Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 9/07

While this is more a memory of my older cousin (he started it: handing me his old pile of Zeppelin vinyl one day when I was 12), I did consume all the early Rainbow albums. This was the first incarnation of the band by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, featuring Ronnie Dio on vocals. Looking back, it seems weird... even ballsy... that Blackmore - a British hard rock icon by then who'd just left Deep Purple to David Coverdale and co. - would choose a little known American singer to lead up his new venture. But, Dio's Elf had toured with DP in '74 and Blackmore liked what he heard. A far cry from the funky DP sound, Rainbow was a chance for Blackmore to explore the dormant S&M in him... Sorcery and Magic, that is. This suited little Dio just fine. Ronnie wrote nearly all of the lyrics on the band's first three studio albums, drenched with medieval references from wizards and kings to castles and crossbows. The above video, part one of a live "Catch the Rainbow," represents the lighter side of Dio's range in both writing and voice (and attire). This long-winded tune is the anthem ballad for Blackmore's legion of fans at the time - a hybrid of early metal heads who, at the fork in the hard rock road, took a left towards the Renaissance Fair. If you're one of them, here's part two of the lo-tech jam session (check out the rainbow illuminating on stage, and again... and again)!

DIO: "It's a job"

This may not turn into a regular feature, but it's always worth quoting the little man of metal every now and then. Recently, an Australian paper caught up with RJD while (still) touring with Sabbath's latest incarnation as Heaven and Hell. Here's what he had to say about himself:

"I'm not really that impressed with myself... I know what I can do and I do that really well... But once you start believing what other people are saying about you, you've got nowhere else to go..."

"I'm my own judge and my own critic, and I'm a harsh critic... I want every show to be perfect, I want to sing perfectly, I want the weather to be perfect. Guess what? That never happens. But at least I have a goal..."

As far as other things, I can barely tie my shoes. I can do basically nothing any more but I can still get up on stage. It's a job, I'm no better than the plumber or the electrician."

Happy birthday, Ronnie.

An Elf Lived Here

According to Big Time Listings:

"Heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio has sold a three-bedroom, 1,981-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills for $1,110,000... Dio had purchased that house in 1988 for $440,000, according to public records... The house that Dio sold, at 3633 Lankershim Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, was built in 1945... Features in the house, which had been listed for $1,500,000, include a spacious formal dining room, a master suite with views and beamed ceilings, balconies, a deck, a garden patio, and a pool, according to listing information. Other features include three air-conditioning systems and top-of-the-line appliances, according to listing information.... Dio long has owned several houses in the L.A. area, and public records show that he continues to own three other properties in the region."

Funny they didn't mention the dungeon.

The Big 80s

In preparation for the upcoming 1980s installment of The Bummer Line, wanted to share a nifty blog on that era's fabulous music (a cut above Uncle Wiki). I've linked to one of my favorite artists here, but there's a lot more to choose from... hours of wasted Internets time. Also, the preceding decade's entries are equally informative (and addictive).

The Road to Heaven and Hell: Epitaph

Born Again... again. Who would've thunk it?

(PS: "If you listen to fools, the mob rules!")

The Road to Heaven and Hell: Judgement Day!

In the same column as his enthusiastic plug of the annual Stinky Town appearance of the Allman Brothers, NY Times music critic Ben Sisario gave this lame one-liner for tonight's sold-out Heaven & Hell show: "Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio in place of Ozzy Osbourne. Again. Which means it’s effectively 1980 and not very exciting. Again. At 8pm, Radio City Music Hall." Again, he likes the Allman Brothers. Isn't that sort of like having a Christina Aguilera fan review Robert Johnson?

Nonetheless, Larry had arrived from the flat lands and soon we were in line for the sensory feast of a lifetime...

While Lar, the purist, went exclusively for the geezers on stage, my interests included the more general freak show: the loyal fans...

This Stinky Town Heaven & Hell concert reportedly sold out in under 30 minutes. As the crowd waited patiently for the gold curtain to raise at Radio City, I took inventory. Although there was a sprinkling of all ages, we estimated at least 80% of the mob to be in their late forties or early fifties. Also, roughly 96% male and 99% Caucasian.

All types in attendance, too. Obviously there was a ton of lifers and burned-out headbangers, but I also saw a bunch of very excited Dads with their skeptical offspring in tow, lots of clean-cut Wall Streeters, a steady stream of Hells Angels and even a grandfather sporting the double devil horns at every applause. And while the ladies were sparse, they made themselves known with tall hair and tight concert Ts from 1981.

Then, the lights went out, the curtains went up and everyone stood. As I stared over a sea of balding heads, a very loud E5150 shook the hall and the band slowly came out on stage, one by one. They played non-stop for more than 2 hours.

