5/21/10

I'd like to take some time to recognize two great losses to the music/entertainment industry that happened recently. Peter Steele and Ronnie James Dio.

Peter Steele:
I got into Type O in the 90's, probably when most of us did, when they released the seminal Bloody Kisses album. I remember when I first listened to the disk and was a bit taken back by this whole dark gothic, semi religious, vampiresque imagery and sound thing. I found Steele to be a charismatic front man and later found out that he was a bit of an unwilling front man at that. His look, vibe and vocals were intimidating and yet melancholic and but still fucking cool. His lyrical imagery generally dealt with love, loss, addiction and anarchy. Most importantly I don't think I had heard anyone in metal sing in that low a register before. I was used to the operatic or screaming style of singing that was the norm. The music I thought was facinating as well. Downtuned buzzsaw guitars. Distorted bass and pipe organ based keyboards provided a dirge like backdrop for Steele to sing about his dead girlfriends, vampire dreams and killing all the white people. That said TON were probably one of the most sarcastic bands to ever exist. They called themselves "four dicks from Brooklyn", they never took themselves too seriously. They put their first label Roadrunner on the map with the groundbreaking Bloody Kisses and from there never really deviated from their goth/punk/metal formula which propelled them to stardom. As with all bands there were some problems and unfortunatley most of them rested on Steele's shoulders. He suffered from clinical depression, drank to excess and indulged in recreational narcotics. All of these things, I think, probably contributed to his early death at the age of 48. He received help for his depression and checked into a hospital for his drug use. Unfortunatley he also got checked into jail for assault. Upon release his family and friends staged an intervention and insisted that he check into a mental institution to get additional help. Later on he became a self professed Roman Catholic which is somewhat ironic to how the public perceived him. Before he died he was in the midst of a long period of sobriety and was getting ready to write a new record upon signing with new label SPV. I feel he was a great writer, performer and a cool piece of my musical vocabulary. RIP Peter Steele, you are missed indeed.

Ronnie James Dio:
I wasn't really a huge fan of Dio's but I respected his work and his work ethic but most importantly I respected him as a person. I never met him or went out of my way to buy his records as I felt it was never my taste but from what I've read in interviews and also from talking to his fans he was a genuine guy and someone you would want in your corner. I was saddened by his untimely death and it got me thinking about him and I decided to do a bit of research. It turns out that he was 67 when he passed. I didn't think he was anywhere near that age! That piqued my curiosity even more. I wanted to find out about this guy's long and illustrious career.

Ronnie released his first record/single in 1958. Yep 1958! The band was Ronnie and the Redcaps. He initially played bass in the band and then moved over to front the band later on. In 1961 they changed there name to Ronnie Dio and the Prophets. This lineup released many singles up until their demise in 1967. In 1969 Dio, then in the band the Electric Elves shortened to Elf, caught the eye of Richie Blackmore. When Blackmore left Deep Purple he called upon Dio and the members of Elf to form Rainbow. Rainbow released their first album in 1975. This is where I think Dio came into his own. He would then release 3 more records with Blackmore and then leave due to Blackmore wanting to take the band in a more commercial direction. A couple of sidenotes: Dio performed on Roger Glover's solo effort, The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast in 1974 and Dio also provided vocals for the songs "Homeward" and "Sitting in a Dream" on an album which featured former Deep Purple vocalists Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale. After leaving Rainbow in 1979 he joined the flagging Black Sabbath replacing Ozzy. They put out the landmark Heaven and Hell record thus revitalizing Sabbath's career. In 1982 he met Vinny Appice and finally formed his own band "Dio" thus starting his enduring solo career. Since then he's worked with notables such as Pat Boone, Tenacious D, and Queensryche (as the voice of Doctor X off of Operation Mindcrime). He briefly rejoined Sabbath for a year or so in 1992 to record Dehumanizer then left to resume his solo efforts. After many tours and records he then rejoined Sabbath one last time in 2006. They changed their name to Heaven and Hell for legal reasons and put out the wildly popular album, The Devil You Know. They had a great tour and were looking forward to recording new material when Ronnie was diagnosed with stomach cancer. This unfortunatley spelled the beginning of the end.

Like I said at the top of the column, I wasn't what you would call a real Dio fan. But that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate his talent, perseverance and body of work. He was a true cornerstone in the metal community and for that he will be missed.

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The new cd is going well. Solos are done for 4 songs! Man this is a lot of work!

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Things at UMusic have been going well. I edited some workshop videos check them out here!