Rainbow – Down to Earth [Remastered] (1999, Polydor Records)
Original Release: 1979, Polydor Records
1. “All Night Long” … 3:49
2. “Eyes of the World” … 6:39
3. “No Time to Lose” … 3:41
4. “Makin’ Love” … 4:36
5. “Since You Been Gone” … 3:16
6. “Love’s No Friend” … 4:51
7. “Danger Zone” … 4:27
8. “Lost in Hollywood” … 4:51
Band:
Graham Bonnet – Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
Roger Glover – Bass
Cozy Powell – Drums
Don Airey – Keyboards
Produced by: Roger Glover
Don’t get me wrong, I like Dio-era Rainbow, but it’s their more AOR/commercial-minded efforts that I enjoy most. I’ll put the slick mainstream hard rock of “Since You Been Gone”, “Street of Dreams” and “Stone Cold” against anything they did when Ronnie James Dio was in the band.
And Dio wasn’t the only Rainbow member to exit the band: Bob Daisley and David Stone were replaced by former Deep Purple bandmate Roger Glover and keyboardist Don Airey. With journeyman Cozy Powell on the drums, this is an incredibly strong line-up.
It’s a shame things didn’t work out with Graham Bonnet (this is his only Rainbow album) because he’s a fantastic vocalist turning in some great performances on “Makin’ Love”, “Eyes of the World” and “No Time to Lose” especially.
The sound is different from the medieval so-called “dragon rock” of the Dio years, but as far as I’m concerned this is another classic release and is fantastic from start to finish it… even if my woman said she didn’t like it and “they should like they’re trying to be KISS”.
I love the album’s cover. It’s so very 70s and happy thanks to the use of the cosmic rainbow. =-) It would be the last Rainbow album to feature a rainbow on the cover though. =-(
Highlights: All of it
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This is an okay album. I may have liked it more if it hadn’t come after the great Dio era. Rising and Long live rock and roll were far and away Rainbow’s best efforts.
Dio schmio!
Rainbow is a great band, a classic band! They were able to forge a successful career with 3 different singers: Dio, Graham Bonnett and Joe Lynn Turner. I’m a huge Graham Bonnett fan so DOWN TO EARTH is my favorite Rainbow record. No offense to the superb Dio era of the band or the radio-friendly Hard Rock of the JLT era, I just like Graham’s voice a bunch! I reviewed the album too.
http://heavymetaladdiction.com/2006/07/17/rainbow-down-to-earth-1979-polydor/
Steve
Heavy Metal Addiction
http://heavymetaladdiction.com
The thing with Dio Rainbow is that there is a bunch of good songs, but they are scattered across albums, but if there was a greatest hits with all of the Dio hits it could be a stromng studio album if that is what it came out as, LONG LOVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL