RONNIE JAMES DIOGod of Heavy Metal

Ronnie James - The Early Years Dio was born Ronald James Padavona. First experience with music was as a child

when he began playing trumpet and French horn.

His first band was called “The Vegas Kings”

Played bass guitar before he began his career as a lead singer.

Was offered a scholarship to Juilliard, but turned it down.

Becoming Dio Ronnie took on the name Dio shortly

before the release of The Vegas Kings’ second album.

Dio means God in Italian. Ronnie took the name from a famous

member of the mafia, Johnny Dio. Ronnie would use the name for the rest of

his life.

Elf – Dio Rocks the World Dio formed the band the Electric Elves,

which later shortened its name to Elf. Eventually Elf became an opening act for

Deep Purple. Dio caught the ear of legendary guitarist

Ritchie Blackmore, who later joined Elf and renamed the band Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.

Black Sabbath – The Dio Years Citing musical differences, Dio left

Rainbow and joined Black Sabbath. With Dio as frontman for the band, Black

Sabbath released the highly successful album, “Heaven and Hell,” which helped the band regain some of its lost glory.

The band later released “Mob Rule”, which was successful, but not to the same extent as “Heaven and Hell”

Dio – The birth of Dio Dio left Black Sabbath with drummer Vinny

Appice to form the band Dio. Dio released their debut album, “Holy

Diver” to rave reviews in 1983. Holy Diver, the title track from the album

“Holy Diver” is now one of the most famous heavy metal songs of all time.

Dio would go on to release ten studio albums, including “Magica” and “Master of the Moon.”

Dio – Side Quests Dio was reunited with his former

bandmates from Black Sabbath, and wrote one album titled, “The Devil You Know”, under the moniker “Heaven and Hell”

Dio appeared in the Film, Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, alongside friends Jack Black and Kyle Gass, in which advises the young Jables to travel to the land of Hollywood to seek fame and fortune.

Death of Dio Ronnie James Dio was diagnosed with

Stomach cancer in November 2009. After weeks of treatment, Dio’s chances

looked good, but Dio succumbed in May 2010.

Dio passed away on the morning of May 16, 2010, at the age of 68.

Music Guide – Holy Diver The first song on my composition history

paper is Holy Diver, which is one of Dio’s most famous songs.

The song features the stunning guitar work of Vivian Campbell, with Jimmy Bain on Bass guitar and Vinnie Appice playing the drums. Ronnie James Dio provides the powerful vocals for the song.

The song was recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA. Warner Brothers released the song in August 1983.

As Ronnie James Dio was now free to do as he pleased musically, as well as lyrically, he took full advantage and delved deeply into Swords and Sorcery lyrical imagery.

The lyrics are also heavily influenced by passages from the book of revelations in the bible, such as “Holy Diver, You've been down too long in the midnight sea” and “Ride the tiger You can see his stripes but you know he's clean,” which tells of a beast that rises out of the sea.

It is also an allusion to falsehoods told by religious authorities with the lines “Between the velvet lies -There's a truth that's hard as steel - The vision never dies - Life's a never ending wheel.”

Although sometimes criticized for its somewhat obscure lyrics, Dio provides a moving and powerful vocal that will live forever in the hearts and minds of heavy metal fans the world over.

- Music Guide – As Long As Its Not About Love

The song was written and produced by Ronnie James Dio, with Craig Goldy playing keyboards (With Scott Warren) and guitar, Jimmy Bain on Bass guitar, and Simon Wright on drums.

It was recorded at Total Access in Redondo Beach CA and was engineered by Wyn Davis.

The song was released with the album Magica on March 21, 2000.

It is part of the conceptual story of the album and the lyrics tell of the forbidden love between Eriel, a powerful sorcerer and leader of a Utopian society and his first and only love, Annica.

It’s a haunting ballad of emotion, showing the tormented soul of Eriel who is forced to give up the life he could have with his beloved, for the life of a sorcerer.

Music Guide – Bible Black The song was written by Ronnie James Dio,

Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler and produced by Heaven and Hell with Mike Exeter.

It was released by Rhino Entertainment on March 20, 2009.

According to Dio, the lyrics tell of an angel who finds a black book, A.K.A the Bible Black, which takes the angel to hell. As the angel begins to see things from a different point of view he is pulled deeper and deeper into its texts and becomes addicted to it.

Lines such as “He locks himself away and tastes the silence - Hungry for another bite of wrong - and just the words oh Lord please take me with you - Took him to a place we don't belong” and “Let me go I've found addiction - and it makes me feel alive - Take me back I must have the Bible Black” allow the listener to see inside the mind of a man taken by the wicked power of addiction.

The song features a darker and heavier musical styling than some of Dio’s other works, due to the guitar work of Tony Iommi, which I feel augments the dark lyrics and creates a demonically fueled masterpiece of Heavy Metal awesomeness!

Listening guide – Holy Diver

0:00 Introduction: Song begins in silence. Wind blows eerily in the background.

0:28 Keyboard softly plays single notes. Soft, but haunting sounds are added in the background as the intro continues.

1:18 Background sound (A Demon?) beckons in the start of the actual song.

