silktempest's Full Review: Difficult to Cure [Remaster] by Rainbow
Ritchie Blackmore had a fairly extraordinary career back by 1981. During the 1960s he was one of the hottest studio guitars in England. From the late 1960s to the mid-1970s he made fame, fortune and history as a key member in DEEP PURPLE's. Ranked alongside BLACK SABBATH's Tony Iommi and LED ZEPPELIN's Jimmy Page as one of the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock forefathers, he nevertheless walked away from DEEP PURPLE in 1975, after years of feuds with several band members and disgust with Funk and Soul, increasingly prominent in PURPLE records. He founded his own band RAINBOW.
By 1981 Blackmore wanted a crossover hit in America, what DEEP PURPLE had achieved with Smoke On The Water back in 1973. The kind he never found with Ronnie James Dio-led RAINBOW records - all classics, according to critics, not the average guy.
So he hired Americans songwriter Russ Ballard and journeyman singer Joe Lynn Turner. Blackmore reformed RAINBOW in his second attempt on a crossover hit, after lukewarm results with Dio (and 1979's Graham Bonnet-led Down to Earth). 1981's Difficult to Cure was born. He also wanted a whole more keyboard than before and a producer who could bring RAINBOW to masses - maybe even keeping some old features going on subtly. Apart from hiring session ace Don Airey (a future DEEP PURPLE member!) for keyboards, he found the best of both worlds in his old DEEP PURPLE cohort Roger Glover - apart from a great bass player, the man who brought NAZARETH to masses in mid-1970s, keeping the band's trademarks in place. Bobbie Rondinelli (another American) was then the drummer.
Difficult to Cure suffers from several problems all at once. Turner was, and remains, one of the cheesiest men in Hard Rock. Blackmore was not that inspired in what comes to riffs, despite his soloing remaining a force of nature to be reckoned. Airey's keyboards were sprinkled in abundance all over the place (like almost every 1981 record). Rondinelli's drumming lacked Cozy Powell's punch. Glover was accommodated by 1981 (understandably), more a hired producer than a bass player in a band. Blackmore had to bear bass duties in a handful of tracks. So? The diagnostic is pretty bad. The record didn't become a hit and crossover would be postponed...Ad infinitum. Even though Rondinelli, Glover and, shame on Blackmore, Turner remained for another pair of uneven CDs.
Instead of crossing over to mainstream hearts and minds, I Surrender (the Ballard-penned number) predates Melodic Metal in its abundance of exotic keyboards and pyrotechnical guitar riffs colliding with sinister bass leads. But the number bears a Hard Rock rhythm instead of Heavy Metal, like a populist take on DEEP PURPLE's Pictures of Home, romantic catharsis replacing nostalgia. Blackmore flourishes nicely whereas Turner turns (no puns intended) in one of his less cheesy, punchier performances. The band finds some synergy in this eminently accessible number. I Surrender is one of the most satisfactory RAINBOW latter-day efforts. I wish the whole of Difficult to Cure followed this pattern...
Spotlight Kid follows with robust Blackmore riffs, a solid Hard Rock tune, plenty of melodic undertones and a satisfactory Turner presence, a Graham Bonnet impersonator. A frantic Baroque soloing brings the track to Progressive terrain, but the surroundings remain Hard Rock with a capital H. Keyboards, though, rear their eerie head halfway through, building a Gypsy Rave atmosphere before thrilling Hard Rock reappears. Excised or one of two minutes, minus keyboards, Spotlight Kid would have been a minor classic. As it is it remains enjoyable, but exaggerated.
No Release (a Don Airey track) reminds listeners of some things that would be more adequate for 21st century DEEP PURPLE (Bananas, Rapture of the Deep). A basic Hard Rock pattern built on keyboards, not guitar riffs, is adequate for Turner's journeyman mode (sounding like Glenn Hughes on throat surgery) - but it straightjackets Blackmore in a traditionalist route that he didn't necessarily wanted to follow. You will miss extended soloing but everyone here is professional enough to keep a decent boiling synergy. 3 minutes on and handclaps remind you of something Ian Gillan could have turned a latter-day classic. A faux-Funky mood is overtly strange here as keyboards escalate again. If Blackmore left DEEP PURPLE due to Funk/Soul undertones, here he betrays the narrative. Again, enjoyable.
