I've actually had this double disc lying around in the to-do heap of CD's for so long that it's not only been out a long time - it's already down in four quid in my local music store. Anyhoo...
The wave of retro releases doesn't seem to see an end, it would seem. Purple, Whitesnake, Uriah Heep, Rainbow, the dinosaurs have rattled their sabres throughout 2013, some of them even with new material - most prominently of course Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.
What we have here is a lineup consisting of one of the greatest rock'n'roll singers ever, a wee man called Ronnie James Dio, and one of the greatest and most excentric guitarists of rock history. Blackmore was furiously creative back then and at the same time a real character who created truly classic and epic music.
The epic music is naturally also represented on this live recording captured in the Olympia Halle in Munich in 1977. Cozy Powell is in place behind the drum kit and Bob Daisley is thumbing away on the bass. David Stones handles the keyboards. Dio sounds like a young god, Blackmore chucks away on his six strings, allegedly arriving very late because he'd been involved in a fight in Austria.
Even if I'm a child of the seventies, I've never been a real fan of the endless jam sessions that were in fashion during the time. Man on the Silver Mountain is one of those epic songs, and it's amazing, yes. But turning I'm Still Sad by the The Yardbirds into a 27-minute affair is a tad too much for my liking. Also, Mistreated, a Purple tune from the Coverdale phase, is very cool, but almost 12 minutes?!
What I'm saying is; there's a lot of great music for the classic rock fan, but I don't quite have the patience for these long hauls.
