He has made references to his health in recent interviews...not that he has revealed some kind of progressive or life-threatening illness, rather that he sees his own mortality in the passing of fellow travelers like Jon Lord. So part of the rationale for doing this is that it really is getting down to a "now or never" proposition as we lose rockers his age right and left.
Then there's the Joe Lynn Turner side of things. Rainbow obviously was split into to radically different eras...RJD and Turner, with a Graham Bonnet album in the middle that was pretty much a warm-up pitch for the Turner era. The RJD albums were "Progressive Metal" before "Progressive Metal" existed...it's no coincidence that Dream Theater likes to cover "Stargazer," and the second album, "Rising," routinely makes all of the "Best 100 Albums of All TIme" lists.
But with the Turner years, Blackmore is on record as saying that he wanted the band to be more like Foreigner...very commercial, very short, radio-friendly pop songs. And it cheesed Turner off royally that he wasn't approached for this "reunion." He has a long history of trashing anyone who isn't Joe Lynn Turner (referring to Purple's final Blackmore album "The Battle Rages On" (after he left and Gillan returned) as "The Cattle Grazes On."
But even though the currently available clips sound terrible, so does his new band. No spark, no energy, and I think part of what I'm seeing is a guy who really, really does not get his rocks off by playing "Smoke On The Water" again and he's doing it anyway, probably so people will stop asking him to play it and he can return to what he really wants to do, which is play acoustic Renaissance music with his wife.
He used to be a real demon on stage...there is a clip out there of one of his final DP shows in which he's not eben on stage for the first three minutes of the opener, "Highway Star," because he had a beef with one of the cameramen on stage. Then there is what I consider to be his defining career moment...that California Jam show with Coverdale and Hughes...in which he destroyed one of the TV cameras, his amps, and the audience:
And he just doesn't want to be that guy any more, and he's not that guy, and it's kind of sad that he brought the ghost of that guy out on stage for a few final shows.
I compare this to the shows Clapton and Winwood did at MSG a few years ago. Yes, they have aged. Yes, they both have a large amount of "Album Oriented Radio" pop songs under their belts. But they ROARED during this set, especially on Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile." They were having fun, and they wanted to do it. Can't say the same for Ritchie.
= new reply since forum marked as read
