Mohammed Osama's Image of Rainbow Rising



Not only one of Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow finest moments ever ,yet it comes to be one of their best and most phenominal work and performances threw their entire career,giving out one of the best classical rock albums in history ! with the likes of Ronnie James Dio on vocals,Jimmy Bain on bass,Tony Carey on keyboards , Cozy Powell on drums & finally Martin Birch for production ,it was clear that Ritchie had decided to take Rainbow into a new unique musical level he havent been too before ,even with the classical line-ups of Deep purple!

With a great partner and song writer as Ronnie James Dio,Blackmore had the chance to explore into more deeper ,complex and expressive music where his musical and guitar talent would shine at their best ! As expected , the album came out to be something totally different to Rainbow's debut album and to any of Blackmore's previous efforts through his own career! Although the album contains only 6 tracks and a total run of 35 mintues it was totally clear that the rock scene was witinsing a phenominal classical rock album ,opening up with Tony carey's weird keyboard intro on Tarot women ,it was clear from the very first track that Ritchie and his band sounds more tight,aggresive and magical than the previous line-up as the output and total sound of the band had a strange Rainbow feeling through out the whole album ,yet Blackmore compostion and guitar work on the first track (including a very decent and fresh solo) just enlighted and showed out the new musical mature direction Blackmore was leading his band into .

Moving to Run with the wolf,Blackmore seems to put one his very underrated riffs on this one and although the song is quit short ,the bands performance ,the song riff and Blackmore's very simple sliding solo on this song makes it one of the most favorite Rainbow tracks for many fans out there.

Starstruck gives the album another musical direction being conceptually fantaical story ,telling a real story of a girl which was starstrucking Blackmore himself early on . The song's lyrics,guitar riff and again Blackmore's beautiful sliding solo makes it one of Rainbow's very best ,yet the whole band through this song comes to prove they are the top and best of the game,wether its Cozy remarble rythmatic drumming giving the band another powerful backing rythm section or Tony Carey with his beautiful keyboards additions and rythm parts ,Jimmy Bain of course just shines on those tracks with his solid and tough Bass lines and finally Ronnie James Dio with his both powerful and melodic vocal performance giving the band best leading sound and final Rainbow touches!

Do You Close Ur Eye's comes next ,many fans call this the weakest track on such a classic ,yet i found no weak tracks on the album ,the song is opened with a simple riff ,and within simple musical arrangment and compostion Ronnie enters with the vocal line,this song comes to be the shortest and the most straight into ur face song on the Rising album ,yet and just like the above ,the complexity and maturity of the band's output and sound is quit phenomial and magical !

The next 2 and final tracks are actually why most of Rainbow and Blackmore fans consider this album as the best album and performance Rainbow and Blackmore have ever given out ! The 2 epic's Stargazer & Light in the black shines upon this album proving ,that the whole albums is based on those 2 classical conceptual songs starting from the album title to the album cover itself! Through these 2 songs Blackmore totally shocked the rock scene composing 2 of the most complicated ,expressive,mature and classical rock tunes of all time ,with an almost total run of 8:30 mintues for each song it was quit clear that the album structure and basement lyies into those 2 epics.

The Conceptual epics Stargazer and Light in the black starts off with a simple story a thousands years back where an evil egyptian wizard seeks to build a tower to reach to the one star he personally belives would give him the absolute power and magic to take over the world! The Stargazer gathers thousands of slaves from all over the world in order to build his dream and tower!

The songs begins from the thoughts and mouth of a SLAVE ,who was taken from his home and land ,bought to work and suffer to build the tower of stone ,it has been many years since he was stolen from his home and the one thing that keeps his soul breathing is that his hoping and willing to get back home somday ,someway!

Ritchie Blackmore ,once again proves his talented and self favoite musical direction giving out the eastern sound he always topped when preforming ! since the song appears to be in the east land and since the whole story seems to lay in the desert,Blackmore focused and concentarted to give out a very speical sound and riff in order to give the sense and feeling of the song which he totally succeded in doing so ! yet the more astonishing thing is how he lead his partners and band members to give out the final output of the song ,giving out one straight big impact of complexed sounds of his band memebers!

