RITCHIE BLACKMORE’S RAINBOW
Land Of Hope And Glory
What would be better right now than a big thick slice of jingo to lift our spirits?
Fortunately, one of the founding members of Deep Purple, the guitarist RITCHIE BLACKMORE, came to our urgent aid this week — fuelled with patriotic fervour from his luxury pad in NY — to grant us a re-working of “Pomp And Circumstance March No. 1” to calm our flustered nerves. The tune aka “The Graduation March” was written by Edward Elgar in 1902 .
Ritchie Blackmore was moved to release the piece of music after hearing of the Manchester bombing (from his base in Long Island) to show his solidarity…
We had a listen:
It begins with a series of bashed-out, disconnected acoustic chords, then some violin notes. Fortunately, the trickle of melody soon gets the Blackmore treatment… with smooth lines and baroque trills. Some distant synth work adds to the choral effect.
If you once liked Mike Oldfield, especially his “In Dulci Jubilo” and the melody from the “Blue Peter” theme tune — you grew up in 1979 … and you never matured — then this is probably for you.
It’s puerile twaddle strategically plonked down in the midst of our calamity by a self-indulgent expatriate.
Still, if it helps to sell more Blackmore’s Night albums and promotes ‘Rainbow In Rock’ this June, then it’s all good eh?
After all, that’s what 2017 society is all about isn’t it? Freedom to make cash? So it can’t be all bad.
Land of Hope and Glory by Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow [with a little help from Sir Edward Elgar] is out now on Minstrel Hall Music
Link: https://www.facebook.com/ritchieblackmore/
Words: @neilmach 2017 ©
RAW RAMP 