For this week's show, I had planned to play an hour of brand new music. I had sent John a bunch of tracks from various 2010 releases and I was all set to go. Then on Sunday night, I heard the news that Ronnie James Dio had died. That changed anything. I sent John a few songs, figuring I would do a "Dio Block" during my segment. Then as I kept sending more and more songs to John, I realized that the entire hour would be dedicated to the music of Ronald James Padavona.
John is not a fan of "metal" and since the show is called Independents Uncovered, I figured there would still be plenty of Dio music to play without having to go into Rainbow, Black Sabbath or Dio. Aside from one track from 1980 (from Kerry Livgren's 1st solo album) every track I sent John was from 1975 or earlier.
I didn't become of Ronnie Dio until I was in High School when the first two Dio albums came out. I had liked old Black Sabbath but hadn't really gotten into the Post-Ozzy Sabbath yet. I had listened to the Joe Lynn Turner era Rainbow but didn't know the Rainbow that existed pre-Graham Bonnet. After hearing Holy Diver and The Last In Line, I searched out older Dio stuff because his voice was just amazing. The Black Sabbath stuff was great. Rainbow Rising is still one of my all-time favorite albums!
I had read about Elf, but had never heard them before. My freshman year in college, I found the final two Elf albums, Carolina County Ball and Trying To Burn The Sun. I also found the Roger Glover album The Butterfly Ball. Those 3 albums introduced me to a different side of Dio and I still love all 3 of them.
For some reason the building that house the station was closing early on Monday night, so John's show ended an hour early, which meant the interview he had scheduled would have to wait. In the 1st hour he played three tracks from the brand new Grip Weeds album, a song from Paul Simon's son and a few other things. Then he played the Donohue Theme and the rest of the show was dedicated to Ronnie Dio. Here is what we played:
Ronnie & The Red Caps - What'd I Say
Ronnie & The Prophets - Ten Days To Brenda
The Electric Elves - Hey Look Me Over
The Elves - Simple Man
Elf - Rainbow
Roger Glover & Ronnie Dio - Sitting In A Dream
Ronnie & The Prophets - Walking In Different Circles
Elf - Never More
Elf - Shotgun Boogie
Kerry Livgren - Mask Of The Great Deceiver
Ronnie James Dio was 67 years old. Because he didn't make it big until his early 30's people assumed he was much younger, but actually he was the same age as Paul McCartney. Before he died, he had gotten back together with Iommi, Butler & Appice in Heaven And Hell and there was talk about an Elf reunion with David Feinstein and Mickey Lee Soule. THAT would have been awesome! Unfortunately it won't happen now. Thank you Ronnie for over 50 years of great music!
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