Customer Reviews

Down to Earth

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

By the time Rainbow began in the mid-seventies, many of heavy metal's prime architects began to ape the habits of their progressive-rock brethren by becoming an institution of traveling, revolving-door musicians, all of whom have played on albums by other top-tier bands. As such, Rainbow could be considered the ultimate supergroup because it became a pit stop or even a launching pad for the careers of many of the most lauded names in heavy metal history. By the time Richie Blackmore and Company released "Down to Earth," Rainbow was at the pinnacle of its revolving-door policy and in a period of relative transition.

Exit Ronnie James Dio, the diminutive frontman who gave operatic voice to Blackmore's magically gothic and netherworld vision. Enter Graham Bonnett, former pop singer and neo-metal James Dean with flat top and shades to match. Fans expecting another Dio must have been quite surprised by the almost pop and r&b leanings of this street-tough posing with open shirt on the album sleeve. Gone were the stargazers and men on silver mountains. Blackmore, together with former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, incorporated some pop and r&b into their philosophies and provided a vehicle for Bonnett to front a leaner, meaner and more concise Rainbow.

And it is good. "All Nite Long" is the love song at its most anthemic with the kind of sing-along chorus Blackmore would never have dared before. "No Time To Lose" is a dirty, fast little rocker reminiscent of Deep Purple's "Speed King," while "Makin' Love" sounds like the kind of pop metal that became a chart topper less than a decade later. The surprise here is "Since You Been Gone," pure pop penned by Russ Ballard ("Into the Night" by Ace Frehley and "You Not Me" by Dream Theater among many others) with a Louie Louie-like riff and another sing-along chorus. "Love's No Friend" returns Blackmore to the blues, where Bonnett soars with heartfelt emotion and rage never before heard in a Rainbow song. In between is a Bach-like break that reminds you, yes, this is still Richie Blackmore's music.

The other three selections reflect more typical Rainbow fare. "Danger Zone" takes Bonnett's fast-talking fury into the kind of driving rocker that soon became Rainbow's trademark. "Lost in Hollywood," for which Cozy Powell received a co-writing credit, sounds like a pared-down, commercialized "Light in the Black" with its fast rhythms and a Bach-rock break courtesy of keyboardist Don Airey. Airey saved his best for the album's finest cut, "Eyes of the World." Perhaps the only cut that sounds closest to what Blackmore would have written in the old days, "Eyes of the World" takes Airey's eerie "Tarot Woman"-type keyboard introduction into a blistering riff and a Bonnett vocal piercing with intensity and urgency. Bonnett, the bluesy, pop-wailer, shines with power and conviction.

Unfortunately, behind all of this activity is a flat production with as much resonance as a shoebox. Roger Glover, skilled bassist and gifted songwriter, has proved time and again that for much of his career he could hardly produce himself out of a paper bag. Listen to the drums for instance. Powell could bash his drums like John Bonham, but Glover took the drums as well as every other element of the band's recording and stuffed it into a padded cell. Second only to Mike Stone (who has desecrated the sounds of Journey, Asia and Whitesnake), Glover for many years has underproduced what should have been many groups' finest efforts, like Judas Priest (Sin After Sin) and Nazareth (Razamanaz).

Sadly, the Airey-Blackmore-Bonnett-Glover-Powell lineup would last only one album. Airey left to play for the Michael Schenker Group's first album and Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz. Powell joined MSG for an album and a tour. Bonnett resurfaced with - alas - MSG a little while later. Blackmore - always prolific, always progressive - and Glover revealed a new Rainbow with at-the-time unknowns; however, because of their experience with Rainbow, these relative unknowns became revolving-door superstars in their own right with bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Yngwie Malmsteen. Blackmore, though he maintained his classical and baroque stylings, continued to mold the Rainbow style in search of commercial legitimacy. "Difficult to Cure" and "Straight Between the Eyes" offer incredible insights into the mind of Blackmore and the many facets of his vision, but never again has he, nor his bandmates, ever sounded so fresh and so wild as they did on "Down to Earth."

