Finyl Vinyl was the third Rainbow album I bought, right after Rising and Straight Between the Eyes. The year was ’96, and the place was Dr. Disc. I bought it on vinyl initially, because the original CD edition omitted two tracks for space limits (a major flaw with double albums issued in the early CD age). However what I did not know until recently was that the vinyl also omitted a song: “Street Of Dreams” which was only available on cassette!
This complete 2 CD remaster contains all the songs from all the versions. For sheer portability reasons, it made sense for me to own this. I have filed my vinyl copy away, and I now rely entirely on this new Universal CD version.
I love Finyl Vinyl and even though it was issued posthumously and consists mostly of unreleased live songs, I think it’s one of the most enjoyable Rainbow albums to listen to. It contains music from all three of the original Rainbow eras: Dio, Bonnett, and Turner. It leans most heavily on the Joe Lynn Turner era, with only a couple songs from the Ronnie James Dio era. Graham Bonnett also appears on two songs, and there is an instrumental B-side from his Down To Earth era as well. It is worth noting that the B-sides contained herein have been issued on other albums since.
Finyl Vinyl contains a lot of my favourites, and in great versions too: “I Surrender” and “Miss Mistreated” sound great live. Pop rock goodness, made classy as only Blackmore/Turner can do it. “Jealous Lover” is a standout midtempo burner from the Joe Lynn era. Blackmore’s picking is resplendent. Unfortunately the two Dio-era songs don’t have the fidelity of the later Turner recordings, but you can’t have a Rainbow collection without representing Ronnie James. That is done via unreleased 1978 live versions of “Man on the Silver Mountain” and “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll”.
My only complaint: The photos inside are too damn small and blurry. One of my favourite things about the vinyl release was that there were pictures of almost every incarnation of Rainbow, but here you can barely tell who’s who. Too small, too blurry like a bad scan; the booklet should have been expanded. Also, the credits still contain some errors that were never corrected from the original vinyl issue (see Wikipedia).
Still, great music, and finylly (ha ha) complete!
4.5/5 stars
mikeladano.com 
I want this one. It’s been on my wish list for ages. I’m sure I’ll get it eventually! Shame about the shite photies though!
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Caught the “shite photies” Scotty!
Blurred scans suck, and there is no excuse for them “in this day and age” . So many out of the box photo editors these days to fix problems like that, and scanners are way better now.
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Haha you spotted it! I totally agree there’s no excuse. It’s just cost-cutting I would think. Shoddy!
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LAZY! They can’t even bother to correct mistakes in the liner notes, too? Who’s working over there? Homer Simpson in a mu-mu?
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I actually think the instances of mistakes in liner notes has gone up! It’s like no-one can be bothered paying for fact-checking or editing any more.
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I agree! LAZY!…and CHHHEEEAAAPPP!
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AhemKISS.
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Careful. You know what happened last time.
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Yeah, I ordered more Japanese imports is what happened!
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“Your fingers are too fat. To order a dialing wand, mash the buttons with your hand.”
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I have noticed that on my Savatage reissues. The shite photies in some were so bad that I hung onto my original CD. Same with the Zakk Wylde Book of Shadows reissue, the photies are not as clear.
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The bird! Look at the bird! IT’S DRINKING THE WATER!! Hahaha nice one.
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I could take a photo of the record with my Blackberry, and that would still look better than the shite photies inside the CD.
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I know! Fortunately I have it on vinyl as well, so I can see the photies up close and good. How much would it cost to put bigger photies in the booklet?!
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I’m not sure but you definitely need mair dosh if ye want bigger photies.
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I’m afraid of asking what “dosh” is.
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Mair dosh means “more money”
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Now I wanna go re-read Irvine Welsh…
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Straight Between The Eyes was my first Rainbow purchase and Finyl Vinyl was my second.
Love the version of Since You Been Gone on here.
It’s a good release for sure and since I didn’t have any other Rainbow except for the ones I mentioned it was a good starter for me even though it was the end of Rainbow.
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Straight Between the Eyes was my first Rainbow too! I think…I can’t quite remember but it may well have been! Finyl Vinyl may have been my second. Those two, and Stranger in Us All were bought by me in the same time period.
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haha – I was all set to ask you what you thought of the syntax for ‘finyl’ – then I read the closing line, question answered!
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Fynylly!
OK, that just looks silly :)
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Perhaps the “i” in finyl was there to keep it from going completely lynyrd skynyrd: the only group I can think of that relies solely on the vowel y!
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Finyl Vinyl on CD? Nooooo!! About time someone re-released it properly with all the requisite extras. I too hate companies being cheap with booklets etc. we know we’re just sheep to be sheared, to them but please have the decency not to rub our noses in the fact.
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Yeah, well put. I read a scathing review of the recent Oasis 20th box set, that gave me that same feeling. Don’t just throw some shit in a box and charge $150 for it. At least put something in it that, if valued separately, the box at least feels like it’s worth the money you paid.
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This looks really yummy. Want.
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