Aw, I thought you were going to be talking about Luigi. He's Italian.
GLaD 17: Celebrating an Italian on St. Paddy's (Sabbath Sunday+Solar Srtiker)
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 On 03/17/2013 at 04:57 PM by Super Step See More From This User » |
Don't worry, I've planned Irish stuff as well. Wouldn't let my late, great, Second Generation Irish Grandfather (his mom was from Ireland, he was born in America and lived in Wisconsin when I was growing up) down. Which was fitting, because both he (who worked in a paper mill with some of the initial players, and had tons of memorabilia in his bar/basement) and my awesome, recently passed uncle (obituary) were heavily involved with the GREEN Bay Packers. 
Bing Image Mad Libz: Lil Wayne hears the Dio-fronted band Rainbow for the first time, and it inspires him to climb Mount Rinjani, where Dio has set up a magical shrine in the Kingdom of Metal (which is known to Lil Wayne and others as "Da Earf" or Earth); there he learns the ways of metal, and improves his guitar skills tremendously, after being taught by Dio himself, who can be caught playing Solar Striker on his Game Boy when not performing heavy metal miracles for the people of the Kingdom of Metal. Ever woner why dragons no longer haunt attack people? Thank Dio for slaying them.
"When the dragons see me do this, they just run; they know"
To first talk about the game Dio is always playing, we must first acknowledge that I used to do the same; it was my favorite game to load up in any waiting room, be it a nursing home, dentist's office, or just on an after-school errand with the parents.
I never got that far in it, but damn was this side-scrolling shooter fun. I also loved the music. Here is a video that pretty much gives you the gist of the game.
Most fun I ever had with a Game Boy
And now, back to Dio.
I won't pretend to be an expert on Dio, so this will not be a lengthy biography, but rather a celebration of the man in honor of both Sabbath and St. Paddy's Day, as I am operating under under the following logic:
"Eh, Close Enough"
- The Game of Logic, by Lewiss Carroll, 1896
Contrary to what was for some reason my belief, Dio was not the first singer for Black Sabbath, but rather one who filled in for Ozzy on their 1979 album, Heaven and Hell.
Before then, he had been in a few bands, starting in 1957, including the Vegas Kings, which would later be renamed Ronnie an the Rumblers, Ronnie and the Redcaps, and finally Ronnie and the Prophets; his own name would change from Padanova, to Dio, when he used it on a recording in 1960, and the name was believed either to be a reference to Johnny Dio, a mafia member, or his mom's assertion he was a gift from God, and should therefore call himself Dio.
Now that paragraph, I pretty much pulled out of both my ass and Wikipedia, but whether his mom was involved in his stage name, he has credited his grandmother in helping him help popularize the universal heavy metal symbol, "the metal horns," in an interview from the excellent documentary, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey.
He also liked to mock KISS frontman Gene Simmons' overly litigious nature
A symbol of Italian superstition would become a symbol of respect and admirance for heavy metal fans everywhere, after Dio used it on stage, during shows.
And he had a hell of a lot of outlets to do it, given the number of bands he was in; when Ronnie and the Prophets dissolved in 1967, he and guitarist Nick Panta formed Electric Elves, later shortened to Elf in 1972, which would become an opening act for Deep Purple. Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple later recruited Dio and other members to form the band Rainbow; Blackmore was pleased with the results, as were many fans of what would come to be known as power metal, a genre focusing heavily on fantasy and granduer. Here is my personal favorite Rainbow song, "Stargazer."
Dio has said that he never took vocal lessons, and derived his powerful metal voice from the breathing techniques he had learned playing the French Horn. Personally, I don't care how he did it, I just love not having to worry about getting a bad live video with him. His pipes are perfect for the music he made.
As mentioned before, after a few years with Rainbow, he'd fill in for Ozzy on 1979's Heaven and Hell. I hope you love great bass lines.
Of course, you'll notice that his voice lends itself to a completely different style than what Ozzy would do. There were also disagreements over Dio's voice and temperament which led to the forming of the ban Dio in 1982.
Since it's St. Paddy's Day, we've had rainbows in today's Bing Image Mad Libz, and it's my favorite song of theirs anyway, here's "Rainbow in the Dark" by Dio. I think you'll appreciate the short length, as I won't blame you for only listening to a few minutes of the first two songs I posted. Other great Dio songs are of course the popular "Holy Diver" and "Last in Line."
Later on, Dio and former Black Sabbath memebers, Tommy Iommi and Geezer Butler, would tour as Heaven and Hell, until Dio died of stomach cancer in 2010.
Next week, we'll focus on Ozzy, but it just felt right to me to give tribute to Dio this fine Sunday. I hope you'll join me for that blog.
In the meantime, I thought I'd mix it up a bit for St. Paddy's Day, since I've already posted Irish music yesterday and Friday, and post some comedians of Irish descent.
First up, Irish American comeian extraordinnaire George Carlin on "Stuff."
Up next, Denis Leary; I'm a fan of Bill Hicks, but today I'll be nice and post one of his more original numbers, which is also a song! NSFW
Third is Seamus Kennedy, a comeian/musician Rangergirl introuced me to:
And the fourth part of our comedy clover is of course another Irish American (let me know of full-Irish comedians in the comments and feel free to call me unworthy of my green today; I'm trying to publish this before I go deadlift, gym closes at 5) and since it's a gaming website....
Alice Blake shared this to 1up's facebook group, I'm sharing it here.
And that's all for today. My lottery ticket didn't win yesterday, but wish me luck and I'll wish it to you. Happy St. Paddy's Day!
, but I've seen neither live (and I had a chance to see both at separate times, and damn do I regret not going; them together would be incredible), so really can't judge. I can imagine him blowing people off stage with those pipes of his, though. I think I'd just enjoy the concert you went to immensely, no matter my opinion on who's "better," both are legends.
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