Video Vault - 1976

Ah, the bicentennial.  For '76 I went with a band that never got it's due among the Pantheon of great hard rock bands: Rainbow.  Rainbow could rock with the best of them.  Originally formed when Ritchie Blackmore felt Deep Purple was going in the wrong direction, he along with members of the American band Elf (featuring 5'4 lead singer & inventor of the devil horns, Ronnie James Dio), got together. (Side note: there is a statue erected  in Bulgaria in honor of Dio.)

The problem with the band was that the leader singer role was a revolving door.  They probably had their most commercial success in 1982 with Joe Lynn Turner and "Stone Cold."

To me the best era of the band was the middle one with Graham Bonnet taking lead vocals.  The problem was, he didn't look like a hard rock singer of the mid '70's.  He had short hair and wore suits.  Not real fitting for a band that features the guy who wrote "Smoke on the Water."  Anyway, the Russ Ballard penned "Since You've Been Gone" is a '70's rock favorite of mine. Rainbow and Thin Lizzy are the two bands from that era that I always felt never got their due; but a black-Irish bass playing lead singer is a story for another time.  Enjoy.