DOWN TO EARTH is another great Rainbow Album. Ronnie Dio is gone, but Graham Bonnet is a wonderful replacement. Most of the songs are great, and some of the mystical lyrics have been replaced by more down-to-earth ones. The sound has also been streamlined considerably. The other songs are all great, even though the hit single, "Since You Been Gone", is a Russ Ballard cover. This album got a lot of rough reviews when it came out, quite possibly due to indignation over Ritchie Blackmore's firing of Dio, but it's really a great album that can stand on its own, no matter who's singing lead, and it beats the follow-up, DIFFICULT TO CURE, by miles.

*Down To Earth* is probably the most underrated and overlooked of the Rainbow albums, it's stuck right between the infamous Dio albums and the radio-freindly Turner years.

Graham Bonnett is one of the greatest voices in rock period. I don't know why he isn't more well-known in the realm of rock, as after Rainbow he went on to work with other famous guitarists (i.e. Schenker, Malmsteen). This austrilian ex-pop singer does himself proud on tracks like "All Night Long", "Makin Love" and "Lost in Hollywood". I hope one day they release a "Best Of" CD with all of bands Graham has worked with, that would be ridculous. Unfortunatly, Blackmore only kept him for one album, and this is what we have, *Down To Earth*. The album has Ritchie playing at a much more controlled and refined direction, much more feeling and emotion in the solos and riffs. I know it marks the end with the "Medival" theme the band had earlier, but this is non the less a perfect rock album; lots of memorable riffs, cool vocals, pounding drums and 70's sounding keyboards. You really can't go wrong if you are looking for hard driving blues rock. It certainly beats the junk thats paraded as "rock" these days, polluting radio airwaves.

Also, keep in mind that this came out in 79, the dawn of the 1980s was right around the corner, so this was the last hurrah of qaulity 70s hard-rock before the gendre became artifical, sanitized commercial shlock on MTV. Even Rainbow themselves would get a little too much sugary for my taste after this. Rainbow's last really spectacular album IMHO.

in 1979 i was a huge rainbow fan and the thought of them without ronnie james dio was dreadful.the first time i heard "down to earth" i fell in love with it! it still had the raw guitar sound, the powerful drumming of cozy powell was still there, but there was a new more polished production and a new singer named GRAHAM BONNET! when i first heard him i thought maybe he was black. he sang with so much soul and so powerful,i was blown away.every song on this album is a classic!!! my favorites are "eyes of the world","love's no friend",....hell i love them all! twenty years later and this album still sounds as fresh as ever. i'll listen to this till the day i die.

I have all the Rainbow cds, and I'm a big Dio fan, but this is my favorite Rainbow cd. All the songs are good, with great music, great production, and awesome singing. I love the way Graham Bonnett put so much emotion into his singing on this cd.

Much as I would like to, I just can't give 5 stars to any of Rainbow's albums. Blackmore never quite managed to release a complete masterpiece under the Rainbow moniker, although I would say "Rising", "Long Live Rock'n'Roll" and this one are close.

The bulk of the material is written by Blackmore and the newly arrived Roger Glover, and its mostly first-rate. "All Night Long", "Eyes Of The World", and "Lost In Hollywood" are absolute classics. The cover of Russ Ballard's "Since You Been Gone" is also great. Only "No Time To Lose" and "Danger Zone" seem a bit rote, but even they have the customary guitar pyrotechnics.

Graham Bonnet has a great voice, stylistically somewhere between Dio and Turner, just as the material on the entire album sits stylistically between the gothic medievalism of the Dio era and the pop-metal of the Turner era (although the scales are definitely tilted towards pop). Unfortunately, this Blackmore/Bonnet teaming was a one-off, followed up by the lackluster "Difficult To Cure" with new lead singer Joe Lynn Turner.

(By the way, if you like this record you should really hear Bonnet's work with Alcatrazz, too.)