The song starts with one of the best drums intros of all time performed widely by the drum monster Cozy Powell .From the drum intro into the main Riff of the song where the band seemed to more tight ,strict and solid ,giving out more complex and professional musical eastern sound highly written,composed and arranged by Ritchie Blackmore!


"High noon, oh I'd sell my soul for water Nine years worth of breakin' my back"


It has been 9 years and the tower of stone is almost over,the slave looks at the tower somekind of proud that he defeated all the diffuculties he faced ,looking at the tower getting higher ,the slave is so happy that he resisted and caught up hard with his flesh and blood on his life time dream !


"There's no sun in the shadow of the wizard See how he glides, why he's lighter than air? Oh I see his face!"


The wizard has came to the working arena by himself,taking a look at the workers and tower as usual ,our slave hero looking for a place with a shadow where he can have a rest only for a couple of mintues,there he see the huge shadow right close to him ,suddenly he sees the wizard,through out all this past years ,he havent saw the wizard ever,this was his first time ,the wizard looking at the slaves,suddenly his eyes fell on our hero ,both at a secound had a furious eye contact!!!

The song seems to slide into the famous chorus where band seems to break into very complex eastern sound,as its clear enough that Blackmore uses musical minor scales in order to give out the best eastern sound his band could give out to the song ,in order to be able to express the song in the best way ,giving out the exact feeling and sound the songs needs!


"Where is your star? Is it far, is it far, is it far? When do we leave? I believe, yes, I believe"


The slave shouts within himself with anger ,looking at the wizard,asking him where is his star ! when its going to be over?is it still much more than this ? he shouts again within himself ,when its going to be over ? are u going to set us free? anyway ,no matter what happens the slave would fight and resist ,cause simply he belives that one day his going to get back home,when ? well its only a matter of time ,in specfic,a test of time.


"In the heat and the rain With the whips and chains To see him fly So many die We built a tower of stone With our flesh and bone Just to see him fly But don't know why Now where do we go?"


The slave looking at the tower and going back through his memory ,remebering this past hard years ,remebering the hot ,hard ,dry working days ,in conflict he gets the winter rainy days,remebering and wondering how he resisted the suffer through out all this years,remebering how many friends he lost during those years ,knowing that this tower is not only built of stone ,but infact built of the swet ,tears and blood of his friends and himself of course,Many people died far away from their homes and family and theydont even know what did they die for? and even if its over,will they ever get back home someday ?

The band seems to have have awesome leading part by Blackmore with his mind blowing guitar riff and leading parts along with Ronnie James Dio who was totally succeful expressing the slaves anger,fear,dream and pain through his powerful and melodic voice,yet Blackmore seemed to be much more musically matured than his purple years having an orchetral background ryhtmatic sound to the band all over the tune in addition of course to the classical rythm performance of Tony,Cozy and Jimmy!

The band switches again to the orginal song riff and 2nd verse.


"Hot wind, moving fast across the desert We feel that our time has arrived The world spins, while we put his dream together A tower of stone to take him straight to the sky Oh I see his face!"


Its the hot,dry summer again and although its pretty hard to work in such a weather,the slaves are working hard ,as they felt that the tower was almost over and that they fulfulied the wizard dream !The band enters the 2nd chorus .


" Where is your star? Is it far, is it far, is it far? When do we leave? Hey, I believe, I believe,In the heat and the rain With the whips and chains Just to see him fly Too many die We built a tower of stone With our flesh and bone To see him fly But we don't know why Ooh, now where do we go"


The 2nd Chorus ends and then Ritchie Blackmore drifts the song into an almost 2 mintues sliding solo where he performs one of his finest ,well built and arranged solos of all time!
Once again Blackmore proves that his the most unique and phenoimal rock guitarist to ever used a slide,as he gives out a very deep ,melodic and touching solo only using his slide! moreover the solo seemed to be very straight to the point ,giving more deep expression to the conceptual and mood direction of song and also throwing off tons of unlimited emotions and feelings from his guitar solo proving why the man in black is yet to be the most expressive musician and guitarist of all time!

