Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)

It's been four years and a day since Ronnie James Dio succumbed to cancer, so I was particularly happy to dial up the album that really raised his profile, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. To numerous listeners of the time, Dio was probably seen as an unknown quantity, with all eyes on Blackmore in his first proper solo outing. However the real veteran was actually Dio, who's earliest recordings actually predated Blackmore's by about three years. Before he was the voice of metal, Ronnie Dio (Blackmore added the "James") fronted various upstate New York bands like The Red Caps, The Prophets, The Electric Elves, The Elves, and finally just plain Elf. Everything prior to 1972 is officially out of print, but, thanks to the power of the Internet, readily available as free downloads. Through sheer luck, Elf was discovered by Roger Glover and Ian Paice of Deep Purple and quickly signed to their Purple label and released three albums with Glover in the booth.

Meanwhile, another Deep Purple alum, Blackmore, was toying with leaving the band and recorded a song, borrowing Elf (minus their guitarist) to back him up. A song lead to an album and an album lead to a band, all in 1975. In fact, things were moving so fast that this album and the final Elf album, Trying to Burn the Sun, were released at virtually the same time. Although the two albums have virtually the same personnel, they sound very different. While the Elf album is a capstone achievement for a band that suffered for far too long in obscurity, this album is much more unsteady, with songs primarily designed to showcase Ritchie's guitar playing ("Self Portrait" and "Snake Charmer" are thin constructions around Blackmore's guitar lines). Songs like "Man on the Silver Mountain" and "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" were early hits for the band, but it was another band, also called Rainbow, that would make these songs huge stage numbers.

A band notorious for not holding the same lineup for two consecutive albums, the Elf-Rainbow lineup of this album rapidly disintegrated in the wake of this album's release. Blackmore moved quickly to replace the Elf members that were playing out of their element, leaving only Dio. In their place arrived a crack team of professional musicians, including top drummer Cozy Powell and the framework for their most successful album, Rising, was in place. This new lineup would also breathe new life into the songs on this album. When one hears the live versions of songs from this album it becomes abundantly clear why Elf was not equipped to handle the greater ambitions of Ritchie Blackmore.