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Seriously, such a bummer to me. His 2 Sabbath albums and the first 2 Dio albums are just flawless classic metal and totally integral to my formative years. And unlike Ozzy he never turned himself into an embarrassing reality show goon. Yeah, he had his cartoonish elements but they were always in the best tradition of the genre.
Despite being comparatively young my dad was not a rock fan. Which made the fact that he took me to tons of concerts I wanted to go to as a kid all the more cool and also amusing. Most of them he really hated. But of all the ones he took me to, knowing nothing about any of the music, he always for whatever reason spoke fondly of the Dio show we went to. Dude was a showman and most importantly had a wicked set of pipes.
I still need to hear the Dio-era Sabbath stuff. I’ve only listened to his solo albums. I was obsessed with Holy Diver (the album) for a while, but oddly, never really moved on from there.
If you liked Holy Diver there’s no reason you wouldn’t love Last In Line (by the band Dio) and there’s definitely no reason you wouldn’t like both Sabbath albums. Last In Line could almost be the second part of a double album with Holy Diver. And the 2 Sabbath albums function the same way. If you have them you should definitely spend time with them. If you don’t I can up them.
The only stuff of his I wasn’t overly enamored of was Rainbow, which I didn’t hate but fell too victim to Richie Blackmore’s proggy wankery.
If you can somehow up them during the day, by all means. Otherwise, I’ll grab them when I’m home (I’m out on contract today).
Speaking of Holy Diver, it is strange that Pat Burrell was released on the same day?
Wow really? I hadn’t hear that. Maybe they’re psychically linked, like E.T. and Elliot.
Nick said:Speaking of Holy Diver, it is strange that Pat Burrell was released on the same day?
Maybe the Venga Boys will die at the end of Chase Utley’s career.
Venga Boys? He comes out to Zeppelin….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvvjiE4AdUI#t=2m09s
“Dio can you hear me? I am lost and so alone. I’m asking for your guidance; can you come down from your throne?”
It’s also not mentioned nearly as much as it should be how much Chris Cornell sounds/sounded like Dio. Dio didn’t scream nearly as much as Cornell does, but I defy someone to listen to the studio version of Mob Rules and tell me that Cornell didn’t log some serious time in studying that tune.
John said:Venga Boys? He comes out to Zeppelin….
He used to come out to the Venga Boys…the song in the Great Adventure commercial with the freaky old man dancing. This was a while ago.
WOW REALLY!? Was he joking? I don’t remember that at all.
I mentioned this on Hutch’s Facebook. I am by no means a metal fan, so when my dad offered me tickets to see Heaven and Hell that he won on the radio last year I didn’t exactly jump at the opportunity. I ended up going because I had nothing better to do on that particular Wednesday night, and I ended up having a great time.
Having no emotional attachment to Dio and his music other than this one random concert, I was surprised at how bummed out I felt when I heard he died. I think it’s because he just seemed like a genuinely good dude. He was so not at all what I imagined Dio to be when I saw grimy metal dudes wearing his T-shirts when I was a kid. He was just this super-respectful, positive human being with a voice so good that it was almost funny.
It’s actually pretty amazing how many metal dudes are exactly that way. It seems the act of playing metal regularly makes one a total pussycat.
That really was his whole deal though. I mean he didn’t have the whole wild man, drug addled, groupie screwing thing going on (admittedly that would have been hard looking like he did, but that never stopped other dudes). He was always known as just a really good guy who was serious about music, and always wanted to put on a good show.
I know that usually when someone famous passes there’s always this tendency to canonize them and forget about the warts. But this was definitely one dude who by all accounts was a really solid, caring human being.