Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll Rough Mix (no label)
Disc 1(32:15) Reel Direct: Lady of the Lake, Sensitive To Light, L.A.Connection, Kill The King, The Shed (Subtle), Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rainbow Eyes
Disc 1(32:15) Remaster: Lady of the Lake, Sensitive To Light, L.A.Connection, Kill The King, The Shed (Subtle), Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rainbow Eyes
This release features the rough mix of the above mentioned Rainbow classic taken directly from the original 7″ spool AMPEX 800 series 7 1/2 IPS magnetic recording tape, I am guessing this is from Cozy Powell’s estate that was pilfered after his untimely death. The two disc set has a transfer of the original reel while the second disc is a re master, sound on the direct is excellent but just slightly dull while the re master has a brighter punchier sound, very close to the official release. The songs are in a different order but it has a good flow and those really familiar with the original release may enjoy hearing things in a different order.
Lady of the Lake is almost 15 seconds longer than the official version, has a solo keyboard introduction that makes up the time. Sensitive To Light is very close to the official release, when listening through headphones one thing that jumped out was at times on the official release Blackmore’s guitar will pan from the left to right but on this version has no such effect. L.A. Connection is 35 seconds longer, pretty much identical for the majority of the song, the main difference is three plus minutes into the song there is a long section of the chorus and it does not have the piano in the back ground that the official has.
Kill The King has a slightly difference mix, Blackmore’s guitar sounds flatter and the bass guitar sounds more prominent. Not quite as effective as the official release. The Shed is over a minute shorter, it does not have the entire Hendrix influenced guitar introduction found on the official version and there is no guitar solo, just bass and drums. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll is close to the official release, just a not as punchy of sound. Rainbow Eyes is close to 30 seconds shorter, has a longer intro.
The vocals sound different, the lyric “Fancies in the air” on this version is “Memories in the air”. The song also does not have any of the strings found on the official but does has the flute. It sounds like an alternate take, Dio’s vocals sound more melancholy on this, probably due to the fact that the strings are not present. All in all a very satisfying listen, it would have been interesting if Gates Of Babylon would have been on the reel, I would have liked to hear it without the strings. It comes packaged in a slim line jewel case and retains the offical records artwork but over a gray background as opposed to the cream color.
On the inside you get a picture of the reel box with the date 4th July, 1977 on it plus pictures of both bands, Mark 3 with Tony Carey and Mark Clarke and Mark 4 with the Blackmore, Dio, Powell, Daisley, and Stone lineup who are on the official credits. The only real negative is the lengths of the cds, at just over 32 minutes they could fit both versions on just one cd and passed the savings along to the consumer. While I prefer live recordings to studio mixes and outakes I found this to be a very enjoyable listen and while not essential in my book a very nice addition to fans of Rainbow and Ronnie James Dio.
3 Comments
Sorry, I did include paragraph breaks in my original!
For me, as a fan of Rainbow, this was an essential purchase, although I took a gamble on it at the price. The price still hurts, but it is something I am pleased I got.
My own investigation:
1. Lady Of The Lake (keyboard intro) 2. Sensitive To Light (bassline different) 3. L.A. Connection (different vocal line during playout. Lacks vocal & keyboard overdubs during playout, eg. no ‘Woo!’s from Dio. Longer playout.) 4. Kill The King (different bassline) 5. The Shed (Subtle) (No guitar solo, either at beginning or during song) 6. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll (The only one on which I hear NO difference) 7. Rainbow Eyes (different guitar & vocal take, incl lyric. Different keyboard. No strings.)
There is a photo of the Ampex tape box, and handwritten is “4th July 1977”. Going by the Rainbow Family Tree http://www.deep-purple.net/tree/rainbow/rainbow-1.htm, Carey left ‘in the middle of the sessions’, so is this Carey or Stone on this tape?
Question posed to Bob Daisley on his FB page, on April 12 2010
mr. blackmore claims that he did around 75% of the bass playing on “long live rock’n’roll” himself…
do you know for sure how much your contributions …on this album was actually on the final release?
Bob Daisley responded later that day, @ 10:45: “I played on ‘Gates of Babylon’, ‘Kill the King’ and ‘Sensitive to Light’ but I think ‘Light’ was dicked with by Ritchie later. ‘Rainbow Eyes’ didn’t have bass so Ritchie played on four of the eight tracks before I’d joined, making it 50%. Cheers squire, Bob.”
Now, since Babylon isn’t on this tape, and the two songs that I had already determined to have a different bassline (ie before I read Bob’s comment) are Kill The King and Sensitive To Light, it would seem that this is before Bob joined. The fact the other basslines match up to the released versions suggests that this is Blackmore on bass, and that Mark Clarke is not featured. It also seems likely that Bob replaced the bass parts on King and Light, rather than, as I had once thought, Blackmore overdubbing Daisley’s part on the other tracks.
Deep Purple fanzine Darker Than Blue reviewed an ‘advance tape’ of LLRnR in their issue #14, Feb/ March 1978, commenting that it was ‘laid down in June 1977’ and mentioning that the tape lacks Babylon. So, the question begged is, is this Ampex tape the source tape for the DPAS review copy?
Thanks for the solid review, as always. I’ve been wondering about getting this title, and am now sufficiently informed because of what you’ve written. Once again, CMR proves invaluable to this collector.