The crowd was not disappointed, including Larry and myself. While Geezer's fingers were a blur and Tony/Vinny blew out everyone's eardrums, little Dio ran around locking horns with the front row of his fans. By the time Mob Rules was over, the once well-behaved mass of middle-aged 9-5ers had quickly reverted into the teenage metalheads of their lost youth. I haven't witnessed so much beer guzzling, pot smoking, pill popping man love in all my life. These guys were truly in HEAVEN!
A grand freak show, indeed. Despite the contact high, I'm glad we went clear-eyed and chem-free this time. Unlike the 3/30/86 tour, I remember nearly every detail from 3/30/07. Can't wait to see the boys again on their next Dio-era reunion... say, 3/30/28?

The Road to Heaven and Hell: 3 Days To Go

Last week, Rhino Entertainment launched a PR campaign for Sabbath's H&H tour, a poster design contest! And the grand prize is: "2 tickets to a show on the U.S. tour where you’ll meet and greet with the band, plus an official t-shirt, a signed poster, and a signed catalogue of Dio-era Black Sabbath CDs including the new release, The Dio Years." Already, there are some stellar entries to vote on. You've got to love headbanger art. Here are my 5 favorites so far...

The Road to Heaven and Hell: 7 Days To Go

"It's almost here, time to get the hair dye out," Sabbath bassist recently said regarding the band's reunion before they embarked on the Canadian leg of their tour this month. I've been tracking some reviews of the H&H shows as they make their way across the frozen tundra (slowly, possibly with the help of canes, walkers or wheelchairs) towards Stinky Town. Surprisingly, not all reports have been negative, some even favorable (excluding, of course, the loyal banger boards). Turns out the critics are actually appreciating these metal grand-daddys, particularly Iommi and Butler. Although one writer wondered where the hard rock geezer reunions would stop - "not only are old bands reuniting for a new chance at cash and prizes, but different eras of old bands are reuniting. What's next? Is David Coverdale going to rejoin Deep Purple? Perhaps... Iommi and Butler will bring back Ian Gillan, who recorded an album with Sabbath, and go out on the road as Born Again." That's a lot of hair dye.

The Road to Heaven and Hell: 13 Days To Go

On a recent mining expedition, I came across evidence of H&H's front man, R. J. Dio, having once been a crooner. Long before his status as heavy metal icon hailing from Elf, Rainbow, Sabbath and finally his own band Dio, he was vocalist for some not-so-well-known local favorites including Ronnie and the Redcaps, Ronnie and the Prophets, and the Electric Elves. Even way back in the 1960s, the little guy was singing themes of heaven and hell. Then, of course, he quickly went on to commercial success.

The Road to Heaven and Hell: 14 Days To Go

A taste of what will be available at the merchandise booth night of show. Classy. I'm crossing my fingers for a fair mirror of days gone by.

The Road to Heaven and Hell: 20 Days To Go

20 days until the geezers of Sabbath take stage in Stinky Town. Can you smell it in the air? The stench of heavy metal? (A friend recently told me that smell was actually a combo of Aquanet, weed and crotch rot. Possibly.) In any case, this week the reunited Sabbath (currently touring as Heaven and Hell) posted one of the new studio tracks to be included on their upcoming box set Black Sabbath: The Dio Years. The new tune is called The Devil Cried and, well... despite (or because of?) the opening line "One fine day in Hell," it's not as bad as it could be considering what some other 'reunion' bands have produced. Very reminiscent of their early work with the little man, almost like it fell off the Mob Rules album. It's got most of the ingredients (thundering drums, heavy guitar and bass, devilish lyrics) but lacks the full song structure of their epic tracks like Falling off the Edge of the World or Heaven and Hell. It just starts and stops. Not his best effort, but 'ol Ronnie J. performs pretty well for a metalhead in his mid-60s. Sure as hell beats hearing Robert Plant trying to pull off a decent Babe I'm Gonna Leave You these days.

A Short History of Sabbath and Myself.

This week, my pal from Nebraska (also a former teen metalhead, hailed from the Northeast), scored two pre-sale Heaven & Hell - a.k.a. Black Sabbath - concert tix. Reuniting with Dio, the band's 1980-83 Ozzy replacement, to promote their new CD box set, "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years," Heaven & Hell recently announced the first leg of their 2007 tour. Before heading off to the heavy metal hot spots of Eastern Europe, such as Bulgaria, H&H will offer an exclusive one-night-only solo performance at NYC's Radio City Music Hall. My pal and I have secured orchestra row seats for this March 30th show! (I know, at first I thought playing to a classic fixed seat venue seemed weird for a famous metal band... but Ronnie Dio himself is pushing 65.)

