Rainbow

views updated May 29 2018

Rainbow

Rock group

For the Record

Selected discography

Sources

Rainbow began when Ritchie Blackmore, a classically trained and legendarily difficult lead guitarist left Deep Purple, the British heavy metal band that made him famous. The rest of Deep Purple had had the audacity to demand democracyand wouldnt record one of Blackmores favorite songs, Quater-masss Black Sheep of the Familyso the guitarist packed up his strings and went solo. He immediately commandeered a New York band, Elf, which had opened for Deep Purple and starred shrieking vocalist Ronnie James Dio. The new band, Rainbow, became a revolving door of over-the-top metal talent.

Although it never had a gold album or a hit single, Rainbow wasnt a failure; the band toured successfully for almost a decade beginning in the mid-1970s and released the underrated metal anthems Man on the Silver Mountain, Since You Been Gone and Jealous Lover. It also anticipated two major 1980s hard-rock trends: hair bands such as Poison and Bon Jovi, who borrowed aspects of their coiffure and singing styles from Dio, and fast-fingered guitarists such as Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani, who adapted Blackmores classical leanings and rock excess. But even Rainbows members knew they werent exactly making musical history. It was successful, but it was always a second-rank band. It never seemed to get any better, bassist Roger Glover told the Los Angeles Times in 1985, after a Deep Purple reunion signaled the end of Rainbow, at least for the time being. Ritchie and I were getting bored with it.

Born in England, Blackmore began his music studies at age eleven, when his father bought him a guitar and demanded that he take lessons. The British rock scene was just heating up in those days, with eventual contemporaries Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page preparing to form their own bands. Blackmore found work as a session musician. He backed rockabilly heroes Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis onstage and attended studio sessions by the great freaked-out producer Joe Meek. In 1968 he cofounded Deep Purple, whose first hits were souped-up versions of Joe Souths Hush and Neil Diamonds Kentucky Woman. Blackmore soon invented one of the most recognizable metal riffs of all time, Smoke on the Water, a number-four hit that helped the band sell 15 million records by the mid-1970s.

Pound for pound, [Blackmore is] one of the best soloists in history, but hes such a d*** that hell probably never get the credit he deserves, Billy Corgan, the Smashing Pumpkins lead singer and guitarist, told Guitar Player in 1996. It was this arrogance that led him to form Rainbow. The band immediately made Blackmore happy by covering Black Sheep of the Family; they then went to Germanys Musicland Studios to record Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow. The albums creative axis was Blackmore and Dio, who bonded over a mutual love for both heavy rock and medieval music. Man on the Silver Mountain, Dios signature song during his brief Rainbow tenure was the epitome of this Jethro Tull-like concept.

Fans of Blackmore and Dio say the next album, 1976s Rising, was the bands peak, with former Jeff Beck group drummer Cozy Powell (later of Whitesnake and Emerson, Lake, and Powell), then-unknown bassist Jimmy Bain, and keyboardist Tony Carey replacing the original Elf core. The albums core is Stargazer, an eight-minute dungeons-and-dragons epic featuring busy drumming, a long guitar solo, lyrics about whips, chains, towers of stone and the immortal line theres no sun in the shadow of the wizard/see how he glides/ why, hes lighter than air/oh, I see his face. The album had its less-busy side, too, with the femme-fatale rocker Starstruck showing a more restrained Blackmore and Powell. In 1981 Kerrang! magazine readers named Rising the greatest metal album of all time.

After a sold-out European tour and live album, Dio stayed on for one more studio round, resulting in 1978s Long Live Rock n Roll, which featured the same mixture of motorcycle-groove metal (the title track) and medieval excess (Gates of Babylon). Blackmore tinkered with the band lineup again, replacing bass and keyboard players for the third time in as many albums. As was often the case with Blackmores bandmates, however, Dio became disenchanted. The guitarist, emboldened by the success of the Long Live Rock n Roll single, wanted to move in a more mainstream-rock direction, while Dio preferred to stick with the medieval experiments. He was also tired of

For the Record

Members include Don Airey (group member, 1979-81), keyboards; Jimmy Bain (group member, 1975-77), bass; Graham Benett (group member, 1979-80), vocals; Chuck Berge (group member, 1995-97), drums; Ritchie Blackmore (born on April 14, 1945, in Weston-super-Mare, England), guitar; Tony Carey (group member, 1975-77), keyboards; Bob Daisley (group member, 1977-78), bass; Ronnie James Dio (born Ronald Padavona on July 10, 1949, in Portsmouth, NH; group member, 1975-78), vocals; Gary Driscoll (group member, 1975), drums; Roger Glover (group member, 1979-84), bass; Craig Gruber (group member, 1975), bass; Paul Morris (group member, 1995-97), keyboards; Candice Night (group member, 1995-97), vocals; Cozy Powell (died on April 5, 1998; group member, 1975-80), drums; Bob Rondnelli (group member, 1980-84), drums; David Rosenthal (group member, 1981-84), keyboards; Greg Smith (group member, 1995-97), bass; Mickey Lee Soule (group member, 1975), keyboards; David Stone (group member, 1977-78), keyboards; Joe Lynn Turner (group member, 1980-84), vocals; Dookie White (group member, 1995-97), vocals.

