Rainbow “Snowman” (w/ Kevin Williams)

What’s up, dudes? Kevin Williams from ‘Tis the Soundtrack joins me to talk about Rainbow “Snowman!” Yes, the former Deep Purple guitarist took Howard Blake’s song from the 1982 classic and reworked it as an atmospheric synth and electric guitar anthem!

Rainbow was formed in 1975 by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore after he began to tire of Deep Purple and the band’s changing musical direction. Deep Purple had already replaced Ian Gillan and Roger Glover with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, but Blackmore remained unhappy with where the music was headed. What began as Blackmore recording a single with members of the band Elf ultimately grew into a full album and the creation of Rainbow. The band quickly became known for its larger-than-life live shows, whose centerpiece was a massive computer-controlled rainbow containing some 3,000 lightbulbs and stretching 40 feet across the stage. Rainbow also became notorious for its revolving door of musicians, with original vocalist Ronnie James Dio departing in 1978 over disagreements about the band’s increasingly commercial musical direction. After further lineup changes, Joe Lynn Turner eventually took over as lead singer, ushering in Rainbow’s more radio-friendly early-’80s era. That lineup would lead to Bent Out of Shape, released September 9, 1983, which featured the song in question as the album’s ninth track.

Rainbow’s instrumental “Snowman,” featured on their 1983 album Bent Out of Shape, is based on “Walking in the Air,” the haunting theme written by composer Howard Blake for the beloved 1982 animated film The Snowman, itself adapted from Raymond Briggs’ 1978 children’s book. Blake had actually composed the melody around 1970 before later adapting it for the television special, where it became the musical centerpiece of the story. The Snowman—which went on to become a seasonal television favorite in Britain and Finland—follows the fleeting adventure of a young boy and the snowman he brings to life. During their magical flight to the North Pole, “Walking in the Air” accompanies the pair as they soar through the night before attending a gathering of snowmen and meeting Santa Claus and his reindeer. In the original film, the song was performed by St. Paul’s Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty, whose recording was later reissued in 1985 and 1987. Ritchie Blackmore was captivated by the composition’s haunting, melodic beauty and, having long enjoyed adapting classical and traditional melodies into rock instrumentals, transformed Blake’s delicate vocal theme into “Snowman.” Rainbow’s version builds atmospheric tension around the familiar melody before giving Blackmore the opportunity to let loose with a soaring, emotional electric-guitar lead—turning one of animation’s most delicate Christmas themes into a distinctly Rainbow instrumental.

Synth flute? Check. Fuzzy guitar? Got it. Brad Fiedel The Terminator-style synth percussion? Definitely! So grab your guitar, stand behind that keyboard, and rock out to Rainbow “Snowman!”

‘Tis the Soundtrack
YouTube: @TisTheSoundtrack
IG:  @tisthesoundtrack

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We're walking in the air. We're floating in the moonlit sky. So if people fall below, we're sleeping as we fly. We're talking rainbow, still and headed to the audience. Return of the Jedi was in theaters. Walt Disney's Treasure Island played Christmas Day on BBC One, and Rainbow released an instrumental version of the music from a classic British special. I'm your host, Jerry D with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s, toys, movies, specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Now, joining me is a Totally Rad Christmas All-Star and Ratty winner from Tis the Soundtrack. It's Kevin Williams. Kevin, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

It's going good, Jerry. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

You know, I'm all right, man. It's been today's been hectic. Like, it's been a lot of running around. I I went to meet an installer to help him bid like a permanent lighting job and to kind of like map it all out how it's gonna go. And then his dog had some sort of emergency, and so they ran to the vet, and I was there by myself. And so that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Oh, that uh that sounds awesome. We're we're out here just dealing with wildfires, they're they're all around us, so you know it's uh mid-90s and you can't see the sky right now, it's just ash.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Well, I think you win, but I was just gonna complain about traffic for like another, you know, but that's fine. Yeah, well, I'm sorry, that really stinks. I I don't even know where to go from that, except maybe you need a little snow, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Wait, wait, wait a group. It's good to see you, man. It's been a while. It has been a while. Yeah, I don't even remember the last. Well, maybe it was a laser tag, might have been the last thing that we did.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

I think it was last fall, yeah. It's been a minute.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

It sure has, yeah. So I've been because I switched jobs and now I run a whole lighting company, I've been crazy busy, and the show has kind of fallen by you know calling fallen by the wayside a little bit. So I'm trying to fix that. I'm glad I have you with me because I always enjoy our talks, super knowledgeable, just super cool guy as well. So, and I'm not saying that you did bribe me with the Dargon, Prince Dargon sectars figure for the Raddies, but I'm not saying that you didn't.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

So I think that's the best way to leave it.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That's right, that's right. So I appreciate that you're here. Now we're here to talk Rainbow and the Snowman, but before we do that, just like Carol Kane did to Bill Murray and Scrooged, I want you to hit me with the toaster. So I'm gonna ask you a few questions, and I want you to hit me with the first answer you can think of, okay? You don't have to think too hard about it. So into which Christmas movie would you insert Rainbow's snowman?

