1. A British rock band.<… Read Full Bio ↴Rainbow is the name of at least four bands:
1. A British rock band.
2. A K-Pop group (레인보우).
3. A U.S. psychedelic rock band.
4. Mid-80's Hi-NRG project.
1. Rainbow was a British rock band formed by Deep Purple founder and former guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in 1975. In addition to Blackmore, the band originally consisted of former Elf lead singer Ronnie James Dio, bassist Craig Gruber, drummer Gary Driscoll, and keyboardist Micky Lee Soule. Over the years, Rainbow went through many lineup changes. including bringing in other vocalists Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner, before it folded in 1999.
The name of the band was inspired by the Rainbow Bar and Grill, a Los Angeles, California eatery which catered to rock stars, groupies, and rock enthusiasts. It was here that Ritchie spent some of his off time from Deep Purple and met Dio, whose band Elf had toured regularly as an opening act for Deep Purple. Blackmore originally got together with Dio to record "Black Sheep of the Family" as a single, and it turned out so well they needed a B side; when the B side was recorded, however, it turned out to be even better. This led to them recording an album, and that effort caused the formation of the entire band. Rainbow's debut album, 'Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow', was released in 1975; it featured the minor hit "Man on the Silver Mountain".
Blackmore fired everybody except Dio shortly after the album was recorded. He recruited drummer Cozy Powell (formerly of the Jeff Beck Group), bassist Jimmy Bain, and keyboard player Tony Carey. This lineup went on to record the album 'Rising', which was released in May 1976 and was a big success in the U.S. (hitting #48 on the Billboard 200 chart).
For the next album, 1978's 'Long Live Rock 'n' Roll', Blackmore kept Powell and Dio and replaced the rest of the band. Blackmore had difficulty finding a bass player for this record, so he played bass himself on all but three songs ("Gates of Babylon", "Kill the King", and "Sensitive to Light"). After the release and supporting tour, Dio left Rainbow.
Blackmore continued with Rainbow, replacing Dio with ex-Marbles vocalist Graham Bonnet. Powell stayed and was joined by former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover and keyboardist Don Airey. The first album from the new lineup, 1979's 'Down to Earth', featured the band's first single successes: "All Night Long" and "Since You Been Gone". Bonnet possessed a powerful voice on stage, yet he struggled with the band's quieter numbers and lacked Dio's range. In 1980, the band headlined the inaugural Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in England. This was Powell's final performance with Rainbow.
The next album saw yet another line-up change as Bonnet and Powell were replaced by Joe Lynn Turner and Bobby Rondinelli, respectively. The title track from their 1981 album, 'Difficult to Cure', notably was a version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The album also contained the guitar-driven piece "Maybe Next Time". Although facing mixed success commercially, the Difficult to Cure tour was the first tour in which Rainbow headlined in the U.S.
Rainbow's next studio album was 'Straight between the Eyes'. The band added a new keyboardist, David Rosenthal. The album was more cohesive than 'Difficult to Cure' and had more success in the U.S. The band, however, was alienating some of its earlier fans with its more slick, arena rock based sound. The single "Stone Cold", a popular power ballad, had some chart success and has since been included in several multi-artist collaboration albums. The successful supporting tour skipped the U.K. completely and focused on the U.S. market.
1983's 'Bent Out of Shape' saw drummer Rondinelli fired in favour of Chuck Burgi. The album featured the single "Street of Dreams". The song's video was banned by MTV for its supposedly controversial hypnotic video clip. The resulting tour saw Rainbow return to the U.K. and also to Japan, where the band performed with a full orchestra. Though fans greatly enjoyed the band's lively touring, the band's material was getting mixed critical reviews, and its members had a sense of needing to find direction.
By the early to mid-80s, Blackmore and Glover had reformed the Deep Purple "Mark II" lineup, and Rainbow was disbanded in 1984. A final Rainbow album, 'Finyl Vinyl', was patched together from live tracks and B-sides of singles. This album contained the instrumental "Weiss Heim", made widely available for the first time.
After Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple for the final time in 1993, he put together a new version of Rainbow in 1994, this time named Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. This incarnation of the band included Doogie White (vocals), Paul Morris (keyboards), Greg Smith (bass), and John O'Reilly (drums).
The new band released Stranger in Us All in 1995 and embarked on an extensive world tour to promote it from late 1995 to late 1997. For the tour John O'Reilly was replaced by Chuck Burgi and then by John Micelli for the U.S. leg of the tour (as well as their final show in Esbjerg, Denmark).
