Down To Earth [Remastered] - Rainbow

Time to get out the black armband as I type this review. The black armband that stands for the death of one of our very best hard rock bands. Rainbow: 1975-1978 RIP. In their place in 1979 came an ersatz pop-rock band also called Rainbow. There endeth the similarity.

Ritchie Blackmore (guitarist) had kissed and made up with his old Deep Purple colleague - buddy would be going too far - Roger Glover (bass). Not only did the love-in ...
...it produced a bastard offspring in the shape of this LP. Quite literally produced too, because Glover was the man behind the mixing desk.

The great singer Ronnie James Dio had departed after three very good albums, including the genre-defining "Rising" and was replaced by Graham Bonnet. Oh dear......not only did Bonnet look nothing like your usual rock singer (swept back short blonde hair) when it came to the important part ... more

Time to get out the black armband as I type this review. The black armband that stands for the death of one of our very best hard rock bands. Rainbow: 1975-1978 RIP. In their place in 1979 came an ersatz pop-rock band also called Rainbow. There endeth the similarity.

Ritchie Blackmore (guitarist) had kissed and made up with his old Deep Purple colleague - buddy would be going too far - Roger Glover (bass). Not only did the love-in allow Glover back into the hallowed multi coloured band's fold, it produced a bastard offspring in the shape of this LP. Quite literally produced too, because Glover was the man behind the mixing desk.

The great singer Ronnie James Dio had departed after three very good albums, including the genre-defining "Rising" and was replaced by Graham Bonnet. Oh dear......not only did Bonnet look nothing like your usual rock singer (swept back short blonde hair) when it came to the important part of singing well he could shout alright, and that's about it. Did I also mention he thought himself as something of gods gift to women.

It wasn't all bad; the great Cozy Powell still sat in the drummers seat and Don Airey was still parping on behind banks of keyboards. And from the first blast of "All Night Long", one of the all-time great rock songs with its vitally important subject matter of getting a bunk-up sorted for the night and Bonnet's howl right on the last verse leading into the brilliant quasi-prog of "Eyes Of The World", a track that would not be out of place on Purple's 1970 In Rock set, all seems well until the running list sags so badly for the remainder of the album that for me overall this is rubbish.

The commercial sound that Blackmore and Glover were obviously looking for is summed up with the other memorable tune from this album "Since You Been Gone". If you play guitar then play the riff from Louie Louie (A-A-A-D-D-E-E-E, in other words) and then play the riff from "SYBG" and I defy you to spot the difference. Not only that but rock groups should not have to go to outside writers (Russ Ballard in this instance) for their material. Just to twist the knife a bit further this was a huge hit single.

The band do get to let go a bit on "Lost On Hollywood" an extended fast rocker which is underpinned by Powell's manic drumming but for the remainder it's bloody wimped out pop-rock. "Danger Zone" should be renamed "Since You Been Gone Part II" as its chorus replicates that song virtually note for note. "Making Love", "Love's No Friend" and "No Time To Lose" are all the kind of material that would eventually give hard rock a bad name. Whilst played professionally, hell how could it be otherwise with this outstanding collection of musicians (and Graham Bonnet), I get the feeling this is a band merely going through the motions. "ooh making love, ooh ooh making love", sings Bonnet. Look for fucks sake just get on with it man no need to sing about it yeah.

Whilst long term fans are now pretty much split as to how good this record is when taken in the overall context of the band's rich history, you can't deny it was a massive commercial success for them and it suppose it does signpost something of a turning point in the rock genre, in a time where bands had to weigh up the impact of punk and new wave on their potential future careers.

No surprises that Bonnet was shown the door before the next album though, the improved Difficult To Cure (he went on to have a big solo hit with ANOTHER Ballard song "Night Games"...."they pray for their night games, they were two lovers they don't use names..." quite good actually it was too) before crawling back under whatever stone it was he came from. Going in through the out door with him was Cozy Powell who was fed up with playing the lighter material.

As you probably guessed I'm not too keen on this record.  

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