Rainbow – Difficult to Cure – 1981 So, while the other major metal relics of the 60s (Sabbath, Ozzy) mine dark and exciting territories, Ritchie Blackmore turned Rainbow into the Greg Kihn Band with a dash of Scorpions. D2C is a toothless record and a weird one. Sel-important and pretentious Continue Reading
Purple Sabbath
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell
I thought Black Sabbath was over. We all did. Ozzy left or was kicked out. He had his own thing, which I adored. Black Sabbath was supposed to go in to that good night and disappear. The architects of metal were bloated and sad and devoid of ingenuity.How wrong were Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Rainbow – Down to Earth
Rainbow – Down to Earth – 1979 Well, Ritchie Blackmore didn’t waste any time. No sooner is Dio out of the band, Graham Bonnett is in, and the Power Pop is in full force. From the outset, Down to Earth sounds like a band trying to be radio friendly. The Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Rainbow – Long Live Rock and Roll
Rainbow – Long Live Rock and Roll – 1978 There’s a theory that the children of a movement are more like the cult of that movement. More earnest. There’s less irony. I think that’s sort of true. And it’s no truer than it is with Rainbow. Only it’s weirder because Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Never Say Die
Um…..What? Black Sabbath – Never Say Die! – 1978 Talk about sounding absolutely nothing like yourself. Never Say Die!, the last Sabbath record with Ozzy is one of the most confusing records I’ve ever head. Let alone from Sabbath. It’s as though, at times, a power pop group decided to Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Rainbow – Rising
Rainbow – Rising – 1976 It’s probably best to forget the last outing and just get started with Rising. After all, it’s loads better, more exciting, less reliant on ridiculous lyrics and uses a tighter band.I would say that this is what I was hoping and expecting from the Deep Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy
Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy – 1976 That chukka-chukka guitar! The soaring Ozzy vocals! It can only be one thing: It’s the Blizzard of—what? Oh, this is still Sabbath? But why does it—? Ok. I’ll stop asking. This first song really sounds like, hey, waitaminnit..electric synth? What? And why does Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Deep Purple – Come Taste The Band
Deep Purple – Come Taste the Band – 1975 I can’t believe I’m saying this but, I’ve never been so glad to hear Jon Lord’s organ. After the abysmal borefest that was Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, that instrument is a welcome sound.It should be noted that by this time the only Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Rainbow – Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow
Rainbow – Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow – 1975 A few months before the last Deep Purple album of the 70s (and the first without Blackmore, an album that Ian Gillan, who did not sing on it, would decree not really a DP album) Blackmore came out with his new band and Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Sabotage
Black Sabbath – Sabotage – 1975 After two years off, primarily touring for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, their most well reviewed album to date, and partying apparently, Sabbath returns with the album you never hear about.Listening to it for the first time in ages I sort of understand why. If SBS Continue Reading