Difficult To Cure

“Difficult to Cure” is the fifth album released by “Rainbow”, in 1981, and marked a further commercialisation of the band’s sound.

In an interview in “Sounds” (July 25th 1981), a UK music paper, Blackmore openly stated his liking for “Foreigner” and erstwhile vocalist Ronnie James Dio has referred to this period of Rainbow as “Foreigner Junior”. It is, however, a popular album with many fans, despite it being markedly different from the albums which preceded it.

The album material was started with Graham Bonnet still in the band, getting as far as recording “I Surrender”. Turner was recruited and sang over backings already completed. In a 1982 interview with British Rock magazine “Kerrang!” Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently).

The cover design is by “Hipgnosis” though it was not specifically for this album. It had previously been put forward as a cover for “Black Sabbath’s” 1978 album, “Never Say Die!”.

A remastered CD reissue was released in May 1999, with packaging duplicating the original vinyl release.

“Jealous Lover”, the first track written by Turner and Blackmore, was the non-album B-side to “Can’t Happen Here”.

This is the only Rainbow album to feature a line-up containing 4 past or future “Deep Purple” members. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was a founding member of Deep Purple, Roger Glover joined as bassist in 1969, Joe Lynn Turner later became lead singer in 1989, and Don Airey replaced Jon Lord as keyboardist in 2002. However, the four were never all in Deep Purple at the same time.