Rainbow - Rising
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.56 You Save: $3.38 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.28 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Rising
Free Music Review: Blackmore's finest hour. Dio Rules.
Hit: 5 Stars
Another 5 star performance by Dio and Blackmore. The best album that Blackmore performed on, though his best solo was yet to come on the next album, "Long Live Rock n Roll" on the song "Gates of Babylon."
It opens with some great keyboards by Toney Carey. It could only be described as classical psychadelic. This rips into some mean guitar by Blackmore and Dio sings of the horror he finds when dealing with the "Tarot Woman."
"Run With The Wolf" is another mean one with some wicked vocals by Dio and a mean riff by Blackmore. Blackmore's soloing is extraordinary on this and the first song, but the best is still to come.
"Starstruck" and "Do You Close Your Eyes" are good songs with the second a bit poppy with a simple hard riff and no solo. "Starstruck" is about the horror of having someone overly infatuated with Dio. "Do You Close Your Eyes" more of a love song.
"Stargazer" is epic. The singing among the best of Dio's career. The mood is dark and dreary and it is about slaves building a tower for a wizard who wants to fly. It opens up in the middle into a classical escapade with a long solo by Blackmore. It nears the ending with the line "No sound as he falls istead of rising. Time standing still then theres blood on the sand." Those who built the tower had believed in him and it ends with a vocal solo by Dio dealing with his despair and hope.
"A Light in the Black" is another epic song. "I'm going home" is the main theme of the song. "Did he really let us go" is another line from the song. The soloing is even longer in the center of this song giving both Blackmore and Tony Carey time to do their stuff. A very classically inspired song from beginning to end.
To sum it up. Blackmore is on fire on this LP. This is the best album he has ever performed on. In addition to this I recommend, Machine Head, Burn!, Blackmore's Rainbow, and Long Live Rock 'n' Roll. These are the albums where Blackmore shines, but this one tops them all.
Dio as he always did in the 70s and 80s gives us extraordinary gutsy vocals. He clearly was the best vocalist of the 70s and 80s in any type of music.
If you don't know the early history of Dio in the 50s and 60s, I have a So You'd Like to Know Guide that has a complete discography of all the recordings Dio did in the 50s and 60s. There was about 40 songs and as of yet none of them has been released on CD.
Free Music Review: "Now Where Do We Go?" Simply click here. This is a gem!
Hit: 5 Stars
As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" and a former radio disc-jockey, I am often asked to write and or discuss various music supplies and recordings from the 60's and 70's.
Rainbows 1976 album "Rising" began the revolving door of musicians being shuffled in and out of the line-up. Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie Dio are joined this time around by Cozy Powell on drums, Jimmy Bain on the bass, and keyboards by Tony Carey. Over the years the large contingency of Cozy fans have pointed to his ability to play with anyone from Blackmore to Keith Emerson and Greg Lake. Some of the accolades besides the obvious and well deserved that go to Blackmore and Dio should be directed to Tony Carey. If you listen closely to his style there are two terrific achievements on the tracks. The keyboards have a perfect sound. What you hear are the notes emanating with the mystical authority to solidify the song and how he picks his spots during the compositions.
After one of the finest debut recordings ever Blackmore once again rose to the occasion. "Tarot Woman" is a terrific opening track, the keyboards are haunting in their texture and the remastered CD puts you in the production booth. "Run With The Wolf" throws in the Black Sabbath reference "Hole In The Sky." Dio delivers the goods singing, "When the world makes a turn the eyes of one will learn." The interplay between Ronnie's voice and Ritchie's guitar is mesmerizing. "Starstruck" turns up the volume a bit but when "Do You Close Your Eyes" takes it turn it leaves nothing standing. Pure unapologetic rock and roll. The original LP ended Side 1 here. Side two was designated for the two longer tracks and it made for a perfect transformation from side to side. "Stargazer" is relentless. "There is no sun in the shadow of the wizard." Blackmore is cutting loose and Dio is a superlative storyteller. How many Blackmore fans dug holes in the vinyl from listening to this track a myriad of times each day? "A Light In The Black" picks up where "Stargazer closes. "All my life it seems is just a crazy dream."
As the final notes of Stargazer leave the record or CD player it is amazing to think how much power and passion Blackmore and company packed into the six tracks. They don't even total 34 minutes but left a calling card to see them "On Stage,"
Enjoy the music and be well,
Craig Fenton
Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"
Free Music Review: A stunning masterpiece and the career peak for Dio, Blackmore, and Powell.
Hit: 5 Stars
This may be the greatest heavy metal album of the 1970s, and simultaneously one of the greatest progressive rock albums of all time. The songwriting, vocals, and all around musicianship are on the level of the very best of Floyd or Yes, as well as Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple.
This is one of the greatest guitar albums of the decade, and the same could be said for the drumming, too. Ritchie Blackmore contributes the finest compositions of his distinguished career as a hard rock/heavy metal composer. His guitar playing on this album influenced everyone from Kirk Hammett to Randy Rhoads to Yngwie Malmsteen. The man is a master. Cozy Powell gave one of the supreme metal drumming performances here--his work ranks with the best of Bonham, Binks, Ward, McBrain, Dave Holland, Phil Taylor, and the other luminaries of classic metal. This was the last album Cozy recorded with Ludwig drums before switching to his beloved Yamaha Drums the next year. He played Yamaha exclusively for the rest of his distinguished career until his death in 1998.
