Catch The Rainbow (The Anthology) - Rainbow

Rainbow are a classic rock band formed from the fragmented sections of Deep Purple by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.  Taking bassist Roger Glover and incorporating the dwarf-like Ronnie James Dio on vocals he crafted a group that, while churning out traditional and anthemic rock songs, also dabbled in classical music - check out 'Difficult to Cure' which is just Beethovens 'Ode to Joy' with more balls.  Unfortunately, and I hate to say this because ...
...their musical output, which often excelled with tracks like 'Stargazer' and 'Kill the King', tended to lose its edge and become a very thin, watered down american version towards the end of the bands life.  In fact, if you were to listen to the 'Catch the Rainbow' collection in its entirety you would hear the brilliance of their early work slowly fading as CD2 played through.  They did grace the charts with songs such as 'Since You've Been Gone', ... more

Rainbow are a classic rock band formed from the fragmented sections of Deep Purple by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.  Taking bassist Roger Glover and incorporating the dwarf-like Ronnie James Dio on vocals he crafted a group that, while churning out traditional and anthemic rock songs, also dabbled in classical music - check out 'Difficult to Cure' which is just Beethovens 'Ode to Joy' with more balls.  Unfortunately, and I hate to say this because Rainbow were a fantastic band with an immensely gifted guitarist, their musical output, which often excelled with tracks like 'Stargazer' and 'Kill the King', tended to lose its edge and become a very thin, watered down american version towards the end of the bands life.  In fact, if you were to listen to the 'Catch the Rainbow' collection in its entirety you would hear the brilliance of their early work slowly fading as CD2 played through.  They did grace the charts with songs such as 'Since You've Been Gone', 'All Night Long' and 'I Surrender', and there are good tracks to be found on all their albums, but, when compared to the older Rainbow, the newer version just didn't cut it!  The two vocalists heard on CD2 (Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner), both strong vocally, just did not compare with the diminutive Dio and his lyrics seemingly picked from some fantasy-realm novel.
The band have now parted company (Blackmore and Glover moving back in with their Deep Purple mates) and as a retrospective of their Rainbow career this anthology fits the bill - it's just a shame that, having scaled the highs, they went out on a bit of a low. 

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