Can You Name Rainbow’s Bass Player Who Never Played Live?

Ritchie Blackmore with long, dark, wavy hair kneels on a plaid carpet, holding a black and white Rickenbacker bass guitar. He wears a dark shirt with white piping, light jeans, and dark shoes, looking intently to his right with a focused expression, while lockers and a guitar case are visible in the background.

Can you name Rainbow’s bass player who recorded five songs with the band but never performed a single one of them live alongside Ritchie Blackmore?

Rainbow went through nine official bass players during its various incarnations, which is quite a revolving door for one position. But there’s an interesting footnote hiding in the recording history. During Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, someone who wasn’t one of those nine official bass players stepped in and recorded bass on five tracks, yet never performed those parts live with Rainbow. So officially, there were nine, but technically you could make it ten if you count the person who played bass in the studio.

When the Guitar Player Played Bass

The mystery player was Ritchie Blackmore, who picked up the four-string during the 1977 Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll sessions. He played bass on “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Lady of the Lake,” “L.A. Connection,” “The Shed (Subtle)” and “Rainbow Eyes,” but never performed those bass parts live with Rainbow. For a guitarist so closely identified with his Stratocaster, that’s a pretty strange footnote in his career.

Blackmore wasn’t trying to start a second career on bass. Mark Clarke had left during the sessions, and Blackmore was willing to handle the instrument when he knew exactly what he wanted from the recording. Bob Daisley also played bass on other tracks that made the finished album, so this wasn’t simply Blackmore replacing the band’s bassist for the entire record. He stepped in where he felt the music needed him.

The sepia-toned album cover for Rainbow's 'Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' features a black ink sketch of five band members' faces emerging from a mass of swirling, scribbled hair. The band's name 'Rainbow' is in a gothic font at the top, with 'Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' below it in a smaller, more elegant script. The faces are rendered with detailed features and varied expressions, conveying a serious and intense mood.

What stands out is how naturally Blackmore approached the job. He already knew the riffs and arrangements, so he could treat the bass as another part of the machinery, reinforcing the guitar and giving the rhythm section the weight he wanted. He wasn’t looking to show everybody that he could play bass. He was looking to get the record finished and make it sound right.

The Traffic Jam That Started It

Blackmore’s bass adventure actually goes back to Deep Purple. In 1972, the band was recording Who Do We Think We Are in Frankfurt, Germany, when Roger Glover was caught in a massive traffic jam. Rather than sit around waiting, Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Blackmore started jamming, with Blackmore picking up the bass and joining the session.

The result was “First Day Jam,“ an instrumental running roughly 11 minutes that eventually appeared as a bonus track on the 2000 remastered edition of Who Do We Think We Are. And Blackmore wasn’t simply pounding out root notes to keep the seat warm. Deep Purple purists have long pointed out that his playing is driving and melodic, giving Jon Lord plenty of room to work the Hammond while Paice and Blackmore keep the whole thing moving.

For a guitarist suddenly sitting in the bass chair, Blackmore sounds surprisingly comfortable. The bass doesn’t simply sit underneath the jam doing nothing. It helps drive the track forward and gives Lord a solid platform to explore the Hammond. What began as a way to fill some unexpected studio downtime ended up becoming a pretty revealing example of what Blackmore could do when he stepped away from the guitar.

The timing couldn’t have been more interesting. Deep Purple’s Mark II lineup was already under pressure from relentless touring, recording and internal disagreements, and the sessions for Who Do We Think We Are would be followed by a major upheaval. Within a year, both Ian Gillan and Roger Glover would be gone.

The End of Mark II

Glover did not want to leave Deep Purple and has spoken about how painful it was to be forced out. Accounts of the period indicate that Blackmore wanted changes to the band’s musical direction and supported replacing Glover, although some of the more dramatic versions of the breakup story, including the often-repeated “either him or me” ultimatum, remain disputed. The safest version is that Blackmore wanted changes, Glover was pushed out and the Mark II lineup was finished.

David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes eventually joined the next version of Deep Purple, while Glover was left to figure out where his career would go next. Considering that Glover’s absence in Frankfurt had helped put Blackmore behind a bass guitar in the first place, there is a strange bit of symmetry to what happened.

The bass player who wasn’t there when the band needed him had eventually lost his place in the band, while the guitarist who had filled in for him was about to start another chapter of his career with Rainbow. But the story between Blackmore and Glover wasn’t finished yet.

Rainbow’s Revolving Bass Chair

Rainbow went through nine official bass players during its various incarnations. The turnover wasn’t simply because the band couldn’t find talented musicians. Blackmore had very specific ideas about the sound he wanted, and the bass had to fit into that picture. He wanted a strong, direct rock foundation that worked with his guitar and the drums, and a player could be technically excellent while still being the wrong fit for Rainbow.

That made the bass chair a particularly demanding job. Blackmore wasn’t simply looking for someone who could play the notes. He wanted somebody who understood how the rhythm section should work inside his songs and could deliver the kind of rock foundation he was hearing in his head. That helps explain why so many musicians eventually passed through the position.

And it makes his own studio bass playing even more interesting. If Blackmore already knew exactly what he wanted from the instrument and circumstances gave him a chance to play it himself, there wasn’t much reason for him to sit around waiting for somebody else to figure it out.

Roger Glover Comes Full Circle

In 1979, Roger Glover returned to Ritchie Blackmore’s world when he joined Rainbow. The interesting part is that he didn’t initially come aboard as the band’s bassist. Glover was brought in as a producer and songwriter, while Rainbow was still looking for the right musician to fill the bass chair.

Eventually, Glover stepped into the role himself. The man who had been forced out of Deep Purple several years earlier was now playing bass for Blackmore again, and this time the partnership lasted. Glover remained with Rainbow until 1984, becoming one of the band’s longest-serving bass players.

Then history pulled them both back to Deep Purple. In 1984, the classic Mark II lineup reunited, and Roger Glover returned to Deep Purple as bassist, a position he has held ever since.

That gives the whole story a pretty remarkable full circle. Glover missed a session because he was stuck in traffic, Blackmore picked up his bass, Deep Purple’s Mark II lineup fell apart, Glover was pushed out, Blackmore later brought him into Rainbow and Glover eventually returned to Deep Purple.

For something that started with a traffic jam, that’s a hell of a long road back home.

So What Was Blackmore Like on Bass?

Blackmore wasn’t secretly trying to become Geddy Lee or Chris Squire, and there was no reason for him to approach the instrument like a dedicated bass virtuoso. His real strength was understanding how the bass needed to function inside a heavy rock arrangement. He knew where the riffs needed weight, where the rhythm section needed to tighten up and how the bass could reinforce the guitar without getting in its way.

That’s probably the best way to look at his bass playing. Blackmore wasn’t searching for a new identity or trying to prove that he belonged in the rhythm section. He was a guitarist and songwriter who understood the architecture of his music, and when the situation called for four strings, he knew how to use them.

And that’s what makes those five Rainbow recordings such a great piece of rock history. Nine official bass players went through Rainbow’s revolving door, but technically there was a tenth if you count the guitarist who stepped over to the bass, recorded five tracks and never had to perform them live.

For a guy whose day job was making a Stratocaster scream, Ritchie Blackmore wasn’t half bad on four strings.