First thing first: My actual rating for this would be 4.5 stars, but since i can't put that... If you read my review of Deep Purple's two pack of "Burn/Stormbringer", then you already have an idea of what I'm going to say. This is a great CD, with awesome songs and great playing, but...is this still Rainbow? I mean... Ritchie Blackmore left DP in 1975 because he didn't like the funkier direction they were heading into, and formed Rainbow with singer Ronnie James Dio. Over the course of 3 records(4 if you count their live CD), THEY invented a new type of heavy rock: big, grandiose, symphonic inspired music, with medieval, renaissance, fantastic imagery in their lyrics, in turn inspiring the euro-metal wave led by Iron Maiden a couple of years later (Maiden founder/bassist Steve Harris is a major Rainbow fan)which still lingers proudly in Europe to this day. But then, in an inexplicable change of heart, Blackmore decided to once again change direction and forsake their trademark brand of music. Rainbow was always a "musical chairs" band, suffering major lineup changes from record to record, but the departure of Dio over this change in direction definitely marked the closing of an era.

Kiss the dragons and dungeons lyrics goodbye , welcome the radio friendly, tender... ballads? Yes, you heard me, ballads! Enter Graham Bonnet. After failing to convince Ian Gillan to join Rainbow, Blackmore then opted to recruit a relative "newcomer" (more on that later), enlisted the help of former DP bandmate Roger Glover as bassist AND producer, and rounded up the lineup with survivor Cozy Powell on drums and Don Airey on keyboards. Despite all the changes in personnel, the band manages to turn in very solid performances overall: Cozy was a powerhouse in and by himself, Roger is an always dependable groove master and Don doesn't feature prominently but makes some very tasteful contributions. The man in Black(more) himself is on his best behavior, riffing and soloing along without overindulging.

And that's probably the biggest change from the band's previous incarnation: rather than using the songs as vehicles for virtuosic playing (as had been the case sometimes in the past), the band (and especially Blackmore) chose to shed some of the flash in favor of a more cohessive approach, one that benefited greatly from Roger's pop sensibilities in order to crack the mainstream. The change in musical direction is pretty brutal, but still, I find this brand of rock very much enjoyable (as opposed to the AOR direction the band would adopt subsequently with Joe Lynn Turner...don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with AOR, it's just not my type of music...).

Yes, the faces are different, but listening to this CD, sometimes I could swear some of these songs were written for the Stormbringer sessions: listen to "Lady Double Dealer" from Stormbringer and then to "No time to Lose", "Love's No friend", "Danger Zone" and tell me if I'm wrong... Only the tandem vocals of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes are missing here!These are songs more in the vein of vintage Purple, with perhaps a pinch more of pop, so no "Stargazer"'s to be found here. The one song that comes closest to that earlier sound is "Eyes of the World", thanks to its somewhat more elaborate structure and flashy playing.

But then you have the aforementioned ballads, 2 to be exact: "Making Love" & "Since you've been gone", that will remind you of Stormbringer's "Soldier of Fortune", not so much in their sound, but rather in their definite commercial appeal. The first one is the best, in my opinion, but the latter would actually become the band's first hit. And what about the "new" guy? Bonnet wasn't exactly a newcomer, but rather an "obscure" choice if you will, having actually started his career in the late 60's in a duo called The Marbles with which he enjoyed his first taste of success (as well as being first noticed by Blackmore) and releasing 3 solo albums by the time he was asked to join Rainbow. Bonnet fares very well here, as his voice and style suit perfectly the new approch that Blackmore was shooting for, which was powerful but radio friendly.

Unlike Dio, Bonnet is more of a baritone, but the range and depth of his voice are still impressive, stealing the spotlight on the rockers and softer numbers alike. Graham was nowhere near as operatic as Ronnie was, but still, having only heard a few clips of this lineup performing live at Donington in 1980 (available at youtube), I can definitely say that Bonnet was the right man for the job of succeeding Dio on vocals, powerful enough to cover the earlier material adequately and with confidence to spare brimming on the new album, making a strong impression and successfully taking the band into the new direction they were hoping for and making perfect sense of the album's title, with music that was definitely more "down to earth" than ever before. Too bad it didn't last...

