I can't recommend Rainbow in the Dark enough. I did not fully and properly appreciate Rainbow's place in the creation/evolution of heavy metal until this book. Rainbow married Blackmore's guitar hero theatrics with the powerful and atmospheric lyrics of Ronnie James Dio, and critically, the medieval/wizardry/fantasy elements that would come to characterize so many subsequent metal bands.
Yeah, Led Zeppelin and other bands did this kind of thing too, but only in spurts, a song here and there. Rainbow leaned into it hard and made it their calling card--at least for Dio's tenure with the band. It's too bad the Dio/Blackmore combo did not last longer. It produced magic, literally and figuratively.
"Run With the Wolf" is a great example. It's unabashedly about ... a werewolf. Just what is called for this eve of Halloween.
There's a hole in the sky
Something evil's passing by
What's to come?
When the siren calls you go
To run with the wolf
When the world makes a turn
The eyes of one will learn
That a sound just like the wind
Only makes the change begin
By the end of the rain
The feeling's passed again
From the things that snap and bite
An unholy light
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