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Oh. Are we sticking with the 80s or do we have a lot of people? It could be any Christmas movie. Yeah, yeah. I think I would put it into a horror movie. You know, it's just got that, you know, deep atmospheric. Uh, you know, we could do Silent Night, Deadly Night. We could do I would say something like that. It's uh there's you know, uh you could either be the leaner, yeah. You you could either lean into it and just have it be like the atmospheric piece, or you could, you know, go really dark and have it being kind of like that uplifting piece during just you know some brutal scene or something. So uh so now so now we've gone from wildfires to there, so we we should probably turn ourselves around.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

This is gonna be a great one, yeah. No, I mean I agree. I feel like it would have been cool in like an episode of Miami Vice, right? Like yeah, it's got a little bit of that in the air tonight vibe to it. But we'll get into it. We'll get into it. Okay, what other rock band would you like to cover walking in the air?

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Oh, can I go with fake rock bands? Sure. So I I would say either and and I will stick with the 80s theme this time. So I I would love to see like maybe Spinal Tap or or if you could get Bill and Ted's uh white stallions, I think that would be a great cover of of the song.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I'd walk I'd listen to both of those for sure. Like those are those are winners to me. I I love Spinal Tab's very I mean they did release that song Christmas with the Devil in like 84, 85-ish. I know I need to cover it, but I just I can't bring myself to do it yet. So so yeah, okay, I'll take that. And finally, okay, here's a hard one. Ready? Ian Gillen, David Coverdale, Ronnie James Dio, or Joe Lynn Turner.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Oh, it's Dio. I mean, you don't even have to think about that. Uh really it's uh Yeah, no, I'm so I would go Rainbow. I like go ahead, go ahead. I was just gonna say, I I like Rainbow. I I like you know, to me, the the best era was that early era that had Dio before he went off and you know did Black Sabbath and then Holy Dynasty.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yeah, yeah. No, no, that's cool. I like, I mean, I I like Ian Gillen, man, with the you know Mark II, the Mark II lineup of Deep Purple. So, but I mean, I think with any of those vocalists, you really can't go wrong. No, yeah. So, well, that's good. That's just a way for our listeners to get to know you a little bit better. So thank you for that. Now, tonight we're here to talk rainbow, specifically their song Snowman, which is a a cover of uh Howard Blake's uh Walking in the Air from The Snowman. What do you remember, like what do you what's your history or experience with Rainbow, but also with the snowman?

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Yeah, um, so Rainbow, uh, like we just were talking about a second ago, um, my experience with Rainbow was Deep Purple into Rainbow. And then uh by the time the album with this song came out, um, you know, we were past the part of Rainbow that I liked, which was, you know, the Magic and Wizards part of Rainbow from the first couple albums. And uh and now we're just kind of in like you know, 80s hard rock mode. And so um so by that time I I couldn't tell you hardly any rainbow songs from uh from that era. And then for the uh for snowman, I don't think I knew snowman was a thing until the probably early 2000s. Right? Yeah, same. Yeah, I don't yeah, I I I imagine it was for one of those anniversaries, but like uh Borders or Barnes and Noble had big there was like a re-release of the book, and you know, they had big displays in the stores for it, and I think I just assumed it was something new that had just come out. It wasn't you know this beloved thing from across the seas that we just had no idea about.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

No, and I'm right there with you. I feel like I I have like zero recollection, maybe like a passing commercial or or like a clip here and there, but it was super passing. I mean, I know Mike Westfall like actually recorded it on VHS, and so so to him, like he also grew up with that, even though you know he's from this side of the pond. But like I think most of us, and I know at least all my friends, none of us had ever heard this before. Like, we'd never seen it, we didn't know anything about it. I think maybe I might have seen the book somewhere eventually, but I didn't know it was a thing, and they love it, they love it more than like Charlie Brown, which is insane. But you know, that's it's a Charlie Brown's Americana, so makes sense, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Yeah, I don't think I saw the special until my son was two or three. So this would have been like 2013, 2014, somewhere around there. And he was super into Sid the Science Kid when he was little. And uh so so we watched a lot of Sprout. Uh, that was the channel we got that it came on. Right. And uh that that Christmas they were doing a they were doing Snowman and Snow Dog as a back-to-back, like everyday running up for Christmas. And so that I think was probably the first time I knew it was more than a book.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Right. Well, I honestly I didn't know about it until I I mean, like you said, it was I'd heard of it, and then I I I don't think I saw it fully until I was gonna do the episode, like season one or season two, with the volcanics. And Frankie from the volcanics, he he like he loved it, so they even recorded a like a surf version of it and uh walking in the air. And so they came on, we talked about it, and then we talked about their album or their EP and and the song, and but like that was the first time I'd seen it through, you know. I didn't know there was like three different versions, and one had David Bowie and one had Santa, and you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

