Rainbow Rider: Beautiful Dazzling Music No. 1

[Metaphizzle]

I snatched up this CD at a flea market for $1.

I shall report on first impressions in a bit. Right now, I gotta listen to Danielson's The Best of Gloucester County, which I also picked up today.

[Metaphizzle]

I'm six tracks in and this is ridiculous.

Switching from house music to pop was seriously the best decision Ronnie Martin ever made.

[Jono]

I'm not sure I've ever listened to it the entire way through even twice. It's just too extremely hyper for me, taken as a whole. The early versions of "Sweet Sweet Charity" and "We'll Last So Long" are pretty nice, though. Also, the bonus track they put on the VBM rerelease called "We Miss the Earth" is good.

Actually, I think the notes on the reverse side of the cover are the best part of the whole thing.

[Metaphizzle]

I actually like bouncy, hyper techno and sugary-sweet house music. Even by the standards of those genres, Rainbow Rider is incredibly meh.

Yeah, that manifesto by Ronnie was rather amusing. I also really liked that back cover photo of Ronnie with his long hair and bell bottoms, and two Daniel Amos records clearly visible behind him.

[Jono]

Yeah, that manifesto by Ronnie was rather amusing. I also really liked that back cover photo of Ronnie with his long hair and bell bottoms, and two Daniel Amos records clearly visible behind him.

Don't forget 77s' All Fall Down and LSU's Shaded Pain!

(at least that's what my memory tells me are there, could be wrong by now)

[bigideas]

Are there scans of the artwork anywhere?

[Jono]

If you can't find anything adequate I might be able to oblige you some scans.

[Spirit Flyer]

The Rainbow Rider album is actually the last Dance House Children album. If you look at the spine of the CD you'll see Dance House Children in small letters. Of course at that point Jason had left the band and it was mostly a solo project. I think someone else played guitar on one of the songs. In the liner notes there is a reference to Starflyer 2000. We'll Last So Long was rerecorded and released on the Joy Electric boxset.

Rainbow Rider was significantly better than the first 2 DHC albums, which sounded very thick. Rainbow Rider was a bridge from DHC to Joy Electric. Melody was the album where Ronnie found his musical stride. I still think Melody is the best album he ever made. There are more good songs on there than any other Joy Electric album in my opinion.