Written for Song Lyric Sunday.
Here’s how the theme inspired me.
Tag: Deep Purple
Youthful Indiscretions
Written for Song Lyric Sunday.
Here’s what I have to say.
Highway Star: Made In Japan
Written for Jim Adams’
Song Lyric Sunday.
Here’s what I have to say.
A Whole Lot Of Nothing
Our gracious host, Rochelle, at Friday Fictioneers
asks us to use the photo below as inspiration
to write creatively in 100 words or less while
making every word count. This is my flash.
Saints & Sinners
This is Week 47 of Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag and we are
being asked to choose a song by a group or solo artist whose
name begins with the letters U, V or W. This is my choice.
Over the Rainbow
This is Week 37 of Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag and we are
being asked to choose a song by a group or solo artist whose
name begins with the letters Q or R. This is my choice.
Disillusioned and fed up with the chaotic state of Deep Purple in the mid-’70s, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore made the stunning announcement in May 1975 that he was quitting the group he had founded and led for over seven years in order to start from scratch.
Teaming up with up-and-coming American vocalist Ronnie James Dio, Blackmore built Rainbow around the singer’s former band, Elf. Featuring bassist Craig Gruber, keyboard player Mickey Lee Soule, and drummer Gary Driscoll, the group’s 1975 debut Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow was quickly embraced by European fans and yielded their first hit single, “Man on the Silver Mountain”.
Blackmore and Dio were dissatisfied with the album’s sound, however, and decided to re-vamp Rainbow (by then sufficiently established to do without Blackmore’s name) by drafting bassist Jimmy Bain, keyboard player Tony Carey, and former Jeff Beck Group drummer Cozy Powell. It was with this lineup that they entered Musicland studios in February 1976 to record the landmark Rising opus – once voted the greatest heavy metal album of all time in a 1981 Kerrang! magazine readers’ poll. Capturing Blackmore and Dio at the peak of their creative powers, Rising chronicled both the guitarist’s neo-classical metal compositions at their most ambitious and the singer’s growing fixation with fantasy lyrical themes – a blueprint he would adopt for his entire career thereafter. Following its release, the band embarked upon a successful world tour, culminating in a sold-out European jaunt which spawned a best-selling live album entitled On Stage, released in 1977.
By the time they returned with the equally acclaimed Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll album, Rainbow had established themselves as one of Europe’s best-selling groups and top concert draws. But the volatile relationship between Blackmore and Dio had already begun to deteriorate, as the American-born singer became increasingly frustrated with standing in the guitarist’s shadow. To make matters worse, Blackmore had been so impressed with Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll’s success as a single, that he began to consider altering the band’s sound in order to pursue a more mainstream hard rock approach … a change in which Dio was not interested. A chance meeting with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath (recently split for good from unreliable frontman Ozzy Osbourne) helped Dio make up his mind and he officially quit Rainbow in early 1979 to join Black Sabbath.
Rainbow A.D. (After Dio) had two more frontmen … Brit Graham Bonnet and American Joe Lynn Turner; however that’s another story for another time … and no less tumultuous. Blackmore was a very difficult person to work with, or so I’ve read.
“Man On the Siver Mountain”, Rainbow’s first hit with Ronnie James Dio, has been described by Blackmore as “a semi-religious song with the man on the silver mountain as a kind of God figure people are crying out to. It’s about spiritual enlightenment, reaching the top and calling on your inner strength … like finding inner peace and confidence. The man on the silver mountain I think is finding my higher self.”
I wouldn’t know anything about that; I just think it’s an awesome metal track. Here is “Man On the Silver Mountain” by Rainbow.
Lyrics
I’m a wheel, I’m a wheel
I can roll, I can feel
And you can’t stop me turning
Cause I’m the sun, I’m the sun
I can move, I can run
But you’ll never stop me burning
Come down with fire
Lift my spirit higher
Someone’s screaming my name
Come and make me holy again
I’m the man on the silver mountain
I’m the man on the silver mountain
I’m the day, I’m the day
I can show you the way
And look I’m right beside you
I’m the night, I’m the night
I’m the dark and the light
With eyes that see inside you
Come down with fire
Lift my spirit higher
Someone’s screaming my name
Come and make me holy again
I’m the man on the silver mountain
I’m the man on the silver mountain
Come down with fire
Lift my spirit higher
Someone’s screaming my name
Come and make me holy again
I’m the man on the silver mountain
I’m the man on the silver mountain
Just look at me and listen
I’m the man, the man, give you my hand
Come down with fire
Lift your spirit higher
I’m the man on the silver mountain
I’m the man on the silver mountain
I’m the night and the light
I’m the black and the white
The man on the silver mountain
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Ritchie Blackmore / Ronnie Dio
Man on the Silver Mountain lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc
Big thanks to Glyn for hosting Mixed Music Bag every week. Please be sure to follow the link and check out Glyn’s site.
Thanks for joining me today and spinning some tunes.
See you on the flip side. 😎
NAR©2024
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.
The Rock Classic That Almost Wasn’t
Today’s theme at Song Lyric Sunday
is all about songs that feature great
guitar riffs. Here’s my response. 🎸
My featured song today has one of the most recognizable and oft-played riffs in rock ’n’ roll history – solid, simple and catchy as hell. And yet, as Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan once said, “Smoke On The Water might never have been released”, because initially the band didn’t think of it as anything special.
In the winter of 1971, when Purple began work on the Machine Head album in Montreux, Switzerland, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore played the riff in their first jam session, and as Gillan recalled: “We didn’t make a big deal out of it. It was just another riff. We didn’t work on the arrangement – it was a jam.”
But by the end of the recording sessions they came up short of material, and so, in Gillan’s words, “We dug out that jam and put vocals to it.” Blackmore played his Strat and was plugged into – as far as Gillan could recall – “a Vox AC30 and/or a Marshall”. Over that mighty riff, the singer told the true story of how the Montreux casino – where Purple had been scheduled to record – burned down in a fire that started during a Frank Zappa concert. The lyrics “someone stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground” were born and with that, a deathless rock classic was created.
This is “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple.
Lyrics
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile, yeah
We didn’t have much time now
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
(Smoke) on the water, you guys are great
They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky Claude was running in and out
He was pulling kids out the ground now
When it all was over
Find another place
Swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
Burn it down
We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty, cold and bare
The Rolling truck Stones thing just outside
Huh, making our music there now
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know, I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
(I can’t hear anything)
one more time
(Smoke on the water) hey!
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Ian Gillan / Jon Lord / Ritchie Blackmore / Roger Glover / Ian Paice
Smoke on the Water lyrics © Glenwood Music Corp.
Big thanks to Jim Adams for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday this week. Be sure to check out Jim’s site.
Thanks for stopping by. See you on the flip side. 😎
NAR©2024
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.
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