On Stage is a double live album originally released by the British hard rock band Rainbow in 1977. It was recorded live over several German and Japanese dates in late 1976 during the Rising world tour.
Contents[]
[hide] *1 Recording
Recording[edit][]
The recording features the customary introduction to a Rainbow show – the classic quote from The Wizard of Oz, "Toto: I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. We must be over the rainbow!" with the last word repeated as an echo, then the actual band plays a musical phrase from the song "Over the Rainbow" before breaking into "Kill the King".
Many of the tracks were spliced together from different dates by producer Martin Birch, and the running order was changed to more easily fit four sides of vinyl.
Release and reception[edit][]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | (unfavorable)[2] |
Geoff Ginsberg of AllMusic writes: "On Stage is full of great songs and playing, but somehow it lacks some of the excitement that existed at those early Ritchie Blackmore concerts. The production is just kind of flat. That doesn't change the fact that there is some great stuff to be found here and nowhere else, such as the side-long version of "Mistreated," from Deep Purple's Burn."[1]
The song "Kill the King" appeared on this album before it was recorded for a studio album. A studio version appears on the follow-up release, 1978'sLong Live Rock 'n' Roll.
The single "Kill the King/Man on the Silver Mountain/Mistreated" was also re-released in the UK in July 1981.
A more representative example of a Rainbow concert of the time was the 1991 release Live in Germany 1976, which featured unedited concert performances and includes both tour staple "Stargazer" and the usual encore "Do You Close Your Eyes".
The deluxe edition was released on November 13, 2012 in Europe. The second disc was originally planned to contain tracks from the concert hall at the "Orix Theater" (formerly Osaka Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan) in Osaka, Japan (December 9, 1976). Instead the second disc contains tracks from the final Rainbow gig in Tokyo, Japan at the "Nippon Budokan Hall" on December 16, 1976.[citation needed]
Track listing[edit][]
| Side one | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Kill the King" | Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell | 5:32 | |||||||
| 2. | "Medley: Man on the Silver Mountain / Blues / Starstruck" | Blackmore, Dio / Blackmore / Blackmore, Dio | 11:12 | |||||||
| Side two | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 3. | "Catch the Rainbow" | Blackmore, Dio | 15:35 | |||||||
| Side three | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 4. | "Mistreated" (Deep Purple cover) | Blackmore, David Coverdale | 13:03 | |||||||
| Side four | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 5. | "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" | Blackmore, Dio | 7:36 | |||||||
| 6. | "Still I'm Sad" (The Yardbirds cover) | Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarty | 11:01 | |||||||
Personnel[edit][]
- Rainbow
- Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
- Ronnie James Dio – vocals
- Tony Carey – keyboards, Orchestron[3]
- Jimmy Bain – bass
- Cozy Powell – drums
Charts[edit][]
|
|
Certifications[edit][]
| Country | Organization | Year | Sales |
| UK | BPI | 1977 | Silver (+ 60,000)[12] |