The 1981 Listening Post - Rainbow - Difficult to Cure

 Rainbow - Difficult to Cure

#80

By Rob Slater

February 3 1981

Rainbow

Difficult To Cure 

Genre: Sounds like...

Allen’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Rating: Solid B. 4 out of 5. (Initial score was a 3.25 C) 

Highlights:

Vielleicht Das Nachste Mal (Maybe Next Time) – instrumental 

Difficult To Cure (instrumental) 

I Surrender

The first few tracks sound like Rainbow wants to be Queen a la the Jazz-The Game era, but ended up producing a good album that this sounds like so many average pop songs from that somehow managed to fin chart success in the early 80s. 

1. 1. “I Surrender” sounds like Foreigner has a great start and as I found out later Richie Blackmore said he was greatly influenced by Foreigner at the time and that is really obvious.

1. 2. “Spotlight Kid” sounds like Judas Priest playing Foreigner and adding in Spinal Tap for the solo. This is Rainbow's Shooting Star/Juke Box Hero/Perfectly Good Guitar. Have to say that this album really does have perfectly good (with moments of brilliance) guitar. [Seems like BOC had one of these, too.]

1. 3. “No Release” Keyboards sound like Jefferson Starship's Jane and Aldo Nova's Fantasy

1. 4. “Magic” sounds like the singers from Survivor and Foreigner cloned a kid using half of each of their DNA.

1. 5. Vielleicht Das Nachste Mal (Maybe Next Time) – Great instrumental sounds like Blackmore Nights German peasant metal band! 

The next two songs sound like they could have been written in 2020. Scary how little has changed in our society over the last 50 years.

1. 6. Can't Happen Here

“Contaminated fish and micro chips

Huge supertankers on Arabian trips

Oily propaganda from the leader's lips

All about the future

And we're so abused, and we're so confused

Easy to believe someone's gonna light the fuse

All that you fear, they're telling you, 

Can't happen here, can it?

Satellites spying for the CIA

The KGB and the man in grey

Wonder if I'm gonna see another day

Somewhere in the future”

1. 7. Freedom Fighter - sounds like Russian sticks (uh, Rush and Styx)

“Hide behind your politics, hide behind your rules

Tell me I'm a man but you treat me like a fool

It's the same old story with a different name

You give us all a number and nothing changes

Out in the winter of a world upon it's knees

Everyone is watching but no-one sees

You can't take my freedom you know it is my right

If you try and stop me I'm gonna fight

With all of my might

I'm a freedom fighter and I'm taking command

I'm a freedom fighter and I'm making a stand

Fighting for breath as the world gathers speed

Time's running out for the things that I need”

1. 8. Midtown Tunnel Vision -  sounds like Jimi Hendrix

1. 9. Difficult To Cure (instrumental) – Notice this is the 9th track. Blackmore's 9th Symphony  based on Beethoven's. In places it sounds like Spinal Tap, but it really rocks. Added to my playlist. 

As cheesy as this album can be, it's really an enjoyable listen that I shared with folks. Especially that last track which ends with Oliver Hardy of Laurel & Hardy laughing.  

https://open.spotify.com/album/6bLrltddpgzAPMlefww9Ex?si=TvS7S6CPT8-f3oYm63zyBg