Customer Reviews

Tony Carey - I Won't Be Home Tonight

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wish I could give it 3 1/2 stars, it's really better than 3 but not quite a 4.
Being a HUGE Deep Purple/Rainbow fan, and rating Rainbow-Rising as one of the top 10 hard rock albums ever, I knew Tony Carey from Rainbow. I had seen him live twice and considered him one of the better keysmen of the time. So I bought this album when it came out not knowing what to expect. (This was several years before the MTV hit "It's a fine, fine day".)
After hearing it, I had to see a picture of him to make sure it was even the same guy. Luckily my musical tastes are widely varied because this is MUCH closer to soft, almost Folk rock; pretty far away from his keyboard work in Rainbow.
At 1st I was greatly disappointed and only listened to 2 of the songs with any regularity. But it did grow on me, and I also came to appreciate his breath of talent. This seemed to be the "true" Tony Carey and he had simply conformed to what Ritchie Blackmore wanted in a keyboardist for his work in Rainbow. In the end I like it a lot, enough that I bought the next one, which surprisingly became a modest hit thanks to an early MTV video. But I still like this 1st album better. So if you are familar with Tony's work because of "Fine, Fine day", you'll like this, maybe, like me, even better. If you're familar only with his Rainbow albums, prepare to be shocked, possibly disappointed, depending on what you're looking for..

When I heard the title song of this CD for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that it owed more to mainstream rockers such as Shooting Star, Foghat, Foreigner, Point Blank, and Journey than to Carey's work with Rainbow. Once I'd heard it often enough, though, I realized that the influences here were the real Tony Carey, and that in Rainbow he'd simply played what dictatorial bandleader-guitarist Ritchie Blackmore wanted him to play, and that in reality, he was happier working on his own. The songs here actually can make you forget that Carey was ever in Rainbow, and is essential for any AOR fan.