I am sure that most of our regular readers would have noticed by now that we have reviewed numerous books by Wymer, one of the finest publishing companies out there. This is yet another one of their “in depth” series where Laura Shenton focuses on a specific album. Purple and Rainbow fans would be glad to know that “Straight Between The Eyes” is actually one of the four books (so far) that had been published by Wymer and takes special notice on a recording opus; the other three are “Slaves and Masters”, “Stormbringer” and “Fireball”. As it was the case with her other books, Shenton follows the same line of writing; she starts with the overall context that let to the making of “Straight Between The Eyes”, the general consensus and reaction of the music press at the time, the following promotional tour and last but certainly not least the impact and the legacy of the album.
All these unfold before our eyes in a well-written form while it’s remarkable that Shenton is very careful with her judgements, evaluations and conclusions. She uses original sources like excerpts of the reviews that were done by Sounds, Melody Maker, Kerrang etc. while she enriches the text with interviews by the musicians themselves and various key figures in order to paint a sharper and wider picture of the overall making of the album. In other words, Shenton is truly an objective writer and that’s very important for a book like this one.
Having said that, I’d have loved to see more details about the recording process in the studio as all the Blackmore fans know that those are available and could be easily included here but that’s really a minor mishap. The most important thing is that with “Straight Between The Eyes -In Depth” you get to have packed in 120 pages the essential info regarding the making of a classic record. Recommended, for sure…
