Rainbow - Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology

Ritchie Blackmore's post-Deep Purple outfit was a standout among late-'70s and early-'80s hard rock/metal bands, and this double-disc anthology deals 28 of their best tracks, taken from all 9 of their Polydor albums! Includes 'Man on the Silver Mountain', 'Catch the Rainbow', 'Stargazer', the live, 13-minute Blackmore guitar showcase 'Mistreated', 'Kill the King', and 'Rainbow Eyes', all with vocalist Ronnie James Dio, plus 'Since You Been Gone', 'All Night Long', 'Stone Cold', 'Power', 'Street of Dreams', another live extravaganza, the 11-minute 'Difficult to Cure', and more. Notes, photos, riffs! Polydor. 2003. Album Description

Oatmeal Anyone? aka Remaster Disaster

This is a good selection of songs. For once the "geniuses" at the record company almost got it right as far as selecting the best songs to put on a Greatest Hits compilation. My complaints about the song selection are relatively minor to my complaints about the rmeastering job and sound quality, but more about that later. I would have substituted the far superior "live" version of Catch the Rainbow for the studio version, I would add Temple of The King, Self Portrait and Dream Chaser and delete Desperate Heart and Power. Also, this is not the best Rainbow version of Mistreated; I prefer the version from Live In Munich. I would also subsitute Maybe Next Time for Weiss Heim, because Maybe Next Time is a true microcosm of most of Blackmore's techniques and styles all rolled into one beautiful instrumental. He plays fast, he plays slow, he plays some notes straight, he bends some notes, he plays slide, he plays with tremendous feeling. Therefore, Maybe Next Time is a much better representation of all that Blackmore has to offer. whereas Weiss Heim only showcases a very narrow range of Blackmore's abilities. Weiss Heim is a good instrumental but Maybe Next Time is a great one and is a better choice for a Greatest Hits compilation. Finally, why were no songs from the very underrated Stranger In Us All album not included? Wolf To The Moon, Black Masqerade, Ariel and Hall of the Mountain King would have made fine additions here... Now to the really disturbing part about this CD: the remastering job was very poorly done. Imagine what a CD would sound like if the during recording the microphones were placed inside a cardboard oatmeal box filled with dry oatmeal. This is what this sounds like: the high end is muffled rather than crisp and all the instruments have been compressed into a lifeless midrange muddle. Thinking this may be an anomaly to my home stereo system, and knowing that some CDs sound better on some stereo sytems than on others, I played the entire CD on my fancy car stereo system also, and it sounded just as bad. What has been done to Difficult to Cure is a crime against humanity. The only time you can hear the guitar is in the introduction to the song. As soon as all the other instruments join in, the guitar is lost in a muddy sea of bass and strings for the rest of the song. This is a real shame because this song features some of Blackmore's best officially released "live" playing. I have the vinyl version of this song on Finyl Vinyl and it is far superior. On vinyl, the guitar cuts through the night like a knife and soars above the other instruments, sounding, powerful, rich, explosive and leading the way. Do yourself a favor and try to find a copy of Finyl Vinyl on vinyl and you will see what I mean. It will be worth it for Difficult To Cure alone. I have all the songs from this Anthology on vinyl and I have most of them on the NONREMASTERED versions of the CDs, and both the vinyl and nonremastered stuff sound far better than this. Even the nonremastered version of the Very Best of Rainbow sounds far better. Hopefully they will get it right with the next generation of Rainbow's Greatest Hits (have someone who hasn't lost his/her upper range of hearing do the remastering!) but for now I have to chop off one star for the song selection being not quite right and one star for the wretched remastering job. July 13, 2008

Good overview

Released in 2003, the exceptional two-CD Rainbow collection Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology provides a deeper understanding of how the band influenced the direction of hard rock and heavy metal. Between 1975 and 1984, former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore guided his new band (which had dizzying revolving-door lineup changes) through visions of mystical heavy metal and polished, radio-friendly hard rock. Blackmore's employment of vocalists Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, and Joe Lynn Turner created three distinct periods, all of which Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology expands upon further than 2000's perfunctory 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rainbow and 1997's stellar The Very Best of Rainbow. Indispensable songs such as "Man on the Silver Mountain," "Catch the Rainbow," "Stargazer," "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll," "Since You Been Gone," "Stone Cold," and "Street of Dreams" are included, of course. Other tracks that will enlighten Rainbow neophytes are "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves," "A Light in the Black," "Gates of Babylon," "Rainbow Eyes," "Eyes of the World," "Spotlight Kid," and "Jealous Lover." All the previously mentioned songs are excellent, but the two that fully showcase Blackmore's technical prowess are live epics -- the 13-minute, blues-oriented Deep Purple holdover "Mistreated" and the 11-minute "Difficult to Cure," based on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and featuring the Japanese Symphony Orchestra. Although die-hard fans might suggest substitutions, it's hard to quibble too much about the song selection on a comprehensive two-CD, 28-track compilation like Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology. March 3, 2008

The Various Colors Of Rainbow

Between the years 1975-1984, Ritchie Blackmore had 16 different band members in Rainbow. On the double CD, Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology, the nine albums released during this period (he reformed the group in 1993 and disbanded it in 1997) in order and captures the extreme highs and sometimes the frustration fans had with the ever-changing vision from Blackmore.

Disc one is very solid, with the 12 tracks highlighting the outstanding 1975-1978 work of vocalist Ronnie James Dio. The medieval themes of Dio and classically-inspired music of Blackmore made for a fantastic collaboration. There is outstanding storytelling (Man on the Silver Mountain, Sixteenth Century Greensleeves, Kill the King) and compelling longer works (Stargazer, Light in the Black, Mistreated).

But the cornerstone is the title track from the 1978 album, Long Live Rock 'N' Roll. With punk and disco pushing out rock from many FM station playlists, Rainbow's anthem became a rallying cry for frustrated fans who saw their favorite bands either "selling out" or fading away.

And it's because of this no-holds-barred vision of rock that makes the post-Dio years of disc two oftentimes a very frustrating listen over the uneven 16 tracks. The arrangements are often generic - in the mode of Foreigner, Journey, Boston - with lyrics as banal as anything heard from the AOR genre (All Night Long, Spotlight Kid, Death Alley Driver). There are two gems - Since You Been Gone, Street of Dreams - and an incredible live performance by Blackmore on Difficult to Cure.

Rainbow was influential in keeping the hard rock sound alive when it was being written off for dead and Blackmore is one of the greatest technical guitarists ever. This is as good a compilation as any available on the band.


November 21, 2007

Catch the Rainbow: The Anthology

I love this CD. DIO is one of my favorite singers and he did not disappointment me with this CD. January 12, 2007

Rainbow - 'Catch The Rainbow: the Anthology' (Polydor)

Twenty-eight track, 2-CD pick of just what the title reads, an anthology of Rainbow's repertoire 1975-83. I don't mean to be fussy about it, but this could have JUST as easily been cut to a single-disc release. I'll likely play disc one more than disc two,because it's got tunes like "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves", "Catch The Rainbow", "Starstruck", "Mistreated" and "Long Live Rock 'N Roll". Disc two has their later, so-so cuts such as "Since You've Been Gone"(yawn!), "All Night Long" (actually like this cut), "Can't Happen Here", "Stone Cold" and an eleven-minute live performance of "Difficult To Cure". Would make a nice gift. January 7, 2007

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