RAINBOW – DIFFICULT TO CURE LP – Nr MINT/EXC+ UK  DEEP PURPLE

Rainbow – Difficult To Cure
(Polydor Records  1981  POLD5036)
Matrix No’s: A1/B2 – UK Pressing

Sleeve in Excellent+ condition
– some wear to edges/corners and crease on bottom left corner
Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

Vinyl in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from a little surface noise about 20 seconds in both sides)

Rainbow (also known as Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow or Blackmore’s Rainbow) are a British rock band led by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, active from 1975 to 1984 and 1993 to 1997, and again since 2015. They were originally established with Ronnie James Dio’s American rock band Elf, but after the first album, Blackmore fired the backing members and continued with Dio until 1979. Three British musicians joined in 1979, singer Graham Bonnet, keyboardist Don Airey, former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, and this line-up gave the band their commercial breakthrough with the single “Since You Been Gone”. Over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up. Other lead singers Joe Lynn Turner and Doogie White would follow, and the project consisted of numerous backing musicians. The band’s early work primarily featured mystical lyrics with a neoclassical metal style, but went in a more streamlined, commercial direction following Dio’s departure from the group.

Rainbow were ranked No. 90 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. The band has sold over 28 million albums worldwide.

Difficult to Cure is the fifth studio album by the British rock band, Rainbow, and was released in 1981. The album marked the further commercialization of the band’s sound, with Blackmore once describing at the time his like of the rock band, Foreigner.

The album material was started with Graham Bonnet still in the band, getting as far as recording an early version of “I Surrender”, before Bonnet left the band due to his dissatisfaction over the material. American singer Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Fandango was recruited and sang over backings already completed. Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently).

The cover design is by Hipgnosis though it was not specifically for this album. It had previously been put forward as a cover for Black Sabbath’s 1978 album, Never Say Die!

Jealous Lover, the first track written by Turner and Blackmore, was the non-album B-side to Can’t Happen Here.

Track listing

• All Songs Published By Panache Music, Ltd., except where noted.

1. “I Surrender” (Russ Ballard) – 4:10 (Island Music Ltd.)
2. “Spotlight Kid” (Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover) – 5:04
3. “No Release” (Blackmore, Glover, Don Airey) – 5:42
4. “Magic” (Brian Moran) – 4:15 (Becket Music)
5. “Vielleicht Das Nächste Mal (Maybe Next Time)” (Blackmore, Airey) – 3:23
6. “Can’t Happen Here” (Blackmore, Glover) – 5:09
7. “Freedom Fighter” (Joe Lynn Turner, Blackmore, Glover) – 4:28
8. “Midtown Tunnel Vision” (Turner, Blackmore, Glover) – 4:44
9. “Difficult To Cure (Beethoven’s Ninth)” (Beethoven, arr. by Blackmore, Glover, Airey) – 5:58

Personnel

• Joe Lynn Turner – vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
• Don Airey – keyboard
• Roger Glover – bass, percussion
• Bobby Rondinelli – drums

Production

• Produced By Roger Glover
• Recorded & Engineered By Flemming Rasmussen
• Assistant Engineers: Thomas Brekling, Clay Hutchinson
• Mastered By Greg Calbi