Classic Bands you may or may not have heard of Part 4: Rainbow

Rainbow, a natural phenomenon known for its beauty and grandeur, not unlike the band of the same name, Rainbow have written their names in to the history books with their epic and pure songwriting, it's something that only the incomparable Ritchie Blackmore could muster after his split from one of the greatest bands of all time Deep Purple.

Some of the greatest bands ever wrote their best music during the 70's, AC/DC, Kiss, Queen, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest etc. one of the most underrated bands of this entire period and maybe one of the most underrated bands of all time Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow had their heyday in the 70's and while they've sold a huge number of albums, it's rare to talk to someone these days who knows who Rainbow is.

Ritchie Blackmore who is probably one of the most underrated guitarists of his time, originally created Rainbow using the members from Ronnie James Dio's band Elf, Ritchie Blackmore wanted to record a couple of songs written by Steve Hammond which was turned down by Deep Purple so Blackmore went and snagged the members of Ronnie James Dio's band Elf to record them and they went on and recorded Rainbow's first album "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow".

Rainbow were inspired by classical music and Ritchie Blackmore learned how to play the cello to create more intricate and classical inspired chord structures. With Dio writing medieval themed lyrics and having the pipes to sing with extreme power and also having the chops to sing the lighter ballads, it was truly a match made in heaven.

Blackmore didn't enjoy carrying around the members of Elf for live performances so he fired everyone except for Dio. Ritchie Blackmore would dictate the members of the band for their entire lifetime, which garnered him a bit of a reputation of being hard to work with because members would never know when he would turn around and say "you're sacked" which would be very stressful I would imagine.

Dio's monstrous voice worked perfectly with Ritchie Blackmores playing, that they managed to write some of the most incredible and amazing pieces of music for the time, some might say that Rainbow is the originator of the power metal sound that Dio was known for in his solo career. Which is a pretty big claim, I would say that Judas Priest would also have a pretty big finger in the power metal pie. But I feel like Rainbow wrote a more traditional style with their themes. The track Stargazer is probably one of the greatest examples of their power metal roots, epic doesn't even begin to cover it.

In 1977 - 78 however Blackmore wanted to take the band in a more commercial direction and away from the Swords and Sorcery which Dio didn't agree with so he left the band after recording "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow", "Rising" and "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll". After the release of these albums I wasn't as interested, but that's not to say the band stopped releasing and writing great songs, 'Lost in Hollywood', 'All Night Long' and 'Since You've Been Gone' and after Dio's departure is when Rainbow found most of their commercial success, they were a more popular band I prefered the Dio era more however.

Blackmore asked Ian Gillan former bandmate of Blackmore's from Deep Purple to fill in for Dio but Gillan turned him down. After a series of auditions Graham Bonnet formerly of The Marbles was hired and took over the Vocal duties from Dio which gave the band a more poppy sound but he still had the pipes to sing some of Dio's tracks. Since then the band has been through numerous and complete line-up changes but they are still touring to this day with Ritchie Blackmore as the perennial superstar playing his style of epic and masterful guitar playing.

Without further ado here's a few tracks from the band.