The tour proved very successful, and a show in Germany was professionally filmed by Rockpalast. It has never officially been released, but has been heavily bootleged. The live shows featured frequent changes in set lists and musical improvisations that proved popular with bootleggers, and many shows are still traded over a decade later.
However, fed up with stadium rock, Blackmore turned his attention to rennaisance and mediaeval music, a lifelong interest of his. Rainbow was put on hold once again and played its final concert in Denmark in 1999. Blackmore, together with his partner Candice Night as vocalist, then formed the renaissance-influenced Blackmore's Night.
2. Rainbow, the tag for all releases by the K-Pop group 레인보우, responsible for tracks: "A", "Gossip Girl", "Mach", and about a dozen more.
3. One of any number of Los Angeles, U.S.A.groups of their time (1968), Rainbow's best-known LP was After the Storm The album's one cover is a take with saxophone of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You". The lineup was: Darrell Devlin (drums), Bob Gay (bass),
W. David Mohr (keyboards), and Harry Vavela (guitars).
4. Rainbow was a short-lived Hi-NRG project by Allan Coelho (of Tapps and more) that released only one single, Humpty Dumpty, in 1986.
Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
Rainbow Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Since he locked her in the tower
The time has come
He must be undone
By the morning
Many times before
The tyrant's opened up the door
Still we close our eyes
Not again
Meet me when the sun is in the western skies
The fighting must begin before another someone dies
Cross bows in the fire light
Green sleeves waving
Madmen raving
Through the shattered night
Yeah yeah yeah
Flames are getting higher
Make it leap unto the spire
Draw bridge down
Cut it to the ground
We shall dance around the fire
No more night
We have seen the light
Let it shine on bright
Hang him higher, higher
Draw bridge down
Cut it to the ground
We shall dance all around the fire, around the fire
No more night
we've seen the light
let it shine on bright
Hang him higher, higher
Put the man on the fire
Draw bridge down
Cut it to the ground
We gotta dance around the fire, the fire, the fire
The song "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" by Rainbow describes a story of a tyrant who locks a woman in a tower and the rebellion that ensues in the following morning. The song begins by saying that it is only an hour since the woman was locked away, and the time had come to overthrow the tyrant. The lyrics suggest that the tyrant had done this many times before, and despite cries from the people, they again chose to ignore it.
The next verse calls for action as it is said that the people should meet when the sun is in the western sky, and the fighting must begin before another person dies. The imagery of "crossbows in the firelight" and "madmen raving" suggests a violent uprising. The chorus further emphasizes the dire situation as "flames are getting higher" and the call for the drawbridge to be cut down. The final verse reflects that the rebellion was successful and that they have "seen the light" and the tyrant must be punished, even suggesting hanging him higher.
Line by Line Meaning
It's only been an hour
It seems like such a short period, but already he's locked her away
Since he locked her in the tower
He has jailed his love interest and left her alone in the tower
The time has come
The moment has arrived
He must be undone
He must be defeated and brought to justice
By the morning
Before the arrival of morning
Many times before
A repetitive pattern of occurrences
The tyrant's opened up the door
The tyrant has granted freedom before
Then someone cries
An unfortunate event happens to someone
Still we close our eyes
We turn a blind eye to the tyrant's past behavior
Not again
We don't want to endure another tragedy
Meet me when the sun is in the western skies
Let's rendezvous during the sunset
The fighting must begin before another someone dies
Our attack needs to commence before another person loses their life
Cross bows in the fire light
The bow and arrows set alight by the fire
Green sleeves waving
The clothing of the prisoners fluttering in the breeze
Madmen raving
The disturbed captives are screaming
Through the shattered night
Amidst the broken remains of the night
Flames are getting higher
The fire is spreading and intensifying
Make it leap unto the spire
The flames should climb to the highest point of the tower
Draw bridge down
Bring the bridge down
Cut it to the ground
Destroy the bridge completely
We shall dance around the fire
Celebrate the destruction of the bridge with a dance around the fire
No more night
The darkness has dissipated along with the oppressor
We have seen the light
We are no longer ignorant to the truth
Let it shine on bright
Let the truth shine for all to see
Hang him higher, higher
Hanging the oppressor will bring closure to those who suffered
Put the man on the fire
Burning the oppressor is an appropriate punishment
We gotta dance around the fire, the fire, the fire
Dancing around the embers is a symbol of triumph and liberation
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: RITCHIE BLACKMORE, RONNIE DIO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind