On the 16th of May, music lovers everywhere where devastated to discover they had lost one of the fields most treasured possessions. A man with a voice that ran through your veins. A voice that would complement the accompanying guitar in what could be described a marriage of music. A man who could lull music loves into a false sense of security, with his melodic vocals before going hell for leather amidst the pulsating lights, crowds and pure passion that filled the air.
Upon the 7th day there is a Sabbath but who could of believed there was to be a Sabbath so black? As heavy metal chords flew around arenas inside a genre that tends not to be associated with purity per say. That voice that would fire out from center stage would rise in volume yet always retain its quality. Well, those of us who lean towards the genre would say that this type of music must be listened to as loud as your speakers can possibly go.
Unlike a mere electrical set of sound carriers, that will diminish in quality as they rise in volume. This was the real thing, this was that sound that made you shiver. Everyone around you felt it, and did you know! They felt it too, they knew it ran through all those around them, with the tension radiating from the crowd coupled with the pure joy even Ecstasy experienced as that music begun. Well, what good is a stereo system ?
So who owned this voice, the long curled locks that threw themselves about his shoulders and slipped off that flowing shirt; but never expected the moment that they were thrown from where they sat. Thrown backwards from the force of the vocals and the vast amount of volume increasing but never faultering.
This my friends , if you have not already guessed was the legend that is
Ronnie james dio. – may he rest in harmonies of peace
As the world walked talked worked and other various things. Who was to know that the hustle would be stopped in its tracks. There was not way we could’ve expected the chaotic chords of the day to be smothered beneath decibels of darkest silence. Hopes and dreams were to be dashed into watery graves inside wells that would once grant your wishes. Because you had it, you had freedom you had a whole life ahead of you, but what is more you had that marvelous mender of the lowest moods. That which could brighten the north pole during each 6months it stays bereft of sunlight!
That was music! That was vocals untouched by electronic sound. That was the sight and sound of instruments, hearing various tones and pitches from all around you catching that chord that you had not noticed before. Mastering the art of the air guitar in the crowd. Did it matter? Well they rest of the crowd seemed to be quite liking their air like strumming and passionate placements and passing of plectrums over strings. So why hold back? If you have no wish to try and beat them then why would you do so? No, this was when it wasn’t a choice, it was a natural occurrence invoked by what was real music untouched un-tweaked that old sung conversation that made you go weak.
Top of pop’s, before they stopped airing that particular show the level of musical talent concealed within that studio, may of been comparable to a blot of ink in the black sabbath copy book. Argue with me if you may however, i truly believe music is nothing like it used to be. We are playing football in the rugby union with modern music.We can try and disguise it with fame, a nice haircut or a ‘bit of stuff’ but at the end of the day if you sent united into a scrum with the wasps or the Saracens what exactly do you think would happen… Enough said!
Before i go any further i would like to send my love and wishes to a lady who be experiencing a very hard time. I Would like to wish Wendy, the woman who has loved and cared for ronnie as his wife all my love. If you should read this i wish you the strength to cope at this time i understand completely how hard this is. I would like to reassure you that you will in time start to recover from this. It is important that you keep your friends and family close to help support you. I can tell you that although you may feel that you want to be alone, i know from personal experience that at least for the time being it will be beneficial to yourself to be around your loved ones. Please don’t try to face this alone. I believe what with all the entertainment that Ronnie has sent skyward in his time, will now be being replayed. I can imagine that he is in very good hands. No doubt comforted by countless heavenly choruses from the choirs up above. He will always be with you although not in body but in spirit. You have no need to worry, it is now him that will be looking out for you. I can only hope that by writing this i am in some way if only very small helping you by expressing all of our gratitude for a talent that far exceeds many a talent that has met our eyes and ears, not just before we had the pleasure of hearing his music. Also for many many years to come. We all will remember him fondly and i am sure that each and every one of us will have you in our thoughts. I hope that my words do nothing than remind the world what a great man he truly was. I wish that you can find every one of those things that you have stored inside to help you cope.
Ronnie James pandavona dio sadly fell ill due to stomach cancer in November of last year.Unfortunately he lost his fight against the illness the 16th of may at 7:45am. Ronnie was fortunate to have the time to say goodbye to his family and friends .
