Unknown Soldier

Overview
Down to Earth would be a turning point for Rainbow, as it would usher the band into a more amenable listen for the general music fan, by giving us a more one-dimensional sound overall. This of course had now become possible since Dio had left the band, thus leaving Ritchie Blackmore to push Rainbow into a more overtly commercial AOR direction. Graham Bonnet ex-Marbles was now recruited on vocals to replace the mighty Dio, Ritchie’s old Deep Purple teammate Roger Glover now a leading producer was brought in on bass and finally Don Airey ex-Colosseum II was on keyboards. In fact this actual band line-up actually wasn’t planned at all, but just fanned out as so as things often do in rock. Originally both Ian Gillan and Peter Goalby of Trapeze were considered for the vacant vocal slot, even though it would’ve been a surprise to see Ian Gillan working so soon again with Ritchie Blackmore! Also Roger Glover had initially only planned to produce the album, with either Jack Green of The Pretty Things or ex-Jeff Beck musician Clive Chaman playing on bass. Luckily though there was no change on the drum stool, as Cozy Powell still kept that nice and warm! Quite simply with Dio now gone, Ritchie Blackmore was the undisputed leader of the band (if he already wasn’t) and largely became more dictatorial than ever with the band’s songs and musical arrangments, a factor which would undermine the rest of the band’s discography over the ensuing years. The album cover certainly denotes just how high the band were aiming for here, as they saw themselves as a comet striking the earth, a factor they certainly lived upto in the huge sales that accompanied the album and its leading single the reknowned “Since You’ve Been Gone”. But then again I’ve seen reviews that state the exact opposite of this, in that the lofty aspirations of Ritchie Blackmore were being brought down to earth on this album, as the band played a more conventional brand of rock across the album! The album cover also brings back memories of the Deep Purple Fireball cover as well. At this time the band were as big as they ever got and they would be major headliners at the following year’s Monster of Rock festival at Castle Donnington.

Graham Bonnet- Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore- Guitar
Roger Glover- Bass
Don Airey- Keyboards
Cozy Powell- Drums

Production- Roger Glover

Album
All Night Long- Hooky and anthemic and the perfect track to start off the album, and we get our first introduction to the gruffer voice of Graham Bonnet here. Eyes of the World- With its then contemporary synthesizer almost sci-fi sounding start, the second track on the album then emerges into a trusty mid-paced rocker and it doesn’t get anymore listener friendly than this. The song then emerges into an almost neo-classical final part and the song is certainly the most ambitious on the album. Stratovarius many years later would put out a great song with the same title as well. No Time to Lose- A more straight-forward track that could’ve existed in Ritchie Blackmore’s Deep Purple days and it nicely fills out its almost 4 minutes on the album. Makin’ Love- A good song that seems hidden away on the first side of the album and a song that I always enjoy listening to as well. Since You’ve Been Gone- One of the many songs that were written by musician/songwriter Russ Ballard and this is arguably one of his best known. As for the song what can I say, as its one of the most recognizable of its type and probably the most famous song that the band ever put out with along with the future “I Surrender” even though “I Surrender” is a much better song. Love’s No Friend- From the word go the song resonates back to the David Coverdale Deep Purple era, but the song does have a tendency to drag in places and also smells of filler. Danger Zone- A song that promises quite a bit especially with its neo-classical sections, but it never quite gets off the ground! A certain Kenny Loggins would borrow the song title and use it to much better effect several years later! Lost in Hollywood- The album closer that really wasn’t good enough to be an album closer and just sounds like a standard b-side track.

Verdict
Overall Down to Earth tones down the emphasis on fantastical themes that had featured in the Dio years, even though their previous album had had a lesser emphasis on this. Ritchie Blackmore had now re-invented Rainbow along leaner hard rock lines and like Aerosmith would push the band into a more radio-friendly commercial sound to engage the AOR market. Roger Glover may have not been the best producer for this directional change, but he at least gave the band rocking credibility as both a producer and a player on the album. Roger Glover’s production style also keeps a certain amount of gruffness as well and he also by and large co-writes nearly every track on the album with Ritchie Blackmore. Down to Earth is one of those commercially sounding albums that scores more than it misses and where it scores is in key areas such as its sweet rocking hooks, which can be heard on a song like “All Night Long” and then there are traditional Deep Purple inspired rockers such as “No Time to Lose” to be considered. But then there are debatable tracks, which happen to be some of the pivotal efforts on the album with songs like “Eyes of the World” which comes with all the trademark Rainbow musical clichés and also resonate some real hard rock power, before then emerging into a fully blown neo-classical track. It’s the type of song that bridges the gap perfectly between Ritchie Blackmore and what Yngwie Malmsteen would go onto master very shortly. The song’s downside though, would see it as the kind of song that bands like Europe would dish regularly within the next several years! Then there is the album’s most famous track “Since You’ve Been Gone” surely one of the most overrated rock tracks ever recorded and it usually leaves me unimpressed on every listen. Singer Graham Bonnet may not have had the vocal range and pure ability of Dio, but he still remains a strong and capable performer on this album and his gruff voice seems to dominate on every song. He’s also one of the best remembered vocalists that Rainbow ever had as well, which could be deemed as being surprising given that he only ever featured on one Rainbow studio album! Despite the commercial appeal of this album and its competent delivery, everything tends to be solid rather than brilliant and it’s a level below the band’s previous two albums Rising and Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll in terms of overall quality. So when it comes to commercially sounding hard rock meets AOR it does what it says on the tin, even though Foreigner were certainly better at doing it than Rainbow.

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