I mean Oh, the the intros and the the intro, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, I didn't know anything of that. Now, as for Rainbow, I'm like you. I loved Deep Purple, like the very first CD I ever bought, or it was either the first or the second one of them was uh Machine Head by Deep Purple. So classic, you know, Highway Star, Smoke on the Water, Space Truck in Space Truck, yep. I mean, it's like I think Child in Time, like it's got these like massive hits, right? That are just what Deep Purple's known for. Yep. And then, you know, Richie Blackmore being Richie Blackmore fires a couple of guys, and I think who is it? Ian Gillen and and Roger Glover, and then he hires David Coverdale, and then we got like Burn and Stormbringer, and like those those are great too. But then Blackmore is gonna keep Blackmore in, and he's he's gonna fire everybody, and so then he just quits and forms a new band.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

And yeah, and I I I love that right before that, too, he took Elf out as their opener for I think their US tour. And so, you know, that's the very end of you know version one of Deep Purple. And so, you know, they're out there, they're doing their tour, the tour ends, and he fires the whole band, or I guess leaves the band, they do their own thing, and then takes everyone from Elf, you know, Ronnie James Dio included, except for the guy that and I'm spacing his name, but it would uh you know be Blackmore's role, and so takes all but one person from ELF and drops them out too, and now forms Rainbow.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

I'm telling you, man, if you were in a band with Richie Blackmore, you were not safe unless you're Richie Blackmore. Yeah, so the snowman, highly beloved special, like we talked about, is based on the 1978 book by Raymond Briggs, The Snowman. In this particular version, you know, it's all animated and it's really nice. It's like these these lush pastel kind of colors. I mean, it's just everything's soft, almost like watercolor-esque. And it's just it's a really fantastic special if you see it. But, you know, I think just now, as like a 40-something-year-old guy, it's just I don't quite have the nostalgia for it like everybody else does. But I will say the music, Walking in the Air, is quite a great song. Howard Blake really did a great job. Peter Audi, who sings it magnificently. I mean, it's it's quite fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Lying. We're walking in the a We're floating in the moon in sky. The people for it all are sleeping as we fly.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

So were you aware of the song before like before you hurt knew of the special, or did you find those together?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

No, so I I mean I I'm pretty sure I heard the the version of the song, the original from the special at some point, but never catalogued it away as belonging to it until much later. And I'll say the rainbow version I didn't know existed until a couple years ago when you included it in your Mary Mixtape, and that was the first time I think I ever heard that. And so that led me to bounce around and find the other versions and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I'm telling you, there's some really good stuff in there, and I had to cut a whole bunch of stuff, and it was still too long, but I cut a bunch, so uh that tells you how much good stuff is out there. Like if I had to redo it, I'd throw in Shark Island's uh Santa Claus's coming to town. Have you heard that one?

SPEAKER_02 13:13

I have, so I I think that means we need to do a version two and come up with a volume two.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

For sure, for sure. Yeah, it's they just take a Judas Priest song and put Santa Claus's Coming to Town lyrics on it, and it's it's fantastic. But yeah, same. So I I I vaguely recall the song. I don't think I knew the original by Peter Oudi. I think I knew the Alad Jones version. Yeah, right. And and that was done in like 85-ish, 86-ish, something like that. Someone said it was like for a toy commercial. I don't know if that's true. I know it was included on his album that he released. Like he has a Christmas album, so and he's sung it like ever since, but you know, but I remember there was like a big controversy over like who actually sung it because everyone was like misremembering Alan Jones as being the singer in the actual special, and I don't think that's true.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

No, it's it's Peter Audi in the special.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah. So yeah, but I knew the song ish. I did not know like I did not know the special. Yeah. And I didn't know Rainbow covered it until like slightly before I had I had that show, which by the way, go listen to that episode. Great episode, Tiza soundtrack. It was so fun. I cheated like crazy, just making this this really ridiculously long mixtape, but it was great. So make sure you go check that out. Some some fantastic tunes there. I some of them I mentioned before on here. So but yeah, same thing. Like, and I loved Rainbow. I didn't remember the song by Rainbow though, like at all. I I was like you. When someone says Rainbow, I think of Dio. I don't really think of Joe Lynn Turner.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

No, and it was it's it's weird on the album it came out uh on anyway, because it's on Ben Out of Shape. And so, like we were talking about, you're in what would that be? Joe Joe Turner era. Is that Ben Out of Shape? And so you are you've gone, like we were talking about, from the Swords and Sorcery and Wizards and you know, high up on the mountains to just you know early 80s just hard rock songs, and so and that's what that album is, right? Ben Out of Shape is just hard rock albums or hard rock songs, and then you have two instrumentals on there. Uh you've got you've got Ben you've got snowman, and then you've got spacing the name of the other one. It it reminds me of uh uh oh I I remember it was like nominated for a Grammy or something. Yeah, it's it's super proggy sounding and it's uh anybody there, anybody there, yeah. Yeah, yeah, because it it reminds me of comfortably numb. It kind of has that same progression, and I think even some of the lyrics are super close to is there anybody out there? And um, but they're just stylistically completely different than the rest of the songs that cut album.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Right. Yeah, because like and I I don't recall all the names of the album. I remember the album, like I've I've listened to the whole album, and uh it's great, they're just they're good songs. I mean, it's not like standout songs like you know, some of the other stuff. You know, there's always like at least one like single that you're like, this song's gonna be great, but I just feel like they're all just good quality songs. I just I don't remember them, which is the a shame because it is a good album, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

