Rainbow - Man On The Silver Mountain

Rainbow - Man On The Silver Mountain - Meaning of the song

"Man on the Silver Mountain" is the debut single by Rainbow and the first track of their debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, written by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and vocalist Ronnie James Dio.

Ritchie Blackmore explained:

"It's supposedly about some guy on top of a mountain who's like a Jesus Christ, it's kinda religious in a way. My interpretation is that some guy goes on top of a silver mountain, finds the silver, and realizes that he can't get down again. It's vaguely a classical progression with about 25 chords in it, but you don't realize it because they're all relative, and it resolves after about 30 bars. It's one of my favorite numbers, very much like a Purple thing: what we call the 'Bagshot Bullet' guitar playing, Bagshot being where I come from. We recorded the album in a hotel, and it was really loud... I had one of the speakers down in a cellar to get echo on one side, and this was reverberating throughout the whole hotel so everybody was complaining."

Man On The Silver Mountain - Lyrics

I'm a wheel, I'm a wheel

I can roll, I can feel

And you can't stop me turning

Cause I'm the sun, I'm the sun

I can move, I can run

But you'll never stop me burning

Come down with fire

Lift my spirit higher

Someone's screaming my name

Come and make me holy again

I'm the man on the silver mountain

I'm the man on the silver mountain

I'm the day, I'm the day

I can show you the way

And look, I'm right beside you

I'm the night, I'm the night

I'm the dark and the light

With eyes that see inside you

Come down with fire

Lift my spirit higher

Someone's screaming my name

Come and make me holy again

I'm the man on the silver mountain

I'm the man on the silver mountain

Come down with fire

And lift my spirit higher

Someone's screaming my name

Come and make me holy again

Well, I can help you, you know I can

I'm the man on the silver mountain

I'm the man on the silver mountain

Just look at me and listen

I'm the man, the man, give you my hand

I'm the man on the silver mountain

Come down with fire

And lift your spirit higher

I'm the man on the mountain

The man on the silver mountain

I'm the night, the light

The black and the white

The man on the silver mountain