The Deep Purple story, especially post-1994, has been fairly well chronicled here, but I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to errant former guitarist Ritchie Blackmore following his stormy departure from the band. When he left at the end of 1993, he intended it to be a killing blow, but fate had a different plan for his old band, which continues to this day with his replacement, Steve Morse. Meanwhile, Blackmore set off on a completely different path.
First off, he reconstituted Rainbow, dormant since the reunion in 1984. This Rainbow bore no resemblance to the old Rainbow, featuring all new and pretty much unknown musicians (old drummer Chuck Burgi would re-enter the fold briefly, but that was the only link to the past). The resulting album, Stranger In Us All,seemed to show Ritchie prepared to follow a much harder direction than his old band. Then something changed.....
The first appearance of Candice Night, Ritchie's girlfriend, was as a backing singer on the last Deep Purple tour. She would follow him into Rainbow, though not be an official member of the group. Apparently at some point during the 1990's the two discovered they were both closet Ren Faire geeks or something and the next thing you know, Blackmore's Night was born.
I have the utmost respect for Ritchie, but I seriously cannot understand the motivation behind Blackmore's Night. Sure, Blackie has been a little unpredictable over the years, especially with the turn to really slick commercial rock in the early 1980's. However he seemed to shake all of that off within a few years, whereas Blackmore's Night has been going on for nearly two decades, longer than his entire stint in Deep Purple. Everything about Blackmore's Night just seems a little off. We'll use their third album Fires at Midnight to demonstrate.
First off, the music sounds all Renaissance-y but this isn't an Ancient Music Revival project. The drums and "horns" sound ridiculously synthetic and when Blackmore "gets electric" is seems wildly out of place, like he's having flashbacks to the 1970's and pumping out some classic Rainbow riffs that just don't work with the cutesy vocals and acoustic melodies. In the midst of all of this, there's a Bob Dylan cover, "The Times They Are a Changin'". Apparently each Blackmore's Night album has an unusual cover song, like something from Jethro Tull, Rednex, or Joan Baez. Later albums would sport covers from Ritchie's early days, like "Child In Time", "Temple of the King", or "Street of Dreams"(!), which seems a little more suitable. Back to the Dylan cover, though, it's beyond me why they sort-of mashed it up with the cutesy "I Got You Babe" riff.
Beyond the notes, the band hasn't exactly lent itself toward crossover with the Purple faithful. First off, they almost never tour in the US. When they do, it's in freaky Ren-Faire type settings, well suited to their band of weird names (Bard David of Larchmont, Earl Grey of Chimay, Troubadour of Aberdeen, Lady Kelly De Winter and Scarlet Fiddler) and insistence on costume-appropriate audiences. As for me, I think I'll just settle for the DVD if I'm ever jonesing for this kind of thing. I guess Ritchie's as happy as a clam about all of this (and huge in Germany, where most of these shows happen), so good for him! I just can't see myself going along for the ride. For what it's worth, the last album (their ninth) finally cracked the US album charts and includes a tribute to Jon Lord as the final track. Maybe the time they are a changin' for BN (I'm tired of typing).
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