I love the album, it's just I mean it's uh yeah, and it's a funny progression because it's stuck between drinking with the devil and make your move. And so you you go from this like just straightforward rock song about drinking with the devil, and then like make your moves, he's like daring someone to shoot him first, or you know, or see if they can shoot him first, and and then in between that you've just got this uh you know instrumental piece.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah, it's it's so strange. By the way, it was yeah, anybody there was nominated for the Grammy for best rock instrumental performance. Yeah, so but it it is weird, right? So if we kind of trace the history, Richie Blackmore kind of was the the pioneer for like that neoclassical like guitar style in rock and roll. You can hear it in a lot of his solos, Highway Star, especially. It's it's very like you know, 16th notes. You hear a little bit of it on Deep Smoke on the Water. I mean, there's chunks of like these little pieces that you're like, oh well that's that does sound like you could play that on a classical guitar in like you know, the 1800s, and it would sound fantastic. But he he was kind of the pioneer there, right? So deep purple, they have that uh their first hit with Hush, then people are fired, other people are hired, and then we have like their classic Mark II lineup, and they have like massive woman from Tokyo, uh, you know, smoke on the water, like we said, just like these this big following. Then more people are fired, we get Mark III. I think there's I think by the time the 80s rolled around, they were on like deep purple Mark 7 or something like that. And it's you know, you we laugh, but like it's true. I mean, there it really was like an advan. I don't even know what number because like someone else, someone would be fired, and someone else hired, and that's counts as like a whole new lineup.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

And I and you you'd record with one lineup and then you'd go tour with another one because the guy that was great in the studio was just terrible, you know, on the road, and it just yeah, kept it was just a revolving door.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah, I would never feel safe if I was ever in a band with him. Yeah, but what one of the things that made rainbow stand out was like their stage show, right? So, especially in like the Dio years, we had like this huge, like I think it was like 3,000 light bulb, 40 feet long, just rainbow like screen that was all computer controlled, that was like real psychedelic, kind of cool looking. And I would love to have been there to listening to the music and just seeing this thing going on. I mean, that that had to be amazing, right? Just for effect.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah, because you're talking early 80s, so that's you know, peak technology for the time, too. So, yeah, that I mean, you know, you you didn't have like the big screen in Vegas or anything like that at that point.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

So that's no, you sure didn't. Yeah, it was like Blue Oyster Cult had their lasers and uh you know their their laser show, and then Rainbow had like a giant rainbow like LED screen. So Dio left leaves in 78, of course, because of musical direction. He liked the harder edge stuff, he liked fantasy. Well, like you alluded to swords and sorcery and you know, all the adventure and magic and stuff, and um Blackmore will really wasn't super into that. Replaced with Jolyn Turner, like you said, bent out of shape, released September 9th, 1983. This is the ninth track. And how do I describe it? Atmospheric is probably the best way to describe it. Like what are your initial thoughts on it?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah, it's uh like like a darker version of something you'd find on Windham Hill. There's uh, you know, it's if if if you're familiar with that and then just you know toned down and you know, I don't know, more menacing, that's that's probably in the ballpark of what you're getting here.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

For sure. For sure. I mean, there's a lot, like it's very heavy on the synthesizers. I it's really well produced. Like like the actual production quality is really fine.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what synth they used for the song. And so so first I was just trying to find concert footage from that time and of this song, and the first thing I learned was on YouTube, a lot of people have cut their own music videos for this song. Like a like an odd amount of people have cut music videos. I was I'll see if I can find the link to it, but the weirdest one was like a camp of Neanderthals like out on the ice trekking around, and this is the song they use in the background for it. And not official or anything, it's just something someone made. But uh uh came to the conclusion he was using a mini mogue for it. Okay, but but it also but what I learned while I was going through that is so in hard rock, in metal, you know, 1983, you've got a lot of synthesizers of that generation that are being worked into studio production. But you still have a lot of hard rock and metal fans that when they pay money and go to a concert, they don't want to see a dude up there at a keyboard jamming away on it. And so a lot of times, you know, throw a dart and you know, pick a band at that time, they would take their keyboard player and either move them behind the scenery or move them off to the side of the stage and just cable them out. That way the sound got there. So it sounded like what everyone heard on the album, but you didn't see the guy up there. And so if you go back and look at a lot of early 80s metal and hard rock live recordings, they don't feature a lot of. keyboard player. Even even the early MTV videos, you know, at that time, you know, when you've got all the smash cuts, you know, different angles and you've got the close-ups of the shredding on the guitar, you'll be hard pressed to find the keyboard player in there until you know your mid to late 80s when it became a little you know, your Duran Duran and it became you know and human league and it it became a an instrument of note at that point.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

