Tag: Ronnie James Dio

Dio – The Last In Line

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

The celebration of 1984 continues. Today it’s the album that helped cement a bona fide god of heavy metal.

Dio – The Last In Line

Released July 2, 1984 via Warner Bros. Records

Ronnie James Dio went for broke, and went broke, to launch what wound up being his solo venture the year prior. Holy Diver was a critical success and after touring behind it, the band were quickly back in the studio to do a follow-up. The band had a great deal of cohesion and momentum behind them and were able to pull of a quick turnaround for the next year.

Dio, ever present on vocals, was rejoined by the same line-up from the album prior – Vivian Campbell on guitar, Jimmy Bain on bass and Vinny Appice on drums. In addition, Claude Schnell had been brought in on the prior tour for keyboards and was now a full-fledged band member for this album. The record was produced by Ronnie James, just as the first effort had been.

The cover again features the band’s mascot, a devil-like figure named Murray. This time Murray presides over a group of people who are brought back from the dead. Thought maybe not a striking as the Holy Diver cover, this one is still a fine piece of heavy metal art and let the album buyer know they were in for a headbanging good time.

I’ll cover the original album today, which comprises 9 songs at 41:07 in runtime. There are reissues with a wealth of bonus tracks of this album that are certainly worth investigating.

We Rock

The opener gets things going in the most straightforward manner possible – it’s a fast, hard riff brought with lyrics that are literally about going to a Dio concert. It makes a great album opener, though Dio did often use it to close concerts. It can’t get a whole lot better than this to kick off the record. Grade: A+

The Last In Line

The title track is next and it handles a quiet build until exploding into the rest of the song. This one tackles a “final quest” of people who are gripping with the ultimate battle of good versus evil. It could be a sword and sorcery adventure or it could apply to real life, it is a universal thing. And Vivian Campbell gets all day to play a wicked solo. This song is a triumph of the Dio machine and stands head and shoulders above other recorded material. Grade: S

Breathless

This one keeps a nice hard rock pace while exploring the fear of the night and “going for it” regardless of fear. A nice song by any measure though Campbell’s solo does run away as the highlight here. Grade: A-

I Speed At Night

Up next is a total burner of a song. Easy premise – guy likes driving fast at night. Everyone sang like driving like a psychopath in 1984 and everyone does it 40 years later. Anyway, fantastic song that picks up the pace and again, Vivian Campbell goes ham on the solo. Grade: A+

One Night In The City

A great riff opens this tale of two young people who appear to have run off from their typecast lives for the adventure and uncertainty found in the city at night. While the story is a bit mysterious, it is another epic telling of light and dark and two people up against it, as Dio became famous for. Grade: A

Evil Eyes

This track was originally issued as the B-side to the single Holy Diver a year prior, it was then re-recorded for this album session. It’s another high-flying adventure of two people, this time the narrator is the one with “evil eyes,” the deeper meaning of that isn’t revealed. But the adventure soars just fine in this song, it is in and out while making its point in nice fashion. Grade: A

Mystery

While the song’s theme is how things are often mysterious with no ready answers, there is no mystery to the song itself – it’s a bright offering that doesn’t lament the mystery, but rather embraces it. That was the way of Ronnie, ever the dreamer. Grade: A-

Eat Your Heart Out

A nice rocker that looks over someone leaving his woman for being bad. Bad isn’t elaborated on, but this guy is very happy to be free of his prison. This is the least heralded song on the album but that doesn’t damage its own score at all – 99% of albums would be thrilled to have this as its “weakest” track. Grade: B+

Egypt (The Chains Are On)

The closing track heads back to the infamous Bible story of the Hebrews being enslaved in Egypt. Not the only time in 1984 we’d get a song about that, go figure. Dio wasn’t only speaking about the events as told – he was also using the chains as a symbol for the types of chains that entrap people in modern society.

The song builds in epic fashion, telling the story in a way that would likely bear influence on epic and power metal to come, as well as foreshadowing the latter part of Dio’s career. A magnificent way to wrap up the album. Grade: A+

The Last In Line continued the momentum Dio established a year before and built upon it. The album charted at 23 in the US, 4 in the UK and brought 3 other European Top 10 positions. It was also Dio’s first US platinum, hitting the mark a few years before Holy Diver garnered its first plat. It was also certified silver in the UK.

It’s kind of a perpetual argument whether this or Holy Diver is the better album. Both are fantastic and have their moments. I honestly won’t go out on that limb today as it is a very, very close race for me between the two. I will say that it’s very, very easy to grade this one, it’s pretty well written across the song grades.

