Rainbow ● After the Storm

From somewhere over this hazy, washed-out rainbow comes After the Storm, an odd, somewhat confusing musical artifact from the psychedelic era’s well-populated rock and roll graveyard. Is this another in a long series of ‘60s bubblegum pop records, as the band name and cover art might suggest? Or are the four longhaired stoners on the front cover representative of a more sinister brush with acid rock? First released in 1968 on GNP Crescendo Records, After the Storm is a surprisingly complex mix of rock, pop and psychedelia. The title track, for example, is a delicate piano ballad (good luck trying to block out the chirping bird sounds in the background), while “The Ballad of Captain Bob and the Good Ship Venus” is a pounding hard rock number. The rest of the record follows suit, shifting randomly between metal-induced power chords (a cover of Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” later made famous by Foghat), watered-down soft pop (“Love Allusions” and “4 Leaf Clover”) and trippy, spaced-out spoken-word pieces (“Debby’s Party” and “Does Your Head Need Straightening”). Rainbow’s one and only effort is hardly a bad record, but the lack of both direction and identity probably intensified the band’s demise. Incidentally—and you’ve already probably figured this out—this Rainbow has nothing to do with Ritchie Blackmore’s band of the same name.