That's that's so wild. Like poor guy. You know, like hey hey man, I need you to stand like behind the amp. Like just behind don't want to see you know that's that's insane. I couldn't tell I I honestly I knew it was some sort of like poly synth but that's about all you know because it it starts off right with like this this kind of the sound right away this and then it really and it reminded me a little bit of Brad Fiedel's score for the Terminator. You know yeah a little bit you know it's just but it's it's in a halftime like boom boom boom pop boom boom you know but with that like that Cynthia Brad Fiedel type percussion you know and so now I just want like the terminator like snowman. So he's just walking along and slowly lifting off the ground and you know and half his face is like Terminator and uh yeah he's got the laser sight. I mean that that'd be awesome. Yeah it just it it's it's really just spooky and atmospheric and I know I've said that already but it really is it's you got the nice like synth pads and then there's a flute that all of a sudden takes up the main melody and it's like I was trying to I mean I listened to this really really hard over and over again I was like it sounds like it's a real flute but I don't think it is I think it's a synthesized flute because I at least in the liner notes that I found it doesn't there's no yeah right so so I don't think it's a flute. I think it's a synth flute and that's that's even more wild to me like why why a synth flute of everything is uh it's interesting because the original song I mean this is an interpretation but it's it's fairly close to the original song. It is yeah yeah and we'll talk about the harmonic progression a little bit but yeah go ahead yeah well I might jump ahead a little but uh it just it almost has the opposite feeling so the original song you know it's used in the scene when they're you know taken off they're they're gaining their their lift fine right yeah and it and it the whole little the little introduction piece to it we were just talking about you know it's uh oh we're lifting we're lifting we're lifting and whoop we're up and so it's got that airy feeling to it right you know it and this it's the same progression but it almost like sucks you down instead of you know lifting you up just uh just the that like you said the deep synth on there it just the uh you know the beat to it it it like draws you in rather than you know put some air under you yeah and there's even like an upward motion like like sixteenth note run on the synth you know I mean it's you know it's like it's supposed to be taking you higher like you said but that backbeat halftime feel it just it's really man it's a whole other vibe and then because like the way that they've produced those sounds you know it's not like just straight snare drum and you know it's not like just an acoustic kit they've processed those sounds and so it's it's just like this really electronic kind of vibe. You know it's almost cold and sterile in the way it's progressed.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Yeah it's yeah it's really grounding you know to the melody that's happening on it.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Right. Well apparently they covered it because I guess like Richie Blackmore he found it he just loved the melody he thought it was a haunting melody and he's like I got I want to play with this and let's let's make it so you're right it is a an odd choice for the album but I do think that he was able to like contrast that synth flute very well against his like kind of crunchy bluesy guitar. So it's not like strictly a blues line because he doesn't really use the blues scale but he uses enough of that like melodic and harmonic minor and even just straight up Aeolian to you know mode to to really shape everything and it's just it was a nice contrast because it's got like that slight fuzz and it's deep with the like there's a lot of mids there compared to like the real airy breathy you know faux flute.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Yeah no yeah it's uh yeah I I uh beat kind of beaten it to death here but yeah it's just it's uh it's such an interesting take on it and you know having that having what you just said about him finding it haunting you can really tell that that's what he dialed up there right it's that juxtaposition it's that juxtaposition between the instruments on there that make it feel haunting instead of you know just a nice little tune.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Right for sure for sure. Now Howard Blake actually wrote the tune around 1970 but he adapted it for the snowman when he was hired to do the score in 1982. So that's that's kind of cool that it's like you know we all have these well a lot of us have these ideas and then we can kind of adapt them for something else and so it's just I love it when someone has a song or something already like what's his name that wrote the James Bonte Monty oh yeah I I can't think of his name right now but you know he had that like Mr. Bizwas song and then he he changed it to James Bonte. Well that's kind of the same thing right they had the song and then he just adapted it to the snowman and then Richie Blackmore took it and made it something completely different. So the chord's very very simple it's in the key of D minor so D minor C G minor F and or excuse me G minor let's see flat six would be B flat and then back to D minor. So really really simple just the minor one flat seven minor four flat six and then back to that minor one and so that's like the main verse we get that melody over it. When the guitar comes in it does use those chords a little bit but it's almost on that interlude part that bah bum you know so all of a sudden the chords change right now it's like starts with the major three so it's F F major down to D minor the minor one then to B flat so on all those we have the F is like the constant there which I think is kind of cool. It's like this pedal point almost right and then to G minor and then back to D minor. So it's just this this really interesting line and that's where he just starts like just wailing on the guitar yeah. And then the the regular song has the bridge chords the bridge chords here you don't really hear it as much because they extend them a little bit so it's not like exactly like the song they kind of elongate it which fits with like that halftime feel so we have like the the five chord which is an A major so the C is sharp all of a sudden and that leads into the minor one and then we get like a series of like secondary dominance right so we have a G major which is like the five of five of flat seven to flat seven so G to C. And then we have two five of the key of six which is great and then I mean it's just it's it's like all these cool little things but they're all extended and you can't really tell because you have all these pads this rhythm and then you just have the guitar soloing over everything with its nice like just crunchy guitar tone. So they really take the song and I gotta say for me it works. It's it's weird but it works. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Yeah no right there with you and like you like we've hit on a couple times you know everything is kind of synthesized and ran through and then the guitar's got a decent amount of fuzz on it as he just kind of cuts over the top of everything else. So you get just a a really unique sound out of it. And you know like I said compared to everything else around it too it's you know it's the you know all the songs that precede it, the song or two that follows it are if you're you know you're sitting down listening to the album in 1983, it's just such a unique thing you know just kind of tucked into the end of it.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yeah it just doesn't make sense like to be there but but at the same time I really like it. I'm glad they did it.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Although you know fast forward 40 years and you know we've got Blackmoor's night now and he's out putting on you know like felt vests and peasant hats and you know crank cranking the hertie girdie and it makes complete sense.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

