Customer Reviews

Difficult to Cure

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First Rainbow singer was Ronnie James Dio, which is just my favorite singer all time. Then Graham bennot came, an average singer. The songs on 'Down to Earth' are not bad, but I didn't liked his voice so very much. But after all that: 'Difficult to Cure'! I love that album! There are some poppish songs, but I don't mind. I love those songs. Joe Lynn Turner is a very good singer(better then Bennot). The guitar work is also very good. Ritchie Blackmore(best guitarist ever) plays as good as usualy. The keyboardplay is very good too, listen to 'Spotlight Kid' and you know why. My favorite songs on this album are: 'I Surrender', 'Spotlight Kid', 'No Release' and 'Can't Happen here'. the other songs are very good too. Except for 'Vielleicht Das Nachste Mal'. That song is a bit boring, listenable, bit a bit boring. I like the instrumental song 'Difficult to Cure'. That's a cover of beethovens 9th.
Well well, I hope I helped you with my review. I really recommend this album to anyone. If you know rainbow or if you dont know rainbow, it doesn't matter, just buy this album.

There's no question that when Ritchie Blackmore replaced Graham Bonnett with Joe Lynn Turner that Ritchie was seeking the breakthrough success in the U.S. market that had been eluding him. While the earliest Dio-era Rainbow albums were definitely hard rock and the one Bonnett-sung disc showed more commercial tendencies, this first Turner disc shows definite radio-friendly touches (dare one call it "pop-rock"?)

With that said, one thing that has always impressed me about Blackmore is his ability to craft great parts for the songs he plays on. While Ritchie isn't normally thought of as a great rhythm guitarist, his rhythm parts usually fit very nicely. And his solos? Well, Ritchie is definitely one of the best soloists in rock. Even if he only gets 8 bars for a solo, he'll make a memorable statement.

While a lot of knocks are made against this record for its pop leanings, some people seem to forget the two instrumentals contained on DTC. First is "Vielleicht Das Nachter Zeit" which is a superb piece featuring some great slide playing (for which Ritchie doesn't get enough credit). The melodies so perfectly fit the mood of the piece, given the title. When I first started playing guitar, I thought that this piece really demonstrated what "speaking through a guitar" really meant. The second instrumental is a take on Beethoven's 9th symphony called, "Difficult to Cure". It's really a great instrumental and would be a long-time feature of Rainbow's live shows. In fact, a version recorded with the Tokyo symphony appears on "Finyl Vinyl".

In all, it's a poppier Rainbow but Ritchie still shines. There's a lesson there, I believe.

After Ronnie James Dio left the band, Rainbow started to make more radio-friendly music. When I heard 'Down To Earth' I was very disapointed by Rainbow. The album was so much weaker then the Rainbow albums with Dio. So when this album came out I didn't want to buy it. When I heard that Rainbow had another singer again I was very curious, so I bought the album and I liked it very much. Joe Lynn Turner is a great vocalist, much better then Graham Bonnet.

All the songs are great on this album. It starts off with 'I Surrender', that was a very popular hit and it's a great song. It isn't a rock song, it's a pop song, but that doesn't matter, I also like pop, but when I buy a Rainbow album I expect some rock. Well, the second song (Spotlight Kid) is a great hardrock song! The instrumental part is great! Great guitarsolo and keyboardsolo! The rest of the album is also fantastic. The guitarsolo of 'Midtown Tunnel Vision' is one of the best together with the guitarsolo of 'Spotlight Kid'. The instrumental song 'Difficult To Cure' is a great song to end the album. It is a cover of Beethovens 9th.

So if you like rock music, then you should buy this. It's a great album and surely the best rainbow album with Joe Lynn Turner. Not the best of all Rainbow albums, cause nothing tops the Dio years. So buy this if you like rock! I hope this review was helpful to you...

I absolutely love this CD. Its full of very memorable and well constructed songs. Ritchie's playing as always is masterful and Joe Lynn Turner is a great singer.

This is my favorite Rainbow album of the Joe Lynn Turner era. It is more pop then the Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio, but is that a bad thing? NO! It ain't a bad thing if the songs are good. And it is still rock music, it ain't just pop. Joe Lynn Turner has a great voice and Ritchie Blackmore is the best guitarist ever. The other bandmembers are great too. SO buy this if you like some good rock music and ignore the one-star review beneath me.

When Joe Lynn Turned came onboard, Rainbow's approach really changed into a lighter and more commercial hard rock style (even `tho the previous "Down to earth" sure had some light moments). "Difficult to cure" is a very good album even `tho I prefer the Ronnie James Dio-era, and it's absolutely better than the following "Straight between the eyes". On this album you get to hear the amazing "Spotlight kid" (just listen to the excellent solo part), the radio friendly tracks "I surrender", "No magic", "Freedom fighter" and "Can't happen here". You are also in for some classical music, since the band is doing a cover (?) of Beethoven's nine symphony. All aspects included, this is a solid rock effort worth having!