Group formed in Los Angeles, CA, 1975; released debut album Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow, 1975; followed by Rising, 1976; Long Live Rock n Roll, 1978; On Stage, live double album, 1977; Jealous Lover single, 1979; released Down to Earth, 1979; performed final shows, Budokan Hall, Tokyo, 1984; released compilation Finyl Vinyl, 1986.

Addresses: Record company Universal (formerly Polydor), 3800 Alameda Ave., #1500, Burbank, CA 91505.

deferring to Blackmore. When singer Ozzy Osbourne quit the pioneering Black Sabbath in 1979, Dio landed a job as the future bat-biters replacement.

Rainbow persevered. For the groups next album, Down to Earth, Blackmore hired bassist Roger Glover and singer Joe Lynn Turner, who exerted a streamlining influence. Although Dio (and perhaps even Blackmore) would disagree, the band turned out its best singles, Since You Been Gone and Jealous Lover, both of which sounded great next to Foreigner and REO Speedwagon on early 1980s rock radio. Glover and Turner managed to hang on for the next several years, until Deep Purple reunited in the mid-1980s and Blackmore broke up Rainbow. Before that happened, though, the band had a bombastic finale: their last performance at Tokyos Budokan Hall in April of 1984 that featured Difficult to Cure, a rewrite of Beethovens Ninth Symphony. The song landed on Rainbows Finyl Vinyl compilation two years later.

The Purple reunion was short-lived, of course, after Blackmore characteristically ripped Gillan in public, calling the singers attitude unprofessional and his voice, as quoted in Guitar Player, completely shot. In 1995 Blackmore reunited Rainbow, with two new unknown singers, Dookie White and Candice Night (Blackmores fiancée), but the moment had passed. By then, Nirvana and other Seattle grunge bands favoring punk simplicity over metal excess were hugely popular, while classically trained metal guitarists were This Is Spinal Tap clichés. Rainbow survived a few more years in that configuration, until Blackmore shifted almost exclusively to his New-Age-y solo project, Blackmores Night. He also contributed the guitar solos to Pat Boones Smoke on the Water cover on a bizarrely funny solo CD In a Metal Mood. Blackmores Night, starring Blackmore and Night, continues to tour the world; Shadow of the Moon went gold in Japan.

Selected discography

Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow, Polydor, 1975.

Rising Polydor, 1976.

On Stage, Polydor, 1977.

Long Live Rock n Roll, Polydor, 1978.

Down to Earth, Polydor, 1979.

Difficult to Cure, Polydor, 1981.

Bent Out of Shape, Polydor, 1983.

Finyl Vinyl, Polydor, 1986.

Very Best of Rainbow, Chronicles/Polydor, 1997.

Best of Rainbow: The Millennium Collection, Polydor/ Universal, 2000.

Sources

Books

Graff, Gary, and Daniel Durchholz, editors, MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press, 1999.

Romanowski, Patricia, and Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, 2001.

Periodicals

Boston Globe, April 9, 1987.

Guitar Player, November 1993; December 1996.

Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1985; January 27, 1985.

Online

Rainbow, All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (October 7, 2002).

Ritchie Blackmore and Blackmores Night Official Website, http://www.blackmoresnight.com/ritchie_bio.html (October 7, 2002).

Additional information was obtained from the Very Best of Rainbow liner notes, Chronicles/Polydor, 1997.

Steve Knopper

Rainbow

views updated May 23 2018

Rainbow

Water droplets and light form the basis of all rainbows, which are circular arcs of color with a common center. Because only water and light are required for rainbows, one will see them in rain, spray, or even fog .

A raindrop acts like a prism and separates sunlight into its individual color components through refraction, as light will do when it passes from one medium to another. When the white light of the Sun strikes the surface of the raindrop, the light waves are bent to varying degrees depending on their wavelength. These wavelengths are reflected on the far surface of the water drop and will bend again as they exit. If the light reflects off the droplet only once, a single rainbow occurs. If the rays bounce inside and reflect twice, two rainbows will appear: a primary and a secondary. The second one will appear fainter because there is less light energy present. It will also occur at a higher angle.

Not all the light that enters the raindrop will form a rainbow. Some of the light, that which hits the droplet directly at its center, will simply pass through the other side. The rays that strike the extreme lower portions of the drop will produce the secondary bow, and those that enter at the top will produce the primary bow.