So Dio like really rubbed off on him I guess. Yeah I don't know yeah no but yeah I know what you mean it's just it his trajectory has been quite quite odd I gotta say but I mean he can still wail on the guitar he can still shred pretty nice so it that's it's really cool that he can do that. But I learned to play Smoke on the Water from an interview he did when he was in Blackmoor's night and he showed how he plays it and I was like oh that's different from the way I was playing it so then I started playing it the way he's playing it and pretty cool. But so overall it it's the flute right and then it's a little bit of the guitar solo and then the flute comes back again with that melody and then it just ends with like the guitar I mean the guitar just goes off Richie Blackmore just doing his thing and then it's just like this weird like not quite ending like it you know it just long cast it's it's so it's so unresolved like it doesn't quite end. It's I I enjoy it because it's unexpected but at the same time it's like just go to the one chord man. Just just go to the chord. It's like just driving me crazy. But also like it's just it's musically it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

So it's one of like one of those weird dichotomies where you really love it but at the same time it's you're just like oh come on just you know you want to resolve just resolve so oh well yeah no and it's uh it's just a cool story too of how how it got that far because like you said uh Howard Blake wrote the song he didn't write it for the special um like I read an interview where he said uh it was what ten years before the special he was you know burnt out from composing and wandering around on a beach and kind of was putting together the melody in his head and then didn't have anything to use it on. And so you know 10 plus years you know 10 10 eight years later um you know they're doing this special and he and so a song that was written while walking on a beach you know and a melody that was you know that was figured out while he was you know kicking through the sand is now you know used in a winter special about the snow and then is you know a handful of years after that is you know pulled by the you know blackmore during his hard rock era because it you know spoke to him and then he just does something completely out of character for the band at the time with it. And so yeah it's just this weird story from you know beach in 1970 to weird track at the end of an 83 album.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

For sure and so of course I I started looking up other covers the one that surprised me most that I didn't recognize was um Tangerine Dream kind of used it uh in the keep did you ever see the movie The Keep I don't think so yeah it's I I I looked it up too and I saw so I saw the song but I yeah no no reference for the movie though. No so the movie's odd and it's one of those where it's like so odd you're like what am I watching? But at the same time it's like it's entertaining do I really want to turn it off I don't know so you end up keep watching you still end up watching and you're like well I just wasted like two hours you know you know it's it's got that kind of a it's got that kind of a vibe. Well they work it into like the score on like certain parts and it's just strange because if you didn't know it was there as you're watching the movie you're not gonna really notice it. I've gone back and listened to the soundtrack and it's like oh yeah I do hear it but it's yeah it's strange so definitely between the two I prefer Rainbow's version of it I guess favorite rainbow song I don't know um LA connection okay yeah I said Hollywood and I wasn't quite getting there but yeah I could not come up with the name of that. Yeah no no I I g I mean close enough right yeah I mean I gotta say I'm still a fan of Man on the Silver Mountain that yeah to me that was like the first rainbow song that I heard so like that's what I associate with Rainbow. You know like when people name a band there's usually one song that like pops out immediately. So you know Eagles people say Hotel California you know a deep purple it's smoke on the water well I gotta say rainbow is definitely man on the silver mountain for me. So I do remember in college not that I did anything illegal ever but I downloaded it from our school servers and I burned it onto a CD of like classic rock. So it was like all my favorite songs from different classic rock bands and that's the one I put for Rainbow but if I known that there was a Christmas one I probably would put that one on for sure okay if you could play like perform something in this instrumental what would you add to it oh not not perform one of the parts but add something to it yeah yeah yeah if you could just add like anything so I think I would add like replace some of the synth pads with like a live drum piece.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

I think I think just adding that you get that deeper sound to it and it would just be interesting. It might be interesting to insert a real flute set into it instead of instead of just programming it and but I but I but I think any but really any of those things get it farther away from where it's at. Right. I I think the reason it works is it's so electronic for the time.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