I insist, this record is great for everyone: if you like DP, you will like it. If you like Dio era Rainbow(the best, if you ask me...), you will still like it, musical direction change notwithstanding. And if you simply like good music, you'll love it. The reason why I rate it 4.5 and not 5 stars is simply because I feel that the record sounds a little too much like Mk III Deep Purple, and therefore, a little redundant: I mean, why start a new band if you're gonna sound like your old band, right? But if you don't care about this, you will enjoy this a great deal. This is the last Rainbow record that I truly, really enjoy. Get it!

Since the 'Long Live' album, Rainbow is practically a different band now. Some members have been replaced (most noticably Dio, who went on to Black Sabbath) and the music and lyrics have changed rather radically. This album is much more mainstream and written to appeal to a much broader audience than the previous dungeons/dragons type themes.
Now, I loved the Dio-era Rainbow, but this one is great as well. Just in a different way. Basically, I'll keep this short. This album is much more of a pop album and was written for hits/mainstream acceptance. Nonetheless, it was done well. The songs are catchy, the new vocalist (Graham Bonnet) is good and Ritchie Blackmore sounds great. An excellent album as far as guitar playing goes and an excellent album is most other aspects as well. Enjoy.

"Down to Earth" is probably Rainbow's most controversial album, and for only one reason: it was the first without founding vocalist Ronnie James Dio.

People who don't like the album - for the most part - just can't let go of Ronnie. He was replaced by Graham Bonnet and his unbelievable vocal pipes. Some people like Bonnet, others don't, but after Rainbow introduced him to the hard rock world, he went on to perform with such hard rock royalty as Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Chris Impelliteri and others.

And for me, Bonnet makes the album. He's got the craziest set of vocal chords you've ever heard, and I've since gone around collecting everything he's ever recorded (this was his only album with Rainbow).

But the rest of the album is equally excellent: it's got great melodies, clean production, and excellent musicianship. Some of the lyrics seem written by a hormone-crazed school boy, it's true, but a small weakness for eight solid, hard rock songs. Down to Earth is more consistent than the first three Rainbow albums, less commercial than the final three.

Had this been Rainbow's debut, or the debut by another band, it would have received kudos all around.

I was a big RAINBOW fan in the late 70's and I was quite dis-
appointed when I heard RONNIE JAMES DIO had left. Looking back,
I really think DIO was at his best with RAINBOW and he also did
a great job on BLACK SABBATH/HEAVEN AND HELL and KERRY LIVGRIN'S
solo album SEEDS OF CHANGE. I was not very pleased, at first,
when I heard DOWN TO EARTH.Even tho' he has a very powerful voice, GRAHAM BONNET seemed to be an odd choice as a replacement
for DIO, tho his voice perfectly suited BLACKMORE's more rock-n-
roll, commercial music. I was also saddened by the lyrics, which
mainly dealt with making love and missing yer woman. The lyrics
were penned by bassist ROGER GLOVER, who had recorded the wonder-
ful concept album ELEMENTS( which I highly recommend) the year
before.
In retrospect, getting rid of DIO and moving away from the
medieval lyrics was a smart move by BLACKMORE, as alot of metal
bands in the 80'S ( and DIO himself) would make these type of
lyrics seem cartoonish. The popularity of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS,
which I never got into but my brothers loved, also didn't help.
As for the album itself, there are some catchy, likable songs
here and I now think DOWN TO EARTH is a very good, but not great
album. My favorite songs are EYES OF THE WORLD, which is the most
progressive song here, has the most dangerous lyrics and also
sports a wonderful synthesizer intro by DON AIREY, which is simi-
lar to DAVE STONE'S intro for GATES OF BABYLON and TONY CAREY's
synth intro for TAROT WOMAN; the RUSS BALLARD cover SINCE YOU'VE
BEEN GONE,which has some very typical sad guitar playing from
BLACKIE and LOST IN HOLLYWOOD, which has a very fast drum intro
from COZY POWELL and which, as a hand drummer, I've never been
able to do! LOST is also one of the album's most progressive
tunes here. Elsewhere, BONNET sings his powerful lungs out and
RAINBOW rock-n-roll their buns off and a good time is had by all.
NOT BAD....