Magic is another stuff entirely - a failed AOR attempt. Keyboards in crescendo, guitar riffs filtered by production's heavy hand, a bubblegum chorus. Even though Rondinelli shows his chops in the intro, the track is a featherweight affair, Turner turning listeners off with his limited range and cheesy interpretation ("love is magic/wooo"). Finally RAINBOW borders on mediocrity, a cheap REO SPEEDWAGON rip-off. Not even a cruising Blackmore solo can save this one.
Side one (in LP) folded with a German Neoclassical incursion. Vieilleicht das Nachste Mal (Maybe Next Time). The man in black lived half his life in Hamburg and always loved Classical music, so it's not that surprising. But here he is surrounded by AOR keyboards and by a singer arriving from Fandango, no longer Ronnie James Dio or John Lord. An otherwise tasteful, complex exercise becomes excess, with guitars (recalling DEEP PURPLE's Soldier of Fortune) and simmering "horns" topping each other's bravado. Blackmore remains a master of his instrument, but this guitar showcase is definitely closer to MALMSTEEN than to BEETHOVEN.
Can't Happen Here follows uncannily predating DEEP PURPLE's Call of the Wild (one of the less remarkable offerings of Mark II). Not surprisingly, Glover and Blackmore penned the track. Turner follows with unease, his slow delivery halting momentum (apart from all-band choruses), keyboards rousing (like John Lord's, by the man who replaced him) and guitars processed far too much. This derivative track raise one eyebrows in what comes to DEEP PURPLE reunions on the run...Apart from Blackmore's dynamic soloing, as ever. The track seems an excuse for a long guitar solo - even with those harsh drum patterns.
Almost 30 years in advance, Freedom Fighter could have sounded contemporary - if it wasn't a keyboard-laden Hard Rock tailor-made for early 1980s FM. It sounds like any bunch of Hair Metal bands from the epoch - with a muscular bass-guitar foundation, anyway, but with anodyne lyrics and an outpouring of commonplaces. Turner is not particularly inspired, sounding like his generic, cliché-prone solo albums. But the suddenly faceless band plays knit-tight. A wicked Blackmore solo (one more for the road) and you almost think it's a winner. If not for the man in black, it would have sunk under the weight of all this cheese.
Midtown Tunnel Vision (Blackmore's attempt as a JIMI HENDRIX' Crosstown Traffic, for sure) is interesting due to its bluesy leads, even though not as much as Little Wing-soundalike Catch The Rainbow. Turner had an obvious high gatekeeper in mind - David Coverdale's performance in Burn and Stormbringer. Considering the breadth of the challenge, RAINBOW (almost) delivers. Blackmore keeps mid-pace fumes on and Turner doesn't force his voice to the inevitable breaking point. Running moderately, with a groovier drummer and Glover's more than apt contribution, the song sounds much less ham-fisted than their usual DEEP PURPLE copycats. It could have been a hit...for TRAPEZE.
Up to the last in line, the title track, it's been a long journey, but a surprising one. Considering the peaks and lows, Turner was not that bad and Blackmore held his ambition in check...Problems were amendable. Until the title track arrives. And a bad surprise this time...A bloated performance of BEETHOVEN's 9th Symphony. With dizzy keyboards and larger-than-life guitar ego. I bet MALMSTEEN loved this one. I'm not sure in what comes to me...It's obviously grandiloquent and Blackmore pulls it off. But it sounds like a bad Japanese Anime soundtrack instead of something worth comparing with the original. Loads of Melodic Metal bands followed the example. I wish they didn't. What about this poor man's Jon Lord keyboard solo? This is difficult to cure. It justifiably ends with farcical laughs. Bye. See ya!
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