As we approach the fourth anniversary of this journal, I'd like to return to a section I have not run for some time, and which was my first dedicated section not to specifically deal with album reviews. Technically, it does, in a way, and the very first section was “Spinning the wheel”, but that essentially was just an excuse to review a random album, so I wouldn't see that as having been much different from my normal reviews. This, however, was the first time I had what I considered a really different idea, half-robbed from a TV programme of similar title, but still all my own work. I haven't been back to it since October 2012, so it's probably high time we had another look at
This is by no means an easy choice. I have of course thousands of albums, but many of the sleeves of them, while good enough, don't have enough of that artistic flair to allow me to extemporise about them at length, as I like to do. I usually for this section have tried to select an album that either has a lot of components parts to its artwork (Marillion's
Fugazi, ELO's
Face the music and Gary Moore's
Still got the blues) or which tells a very definite story, hopefully linked to the album or at least the artiste (Supertramp's
Famous last words). The one I've chosen this time around fits, I believe, into the latter category.
No. 8: “Rising” by Rainbow
Yes, I know it's sometimes called
Rainbow Rising but that's mostly due to the way the album title is set out on the cover. It is, though, just called
Rising and was in fact one of the first albums reviewed by me in the early days of this journal, so that all ties in well with the anniversary. This was of course pretty much Ronnie James Dio's finest hour, I think most people will agree, when he brought Rainbow to the notice of the world with this powerful classic album that just drips with fantasy and mythological imagery, both in the music and on the cover. But it is the latter with which we are concerned of course, and that iconic cover was in fact created by Ken Kelly. Here's a little about him.
Being the nephew of Frank Frazetta's wife, he was able to study under the great man himself, whose rather nubile young ladies and muscled heroes appeared on many a fantasy/sword-and-sorcery book of my youth, to say nothing of calendars and posters of same. Ken has worked with bands such as Kiss, Manowar and Coheed and Cambria. He also illustrated many many books, of which his Conan the Barbarian series are perhaps the most well known, and has also been very active illustrating in the toy industry. This album cover was of course completed in 1975, forty years ago now, but on his website he still retains a glowing sense of pride in his achievement for it, and so he should.
Somewhat a little like Roger Dean, who made a name for himself illustrating the album covers of Yes and later Asia, Kelly's style is deeply rooted in fantasy themes, and this shines through very strongly on the album cover here. If we look at it, there are quite a few elements to take in. The first, and most overriding impression is of course strength and power, as we see a fist punch defiantly up out of the lake and grasp the rainbow. Whether it's using it as a weapon or trying to destroy it is possible open to interpretation, but given that the band's name is Rainbow I would assume it's grasping it to show how powerful the rainbow is. After all, it contains all the colours of the spectrum (rather like Floyd's equally iconic album cover) and is something you literally cannot touch, as it's basically an optical illusion created by the reflection of raindops off the sun. But as an image it has a power all of its own: you only have to look at one in the sky to realise how beautiful it is and to be struck by its awe-inspiring wonder.
The second impression I get is of discovery. If you look to the bottom left of the cover (fig 1) you can see a small knight, warrior or soldier of some sort standing on the cliff, staring at the rainbow, or at least across the lake. His cloak is billowing in the wind, so we can assume he's at some height, though even if we didn't know that the artwork gives that idea anyway. So it looks to me as if he's come across this massive fist rising out of the water, almost like a sign to him. Who is he? Where is he going? There's no way to know, and yet he seems to me like someone on a journey, perhaps a quest, and this appearance of the mighty fist clutching the rainbow must seem to him to be a sign.
There's a feeling of vastness, of space, and of how big the world is and how small you are, as the knight (let's call him a knight) stares out across the lake with the high cliffs towering above him all around, the fist more than huge enough to crush him should it wish to, the lake itself wide and rolling. The sky above him is red and sullen, a warning perhaps, or another portent he must interpret. For me, the red sky presages the birth and arrival of a true force in heavy metal --- although this is not Rainbow's debut it's a giant step from the first album and really established them as a band to watch, and to follow. I could be wrong, or imagining it, but to me the shapes in the waves (fig 2) thrown up by the emergence of the fist can be seen to be leaping wolves, tying in to the second track on the album, “Run with the wolf”. Indeed, other songs on it can be referenced from the cover: “Starstruck” and “Stargazer” of course, and even “A light in the black”, with the blinding, brilliant light of the rainbow (more solid and clear than any rainbow I've ever seen in reality) bursting through the darkness and illuminating the brick-red sky above the lake and the cliffs.
If you look to the right then, about halfway up there's even a castle (fig 3), half-lost in shadow, which resembles the one off the cover of the debut album, created out of Ritchie Blackmore's guitar. So this album sleeve not only speaks of great power and force, the birth of a phenomenon and perhaps the fulfilment of a prophecy, but lays down a marker for all other metal bands to follow in the coming years. Like the iconic album sleeves of Hipgnosis, this was destined to appear on posters, badges, T-shirts and magazine covers, and although no singles or hits came from
Rising and Rainbow commercially are remembered for lesser hits such as “Since you been gone” or “All night long”, this was Rainbow at their quintessentially best, a snapshot in time of a force (ahem) rising, against which there would be no standing, no defence and no possible resistance.