The formation of the arc was first discussed by Rene Descartes in 1637. He calculated the deviation for a ray of red light to be about 138 degrees. Although light rays may exit the drop in more than one direction, a concentration of rays emerges near the minimum deviation from the direction of the incoming rays. Therefore the viewer sees the highest intensity looking at the rays that have minimum deviation, which form a cone with the vertex in the observer's eye and with the axis passing through the Sun.

The color sequence of the rainbow is also due to refraction. It was Sir Isaac Newton , however, 30 years after Descartes, who discovered that white light was made up of different wavelengths. Red light, with the longest wavelength, bends the least, while violet, being the shortest wavelength, bends the most. The vertical angle above the horizon will be a little less than 41° for the violet (about 40°) and a little more for the red (about 42°). The secondary rainbow has an angular radius of about 50° and its color sequence is reversed from the primary. It is universally accepted that there are seven rainbow colors, which appear in the order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. However, the rainbow is a whole continuum of colors from red to violet and even beyond the colors that the eye can see.

Supernumerary rainbows, faintly colored rings just inside of the primary bow, occur due to interference effects on the light rays emerging from the water droplet after one internal reflection.

No two people will see the same rainbow. If one imagines herself or himself standing at the center of a cone cut in half lengthwise and laid on the ground flatside down, the raindrops that bend and reflect the sunlight that reach the person's eye as a rainbow are located on the surface of the cone. A viewer standing next to the first sees a rainbow generated by a different set of raindrops along the surface of a different imaging cone.

Using the concept of an imaginary cone again, a viewer could predict where a rainbow will appear by standing with his back to the sun and holding the cone to his eye so that the extension of the axis of the cone intersects the Sun. The rainbow will appear along the surface of the cone as the circular arc of the rainbow is always in the direction opposite to that of the Sun.

A rainbow lasts only about a half-hour because the conditions that create it rarely stay steady much longer than this. In many locations, spring is the prime rainbow-viewing month. Rainfall is usually more localized in the spring, and brief showers over limited areas are a regular feature of atmospheric behavior. This change is a result of the higher springtime sun warming the ground more effectively than it did throughout the previous winter months. This process produces local convection. These brief, irregular periods of pre cipitation followed by sunshine are ideal rainbow conditions. Also, the Sun is low enough for much of the day to allow a rainbow to appear above the horizonthe lower the sun, the higher the top of a rainbow.

The "purity" or brightness of the colors of the rainbow depends on the size of the raindrops. Large drops or those with diameters of a few millimeters create bright rainbows with well-defined colors; small droplets with diameters of about 0.01 mm produce rainbows of overlapping colors that appear nearly white.

For refraction to occur, the light must intersect the raindrops at an angle. Therefore no rainbows are seen at noon when the sun is directly overhead. Rainbows are more frequently seen in the afternoon because most showers occur in midday rather than morning. Because the horizon blocks the other half of a rainbow, a full 360° rainbow can only be viewed from an airplane.

The sky inside the arc will appear brighter than that surrounding it because of the number of rays emerging from a raindrop at angles smaller that those that are visible. But there is essentially no light from single internal reflections at angles greater than those of the rainbow rays. In addition to the fact that there is a great deal of light directed within the arc of the bow and very little beyond it, this light is white because it is a mixture of all the wavelengths that entered the raindrop. This is just the opposite in the case of a secondary rainbow, where the rainbow ray is the smallest angle and there are many rays that emerge at angles greater than this one. A dark band forms where the primary and secondary bows combine. This is known as the Alexander's Dark Band, in honor of Alexander of Aphrodisias who discovered this around 200 b.c.

If a viewer had a pair of polarizing sunglasses, he or she would see that light from the rainbow is polarized. Light vibrating horizontally at the top of the bow is much more intense than the light vibrating perpendicularly to it across the bow and it may be as much as 20 times as strong.

Although rare, a full moon can produce a lunar rainbow when it is bright enough to have its light refracted by raindrops just as is the case for the Sun.

See also Electromagnetic spectrum

rainbow

views updated May 21 2018

rainbow often taken as a symbol of hope or a promise for peace, traditionally with allusion to Genesis 9:13–16, referring to God's setting a rainbow in the sky as a sign of his covenant with his chosen people (see also bow of promise). It may also more generally be a sign of something distant and (perhaps) unattainable, as in the song ‘Over the Rainbow’ (1939) by E. Y. ( ‘Yip’) Harburg.
at the end of the rainbow referring to something much sought after but impossible to attain, with allusion to the story of a crock of gold supposedly to be found by anyone reaching the end of a rainbow.
Rainbow Bridge a bridge of natural rock, the world's largest natural bridge, situated in southern Utah, just north of the border with Arizona. Its span is 86 m (278 ft).
rainbow coalition a political alliance of differing groups, typically one comprising minority peoples and other disadvantaged groups; a phrase originally coined by the American minister and Democratic politician Jesse Jackson in a speech of 1988, ‘When I look out at this convention, I see the face of America, red, yellow, brown, black, and white. We are all precious in God's sight—the real rainbow coalition.’
rainbow serpent a widely venerated spirit of Australian Aboriginal mythology, a large snake associated with water.
Rainbow Warrior the name of a ship belonging to Greenpeace which in 1985 was sunk in Auckland harbour after two bomb explosions; it had been about to sail for Mororua Atoll to protest against French nuclear testing there, and it was subsequently revealed that French intelligence agents had planted the bombs. The French Minister of Defence resigned as a result, and the head of the intelligence service was dismissed.

