Rainbow On Stage (1977)

Breaking with '70s heavy metal tradition by releasing a live album after only two studio efforts (you're supposed to have three before the live one), Rainbow served up this double platter in 1977. On Stage is full of great songs and playing, but somehow it lacks some of the excitement that existed at those early Ritchie Blackmore concerts. The production is just kind of flat. That doesn't change the fact that there is some great stuff to be found here and nowhere else, such as the side-long version of "Mistreated," from Deep Purple's Burn.

Breaking with '70s heavy metal tradition by releasing a live album after only two studio efforts (you're supposed to have three before the live one), Rainbow served up this double platter in 1977. On Stage is full of great songs and playing, but somehow it lacks some of the excitement that existed at those early Ritchie Blackmore concerts. The production is just kind of flat. That doesn't change the fact that there is some great stuff to be found here and nowhere else, such as the side-long version of "Mistreated," from Deep Purple's Burn.

Первый официальный концертник Rainbow, в полной мере демонстрирующий высочайший уровень профессионализма каждого участника коллектива. Балом здесь правит импровизация, только одна композиция исполнена "как надо" (Kill The King), остальное же - изменено и растянуто до неузнаваемости.

When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, they barely skipped a beat replacing him. And he barely skipped a beat forming Rainbow, a mirror image of his old band. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio, though, provided Blackmore with a clipped, howl-free voice, hardening Rainbow's sound considerably despite the presence of Mellotron, organ, and other keyboards. By the time it released On Stage, the band had developed its dominion: songs about killing kings, men on silver mountains, and women locked in towers. Subjects were grandiose and the execution heavy, even ponderous. But there's charm in the way Dio intones, "Do you waaant some love? / Well, here we are to give you love," as Blackmore strums in the background. But Dio and Blackmore turn to hard, hard rock with the sprawling "Man on the Silver Mountain" and slow, sad-sack blues with "Mistreated". For gear-heads, there's a full accounting of the band's equipment on the back cover. This re-mastered edition boasts a warmer sound, but who needs warmth with that big guitar spilling over onto your shirt and shoes while the crowd claps along? –Andrew Bartlett

At the time, Bob Marley and the Wailers, already huge in the UK, were on tour in support of the locally produced Exodus. While the show starts off with the slow-burning “Trenchtown Rock” (1973’s African Herbsman), Marley’s performance grows increasingly incendiary until, by the time they get to the climactic closer, “Exodus,” it looks as he’s in another world entirely.