Unknown Soldier

Overview
If Rising is regarded as the band’s best studio album, then Long Live ‘n’ Roll is without doubt my personal favourite by the band. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll would be the third studio album by the band and despite the fact that they were often ‘pigeon holed’ in some quarters as being a band that played mystical rock, the band rock harder on this album than ever before. Their debut set had seen the band finding their ‘Dragon Rock’ sound on what had been a largely disjointed album, but on the seminal Rising we had seen the full flourishing of the band in just thirty three short wonderous minutes! But on Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, the band would give us a much gruffer and even more stripped back sound, than what would’ve been expected at this time from them. For this reason alone, the album stands as a great late decade hard rock album not to be missed. The album also continued Ritchie Blackmore’s ‘revolving door’ policy when it came to bass players, so much so that the finishing bassist on Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll is Bob Daisley ex-Chicken Shack, Mungo Jerry and Widowmaker, who only actually gets to play bass on three songs, as Ritchie Blacknore takes up the lion’s share here. I call Bob Daisley the finishing bassist, as previous bass player Matt Clarke, Jimmy Bain’s replacement was fired early in the album’s recordings. Also keyboardist Tony Carey features only on some of the tracks, with keyboardist Dave Stone sharing these duties across the album as well. The somewhat well know live concert staple “Kill the King” also makes its studio debut on this album as well, after having previously been heard on the live On Stage album released the previous year. I also never realised until recently, that so many of the tracks on this album have actually been covered by so many different artists, that have ranged from Yngwie Malmsteen, Dream Theater and Stratovarius to name just a few of the many, again this shows just how well regarded this album is. Once again the album is superbly produced by Martin Birch and it stands around six minutes longer than the previous Rising album. From this album onwards it would be all change for the band, as iconic frontman Dio would up and leave the band, and his replacement Graham Bonnet would step in. This of course would coincide with the band marrying their sound with the fully established AOR scene stateside, to enable Ritchie Blackmore to cruise the commercial boulevard of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Dio- Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore- Guitar
Bob Daisley- Bass
Tony Carey- Keyboards
Dave Stone- Keyboards
Cozy Powell- Drums

Production- Martin Birch

Album
Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll- One of the great driving tracks from the band and Dio is totally on fire here, and it’s a song that demonstrates the gruffer overall feel of this album. Lady of the Lake- A pulsating and dynamic song and one of the best songs that the band ever put out………hell I could listen to this song everyday! L.A Connection- No let up on the heaviness here and the band put out their third straight powerhouse of a song in a row. The song mixes in some zany piano work into the latter part of the song. Gates of Babylon- The last track to be recorded on the album and certainly a hark back to the previous Rising album and it features some great keyboard work by Dave Stone as well. It’s also the second longest track on the album. Kill the King- A track that had previously appeared on the live On Stage album, and a track that definitely deserves to be slotted in on one of the band’s studio albums, it’s also one of two songs on the album to be co-written with Cozy Powell. The Shed (Subtle)- After some heavy instrumental work where the song threatens to become an instrumental, the song emerges into a another dominant delivery by Dio and the song is a great example of just how strong all the material on this album actually is. Sensitive to Light- Probably the lightest sounding and certainly most easy going track on the whole album. Rainbow Eyes- The beautiful and placid album closer and a final goodbye the to band’s finest ever line-up.

Verdict
The overall feel of Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, is at times of an album that has been stripped back to produce a gruffer feel and it’s also probably the heaviest album in the band’s discography song for song. It’s an album that at times is in stark contrast to the previous Rising album, due to a lesser emphasis on neo-classical arrangements, these arrangements are still there of course, but this time around they’ve been more immersed into the rocking elements of most of the songs. This stripped back feel becomes evident from the start clock, with the title track “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll” where it quickly becomes evident that the band have different motivations for this album than on their previous work. Then there is the sublime and addictive “Lady of the Lake” which is followed by the pounding “LA Connection” a song that would’ve done AC/DC proud! The nearest we get to the previous Rising album are songs like the suitably named “Gates of Babylon” which with its heavy neo-classical overtones was later unsurprisingly covered by Yngwie Malmsteen. Then there is “Kill the King” which superbly combines the bands different styles and of course the album’s showcase track “Rainbow Eyes” another one of the pivotal tracks to ever be put out by the band. As for the album as a whole, I’ve often read on review sites, that the songs on Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll are often considered weaker than those on Rising. Now if we’re comparing this album to the mystical and fantastical feel of the Rising album, then that might be the case, but as the execution and feel of Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll is distinct, the album itself needs to be looked at with that in mind and in my opinion the songs are just as solid. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll as the name suggests, actually puts rock first and themes second, so to conclude we therefore have an album that is just as tight as Rising, because yet again the writing partnership of Ritchie Blackmore and Dio is still as solid as a rock. The album also ranks as one of the very best Dio vocal performances ever, if in doubt just listen to this album from beginning to end! As far as I’m concerned, this album along with the previous Rising, his future Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and his solo Holy Diver, are the albums that made Dio a legend as a muscle vocalist that few could match. Also the drumming on the album by Cozy Powell is top notch as you would expect and the guitar work by Ritchie Blackmore is another notch of his when it comes to guitar excellence. Quite simply Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, would be the last great album released by Rainbow, as after this album the band would achieve greater fame for the quality of some of their singles, rather than the quality of their albums.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History