I still listen to college radio sometimes and it's funny that something that I once considered to essentially be it when it came to musical knowledge and coolness isn't quite what I used to think it was. It's probably always been that way, but just over the last week I heard two DJ's get something wrong that I thought was such common knowledge that I actually remember the things they said. That's saying something, too. I often can't remember the name of the song they were playing when I thought, "I gotta get that album!" They probably didn't make any bigger mistakes than kids have been making for their entire lives, but for some reason it just stuck in my mind this week.
The first was a show where the guy plays primarily 70's guitar boogie and blues rawk and that kind of over bloated guitar wankery that a lot of people can't stand these days. I still like a lot of it, but I'm weird like that. This guy just played a song by Chicken Shack, and I couldn't remember who the band was, but I knew the song. So he starts talking about finding this Chicken Shack album somewhere and he says he likes it so far, but that he didn't know anyone in the band and didn't think any of them went on to any fame. I'm thinking, "Dude...Stan Webb. Stan Webb is Chicken Shack and that's where Christine McVie came from." This is all old shit nowadays, though. I'm okay with the guy not knowing about Christine, but Stan Webb was one of those B-list guitar players from the 70's that everyone had a friend that thought that he was the shit and had all of the guy's albums. Like Frank Marino or Robin Trower.
The other one was just today when the woman that was a DJ was talking about the songs she had played and saying what albums they came from (a couple were Greatest Hits albums, so I thought she could have pulled up the Google there), and she said she had played a song by Blondie, and referred to Blondie as "she." I'm so old I remember ads where they said Blondie is a Group. I mean, most people don't know that Debbie Harry's name isn't Blondie I suppose, but there was a time when a college DJ wouldn't have been wrong on that one.
I don't want to act like kids these days are stupid, because I don't think they are. I do think that they have had so much available to them for nothing for so long now, that they never had the record box with just a dozen records and a whole Saturday night to just sit and listen to those same twelve records over and over and read the covers and learn about all there was to learn there. I'm not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing, but I think it is a thing. One of the odd things here is that these two DJ's are both doing what are considered oldies shows now, so I'm cutting them some slack there just for being interested in the music that had scenes even though they weren't quite underground and they weren't quite the dominant A listers, either. That's the stuff that really falls through the cracks, ya know? Stuff that was kind of popular.
Which is what got me to pull out Rainbow Rising. Hey, we all knew who Ritchie Blackmore was because he was in Deep Purple. We knew Cozy Powell played with Jeff Beck. Ronnie James Dio was less known, but man, the dude can really sing this kind of stuff. I pretty much think this is the best Rainbow album, and I always have. Side two has the longer tunes, Stargazer and A Light in the Black and those are kind of like a modern take on Blackmore's old band, Deep Purple. I've always felt that when the drums and bass get a real chance to lay down a fast, hard beat that Blackmore is pretty hard to beat as a guitar player. he can riff with the best of them and his solo's all kind of sound the same, but it's just a really great solo, ya know? The first side has shorter songs, of which the best one is probably Starstruck, and I think that's mostly because of what Dio puts into it.
I saw Rainbow once and Blackmore broke a string during the first or second song and stormed off to pout for the rest of the show while his guitar tech stood in the shadows and played all Blackmore's parts and I gotta tell ya, I didn't miss him at all. Dio carried off the whole thing anyway. He didn't even seem to need Ritchie (and a few years later he pretty much owned the world of heavy metal) and I really liked the show.
My record is in nice shape. I don't remember where it's from, and I've had it for decades but I don't think it's a 1976 pressing. It's in a plastic inner sleeve and there's a barcode sticker on the back corner, which could just mean I bought it used from a place that did that, but I kind of doubt it. It's nice and flat and plays nice. It's not the kind of thing I listen to all the time, because it's a little overblown for me, but when I do listen to it, I really enjoy it. Rainbow certainly lost a lot when Dio left, even though I think they sold a lot of records later on.