True yeah I mean it really is I mean it's no tangerine dream but at the same at the same time you know you're right it is like pushing the envelope of like acoustic versus electronic for especially for rainbow you know I I feel like if they really wanted to go Christmas with it they probably could add some sleigh bells in there but honestly I feel like it almost needs some some tubular bells you know like some oh yeah chimes or something just like a random you know just every once in a while I think that'd be kind of cool okay well what would you say is your like hap hap happiest like memory or moment with either Rainbow in general or with this song in particular with with the song it's it's this man.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

It's you know like I said unright uh un until you shared it with me I didn't know it existed and then for for all the folks at home scheduling to record this episode has been like being in a Richie Blackmore band. It's just getting axed and axed and I think this is our fourth or fifth time we've been trying to get together. So it's something like that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Yeah so I mean unfortunately it's always fault too so we you can edit that part out that doesn't matter but it's uh no that's all right yeah yeah no recording this episode's been the epic journey of its own it's uh we're finally we finally made it no I'm here it's uh work like I mentioned earlier has been has been a beast this year I've been traveling more than I thought and just all sorts of things but I will admit unfortunately this time I am the blackmore of the group so but I do appreciate you being patient with me because this was fun yeah for me I mean it's gotta be finally talking about it I remember talking to you about it on your show and I remember you saying like you didn't you know like what what are you talking about and and I had to look it up and like I didn't know this it was a thing and I was like you know what it's funny because same I remember the album I think I owned the album and I didn't remember it was a thing either so it's just one of those that I I found later on but now normally we do gag me with the spoon here there's nothing really to like I mean we're not really gonna sing anything instrumental parts like you know wow wow what so whatever we're just gonna skip that and we're gonna go you know G.I. Joe taught us that knowing is half the battle what do you think the other half is oh it's what we talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

It's hiding an epic holiday instrumental track between two 80s rock songs about drinking with the devil and threatening someone with a gun.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

That's gotta be it right it's gotta be that's right that's how you slide your Christmas songs in past the uh past the producers you know the the executives there you gotta do that if you're a rock band. No, but that's better than mine. I just think if no one's half to battle the other half is just not being in a band with Richie Blackmore.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Well that yeah because you're gonna get fired yeah it makes you wonder so for folks who haven't looked at it you know Blackmore's night it's it's super neoclassical it's uh I it it's probably my favorite version of Blackmore outside of you know original deep purple um but you can go online you know go on YouTube and you look at some of their performances and he's got a group and they've all got you know classical instruments they're doing their thing and for most of their performances they're kind of dressed in I guess a version of period attire or maybe it's like what you can what yeah yeah what you can cheaply cobble together that kind of looks reminiscent of the 1400s it's Renaissance fair clothes. Yeah yeah but yeah I it makes you wonder though if you know before they're getting ready to go out into that pub where they're performing or you know recording their video or whatever if you've got like three of the band members there you're gonna make me wear the big you know floppy hat again oh just put it on or you're getting fired right it's uh you know we're we're all replaceable it's I I gotta say though I do agree like because I think his wife like he and his wife are in that band together.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Yeah and and it is really good. I think they even have a Christmas album that's that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

So yeah the yeah and I was gonna sh yeah talk about that at the beginning when we were talking about you know uh this song that yeah I I knew about the Blackmore's night Christmas album long before you ever turned me on to this song. So that was my Richie Blackmore you know Christmas and I had no idea there was something that you know predated that by 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

Yeah and I remember so like every once in a while I'll just google does blank have a Christmas song or you know just and then you know just replace with a bunch of different bands or or artists or you know and and I remember I did that like three or four years ago with and sure enough this came up and I thought wow okay well I don't remember that so let me check it out and there it was and it haunted me for a while and I listen so the last time we were going to record this I actually listened to the song on repeat for like a day I was like I gotta get it all and then I realized I'm not gonna get it all it's I I can't tell what's happening because of all the synths like it's flute guitar flute guitar but like like I'm not honing in on anything and I also it didn't help I was also working while I was doing it but but you know I I wasn't focused but still like I just had it on repeat all day long and it's a great song but I will and I'll recommend you gotta listen to the song but you don't need to listen to it on repeat. So that just just a warning for those that thought hey maybe I need to repeat this thing now. You're good. You're good Kevin, this has been a lot of fun tell me about your show or anything else you want to plug yeah so

SPEAKER_02 44:00

So the podcast is Tiz the Soundtrack. You can find it at tisthesoundtrack.com and all the other normal places you hear your podcasts, and we talk about Christmas music, just like we're doing right now. We just hit our two-year mark in April, so that was pretty exciting. And I originally made some notes when we were gonna record this the first time, where I said, I've been trying to take a page from you, Jerry, and do better pre-planning so I'm not delayed by the general chaos in life, and I've done a terrible job at that. So we've got a couple episodes in the can coming up that I can tease. So the first one is I was I was out trying to kill time, actually, while my son was at a trampoline park birthday thing, and I came across an old 10-inch LP at a thrift store that I'd never seen before, and it was the Alfred Burt Carols. It was the the first original recording of them. Wow. And and that name didn't ring a bell immediately to me, but I flipped it over and on the back was a whole story of the Alfred Burt Carols. So I went online and Googled it and I found this cool website that someone who was also curious about the Alfred Burt Carols put together in like the mid-90s at a the university where he worked. He it was like a the project he gave to his media students at the time, uh where he brought in Alfred Burt's uh widow and and recorded the history of their family and him producing or him writing the songs for that album and or just his carols in general, and it was a cool read. And that bumped me into uh contacting his daughter, who now runs his estate, and so she shared some information with me that's getting wrapped up into just a history of the Burt carols. So we got we got that one coming up, and then I'll tease this one for you. So back when we did the Gremlins episode last year, we talked about a band that happens to appear on the soundtrack, obviously an 80s band.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

