
Time to get my arse back in gear and sort this journal out. I guess at this point we'll assume we've done enough on autumn, so it's time to move on to a new theme. What could it be? Let me see ... oh yeah. What about this?

Although I've never seen one, and would in all likelihood run a mile if I did (though they'd be hard-pressed to get much of a meal out of this skinny nine-stone walking skeleton! Oh wait: dogs like bones, don't they? Drat!) I've always had something of a fascination with wolves. In a fantasy world, I'd love to have one as a pet. Imagine the stir it would cause if you were to walk down the main street with a wolf on a leash! But anyway, yes, wolves is the new theme, so let's get underway.
Title: R “Run with the wolf”
Format: Album track
Written by: Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio
Performed by: Rainbow
Genre: Heavy Metal
Taken from: Rising
Year: 1976
Acclaim: None; it's just an album track, albeit from one of the seminal heavy metal albums of all time...
While there's no question it's among the weaker tracks on
Rising, which is pretty much defined by the two tracks that made up the B-side, “Run with the wolf” is still an early pointer to where not only Rainbow, but also Ronnie's later band, Dio, would go with many of their compositions. There's a sort of medieval feel to it, the idea of wolves prowling the forest, on the lookout for unwary travellers, and the guitar riffs that underpin it remind me in an odd way of “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves” off the previous album. There's also some nice magical/mythical lyric here –
”There's a hole in the sky/ Something evil passing by”. I like the idea of nature – savage nature, not tree-huggers, though there's nothing wrong with them (gotta hug something) – being allied with dark forces, magic and primal powers. Great stuff!
Things I like about this :
1. The raw energy and power in the guitar riffs
2. The very melodic chorus
3. Ronnie's powerful growl of a voice
4. Tony Carey's sonorous keyboard that backs the whole thing
Things I don't like about this:
1. Not crazy about Blackmore's solo; it's a little tepid I feel
Rating: