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)!

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 8/07

Megadeth: One of the few metal bands that remained in my CD collection well past high school. Most of the metal I listened to in the '80s lacked holding power after I left Maine and discovered the music the rest of the country was enjoying. Most albums that the metal heavies produced post-1988 were woefully lame (Dio's Lock up the Wolves, Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Priest's Ram it Down and Whitesnake... oh, my... they were just bad, bad), but Megadeth remained a respectable thrash presence - even up to this day (United Abominations is quite good). Since their first drunken attempt in '85 after Mustaine's ousting from arch-enemy Metallica, each of their 11 full-length studio albums have gone either gold or platinum. More importantly, they've yet to disappoint their fans - new and old. From their start, I think they found a perfect combination of technical skill, hair band showmanship and political disdain. A definite no bullshit approach to speed metal. Sadly, I don't think I ever saw Megadeth in my youth... but I did listen to them religiously until 1993 - always a good shot of adrenaline on a bad day. Fortunately, a co-worker has recently supplied me with the CDs released over the past 14 years, including their latest release (which they've been promoting on tour with Sabbath's Heaven and Hell this year). That Dave Mustaine. Even after all those drugs, he just never ages.

Harptallica: On Tour!

Enjoy the hard sound of Metallica but desire a lighter version for those less tumultuous mood swings? Look no further: Harptallica has arrived (last year, actually). More interesting, more genuine and much less "produced" than other classical forays into metal territory, Ashley and Patricia have taken their giant harps on the road. They've also released their CD of Metallica compositions!

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.

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 7/07

I saw Slayer before I really knew who they were. One of those life-changing, early teen encounters. Much to my Dad's dismay, after this show I wore a groove in my vinyl copy of Reign in Blood. I played it non-stop for months on end. At one point, worried about the noise level and what the neighbors might think, he came into my room and demanded I "turn down that garbage - it sounds like someone's being murdered in here." He could never decipher the lyrics of any other band I played, but Araya's gravelly vocals struck a new chord with Dad. When the crush wore off in a few months, I never saw him so happy that I was back to listening to the old standards like AC/DC and Motorhead. I guess he saw the threat of his son becoming a serial killer pass. (I must say, Slayer's new album is quite good.)

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 6/07

On this day, nineteen years ago, I was standing in the dusty, oil-stained center of the Oxford Plains Speedway with thousands of other small town metalheads from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Brunswick, Quebec and beyond. The occasion: Monsters of Rock 1988! The M.O.R. line-up, as I recall, featured Van Halen, Scorpions, Metallica, Dokken and Kingdom Come. At the time, that seemed like a ticket worthy of $28.50 (+1 dollar for parking). I used to go there as a kid to watch the stock car races and "demolition derby," but hadn't been back for years. This concert took place just after graduation, so we all made a little pilgrimage upstate for one last spectacle together. Despite all the metal shows we'd been to prior to M.O.R., I'd never seen so much hair in one place. Although I love this MTV commercial for the tour, I don't remember seeing it. Wine coolers though, I do remember. I can't believe they still make those things - and people still drink them! Then again, 4 of the 5 bands that were headlining on 1988's M.O.R. are still touring, too. (I'd probably still buy a ticket for at least one of them.)

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).

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 5/07

Bruce Dickinson with hair. Big Eddie with a leather jacket. Old clips from classic horror films. In the world of '80s metal, it doesn't get much better than this. While I enjoyed the two Paul Di'Anno albums, I'd become a hardcore Iron Maiden fan when Dickinson became their vocalist. I first saw them on their popular Powerslave tour when I was 14 (my wife, a true cow-punk from Nashville, also admits to attending this metal tour... on crutches, no less). Unlike the majority of rival metal bands, Maiden refused to take themselves and their constructed mythology too seriously. One of the few heavies to not exclusively embrace the whole devil-worshipping thang, their album art evolution reads like the pages of a hell-bent history textbook. The band's homicidal mascot, Eddie, has been a juvenile delinquent, a lunatic in an asylum, a WWII Spitfire pilot, a time-travelling assassin, a mummified Pharaoh, and even a floating clairvoyant torso. He's been killed off and born again several times. In this video, however, he's still just an axe-wielding punk rocker in the wee years of his long career. One thing I always liked about this early video is how Maiden already strayed away from the tired "666" imagery, inter-cutting a brief survey of nerdy monster movie clips from the 1950s, 60s and 70s into their masterpiece (including one of my favorites, "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" starring a pre-Little House on the Prairie Michael Landon). While I checked out when Dickinson left the band, as many fans did, Maiden forged ahead and maintained a healthy backlash of sticks and stones from well-intended but misguided Christian activism... As it should be.

