The day the music died

Ronnie James Dio, a singer with the bands Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio, whose powerful, semioperatic vocal style and attachment to demonic imagery made him one of the best-loved figures in classic heavy metal, died on Sunday morning, according to an announcement on his Web site by his wife, Wendy. He was 67.
No cause was given in the announcement, but Mr. Dio had been suffering from stomach cancer, and recently his band Heaven and Hell canceled its summer tour because of his health…

I have a varied, and eclectic taste in music.  I can (and have) enjoyed Rodney Carrington, Pachelbel, the Lightning Seeds, Gregorian Chant, and NWA all on one CD.  It isn't necessarily the music, or the message, and as in the video I posted some days ago, many widely differing songs do follow the same arrangement.  Regardless of the music, (and I do take exception to most top 40 music--90% is crap, the rest is just noise) I can recognize virtuoso performances in any genre.

About as bad-ass as my daughter's My Little Pony

or

His *music* isn't the only thing about him that sucks ass

Dave Mustaine would have been an awesome front man for Metallica, and in a weird twist of fate, his heroin addiction led to his expulsion from the band, but gave us Megadeth, and yet another harvest of interesting album art.

All of them, compared to an original in the field, are poor players.  Although the Apollo missions took us to the moon, it was the Gemini and Mercury missions, and pioneering adventurers, seemingly made of sterner stuff, with the right stuff, that got us there.  DIO, Rainbow, and Black Sabbath--Pioneers in a Genre of music so far removed from the glitz, glam, and glitter of the tragedy that was Disco.  Rock music is music of revolution.  It is music that accompanies all the good scenes in war movies.  It is the music that destroyed the Panamanian dictatorship of Pineappleface Noriega.  It is the music that scares the bejeesus out of muslim fanatics, especially when played at high volume (the way it was meant to be played.)  Some "musicians" would petition the government to stop using their "music" for torture, guys like Ronnie James Dio would be the kind of guy to ask if there was any particular songs they'd want an extended version to play.  This was the guy who popularized "throwing goats" holding up the hand, pointer and pinky extended into devils horns, at rock concerts.  Not iconic or anything, that.

Here's Dio's Holy Diver.  There's worse ways to spend 5:55 of your day.  Turn it up.  If it's too loud, etc.


--Chuck