This event will mark another reunion. A Dan Bummer - Black Sabbath reunion... So, I started digging through some old boxes to trace this history...


Hand-Me-Downs: I think my path to bad music started when I was about 13. An older cousin had given me the vinyl of his youth, including Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Deep Purple and Sabbath records. By 14, this lead me to '80s metal bands like Scorpions, Iron Maiden and Dio. When I realized that Ronnie James Dio had once been the frontman for Rainbow and Black Sabbath, I quickly consumed this discography, too. At first, I recall pouring over the strange (now embarrassing) lyrics of songs like "Sign of the Southern Cross," "Children of the Sea," or "Voo-Doo." Rather than focus on my homework at night, I'd spend hours illustrating each track in pen and ink (as a student I failed miserably at math, but excelled in art - see above drawing from age 15). Looking back at these bizarre renditions, I question why my parents or art teachers never sent me to a therapist.

True Love Always: It was in this period that I left my dark little room and discovered girls... particularly girls who shared a love for loud hair bands. That seemed to be the main prerequisite for both parties. In the image above, one of my first girlfriends thanks me for purchasing her a Dio concert T in celebration of her birthday. (Notice we also share the same haircut, known as the pre-headbanger mullet.)

Blackout: By 16, habitual use of select depressants and hallucinogenics took hold and made concert-going a forgetful experience, but I did manage to save most of the ticket stubs as proof. This time around, I hope to soak up the full experience missed in my hazy youth: the big hair of my fellow music lovers (of course, all those headbanger's manes have probably thinned out significantly by now), the thick, cloudy mixture of smoke in the air (wait - there's no smoking permitted in concerts anymore), and Geezer Butler's thundering bass (Oh, I have to remember to bring earplugs this time - it gets really loud in those rock shows). In any case, it is meant to be. Above, notice that my last Black Sabbath show date was on "March 30, 1986." Is it chance that the reunion concert is March 30, 2007? 21 years to the day later? I think not. The stars (or rainbows, or whatever) must be aligned for a grand night.

Reunited: How I managed to survive my teen years, I'll never really know. Did Sabbath's silly lyrics and ominous music corrode my adolescent mind or help me see through the fog of rural teendom? The photo above is the last remaining artifact of my former life as a metalhead. Shortly after this picture was taken, I cut off my mop and slowly replaced my Slayer and Motorhead albums with Throwing Muses and The Smiths CDs (the '80s were coming to a close, so I had a lot of musical catching up to do). Even my subject matter for art evolved from overly literal Satanic metaphors on paper. As stated in an earlier entry, it's only recently that I've begun to un-earth (even embrace) my own heavy metal history. I think this process of mining one's past for clues to the present is healthy. Who you were then made you who you are now, right? Otherwise, wasn't it all just a waste of time?

Dio, Inducted!

'Ol Ronnie James, the elf-man, finally got recognized for his mighty contribution to music with an imprint of his hands (horns, actually) on a sidewalk in Hollywood. Let's just hope someone sweeps that public shrine once in a while. Dio was honored at a ceremony alongside Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa drummer) and Slash (the mute dude with the Dr. Seuss hat from Guns 'n Roses). Could've been a worse pairing, I suppose...

Dear Dio...

Oh, my God... the first 6 minutes of "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" is a scene from my own childhood! Okay, my family didn't pray before meals and my parents were divorced by then, but the bedroom segment with the Dio apparition - it happened! His instructions were mostly lost on me (too many obscure references to lost rainbows and silver goblets), but I do recall he told me get the hell out of Dodge.

The "Goat"

As a postscript to the previous Dio post: while RJD claims that he got his signature devil horns (aka "the goat") hand gesture from his Italian grandmother, he is smart enough NOT to take credit for the ancient sign of unknown origin or meaning. Even a rather smutty engraving from 1779 shows Marie Antoinette sporting the same signal! Sorry, Gene.

"Look inside of yourself..."

Lately, the wise words of '80s metal prophet, Ronnie James Dio, have been informing my F train commute into Stinky Town proper. As a teenager I was an avid fan of Dio and the usual musical suspects of any rural New England delinquent (Sabbath, Rainbow, Maiden, Preist, AC/DC, Metallica, etc.) Reclaiming these old, often embarrassing tracks of my youth has taken time - but now they're mine again... although I'm not exactly sure what to do with them. "Got shiny diamonds like the eyes of a cat and they're black and blue, something is coming for you - Look out!" Hhmmmm... still not sure what that means, but it's sort of fun to listen to it now -- especially when all the straphanger hipsters assume everyone else is also listening to Death Cab or Joanna Newsom on their iPods. Trying to figure out what the appeal was/is to Mr. Dio and his rainbow-magic-castle-unicorny lyrics. The research continues...