Name That Hair Band!

OK. One last heavy metal entry. Really, I promise...
Test your headbanger history skills on this quiz - Name That Hair Band!
I got 10 out of 11. Sad.

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 4/07

To ween myself off the barrage of heavy metal entries of late, I offer one last for a spell: April's metal memory. Van Halen was my first "loud" concert. As memory serves, my two older sisters had literally worn out their VH1 album (AC/DC's Back In Black and Queen's News of the World were to follow) and could no longer settle for staring at David Lee Roth in poster form. After hearing that Eddie and the boys were coming through town, they'd convinced my Mom and stepfather to chaperon them. Long story short: my sitter bailed and I was in tow to see VH open for Foghat! (I think... Although I may be getting 2 shows mixed up? VH in 1979 and Foghat in '81? Done some research and no one recalls exactly... In any case, still seems like an odd pairing, but apparently pre-VH bands Mammoth and Snake used to play Foghat and Lynyrd Skynyrd covers on stage at small clubs.) They were definitely a product of 1970s hard rock. As you can see in the video, early Roth was Robert Plant reincarnated. It took a couple albums for VH to shed their old rock, Zeppelin roots and develop their own form as a California frat-rock band. I don't recall too much about the VH show. I was 9 or 10. We were back in the nose-bleed section of the Cumberland County Civic Center and I still hadn't heard anything so loud since my first excursion to see the Blue Angels. Afterwards, I remember my sisters were an excited, sweaty mess of big hair and runny mascara - they'd had a blast. Even my Mom enjoyed the show, inquiring repeatedly about the singer with the hairy chest.

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.

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 3/07

Either Geoff Tate and the boys of Queensryche watched too much early Judas Priest videos or not enough Spinal Tap in their formative years as a metal band. I'm not even sure I remember this tremendous music video, Queen of the Reich, from 1983, but it's a prime example of the band's first incarnation as a full-on fantasy enterprise. In five years, QR would find their true identity as the "concept metal" band of the '80s with Operation: Mindcrime - heavy metal's answer to Pink Floyd's The Wall. Drenched with a grab-bag of bizarre shock imagery (sexy Catholic nuns) and generic anti-establishment themes ("Got no love for politicians or that crazy scene in DC, it's just a power-mad town!"), Mindcrime gave the band its fans. Later, singer Geoff Tate developed a unique coiffure - a cross between Silvio Dante's doo and a bad Midwestern mullet - and the band's themes evolved from silly to creepy. On the road to obscurity and debt, QR recently attempted to revive their status with the release of Operation: Mindcrime II, a non-awaited sequel to the original. (They did manage to rope Ronnie James into playing the role of Dr. X though... that was a savvy business move.) I must admit though, despite one of the most tragically lame acting attempts in music video history, Tate maintains one of metal's finest voices, in line with Dio, Dickinson and Halford.

Dan's Metal Memory of the Month: 2/07

I hate to pile one metal entry on top of another, but it is that time of the month again. Looking back through my catalog of embarrassing hair bands, I found one of my old favorites from 1986, "Trilogy" by Yngwie Malmsteen. This music video ballad is yet another example of heavy metal musician turned fine actor. Born born Lars Johann Yngve (pronounced "ing-vay") Lannerbäck, this Swedish "shred" guitarist/composer was part of the so-called "Neo-Classical" metal genre. That is, those guys who excelled in classical music in high school but couldn't bare the thought of spending life in the orchestra pit. (Also, his middle name is Johann and his son's name is Antonio Vivaldi... get it yet?) The boy just fell in love with the hard stuff. To quote his website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born". Although he's had guest vocalists on board, he's maintained the star spot in his band since its inception. While he's been nominated for a Grammy, Yngwie has always proven to be just another good 'ol drugged-up headbanger throw-back from the '80s... On tour with his 2005 release "Unleash the Fury," the young Viking chief - that's what 'Yngwie' means, apparently - passed out drunk in an airport and was roused by a woman pouring a jug of ice water on him. Enraged, he jumped up and shouted, "You've unleashed the fucking fury!" You still got it, Yngwie.

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?