A couple observations from the Crabb side. Stan Webb is famous in Chicken Shack, but I do recall he joined up with Savoy Brown on the Boogie Brothers LP, which I thought was kinda boring Southern Rock. Somewhere in the house I still have Imagination Lady a 1972 album that I found on CD, played once and filed away. Of course in my youth I made a hobby by buying Robin Trower and Frank Marino's records and some still hold up if you're into blues boogie. There's a tendicy to overrate Trower's output and I do have my favorites, Bridge Of Sighs, Twice Removed From Yesterday and Victims Of The Fury. Marino on the other hand, his stuff had dated badly, Maxoom a total Hendrix worshipping album, the title track a goofy play on EXP's goofy lead off before Up From The Skies from Mr. Jimi. I don't the play all that much but it's worth a few bucks on the EBAY market.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Richie Blackmore has always been if something doesn't go according to his plan, he tends to have no patience and the first Rainbow album is Richie and the Elf band before everybody but Ronnie James Dio got replaced and they made the more heavier sounding Rising. The two long songs on side 2 do have that majestic and over the top sound (Martin Birch produced but Mack (Billy Squrier, Queen) signature sound makes Cozy Powell stand out). And perhaps Light In The Black might be Blackmore's thumbing his noise at his former band, but it does to me sound a bit like Highway Star. I had the album a long time ago, but I traded it in and got the CD. Sometimes when I think of all the LPs that I traded to get the CD version, maybe I should have kept the album. When Joe Lynn Turner joined up, that's when Rainbow became more of a Foreigner type of Corporate rock band and less interesting. But anytime Dio joined up with a band be it Rainbow or Sabbath he managed to put his own persona on the albums he did. (Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules).
Hiya Crabb! I know what you mean by Frank Marino. When I go to record shows I always see his albums and I always think, "That's a nice copy of Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush - Live. I should buy it." Then I think, "I remember hearing it all the time when I was a kid and I can't remember anything about it. It's gotta be boring as hell." Then I don't buy it. Trower albums around Cleveland look like crap for the most part, he was pretty popular here and I like the albums you mentioned a lot.
DeleteI remember there used to be a bootleg Rainbow album called "Sort of Fucking Boring Old Fart." Blackmore is sort of boring, but when you're in the right mood, the guy scratches an itch. I was in that mood a lot more when I was younger, but now and then I like some of his stuff.
I remember when CD's came out and I got my first player I took a stack of albums to the store and traded them in. They were all things I KNEW I'd replace on CD right away. Problem was, almost none of them ever came out on CD, or I never felt like paying full price for them (like Lou Reed). There's only a couple of days I want to do over in my life, and that's one of them. I think I only got six or seven CD's for that big stack of records, and I probably traded them for something else years ago. I had some old Punk stuff that I used to trade for weed, because I knew a guy that sold it that had an amazing Punk collection, all in bags and played on a killer stereo. He would trade me for albums and 45's I didn't want anymore, because at the time Punk seemed like it would never end and there were so many bands, and they really fell out of fashion and coolness fast. Wish I still had those! But mostly, I was pretty good about keeping my core collection of albums. Rainbow Rising was one of those, and I'm glad I still have it. I think I have the CD, too.
The times have changed. In 1978 Frank Marino Live was a great album to take a road trip on. I remember one stormy night me and my best friend after a few beers took to the road playing Live and saw the best lightning from that storm. That said, Live is a rock relic from the past, Marino channels his inner Jimi Hendrix on Purple Haze and of use of the finest guitar petals at that time. Frank shines on A New Rock And Roll. Still fun music but you can probably live without it. I recall my vinyl was a heavier grade and not that warped type of vinyl Sony Music is famous for. Frank Marino Live does tend to bog down, especially on the guitar solos.
ReplyDeleteThere's certain LPs I did regret trading away (The ABC/Sire version The Ramones' first album, never get that one ever again) but I did managed to hang on to the lesser known and still have those today. I do recall Rainbow Rising was the gatefold album (later copies was a single LP only) but the first edition CD was a halfassed job. They didn't have the band members pictures on that. Funny you should mention about that Rainbow boot, Relics had a copy for about 25 dollars back in the 1990s. Never heard it myself but did jog a memory of that record ;)