Rainbow

views updated Jun 08 2018

RAINBOW

RAINBOW , "bow" (Heb. קֶשֶׁת), "in the cloud" (Gen. 9:13–14, 16; Ezek. 1:28). In the sequel to the Flood Story (Gen. 9:8–17) God sets His bow in the clouds as a sign to the people and as a reminder to Himself that no deluge shall again destroy the earth. According to the rabbis this rainbow was created during the eve of the Sabbath of Creation at twilight (Pes. 54a). Naḥmanides similarly explained that the rainbow had existed previously but was now designated to serve as this symbol (to Gen. 9:12). However, Ibn Ezra held that the bow was first created by God after the Flood (to Gen. 9:13). The bow symbolized that God s wrath had ceased since the end of the bow pointed downward just as the warrior lowers his bow on declaring peace (Nahmanides to Gen. 9:12).

The rabbis held that the rainbow need not appear in the lifetime of a saint whose merit alone is sufficient to save the world from destruction (Ket. 77b and Rashi ad. loc.). Since the rainbow was the reflection of "the glory of the Lord" (Ezek. 1:28), it was considered injurious to gaze directly at it (Hag. 16a). It was reported that R. Joshua b. Levi declared that upon seeing the rainbow one should fall on his face as did Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:28). Nevertheless, in Ereẓ Israel, the rabbis disapproved of such action since it appeared as if the person was bowing down to the rainbow. They, however, approved of reciting a blessing upon the rainbow's appearance. The text of this blessing as it is today recited is "Blessed are Thou O Lordour God, King of the Universe, Who remembers the Covenant, is faithful to His Covenant, and keeps His promise" (Ber. 59a; Sh. Ar. oḤ 229:1). The blessing is to be recited even if a rainbow is seen twice within 30 days Mishnah Berurah to Sh. Ar., loc. cit.).

bibliography:

Idelsohn, Liturgy, 126, note j; et, 4 (1952), 358.

rainbow

views updated Jun 08 2018

rain·bow / ˈrānˌbō/ • n. an arch of colors formed in the sky in certain circumstances, caused by the refraction and dispersion of the sun's light by rain or other water droplets in the atmosphere. ∎  any display of the colors of the spectrum produced by dispersion of light. ∎  a wide range or variety of related and typically colorful things: a rainbow of medals decorated his chest. ∎  [as adj.] many-colored: a big rainbow packet of felt pens. ∎ short for rainbow trout.PHRASES: at the end of the rainbow used to refer to something much sought after but impossible to attain.chase rainbows (or a rainbow) pursue an illusory goal.

rainbow

views updated May 08 2018

rainbow Phenomenon in which an arc of colours of the spectrum results from the refraction of the Sun's rays by water droplets in the atmosphere. A primary bow is seen at a limiting angle of 42° to the observer's shadow. A secondary bow, at 51°, may occur; as can multiple bows due to some light being reflected within the raindrops before refraction. The colour separation in the primary bow produces a spectrum with red on the outer edge. The colours are reversed in the secondary (outer) bow. The colour and intensity vary with the size of raindrops, large drops producing bright colours dominated by red.

rainbow

views updated May 29 2018

rainbow Multicoloured band, usually seen as an arc opposite to the Sun or other light source. The primary bow is the one usually seen; in it the colours are arranged from red at the top to violet at the bottom. A secondary bow, in which the order of the colours is reversed, is sometimes seen beyond the primary bow. The colours are caused by reflection of light within raindrops, which cause white light to be dispersed into its constituent wavelengths. The colours seen are those of the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Rainbow

views updated May 09 2018

Rainbow ★★ 1978

Broadway's “Annie” is badly miscast as Judy Garland from her early years in vaudeville to her starring years at MGM. Based on the book by Christopher Finch. Directed by sometimeGarland flame Jackie Cooper. 100m/C VHS . Andrea McArdle, Jack Carter, Don Murray; D: Jackie Cooper; M: Charles Fox. TV

Rainbow

views updated May 29 2018

Rainbow

a rainbow as a symbol of a past storm.

Examples : rainbow of hope, 1876; of the storms of life, 1813.