Since You’ve Been Gone
Jonathan Rowe on Jan 27th 2007
No, not that terrible pop-song by the American Idol what’s her name, but the one that rocks done by Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. What’s notable about this video is how Graham Bonnet is a great rock/metal singer without at all fitting the image (and unfortunately when we are talking about making it big with multi million dollar record contracts, that is something that can kill your chances). He looks like Jim Carey up there. If a rock musician is unattractive or otherwise doesn’t fit the “image” they are supposed to, that probably means they are good because they have to make it in spite of all that.
I think because of the popularity of the American Idol song with the same name that some DJ has done a dance remix of this classic Rainbow song.
Here is Bonnet playing this tune with guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen who was in Bonnet’s band Alcatraz. I always thought Malmsteen worked better in this band type of environment where he wasn’t in charge and solely responsible for writing all the lyrics and melodies. While his solo stuff has some cool instrumental tunes like Blackstar, he also has many songs with God-awful lyrics and badly written attempts at commercial-like metal songs.
Filed in The Bistro
Frankly, I have little use for guitarists like Malmsteen and Steve Vai. They’re noodlers. Yes, they’re obviously very talented but they really should either be session players or should be in a band where someone else writes the songs. They rarely have any concept of how to fit their guitar pyrotechnics into the structure of a song, and the songs they write, as you note, tend to be godawful. I would much rather listen to someone like Dave Gilmour, whose solos actually make sense in the song rather than just being a 45 second break for them to show how fast their fingers can move.
I agree I’d rather listen to Gilmour, or Jeff Beck than Vai or Malmsteen. As for shredders, that’s why I like Steve Morse and Eric Johnson, who play with all the “taste” of guys like Gilmour and their solos always perfectly fit the structure of the song. Vai and Malmsteen play with a lot of fire though. I still like their playing, just not as much as others who are more tasteful and refined.
I saw Eric Johnson on Austin City Limits one night, having no idea who it was until the end of the show when they played the credits. He was really impressive. I had always kind of put him in that Steve Vai category in my head, without ever really listening to his music. When they rolled the credits I was like, “Wow. Okay, time to reevaluate that guy.”
The two popular Graham Bonnet Rainbow songs are some of my all time favorite tunes. I can still remember them being played on the early MTV and loving hearing them then as well as now. I have a 6 yr old son now and I let him listen to “Since You’ve Been Gone” on my iPod Nano and he loved it too and was rockin’ out to that song. What a blast from the past those songs are. I always thought that Graham Bonnet was one hell of a hard rock singer. I can’t believe he’s 60. Man, I can’t believe I’m almost 39. Time marches on. ;-)