Thursday, October 20, 2005

METAL GOD: DIO

For a split-second this morning, I thought I saw Ronnie James Dio jogging! Hahahaha! Clear sign I did not get enough sleep last night. But, regardless if it was him or not (it wasn't), the great and powerful DIO made a presence in my life today. So, I'm giving him his due here as the Metal God that he is!

Ronnie James Dio.
The grand wizard of classic rock. A poet of hope for the downtrodden. The single most important vocal technician in the history of heavy metal.

From Ronnie & the Red Caps to Elf to Rainbow to Black Sabbath to his solo career as DIO, he has helped lead the way of good pure metal for the past 47 years!! I'm beginning to think he's an immortal.
Plus, he is credited with giving "the horns" to Rock. Yep, we all know it was Dio. As the legend goes, his grandmother was from gypsy decent (I'm not making this up!!) and used to throw the horns at him when he was little:
(horns up = ward off evil spirits, horns towards = cursing).
So Dio would always throw the horns at his audience, warding off evil and protecting his flock of followers. And so was it a tradition was born in the firey pits of Rock.

The dude is STILL making kickass music and touring.
He's the Bob Dylan of Metal!! heh.
\m/

Recommendations:
* Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell
* Black Sabbath: Mob Rules
* Dio: Holy Diver
* Dio: The Last in Line

plus, his album art is rad!*
For more indepth info, click here.

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*except for "Master Series" whose cover designer has been sacked & sent to Hell.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Saw a thing on College GameDay this weekend where the Texas Longhorns apparantly claim they started the "horns" to signify the "hook'em" sign they do for their football team. They said it started back in the 50's and I thought that was funny especially after reading your post...hmmmmmmmmmmm...