Rainbow Album: “Stranger in Us All”

...August 21, 1995, the release date for "Stranger In Us All," the last rock release from Deep Purple / Rainbow legend Ritchie Blackmore.

There's obviously an audience for "Blackmore's Night"...14 years after the band's formation, people are still buying the CDs and attending the concerts.

But what the record-buying public didn't know in 1995 was that this would be the final "rock" album from Ritchie, and that he'd soon don that little pointy hat and abandon songs like "Man On The Silver Mountain" and "Smoke On The Water" for songs much easier for the little children of Stonehenge to dance to, like "Possum Goes to Prague."

Enough of that. Let's talk about "Stranger."

As legend has it, this was originally a Ritchie Blackmore solo album until the record label sweet-talked him into releasing it under the "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" moniker. And like King Crimson, Frank Zappa's bands, and several other classic rock revolving-door acts, this was a fresh batch of new meat.

The album, stylistically, is all over the map...the only consistent factor is Ritchie and those ear-catching riffs and insane solos, which is most likely the primary reason we tuned in to begin with. Strictly on the level of his playing, he's on fire here.

Singer Doogie White is sort of a cross between Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet...he lacks the late RJD's growl and lung power, as do the majority of front men out there...and on occasion, he does sound a little like Joe Lynn Turner, but that's primarily die to the material, which ranges from the straight-ahead classical/goth-rock of the Dio days to the uber-commercial metal pop Survivor "Eye of the Tiger" 80s radio-friendly anthems of the Turner days.

As an example, "Stand and Fight" is one of those "Turner Tunes"...when White repeats "Stand and fight, stand and fight, stand and fight, stand and fight, stand and fight, stand and fight, stand and fight" near the end of the track, you may be tempted to click to the next track. But if you hang in there until the end, what do you get when that next track comes up? Some faux-Bonham "When The Levee Breaks" drums, followed by some dark riffing from Ritchie, and White sounding like a completely different singer, laying back in the lower registers. The next track, "Too Late For Tears," kicks off like a Bonnet's "All Night Long" and then starts sounding unnervingly like a prime Steve Perry Journey track.

Back and forth, round and round, this is essentially Ritchie taking one last romp through the many moods of Rainbow, and the four stars in the review are for his playing, not for a Rainbow lineup that had any kind of staying power (it did not).

As an artist, Ritchie is entitled to follow the muse, wherever she leads him. That doesn't mean there aren't many of us holding out hope for a Van Halen-style "reunion" with any configuration of Rainbow...too bad it didn't happen while Ronnie was still with us. I can't see a Deep Purple reunion in the cards unless one or more band members become desperate for quick cash...they've made it abundantly clear that Ritchie wore them out and that they were relieved when he left for good. Then again, Eddie and Alex pretty much said the same thing about Roth, and look what happened. Never say never, and money talks.