Classical Composer Reaction/Analysis to Gates of Babylon (Rainbow) | The Daily Doug (Episode 470) 

Nope. The Stargazer solo cannot be reproduced

No way. I like this song but no comparison to Stargazer for Dio vocals and the guitar solo...epic!

@@user-vb3vf3sq2e nope highway star, burn, child in time just for starts

@@harbo1011 nope gates is better

Oh dear. Gates of Babylon, Stargazer, Highway star...... NO! A light in the black is the greatest classic rock song of all time and solo by Ritchie. Its not even up for debate.

Couldn’t agree more and feel the same about his work on Stargazer. Ritchie said he chose him because he was the only candidate that could play swing beats in a rock mode. He’s the reason there is a groove in a metal song. It’s a rare quality.

R.I.P. indeed.

I agree too. Cozy had a loose feel to his playing and yet would whack the hell out of the drums with precision which gave his style a sound of confidence. Come to think about it, he was kind of like Ritchie but on drums. That same confident masterful attack of his instrument.

Cozy always pushed the band along. An incredible player

One of my favorites I ever seen.

Dio's voice would even make bacon better!

Can we just say it? Dio is the greatest rock singer the medium produced. It's not Robert Plant, it's not Freddie Mercury, it's not Mike Patton, Maynard or Chris Cornell. It's Dio. And it's Dio going away in a landslide.

@@colinburroughs9871 I agree, it's not Plant, Mercury, Patton (...), or others, it's Gillan, then Dio, then Byron. I guess I'll have to add that it's my opinion, and these singers (Minus Patton who I can't stand, and Maynard and Cornell who I haven't heard) are all great.

@@ronan82 Just tossing names at it that I hear associated with "greatest". I'm sure I didn't list everyone who's got standing to make such a list. I always like Jim Morrison's LSD induced Elvis impression, but that's not exactly Dio. I like Gillian too, wouldn't rank him above Dio. Dio holds a bottom end while projecting. Ian can get into some weird ranges, but it sounds like it's coming from his throat. And poor Mike Patton. That guy might not sing a tune you like (he has, check out Mondo Cane) but holy shit, he's got energy, power and control of it.

Dio's voice makes me want to reject my humanity.

I commented in a forum that the Moog Taurus bass on the beginning was cool and he responded that he was flattered that anybody cared and that it had been done on a MiniMoog; I'm flattered that he made the effort to reply - what a gent!

This has been one of my favourites since the first time I heard it. This and Tony Carys playing on rising is some of the best keyboard playong ever recorded in my opinion. Wouldnt have happened without Ronnie probably, he had a neck for engaging great musicians in his projects.

​@@rimmersbryggeriNone of this would ever been possible without the master. Ritchie Blackmore he put this together and held it together. Rip Cozy Powell and DIO.

And Rainbow Eyes is also nice 🙂

Best Rainbow album in my opinion and maybe the best album Ronnie has been a part of.

@@Heavymetaleternia Ditto. Stargazer is a good, but NOT great album 😕 WHY - Because I agree with Ronnie James Dio and that Stargazer is only half an album. Couldn't agree more 🤔

I’ve been listening to “Kill the King” a lot recently.

Why nobody mentions Bob Daisley? He was so great player.

@@bobbigboss111 maybe because of the feud that Blackmore played bass in a couple of songs.

They were like the high priests to me as a teenager in the 1980's!

@@bobbigboss111 Daisley was awesome on the Ozzy albums too. Often overlooked really because of the phenomenal Randy Rhoads.

Pete, Agreed. I read an article in the late Eighties having ago at the shredding trend and how boring it was. This guitar playing critics then bought up Page and especially Ritchie Blackmore. He said THE BEST solos he had ever heard were those too Stargazer and Gates of Babylon. The rumour is that Ritchie stopped playing Stargazer live for the same reason Gates of Babylon was NEVER played live ! Blackmore allegedly could not do the solo's justice live. It took way too much energy out of him and Blackmore cannot play the same solo twice.. If you listen to the few full versions of Stargazer live, Blackmore's solos range from brilliant to 'Wow, he,'s really struggling. ' I think Stargazer was dumped by 1977. Gates of Babylon never played live in its entirety. Some US fans claim that Ritchie did play it live. Others say, Ritchie would play the guitar riffs to get the crowd going and then merge into Sensitive to Light. Cozy P: Cozy Powell also said, if they continued to play Stargazer live on their1976 tour, he would need a 15 minute break minimum, if not 30 minute break. It was way too much drumming. Powell then added, 'no wonder Zeppelin play ballads for an hour in the middle of their set as Bonzo cannot keep up that frenetic pace for 3 hours. '

@@FrostedSeagull They did play Stargazer live in 1980 at least, during the last gig with Graham Bonnet (he splits opinions, but didn't do bad job in this song) and Powell. Iirc, they also did play it couple times later with Turner on the vocals.

When I saw Rainbow with the DIO lineup. I saw all 3 singers. Dio did Gates of Babylon medly, but they did not do a complete song. Graham did the same. I've never heard the entire song live by 🌈. Joe did not do it at all. I'm in the USA. Hope this helps.

