First off, again I apologize for the space between blogs. There hasn't been much to write about the past few days. The weekend was fairly quiet, at least until Sunday when I found out that one of my favorite singers, Ronnie James Dio passed away after a long battle with stomach cancer.
"Who is Ronnie James Dio?" you might ask? The answer is quite simple: He is quite possibly one of the smallest, and most powerful hard rock & metal singers in history. At 5 feet, 4 inches tall, Dio has an amazing voice that would just blow you away any time you heard him sing. His songwriting skills were second-to-none. He could tell amazing stories through his songs, no matter the subject. You knew when you heard Dio that you were about to be transported on an amazing, magical, musical ride that would likely take you to another plane of existence without the need for any other substance than the music being provided to your ears.
My introduction to Dio happened by chance when I was listening to a classic rock FM station during my teenage years, and I heard "I Could Have Been a Dreamer," from his band's "Dream Evil" album. I was so amazed that I had to find out who was singing. Being the serious music fan that I am, I did my research and discovered that he took over as the singer for Black Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne left the band, and ended up recording some of the best material Sabbath ever put out. "Heaven and Hell" (which would later become the name of the band to differenciate from when Ozzy would reunite with Sabbath and perform one-offs) is quite possibly one of the greatest metal songs of all-time. Of course, you have Dio's signature song "Holy Diver" which has been covered numerous times by numerous artists. However, nothing beats the original if you ask me.
When I saw all the tweets about his death, I kinda lashed out because official confirmation hadn't been released, yet. However, when I finally read that it was true, my heart broke. Even though I was never fortunate enough to have met Dio or to have seen him in concert, his music touched me to my very core.
I would like to thank Ronnie James Dio for 43 years of incredible music. While you may no longer be with us, your music will live on forever. Below I've put a couple of links to some of his songs on Facebook.
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Rainbow - Man on the Silver Mountain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9nfVrusSMg
Rainbow - Stargazer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SedQcg-65a8
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EL67mjv1nM
Black Sabbath - Sign of the Southern Cross http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgjmxYL04V4
Dio - Holy Diver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64coD-rx9sk
Dio - Rainbow in the Dark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUXSTY9AW-s
Heaven and Hell - Bible Black http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNltsEop2dQ
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