And then in the 90s, they're also a localish band to where I'm at out here in Oregon. Uh so so you you you probably know who that is already from uh from those two clues. Yes. I was gonna tease it, man, but that that's fine. Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

So I didn't say anything. I'll cut that out.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

No, no, no, leave it in. No, no, don't cut it out. But yeah, so in the 90s, where am I going with this? Uh they were commissioned by the Oregon Trail Council to put out some classic music about the westward expansion out to Oregon. And so they created the uh trail band. And I bumped into it for the first time when I was doing my episode on the holiday music at Frontierland in Disneyland because that soundtrack features a trail band song. And uh and it led me to that, the Quarter Flash. Uh so a while ago I reached out to them because they notoriously don't do interviews uh like any in the last 20 years. Uh they said we've talked about Quarter Flash, all we ever want to talk about them. Yeah, we're we're done with that.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

They were super nice and gave me a ton of information about the trail band. And so I'm I just wrapped up recording that. And so it's gonna it's still a couple episodes down the road, but that's one I'm super excited to be able to share because yeah, while most people might be familiar with Quarter Flash, I don't think the trail band's gonna ring a lot of bells.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

No, I didn't even I didn't even know that they were in the trail band. That's cool, man. I didn't realize it was the same, like it was the same, you know? Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Well, very excited. Can't wait to listen to them. Yeah, just make sure you go check out to the soundtrack. Lots of cool, cool stuff, some albums that you might have remembered but have forgotten. Some like just Disney stuff that you're like, oh yeah, I grew up with that. You know, I mean, really cool stuff. And then yeah, he he had a couple of guests on, and and we each um created like a mixtape, or we were supposed to. I think some of us ended up creating like an anthology, but it you know, it is yeah, I I think everyone cheated in their own unique and special way.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

So it's uh that's right.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Well, I'll do a part two because I I got a whole list of things.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Well, this was fun. I'm fine, I'm glad we finally got to talk about it. Uh, it's just a great song, great band, and it was great talking about it with you. Hopefully, you'll come back and we'll talk something else. I'm sure there's a million things we can talk about. I just gotta get stuff scheduled. That's the hard part. And usually by now, I've had like I have like a bank of stuff so that I can, you know, because I usually do my one Halloween, one Christmas episode, and then one Thanksgiving, one Christmas episode a week. And I don't know if I'm getting that done this year, so we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

But but but the big question is are you are you enjoying the new job?

SPEAKER_00 48:38

I am, it's been a lot of fun, yes.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

So so so that makes up for it, man. That's uh that I mean it's uh I've been following along, so uh I will now tease Jerry's other podcast. Um so thank you. So if you've seen if you've seen those episodes uh pop up while you're listening to Totally Rad Christmas, uh, they are fantastic too. And I never knew the commercial light industry was a thing to start out with. I I I just assume that people that installed them went to the hardware store and bought them like I do when Christmas time comes around. So, you know, that to me that is just fascinating that that world even exists and that you're like plugged right into the middle of it.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

Oh man, there's like a whole thing, and there's some drama that I won't talk about on here, but it's it's it's fun, it's interesting. Yeah, we got some cool episodes on that coming up. It's I because of my new role, I ended up kind of inheriting a show from the owner of the company and his brand ambassador. And so yeah, it's it's been fun. I got some really interesting things lined up on like whether you should use color or just warm white and like the the different ways that people prepare for like installs with those. Uh it's people are crazy, man. So that's all I gotta say. But yeah, it's fun. So I I do appreciate that. Yeah, and and so far it has been worth it. Much more time with my family.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Just I I heard you actually got to uh make it out to Florida to the to the park.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

I did. We actually went to Disney World, so that was great because usually I'm working at that time. So yeah, that it was it was pretty fantastic, great time with my family, and hopefully we can do it again soon.

SPEAKER_02 50:16

But oh, that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

But in the meantime, I want to say thanks again, and I'll end it with We're surfing in the air, we're swimming in the frozen sky, we're drifting over icy mountains, checking us out on our social media pages, which you can find at linktree.com slash totally rad Christmas. And if you're feeling like covering a song from a beloved Christmas classic, leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more people and spread some rad holiday cheer. Now don't forget to check out our merch shop on tpublic.com and our super dope website, totallyradchristmas.com. I can't let you go. Later, dudes.