His work with purple was just as awesome

The message is that the Babylon System - or Capitalism, as Bob Marley described it - is satanic.

And another Gates Of Babylon awesome reaction here pal - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8c6rfmXdJHs.html

Hardly, he's been recognised by many over a very long time as being a great innovator and one of the best. Not underrated at all

@@GordonHeaney Definitely underrated in my book, you think of the 70s and it's always Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck, Blackmore is of the same generation but missed out on that level of recognition, but I definitely rate him with those greats.

@@GordonHeaney perhaps under appreciated are the best words. He doesn’t get the respect, especially nowadays, that his talent deserves. The guy’s a virtuoso.

He is not now nor ever been underrated. Why people continue to call universally admired musicians underrated is beyond me.

@@danteuk8024 I was around in the 70s, I turned 30 in 1975, and Blackmore was considered great and better than Clapton back then.

Uli John Roth might be a contender to that mon ami

Iommi is not even close to Ritchie in technical prowess on the guitar...

@@pulsarlights2825 as much as I like Blackmore, Iommi didn't need that. With his own riffs he was good enough. And his soloing in the first three albums were really good

@@joaquinlezcano2372 I like Tony Iommi, but I am just saying Ritchie is on another level. Tony came up with some great riffs and songs, but he has always been a one trick pony. Blackmore, IMO, is the best of his generation, except maybe for Jeff Beck. I can;t think of anyone else at the time with that level of virtuosity....

@@pulsarlights2825 I think Tommy's has a handicap concerning to his fingers... he will compose obviously the things he is able to play. I do agree that Ritchie is on another realm

I recommend A Light in the Black and Tarot Woman if you don't know them

Listen to the albums Rainbow Rising and Long Live Rock N Roll first. The other albums are great as well.

That makes complete sense. I was going to comment that it was straight from Arabic classical music which obviously found its way into Spain via the Moorish conquests. Along with thousands of Arab words in the Spanish language.

Really

Keyboard player I would have believed though.

Wikipedia lists it as a double harmonic major tune, but I don't know enough.

No one incorporates the middle eastern scales and harmonics the way Ritchie does. He is top notch.

Spanish Flamenco is derived from Moorish music from when the Moors ran the Spanish Peninsula.

@@melanierhianna AFAIK Flamenco came to Spain from the North, not from the South. Literally this word meant "Music from Flanders". Flemish Gypsies brought this style of music to Spain (Flanders was then a dependency of Spain). Naturally, Moorish music could influence it, but that was secondary.

@@gwaptivaas an Arab with knowledge of Arabic scales and guitarist with knowledge of eastern’s, this is actually a double harmonic minor AKA Hijaz kar scale in arabic, with three chromatics notes same as misirlou by dick dale. Then they went for the chorus in aeolean mode with a hint of phrygian. Solo was in both phrygian dominant and double harmonic scale because the difference is only one note the chromatic so you can use both interchangeably. Fun fact: for us arabs, the unique scales for us are “out of tune” for eastern modes because we have a few modes that we use qrt note in between eg. Rast, Sikah, Saba, Bayat

I think you mean Don's keyboard intro on Black Sabbath's 'Johnny Blade'? Lol, I like 'Mr. Crowley' too. He's a great musician.

The keyboards on this song were played by David Stone.

Rich doesn't know what he's talking about.

I was wrong about Don playing on this track. I liked the comment from the person who corrected me. Didn't realize I needed to make a public apology. Sorry my mistake caused you so much grief.

ofcourse personal taste is different for everyone, in my personal opinion the mr Crowley intro doesn't even come close to the intro of Tarot Woman

Magical yes!

Yes, the singer is Doogie White and the Stranger in us all album is very underrated.

That album and Doogie don't get enough credit and he did lots of the catalog unfortunately not much of a writer

Totally agree,that performance is amazing.

Doogie White

Truly so

The whole double CD from Munich is awesome. 😊

Here's a link... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qu8HiZepRWo.html edit: OK, after watching the first. instead of the link again, I realized this isn't exactly live. This is one of three promo videos that were supposed to be mixed to the studio version, but Ronnie refused to lip-sync, so the vocals are actually live. L.A. Connection is one of the other songs from this group. I don't remember the third right now, but I think Bob Daisley's channel lists them (which is where this link goes).

Apparently he would do his solos in pretty much one take, and it wasn't written/worked out. He, as what we say today, 'freestyled' it.

Mine too

I totally agree! That intro gets me everytime!

He is Blackmore. Jr. Looks like him acts like plays like him.

Ritchie was the driving force in the music, it was his band and he paid all the bills, he fell out with Dio when he wanted a more commercial output as he was bleeding money keeping Rainbow going and Dio didn't want to go down that route, without Ritchie I don't think Dio would have hit the heights he did, Elf had been around since the late 60's and weren't going anywhere when Ritchie pulled them in to make the first Rainbow album, he certainly wouldn't have had the level of recognition to move on to Sabbath without doing Rainbow first.

Who found him???Who gave him a career??

@@2Times22 After Rainbow and Black Sabbath he just went solo with Dio.