What can one say about Ronnie James Dio? He is more than just a great vocalist (Halford is his only true rival in metal, followed by Dickinson); he is also one of the finest melodists in metal, and his melodic sense has been evident in all his work until at least the mid-1980s. He does the finest songwriting of his career here with Blackmore (he also did exceptional writing later with Tony Iommi, but his chemistry with Ritchie is unsurpassed). His vocals are powerful and genre-defining.
Listen to "Stargazer" to hear the greatest hard rock/heavy metal epic of all time, easily surpassing even "Stairway to Heaven." Listen to "A Light in the Dark" to hear where speed metal came from. Finally, don't forget the truly extraordinary work by keyboardist Tony Carey. This is how hard rock keyboards should be. Carey is an amazing arranger and his playing is elegant and virtuosic. This album alone makes him worthy of mention with other greats like Wakeman. Every rock keyboardist should study his amazing work here.
Finally, Jimmy Bain simply rocks as a bassist. His lines are powerful and melodic.
Do yourself a favor and buy this album. I'm glad to see it get so many rave reviews here. It deserves it like few other albums do. Rainbow will always be a cult band of sorts, but for true metal lovers they hold a special place as one of the greatest bands of their time.
Free Music Review: Rainbow's pinnacle
Hit: 5 Stars
It may seem a bit cynical to suggest that a band at the time so new peaked so soon, but I honestly believe that nothing they recorded after Ronnie James Dio left for Black Sabbath sounded half as interesting. I didn't really pick up on Rainbow until I was in high school, and when I bought this LP, the band had already split, with Blackmore returning to the reformed Mk II lineup of Deep Purple. This lineup's members, apart from Blackmore, continued on to varying degrees of success; Dio, after a brief tour of duty with Sabbath, went on to a very successful solo career. Cozy Powell would briefly join with Greg Lake and Keith Emerson as one-third of ELP in the mid '80s, sadly dying some years later. Jimmy Bain reconnected with Dio as his bassist on Dio's first solo album, Holy Diver, and Tony Carey had a fairly successful solo career, as well as putting together the proggish band Planet P. And Mr. Blackmore, of course, would remain with DP for a while before getting thoroughly disgusted with his former bandmates and joining up with the lovely Candace Night in Blackmore's Night (and thereafter being snidely referred to by his ex-bandmates in Deep Purple as "the banjo player").
So in my teenage travels through the world of classic rock, and especially into classics I might otherwise have missed, I found Rainbow Rising, and I must say that it truly sounds like nothing any of these musicians had done before or have done since. "Tarot Woman" has, as another reviewer noted, an amazing keyboard intro courtesy of Tony Carey which, all by itself, would have cemented his place in the world of classic rock. "Run With the Wolf" is the perfect hard rock song, the kind of thing that gets you playing air guitar quite un-self-consciously; and "Stargazer" is the ultimate marriage of prog and metal, fronted by Ronnie James Dio's ragged growl, Blackmore's guitar and Carey's keyboards.
Yeah, this one's a keeper. After Dio, they just weren't the same--neither Graham Bonnet, with his rock-star poses, nor Joe Lynn Turner, who was trying to be a mix of Ian Gillan and David Coverdale, quite had it. Get Rising.
Free Music Review: "I See A Rainbow Rising"
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the classic metal album for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow,before axemeister and taskmaster Blackmore turned the group membership into a game of musicial chairs.The lineup of Ronnie James Dio(vocals ),Ritchie Blackmore(lead guitar),Tony Carey(keyboards),Cozy Powell(drums),and Jimmy Bain(bass guitar) finally broke free the the Deep Purple sound and influence that pervaded the debut album(RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW) and stamped the musical world with their own unique Wizards and Warriors rock.It is this lineup and album that remains the classic with fans of the band.
TAROT WOMAN - Tony Carey takes us on an interstellar flight with his keyboard intro,before Ritchie's opening riffs bring us back down to earth,waiting for Cozy to pound us into the ground.The first time I heard Dio's voice on this track,I became a Rainbow fan.
RUN WITH THE WOLF - Great bluesy number with amazing fretwork from Blackmore and great lyrics sung with menacing conviction by rock's Napoleon."There's a break in the sky . . .something evil's passing by".
STARSTRUCK - Tale of an overzealous and overbearing groupie.Dio spits out the words with exasperative fury.Powell's pounding around his kit is a joy to a skinpounder like myself.
DO YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES - Straightforward chunky rocker that showcases the bedrock team of Powell and Bain.Great lines: "I know a rich man,a poor man . . .I know how to talk to a king".
STARGAZER - The best Rainbow track ever . . .bar none.All the band play a hand in the epic telling of the rise and fall of a Wizard,as witnessed by his slaves/servants/subjects.Blackmore's guitar solo has a Middle Eastern flavour to it.Quite possibly Dio's best lyric and vocal performance of his long career.The orchestra buried in the mix,when released,lift the track hig into the stratosphere where in remains for the next track.
LIGHT IN THE BLACK - A glorious excuse for a long jam session.
All band members get a chance to solo and shine.Tony Carey's fingers fly over his keyboards.Brilliant way to end this landmark in Heavy Metal.