Bent Out of Shape

Bent Out Of Shape
Studio album by Rainbow
Released August 24, 1983
Recorded May - June 1983
Genre Hard rock, AOR
Length 40:25
Label Polydor, Mercury (original US)
Producer Roger Glover
Rainbow chronology
Straight Between the Eyes
(1982)
Bent out of Shape
(1983)
Finyl Vinyl
(1986)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Sputnikmusic [2]

Bent Out Of Shape was the seventh studio album released by Rainbow. It was originally released in 1983 as an LP and cassette. The cassette featured several longer edits compared to the vinyl version. It was recorded in Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen in about 7 weeks.

A remastered CD reissue was released in May 1999, which restored the artwork of the original release. This has two tracks of a longer duration than on the first US CD issue.

This album is generally referred to in reviews as a commercial effort[3][4] by the band, attempting to repeat the success of the song "Stone Cold" and the album Straight Between the Eyes. As a result, some of the songs, like the first single released from this album, "Street of Dreams", are usually considered to be more in the album-oriented rock style, instead of the hard rock sound of earlier Rainbow albums. The album was particularly aimed at the US market: the title is an American idiom rather than a British one.

The music video for "Can't Let You Go", directed by Dominic Orlando, was filmed in New York City (1984) and inspired by the 1920 silent b/w film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Along with "Street of Dreams", directed by Storm Thorgerson (1983), it became a part of Rainbow's "The Final Cut" home video collection (1985).

The music video for "Street of Dreams" was banned by MTV for its supposedly controversial hypnotic clip.[5]

Contents

Track listing

All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore and Joe Lynn Turner except where indicated

  1. "Stranded" – 4:25
  2. "Can't Let You Go" (Blackmore, Turner, Intro - David Rosenthal) – 4:18
  3. "Fool for the Night" – 4:04
  4. "Fire Dance" (Blackmore, Turner, Roger Glover, Rosenthal) – 4:30
  5. "Anybody There" (Blackmore) – 2:36
  6. "Desperate Heart" – 4:00
  7. "Street of Dreams" – 4:23
  8. "Drinking with the Devil" – 3:41
  9. "Snowman" (Howard Blake, arr. by Blackmore) – 4:33
  10. "Make Your Move" – 3:55

The LP has "Desperate Heart" at 4:04, whilst the cassette has this track at 04:36, repeating the verse after the guitar solo. Similarly, "Make Your Move" is 03:56 on the LP, yet 05:25 on the cassette, on account of a reprise of a bridge section and a much longer playout. The other tracks are of equal length on the two releases. The first US CD edition (Polydor 815 305-2) uses the LP version. The US remaster (Polydor 314 547 367-2) uses the cassette version.

The song "Street of Dreams" has been re-recorded in two versions by Blackmore's Night in 2006 for their fifth studio album, The Village Lanterne. The version featured on a regular album was sung by Candice Night. The other version, a bonus track on a special edition of the album, was performed in a duet by Night and former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner.

Personnel

Singles

References

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Sputnikmusic review
  3. ^ Album Review - Rainbow - Bent Out of Shape - RevelationZ Magazine
  4. ^ http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/rainbow/bent_out_of_shape
  5. ^ "Blackmore's Night - Ritchie Blackmore Bio". Ritchieblackmore.com. 8 May 1998. http://www.ritchieblackmore.com/ritchie_bio.html. Retrieved 13 November 2010.