Joe Lynn Turner's singing on this album still remains one of the best recorded rock performances ever. He makes mediocre material sound better than it actually is, although there are some good songs. Don Airey's keyboards are a strong point.

In the late 70's and early 80's, Ritchie Blackmore abandoned the "medieval" theme of earlier Rainbow incarnations and replaced it with unpretentious, straight-ahead rock and roll with commercial overtones and just enough melodious sprinklings to keep things interesting. Rainbow's two best and most consistent albums were the culmination of this effort. "Difficult to Cure (1981)", like its predecessor "Down to Earth (1979)", contains no weak songs; rather, many strong ones with some a bit stronger than others. The best song on the album is "Maybe Next Time", a dreamy instrumental highlighted by a brilliant climax of guitar notes bursting in melodic splendor, before Blackmore pulls back the reigns and takes us out slowly. "Can't Happen Here" opens with a jolting quick splattering of notes and then settles into a powerful, chord-driven rocker with a raw, live feel to it. "I Surrender" showcases the smooth-flowing, melodic style characteristic of some of Blackmore's solos of that period. "Spotlight Kid" features an unusual, Russian-folk-songish riff - certainly unexpected for a hard rock song but a refreshing touch nonetheless. "No Release" builds into a no-holds-barred finale with Blackmore going berserk. "Magic" sounds like a commercial FM radio hit with a short but soaring solo from Blackmore. "Difficult to Cure" is what Beethoven's Ninth Symphony would sound like if Beethoven played electric guitar - then again, maybe not, because nobody plays the guitar like Blackmore, which is precisely what this album is all about.

This was one of the first albums I ever bought, and re-purchasing it (which says something) on CD gave me the chance to re-evaluate it. The bottom line is that some of the songs are great (I Surrender, Spotlight Kid, Vielleicht, Can't Happen Here and Beethoven's 9th - Difficult to Cure), some huge lows (Magic) and some very middling stuff (Midtown Tunnel Vision, Freedom Fighter). Probably the weakest of all the Blackmore/Lynn Turner collaborations. All in all, if you are new to Rainbow get another album (e.g., Rising)

I absolutely adored this album when I was a teenager and now, at the ripe age of 35, I still like it, though not as much. I think that I may have listened to it a few many times...or maybe I see the silliness behind some of the songs now.
Anyhow, Rainbow's first album with singer JOE LYNN TURNER is still one of their best albums. Rainbow delved back into progressive hard rock on this, especially on cuts like "Maybe Next Time" and the title track.
" I Surrender" gets the album off to a very powerful and upbeat
and slightly poppy start. It's their second cover of a RUSS BALLARD song( artists like RAINBOW, SANTANA and AMERICA all had hitswith RUSS BALLARD songs, tho RUSS himself never did.) I think JOELYNN TURNER sounds terrific on this song and on the entire album!
Nice sad, emotional guitar playing by BLACKMORE on this track.
"Spotlight Kid" is probably my favorite song here! It's a fast paced, heavy metal song with some great lyrics and an amazing instrumental section; BLACKMORE's guitar solo is superb and I really love that little irish jig part( or russian jig, i dunno, george!) Very emotional vocal from TURNER!
"No Release" is a slightly soulful/bluesy hard rock song> I like it!
"Magic" is a progressive pop song, with a very melodic guitar line, which Turner sings along with.
"Maybe Next Time" has BLACKMORE'S saddest ever guitar playing on it; the song is melodic, pretty and depresssing at the same time. BLACKMORE makes his guitar gently weep on this and it will make YOU weep if you don't watch out!
"Cant Happen Here" starts out with a little rock-n-roll guitar lick from BLACKMORE, then the rest of the band joins in and the song turns into another emotional, but heavy prog rock song. This song has another outstanding vocal from TURNER, as does the next track, " Freedom Fighters", which is another highlight ofthis album. "Freedom" is another fast paced hard rocker, with some very intelligent lyrics. I'm not a big fan of the last two songs, "MIDTOWN TUNNEL VISION" and "DIFFICULT TO CURE". I know alot of people think very highly of this last track, but I always found it rather pretenscious( did I spell that word right?)
Other than the last two songs, this is a great progressive hard rock album. I also think RITCHIE BLACKMORE hit his peak as a songwriter AND a guitarist on this. After this album, BLACKMORE seemed to keep borrowing riffs amd licks from earlier DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW songs. He also began to overplay as a soloist after this, at least on the next two RAINBOW albums and the DEEP PURPLE album PERFECT STRANGERS. Many fine songs were still to come, though not THAT many; indeed, my favorite song off the nexttwo RAINBOW albums, SNOWMAN, wasn't even written by BLACKMORE.
I hated RAINBOW'S next album, the very commercial STRAIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES, but DIFFICULT TO CURE is a great album!