After the departure of Ritchie Blackmore from Deep Purple, his formation of Rainbow started a new era in his music. As always, artists are plagued by the need to do what they feel are forward movements, only to be told by the other band members that such a new direction would be devastating, and NO, you cannot record it. This explains the reason for Rainbow, and the new era, one which achieved its own level of popularity, while the band he vacated, Deep Purple, experienced a decline. So, go figure.
Rainbow started off with a bang, employing the brilliant vocals of Ronnie James Dio. And while Ronnie James Dio did not complete the circle of Rainbow albums (he recorded what are considered the best of Rainbow’s music, their first three albums), the band seemed to intrigue fans with the other sets, which ended with Stranger In Us All (1995). And so, Ritchie Blackmore and Company left us with eight recorded titles to fill their legacy.
On December 9, a week after the reissue Box of Rainbow: The Polydor Years, which contains eight vinyl LPs from Rainbow’s full catalog, Polydor will release a CD boxset of the full eight albums. Many people seem repelled by the reissue of remastered product destined primarily for LP. Many have given up their turntables and are simply unwilling to wade back into the vinyl LP arena. They’re perfectly content with CD. It would appear that this conversion to CD of the 8LP Box is for those fans.
I picked up the Rainbow remasters last year. With the exception of Finyl Vinyl (which is now two CDs), they can all be obtained quite inexpensively. This collection does not appear to include Finyl Vinyl.
I am kind of perplexed by the last paragraph Matt. Are you saying you are surprised that they would release these on cds? I don’t understand why they wouldn’t release the remasters on cd as well as lp. Regardless of which you prefer the money they make is still green. More perplexing is why any company would release them on only lp.
No, Bill. I’m just saying that it seems strange that labels would release remasters only on LP reissue. The fact that they are issuing a CD box serves those who dislike vinyl, having left that format behind decades ago.
Obviously, after a few years of negotiating, Polydor has thrown in the towel on the hopes for an actual “Rainbow” boxed set with rare and unreleased material. Ritchie Blackmore and his manager are to blame.
Not true.
The career-spanning box is due in Jan or Feb and has already been turned into Universal.
This upcoming box in December also features new remasters using the same remasters as the previous Deluxe Editions.
But, the other 4 CD/1 DVD box is finished and being released.