The highly arranged orchestra gets to give the solo ,band and song a 3rd musical dimension delivering a very high complex rythmatic sound to the overall sound! with a great heavy and solid drum break the solo ends and the song gets into the 3rd and final verse of the song!

The tower seems to be finished and dream of the wizard is moments from becoming true!


"All eyes see the figure of the wizard As he climbs to the top of the world No sound, as he falls instead of rising Time standing still, then there's blood on the sand Oh I see his face!"


All the kingdom watching the wizard has he climbs the tower high above the ground ,eyes of hatred all over the place ,from the eyes of people which have suffered alotto get this tower built,finally the wizard makes it to the top ,cant belive himself,the wizard stood at the edge of the tower,looking downward on to his people and slaves laughing laughing in halusination ,he cant belive that he fulfilled his dream and that by the night his going to be the ruler of the world.Suddenly the wizard slips over the edge of the tower!!! the wizard falls on the down ,his blood spreaded all over the golden desert ,no sound ,no voice ,no whispher,nothin!!! thousands of people just staring at who used to be their ruler,they cant belive what happened,the slaves cant belive that all these years to fulfill the wizard's dream collapsed in one hell of a secound! The slave through his tears looking at the wizard's body starts asking him again...

The band enters their 3rd ,last and final chorus .


"Where was your star? Was it far, was it far When did we leave? We believed, we believed, we believed"


and once again his memory flashes back in a secound ,remebering all the things he his been through ...


" In heat and rain With the whips and chains To see him fly So many died We built a tower of stone With our flesh and bone To see him fly But why In all the rain With all the chains Did so many die Just to see him fly"


As the song seems to be drifted to a near end ,Blackmore musical genuises starts to appear once again as the lead and rythm parts seems to be more powerful and edgy that the past the chourus,the orchestral sound rises over this part and seems much louder than it was at from the beginning of the song!

The slave moves towards the wizard body ,the wizard eyes wide open ,with blood slipping off his mouth and all over his face,the slave shouts in his face....


"Look at my flesh and bone Now, look, look, look, look, Look at the tower of stone"


the slave is furious ,he is shouting at the stunning face of the wizard asking him to see what he have done to him and to similar slaves ,making them suffer and die ,just for a useless tower of stone,the slave still crying ,not for the death of the wizard,but for all the pain and suffer he have been through,only to build a tower of stone!


"I see a RAINBOW RISING Look there, on the horizon "


Through his tears the slave looks at the horizon and watches a RISING RAINBOW,and here we start to take a look at the album title RAINBOW RISING which means alot the song,the RISING RAINBOW here is symbol of many things ,the rainbow is a symbol of the innocence,good and purifaction ,whats more the rainbow is a symbol of hope,watching the rainbow high rising in the horizon ,reminded the slave of his dream,it energized him with the hope and will to get back home!

Once again Blackmore proves how so different and classical this album is by having a classical and conceptual artwork capturing the magical story and symbolisim he and Dio tried to give out through the lyrics ,musical compostions and arrangments!

The slave screams!


"And I'm coming home, I'm coming home, I'm coming home"

He wont give up ,his nightmare is over and has to fight to get back home ,nothin is going to stand in his face,even time ,he dont care anymore.....

The song seems to drift into a new direction as the orchestral sound seems to rises over and be take the leading part along with Dio.

" Time is standing still You, give back my will Ooh ooh ooh ooh Going home I'm going home" "My eyes are bleeding And my heart is lead ahead But it's not home But it's not home Ooh"

The slave is tearing blood he feels that nothin can stand in his way to get back home,but he still knows that his home is still far away ,and although his heart is lying there at his home,he knows that he might not make it ,but anyway he doesnt want to die here ,cause he belives that this is aint his home and it will never be,he prefers to die trying to fulifill his dream .

"Going home I'm going home My eyes are bleeding And my heart is lead ahead But it's not home But it's not home"

The slave strys to encourage himself once again that his going back home...but still cant belive that he might not make it, looking back at the wizard,the slave starts to shout into the wizards face ,shouting furiously ....

"Take me back, take me back Back to my home ooh, ooh, ooh"

Its very obvious why Blackmore have chosen Ronnie to be the lead vocals of his own band ,as Ronnie's vocaling on this song just sums it all ! the song drifts away with Dio's screams and orchestral sound ending one ,if not,Blackmore's most complex,beauitful,melodic and powerful rock tunes arrangement and compostion ever !

The classical Stargazer fades out and light in the black starts to shine out ! the song starts with a drum break followed by the song main guitar riff,the tempo seems quite faster than the previous classic ,yet the atmosphere and mood of the song seems to put the listner on the same track as Stargazer,thxs to the beautiful production of Martin Birch !the song actually starts where Stargazer ended,where the slave has escaped taking the oppourtiny of the mess that happened during the tragic death of the evil wizard...

"Can't forget his face,What a lonely place Has he really let us go?"

Lost within the endless desert,the slave's memory reminds him the evil wizard,he stares at the darkness around him ,still he cant belive that his nightmare is over,he cant belive his set free ,still he cant belive his on his way back home!

Blackmore's compostion to the song was well arranged ,giving out a hard ,solid yet mysterical sound that really fits the mood of the song ,and even more expresses the slaves situation more dark and deeply backed up by tough rythmatic lines from Bain,Carey ,Cozy and Ronnie having a hard leading role expressing the slaves own thoughts and situation!

"All the time that's lost
What's the final cost
Will I really get away?"


The slave wonders ,after all the years he wasted ,after all the years of pain and misery ,will reach his dream ? will he really get away from all this evil he spent his live captured into?

"All my life it seems
Just a crazy dream
Reaching for somebody's star"


his life flashed through his mind wondering what was it all about ? nothin? just wasted his life time in building a tower of stone for the wizard to reach a star ? why the hell would he want to get to a star? the slave wondering why looks up to teh sky ...watching the brighting STARs shinging in the night and lighting the endless darkness his getting through ..

"Can't believe it all
Did he really fall
What to do now I don't know"


the slave seems not to be belive what have happened so far,he still cant releaize the simple tragic death of the wizard,looking all around in the golden sea,he really wonders what to do ! he wants to get back home,but his simply lost !

The band gets into the chorus which makes the band shines moreover,as the band musical output seems to be one tight hard classical sound,Blackmore seems to lead this song to a more heavy metal direction than the previous classic!

"Something's called me back
There's a light in the black
and I´m ready to go
I'm coming home"


A voice in slaves mind echoes in his mind,asking him to come back home ,the SLAVE with anger wakes up ,wakes up from all the depression he have been through ,there is always hope,and he has nothin to lose.The light symbols to hope and to his dream while black represents the evil,depression and loss ,the slave screams "iam coming home!"

"Breathed the air before
Hear the thunder roar
Never knew it was for me"


The air & the thunder roar, represents the struggle within the slave himself.,the deep struggle between hope and depression , the struggle between his life time dreamand the fear of being lost ,the fear of not beliving that he could really fulfuill his dream ,cant still realize that he could!

"Like an open door
That you passed before
But you never had a key"


Through his life ,he was always looking down while watching his steps one after the other,never looked forward,he was never anxious or had the will to do something ,to fulfill a dream ,he was always lost ,never had something in mind to do never had any plans or dreams,just lived for nothin he had eyes but he never saw the truth of life ,he never knew whats it all about ,but now he can see.,he can see hope ,he can see what makes his life worth for ,he can see what he wants to get too now, only now he has reason to fight and live for....