Grade: A+

This album is a remarkable piece of heavy metal history. It would help push trends in heavy metal that would carry on through the ’80’s and beyond, and it would solidify Dio’s presence as an immortal figure of the metal scene. While the band would not maintain its form for too long after this, there is no doubt the music of these early Dio albums was spectacular and timeless.

For an explanation of my grading scale, head here.

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Dio – Dreamers Never Die

On By bigbadburchIn Movies9 Comments

This long-desired documentary on the life and career of Ronnie James Dio finally saw the light in 2022. It had a limited theatrical run and then was on a streaming service I’m not sure of for awhile. That should tip you off that I hadn’t seen it yet. I think a month or so ago the doc was made available to buy in physical form or digitally. I bought it and finally sat to watch.

This film was fully authorized and assisted by the estate of Dio, helmed by his widow Wendy Dio. She was an executive producer of the film and also clearly had a lot to contribute about Ronnie in the film. Aside from Wendy, Dio biographer and renowned journalist Mick Wall was also a primary contributor to the project. And also involved was Dave “Rock” Feinstein, a former bandmate of Dio’s as well as his cousin.

The cast of people who lined up to film something for this doc is pretty staggering. I won’t bother with a complete list, but even summarizing it takes a moment. Rob Halford, Eddie Trunk, Lita Ford, Jack Black, Don Dokken and Sebastian Bach were all on hand. Every member of Black Sabbath that Dio worked with was on film as well, even Bill Ward who was only around for the first bit of Dio’s involvement. And the remaining list of contributor is honestly just too vast to get into here. There is also plenty of archival footage used to fill things out, and of course Dio’s own parts were necessarily culled from old interviews.

This goes through Dio’s early life and then into his music career. It spends a bit of time going over his early groups Ronnie and the Red Caps and Ronnie Dio and the Prophets. (note to record collectors – if you ever see those out while record hunting, GRAB THEM. They are scarce and expensive if people actually know who is involved.) These early old-style rock groups would transition to The Electric Elves and then Elf, all before Dio was tagged by Ritchie Blackmore as the first singer of Rainbow.

All this leads to the career path most people are familiar with – Rainbow, then Black Sabbath, then Dio. All this is discussed in detail by the principals involved, with some emphasis placed on just how huge of a gamble Dio was taking on going out solo and also with huge live production costs. They cover the highs of early Dio and then the crash of traditional metal in the 1990’s, all of it is covered pretty well.

I won’t go too hard on details in the film, but a few things are worth mentioning. One is the famous “devil horns” story. Dio is credited as the initial user of the famous metal hand gesture, with the story that he got it from his grandmother. Geezer Butler does have a very different take on the origins of the hand gesture and Dio’s use of it, that can be found with a quick search. Other noted rock musicians also have their own claims to the “devil horns” but I ain’t got time for that, Gene.

The other issue that gets brought up a lot is the stint that guitarist Vivian Campbell served in Dio’s band at the beginning. Campbell is on the first three solo albums but then left in less than cordial circumstances, and both he and Dio sniped at each other in the press until Dio’s death. Campbell was not brought in for the film itself, fairly understandable as relations between he and Wendy remain icy. But he is discussed as a key figure in Dio’s early work and also he is given a brief moment to say his own peace about his departure via an archived interview. I thought that was a pretty nice touch from the film makers to do that, at least his side is stated in some fashion. This wouldn’t happen in a lot of other musicians’ documentaries.

Overall I was very impressed with the film. It was a big league production, this was not skimped on at all. It was shot well, put together in a coherent fashion, and told the story of Dio in a fantastic way. All of the guests offer worthy contributions and everything is put together well. It flows great and uses every bit of its two hour runtime in great fashion.

The film also gets to the core of Dio’s motivations and background. It’s stated in the title, Dreamers Never Die. He was a man who offered a means of escape and dreams away from the trials of the world. It is central to what made heavy metal so popular in the first place – this was for the outcast and marginalized people, those who didn’t fit in with the popular culture or narrative. I was certainly one of those who came to metal for that reason. This was a nice narrative that tied everything together.

I’d fully recommend this film to anyone interested in music at all, whether or not you’re that familiar with Dio’s work. The film doesn’t fully explain things in reference fashion, but it also doesn’t require any degree of inside knowledge. It was wonderfully put together and is a fitting tribute to one of heavy metal’s enduring icons.