RIP Ronnie James Dio

[Basshappi]

Extreme sadness
One of my favorite singers, and he started out as a bassplayer.
I was fortunate to see him on the original "Heaven and Hell" tour with Black Sabbath.
R.I.P. Ronnie, thanks for all the great music.

[Freuds_Cat]

Wow I was shocked to hear this. 67 is too young to die. I love his voice and presence. Never got to see him unfortunately.

[Dave W]

A very sad day. RIP Ronnie.

[uwe]

That hits home. I've seen him numerous times with Rainbow, as a solo artist, guesting with Deep Purple and with Black Sabbath as well as Heaven & Hell. So his stomach cancer was the one dragon he could not slay. Have a safe journey little guy, you'll always be my Man on the Silver Mountain.

[Highlander]

I was one of the few that bought Man On The Silver Mountain as a single (most people missed it's release as it came out under the name "Ritchie Blackmore" and not "Rainbow"), I was given the album for Christmas that year... I played them to death... I saw him sing this song at the Rainbow Theatre in North London in 1977, saw him a few times with Sabbath, and in his own right; I had pretty much everything from the Elf stuff onwards; even tracked down some of the Prophets stuff on vinyl... I generally stopped going to gigs in the 80's so I have not seen him sing in a long time... As Uwe said, it hit's home...

He was one of Rock's Voices, someone you would recognise whatever he was singing...

RIP Ronnie

[uwe]

I still remember the Rolling Stone review of the 1st Rainbow album - it was scathing. "Makes Machine Head and In Rock seem like works of accident in hindsight, not gifted intent", "serves no purpose other than telling us two things we already knew about Ritchie Blackmore, a) his name is spelled with a "t", b) he plays the guitar very well" and, finally, on then unknown Ronnie Dio: "has the heavy rock singer style down pat, lots of lung power, little individual style".

How wrong was that last remark! Admittedly, Ronnie sold himself short (pun intended) as his musical circles became smaller and smaller over time: from the wide musical range of Elf to the already narrower Rainbow and the even narrower Sabbath to his totally clichéed solo stuff. But one thing he had: an absolutley idiosyncratic tone of voice and singing style. No one could sing like Dio (and he wasn't very good at emulating other singers as well). I've seen him over three decades in about 10 concerts, not once did he sound bad or even strained. I remember him singing a few songs when the Purps toured their Concerto for Philharmonic Orchestra around 2000 (the first half of the concert was devoted to the solo stuff of the individual Purple members and Glover played Butterfly Ball stuff featuring Dio) and people who had never heard of him were amazed about "this little guy with the huge voice".

Well, as far as lumbering dragons & dungeons heavy rock goes, the last Heaven & Hell album had Ronnie at least go out with a bang, not a whimper. Some noteworthy vocal melodies on that album too.

But I'll always love him for stuff like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJNJElKUxH0&feature=PlayList&p=1FAF5F8FEAD2DCFB&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=11

 

[gearHed289]

R.I.P. Ronnie. Loved him with Rainbow, loved him with Sabbath. Not a fan of his solo stuff, but whatever. He was one of a kind, and kicked ass till the end.

[OldManC]

I think even Ronnie would have gotten a kick out of this.

[lowend1]

Yeah, a major talent for sure.

http://www.padavona.com/
Check the mp3s - great stuff!

http://alum.wpi.edu/~geezer/dio.html

[Denis]

I was one of the few that bought Man On The Silver Mountain as a single (most people missed it's release as it came out under the name "Ritchie Blackmore" and not "Rainbow"), I was given the album for Christmas that year... I played them to death... I saw him sing this song at the Rainbow Theatre in North London in 1977, saw him a few times with Sabbath, and in his own right; I had pretty much everything from the Elf stuff onwards; even tracked down some of the Prophets stuff on vinyl... I generally stopped going to gigs in the 80's so I have not seen him sing in a long time... As Uwe said, it hit's home...

He was one of Rock's Voices, someone you would recognise whatever he was singing...

RIP Ronnie

Wow, that one really rips, Kenny!


Uwe's historic edit: I was actually at exactly that same concert of Ken's posted live clip - Munich 1978 and what a kick-ass gig it was! Rainbow were several hours late as Herr Blackmore had kicked the face of an Austrian bouncer roughing up a fan at a gig in Vienna before and had been incarcerated for assault, having to then make the trip to Munich with race car driver Cozy Powell as no planes would fly due to autumn fog.  They started to play around midnight.

[Highlander]

I was trawling through Billy's (Lowend) links to RJD's past (as a bass player) when I found this, so why not post it...!

[godofthunder]

I was trawling through Billy's (Lowend) links to RJD's past (as a bass player) when I found this, so why not post it...!

That is a great picture, Wow even a EBO looks big on him !

[Denis]

I was trawling through Billy's (Lowend) links to RJD's past (as a bass player) when I found this, so why not post it...!

Look at all those Sunns!

[Hornisse]

That's a cool shot!  Maybe those are your cabinets Denis.  I'm sending your Bach pickguard out tomorrow.

[uwe]

That bass was ebayed a while ago by Craig Gruber (Elf's bassist after Ronnie concentrated on singing although there might have been a bass player preceding him). He offered it with the full story.

Speaking of Gruber, he now has his own bass brand "Boomslang":

http://www.myspace.com/craiggruber

He says he's 45 on his MySpace site which would have made him about 10 years old when he recorded the 1st Rainbow album - quite a feat!    No wonder Blackmore sacked him, children just can't tour with a rock band!