right now, and after we’ve finished tossing everything into the blender, it’s just a matter of pressing the button. Expecting anything different to come out of the blender just because you’re the one pushing the button is foolish. GenAI today is just Siri on steroids. Instead of “here’s what I’ve found on the Internet about whatever you couldn’t be bothered to type into a search engine, you lazy skin balloon,” it’s “here’s what I’ve found in the world’s knowledge banks mushed into a stew and run through a strainer of undervalued human beings to sound like it’s coming from a human being, you lazy skin balloon and future stew strainer.”

Anyway, back to chasing Ritchie Backmore’s Rainbow. In addition to “Man on the Silver Mountain,” itself a minor heavy metal classic, there’s plenty here to pique your purple interest. You’ve got two songs about kings (The Temple of the King, Sixteenth Century Greensleeves), a song about rainbows (Catch the Rainbow) and a sexy Snake Charmer to keep you company for forty metal minutes. Dio’s voice would grow stronger later, but even here it’s a force to be reckoned with, while Blackmore’s guitars are spellbinding. The rest of Elf doesn’t quite rise to those tall standards (Mickey Lee Soule notwithstanding), and they were soon cut loose by Blackmore. That by way of saying that Rainbow would get better, even as Blackmore and Dio prove strong enough to carry the first sortie on their mighty shoulders.

The Product

A1. Man on the Silver Mountain (4:38)
A2. Self Portrait (3:16)
A3. Black Sheep of the Family (Steve Hammond) (3:20)
A4. Catch the Rainbow (6:40)
B1. Snake Charmer (4:30)
B2. The Temple of the King (4:46)
B3. If You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll (2:36)
B4. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves (3:35)
B5. Still I’m Sad (Paul Samwell-Smith/Jim McCarty) (3:33)

All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio unless noted.

Original 8-track version
A1. Man on the Silver Mountain
A2. The Temple of the King
B1. Black Sheep of the Family
B2. If You Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll
B3. Sixteen Century Greensleeves
C1. Self Portrait
C2. Still I’m Sad
C3. Snake Charmer
D1. Snake Charmer (contd.)
D2. Catch the Rainbow

The Players

Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Gary Driscoll (drums), Craig Gruber (bass guitar), Mickey Lee Soule (piano, mellotron, clavinet & organ) with Shoshana (vocals). Produced by Ritchie Blackmore, Martin Birch, Ronnie James Dio; mixed production by Martin (The Wasp) Birch

The Pictures

Cover illustration by David Willardson. Cover co-ordination by Fin Costello.

The Plastic

Released on elpee and 8-track on May 30, 1975 in the UK (Oyster, OYA-2001), the US (Polydor, PD/8F-6049) and Japan (Polydor, MPF-1144) with gatefold cover. Also released as promotional elpee in 1975 in Japan (Polydor, MP-2502) with gatefold cover. Reached #11 on the UK charts and #30 on the US charts.

1. Re-issued on elpee in August 1981 in the UK (Oyster/Polydor,2490 141) with gatefold cover. Re-charted to #91 on the UK charts in 1981.
2. Re-issued on elpee in 1982 in Japan (Polydor, 20MM-9225) with gatefold cover.
3. Re-issued on elpee in Japan (Polydor, MPX-4023) with gatefold cover.
4. Re-issued on elpee in 1986 in Japan (Polydor, 18MM-0539) with gatefold cover.
5. Re-issued on remastered compact disc in the US (Polydor, 547 360-2).