"Something's called me back
There's a light in the black

I'm coming home, I'm coming home, yeah
I'm going back to my home"


The secound chorus ends ,and the band flows in long musical field,where Ritchie Blackmore seemed to go beyound any musical limits ,showing off how tight,techincal ,brilliant and magical his band is , Tony Carey starts the journey with a long keyboard solo just proving his one of the toppest keyboard players in the genre ,moreover ending out his best keyboard efforts on such a remarkble classical album! As the keyboard ends the band gets into a one of the most complicated musical moments ever,having a huge break lead by Blackmore and over showed the powerful and unbelivable rhymatic Cozy Powell drumming on the album ! Blackmore then enters a world of his own ,proving its one of his finest moments ever in his career playing one of his most long ,yet well arranged and beautiful solo's ever!Blackmore seems to have enough with his slide on this one and plays completey free handed this time! the solo ends with another solid,harsh band break ,back into the main riff with Ronnie back on vocals!

"I'm going home, home, home
Going home, home, home
I'm coming back "

"Don't forget his face
What a lonely place
Did he really let us go

All the time that's lost
What's the final cost
Will I really get away?

All my life it seems
Just a crazy dream
Reaching for somebody's star"


Another days have been lost ,and his still lost ,still cant take off this nightmares his facing everyday and every night,still his wondering and asking himself what he have really wasted his life in ! still wondering if he will ever get to his home ,still wondering what the hell the star was worth for !? his still having this fight and combat,within himself,within his soul and mind......

"Something's called me back
Like a light in the black
Yes, I´m ready to go
I'm coming home, home, yeah"


At a certian day ,where the desert is dark ,endless dark ,the slave sat alone ,almost depressed and lost his dream ,he started to belive he wont ever get back home ,his lost in the desert and he no way to get out !suddenly he hears the same old voices he heard before ."HOME","HOME"the slave lyies on his back on the soft desert sand ,staring at the stars,trying to regain his powerful spirit to succeded his dream to finish what he always lived and fought for ,he takes a look at the stars shining the night and refilling the slaves spirit with more hope and courage ,as it shine ,as it lights the black and darkness surronded by him ,the darkness he was drifted too many years ago ,and fought with all his body and soul to get through it ,but still wonders will he ever will!

"I've got my way back home
To the sky
There in the sky
I see your star"


suddenely the slave's body shakes and his eyes light like diamonds in the dark,he found it ! he found the way to get through the evil and darkness,he found the way to get back home! ,he finally found the answer ,there up in the sky is his finally hope ,isnt it ironic??? his going to follow the stars path to get back home! the stars which once took his lifetime and driffted him away from his people and home ,the same star is going to the way and hope to take him back home ,isnt it a tragic?the slave rises his head up high to the sky ,there in the sky he spots a certain huge star,its the star that he decided to follow,and ironically he probably will never get to know that this specific star which is taking him straight back home ,is the same star the wizard wasted his life trying to get too!!!

Rainbow rising ends with a huge classical epic ,which many consider till now Blackmore's and Rainbow best album closet ever ! the album ends ,yet it rises over the classic rock scene with new and unforgatable musical and classical songs,that influenced thousands of musicians during those days till nowadays!

It was certainly clear that through the releaize and performance on such an album ,Blackmore musical career,had entered a new classical phase!

1.Blackmore compostions,arrangments ,experiance and musical maturity/knowledge seems to be fired out on such an album! the album holds on many of his most complicated and musical wise songs in his entire career!

2.Blackmore seemed to be overwhelmd during this era to use his slide guitar ,as 3/4 of his solos on this classical album is preformed using it ,yet his performance opened a new dimension and view in using the slide,as his probably the only rock guitarist ever,to use the slide this much during the album and during this era specifically ! yet his complete control and melodic sound added alot to the man in black overall preformance!

3.Blackmore seemed to be intelligent and talented enough to releaize the musical limits of each of his band members,as without a doubt ,this conisdered as the top performances in all his band mates career Dio,Carey,Bain and Cozy !

4.Blackmore proved once and for all that through his musical leadingship ,he was able and yet proved to the whole world,that aside from Deep Purple he was able to form one of the most powerful,classic and melodic bands of all time!



If you would like to discuss or ask any thing considering the image,
then you can send an email to Mohammed Osama