In March 1975, Ritchie Blackmore realised he’d be better off without Deep Purple. The guitarist was working on his debut solo album at Musicland Studios in Munich with singer Ronnie James Dio and three other members of Dio’s band Elf. Blackmore would recall: “Halfway through the LP, I decided I was more excited about playing with Ronnie than I was with Purple.” The funk and soul flavours in Purple’s 1974 albums Burn and Stormbringer had not been to Blackmore’s taste. More significantly, he and Dio struck gold with the very first song they wrote together: Sixteenth Century Greensleeves, a dramatic, riff-driven number with a chainmail rattling storyline. “We wanted a song about castles and crossbows,” Blackmore said, “and I was pleased that we were able to keep that hard rock thing within a classical mode.” In that one song, the foundation was laid for the album and the band of the same name: Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow… read more >