Wendy, Ronnie’s wife has asked that she be given a few days of privacy to help recover. I can only hope that the normally intrusive press give her and her family rather longer than this. For should they do otherwise, then they should be ashamed of themselves. I believe this request should not have to be made, urge you to adhere to this even if only for the state of your own conscience.
Wendy gave a statement to those of us who appreciated him so on his official website;
“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.”
That i believe is a certainty, i cannot imagine how we could forget such talent. Ronnie was something that we rarely are able to witness today in the music world, that my friends, is an artist!
On the 10th of July 1942 the residents of Portsmouth were to have no idea of the talent that had been created inside the very place where they called home. Ronnie James Dio first ventured into the music world with friends that made up ‘The Vegas kings’ who were later to change the name of their group to ‘Ronnie and the tumblers. This band adopted a different format, having amongst them a saxophone player who went by the name of jack musci. Ronnie at this time was not actually in the band as a singer.He had at first took to playing the bass guitar. Which is a perfect example of how very different musicians are today with many unable to play an instrument or even able to read sheet music. He strummed alongside fellow guitarist nick pantas. Accompanied on the drums by tom rogers, the vocalist at the time being billy Dewolfe. It was only when a further change in the bands format was made seeing the vocalist Dewolfe leave with Ronnie taking his place that ronnie was to start vocalising his talent, they were also to see the addition of dick botof as another craftsman of the chord upon guitar.Three years and two records (a+b sides) later they again changed their name this time to, ‘ Ronnie Dio and the prophets’ . As you can tell Ronnie seemed to be the main interest here.
The group parted company with the exception of nick pantas and Ronnie who worked together to form a new band and called themselves ‘The electric Elves’ Then abandoning the voltage to become simply ‘elf’. They did start to see success in the form of being given the opportunity to fill the position of opening band for ‘deep purple’ in 1969.
Once again Ronnie was the one to arouse an interest, this time in the form of deep purples guitarist Ritchie black more.
This if you can tolerate the following pun (sorry) saw ronnie and band mates spectrum start to expand as they became ‘Rainbow’. It was Ronnies vocals that drew their new band mate Ritchie to them , well how can we blame him? Although the silver lining for ronnie’s cloud nor crock of gold were not to be found in this group. After 4 albums and in 1975, ronnies enthusiasm to expand into the commercial market was not shared by his band mates and they parted. Ronnie was to go off in search off other horizons. Before reaching the better sunsets and greener grass with black sabbath, ronnie also worked with another ‘deep purple ‘ member glen hughes along with David cloverdale.
And on upon the call for there to be light upon the seventh day there as i have explained already. we found the Sabbath, although this was not only the Sabbath but the ‘Black sabbath’. So after traveling to the rainbows end and finding neither crook of gold nor silver lining for the clouds surrounding it…. Ronnie was to (excuse the pun) broaden his spectrum in regards to audience, reach and pass on his phone number to opportunity so it could call more often.
Upon entering the group Ronnie was to take over from then lead singer who we also all know mr Ozzy Osbourne. Black Sabbath kept the name until 1980. Ronnie had joined the ranks in 1979.With the new line up came yet another new name…
pic=Dio performing with Rainbow. In the middle is Ritchie Blackmore.
The band had already released a record, an album. Prior to the pending name change
They first met when Dio’s Elf opened for Deep Purple
The ‘heaven and hell’ album title, had become a rather appealing name to the group
Well , nice to have a change now and then. So then it was to be made official the original ‘black Sabbath
’ had a slight shuffle about and regrouped as ‘heaven and hell’.
Ronnies new friends seemed to reveal more, with his fantastic vocal skills he quickly became noticed there
was now popularity and a bigger fan base . Many may of given up along time before getting this far but Ronnie
refused to do so. He was to weather the course, find greener grass a larger
target audience and success. Success a lot of the time is closely followed by failure but not so for Ronnie.
Success called upon yet more success. Finally after all his hard work he was seeing some benefits.
Well, i he didn’t deserve them , show me a man who does, i shall more than likely
dispute your evidence however, you can not blame me for being right can you?
For all those sabbath fans out there
ive included a pdf book made up of articles written about the group.
Say thanks to those nice guys (or gals ) over at Wikipedia for this one.
Part 2 to come soon and lots more Ronnie related stuff
Requests are welcome + Thanks to all you fans over at Ronnies Facebook page supplying your pics and tributes
I grew up with Sabbath and Rainbow. Still have some of the vinyls somewhere. Still among my all time favourite songs.