1:21 Guitar, bass and drums play the main riff of the song. Guitar plays chords in a chugging dun dada dun dada dun pattern over the single note bass guitar as the drums play a bass drum/cymbal – snare - drum/cymbal – snare pattern.

1:31 Vocals join the music as Dio hums the main melody of the song.

1:42 Verse begins: A drum fill leads into the vocally driven verse. The Dun dudu Dun guitar riff continues from the previous section as does the bass guitar. The chords start at a higher note and descend as the riff goes on. The riff is low with a soaring vocal over the top. Drums continue with the drum/cymbal – snare - drum/cymbal – snare pattern.

2:02 Chorus begins: Music continues with a chord heavy guitar riff, but Dio sings a new melody as he holds out the words – Holy Diver – using vibrato to carry the sustained note.

2:17 Verse 2 Begins: A drum fill leads into the vocally driven verse. The Dun dudu Dun guitar riff continues from the previous section as does the bass guitar. The chords start at a higher note and descend as the riff goes on. The riff is low with a soaring vocal over the top. Drums continue with the drum/cymbal – snare - drum/cymbal – snare pattern.

2:41 Augmented chorus begins. Guitar moves to a dun dun – pause – dun dun pattern with the bass playing the same and drums emphasizing the on and off pattern with bass, snare and cymbals. Dio sings a new melody again raising his notes another half octave to achieve the emotion necessary.

3:04 Verse 3 begins: A drum fill leads into the vocally driven verse. The Dun dudu Dun guitar riff continues from the previous section as does the bass guitar. The chords start at a higher note and descend as the riff goes on. The riff is low with a soaring vocal over the top. Drums continue with the drum/cymbal – snare - drum/cymbal – snare pattern. Verse is only a half verse which then leads to the solo.

3:25 Solo begins: Drums beats a steady rhythm with with bass pedal and snare accented by high hat cymbal playing. Guitar plays a dun dun – Pause – pause- Pattern behind the lead guitar that starts out slow with some bluesy scale playing.

3:56 Solo continues: Rhythm guitar picks up with a dun dada dun dada pattern as the drums continue to keep a steady beat. Lead guitar increases speed and plays several intricate scales before finishing with a scale climb and fading out with a sustained note.

4:12 Verse 4 begins: A drum fill leads into the vocally driven verse. The Dun dudu Dun guitar riff continues from the previous section as does the bass guitar. The chords start at a higher note and descend as the riff goes on. The riff is low with a soaring vocal over the top. Drums continue with the drum/cymbal – snare - drum/cymbal – snare pattern.

4:31 Chorus begins: Music continues with a chord heavy guitar riff, but Dio sings a new melody as he holds out the words – Holy Diver – using vibrato to carry the sustained note.

5:02 Verse Riff/Chorus: Dio sings new lyrics over top the main verse riff of the song as cries holy diver which is again sustained with vibrato as the song fades out into nothingness.

5:50 End Song

-Listening Guide-As Long As It’s Not About Love

0:00 Song begin: Haunting melody begins with guitar finger picking chords, and playing a solid chord near the end of every measure. Guitar is clean with a little delay and possibly some reverb.

0:29 Introduction continues: Guitar plays a different melody, but continues to pick.

0:46 Intro Verse begins: Dio sings a sorrowful melody in a minor key above the guitar picking as the guitar continues its picking.

1:31 Intro Verse Continues: Drums play extremely soft in the background on the high hat. Bass guitar enters to play rhythm alongside the guitar as Dio continues his vocals.

2:04 Chorus Begins: Verse riff continues with the only change being the melody sung by Dio.

2:17 Musical bridge/ Solo begins: Dynamic changes from soft and haunting to a more powerful and full sound. Dio holds a sustained note through from the verse as the rhythm guitar plays the same melody alongside the bass guitar, which plays the lower notes of the chord family, and the drums come in strong beating an eighth note high hat tap – bass tap – snare - tap tap –pattern.

3:16 Verse 3: Guitar now plays an ascending chord riff with some delay while Dio soars over the music delivering passionate pain filled lyrics.

3:44 Chorus Begins: Verse riff continues as Dio changes to the chorus lyrics and belts out pure aural magic.

4:14 Bridge begins: Guitar plays a dun dun dadadada riff as the bass plays a heavy rhythm with the drums.

4:34 Solo begins: Lead guitar plays over the guitar from the bridge as Dio cries out with sustained vibrato.

4:53 Verse/Chorus begins: Short verse leads into augmented chorus. Dio holds out last line of the song as the music slowly begins to fade out.

Listening Guide – Bible Black

0:00 Introduction begins: Rhythm guitar picks a medium tempo melody.

0:13 Introduction continues: Lead guitar plays over top the continued melody of the rhythm guitar.

0:25 Verse: Dio sings a somber melody as he take over the lead guitars role. Rhythm continues to play finger picked melody. Dio and Tony Iommi trade off from vocals to lead guitar twice.

0:51 Verse 2 begins: Lead guitar takes over and plays similarly to the introduction section.

1:05 Verse 2 Continues: Bass joins the fray to tap out a rhythm part alongside the rhythm guitar.

1:31 Bridge begins: Dynamic of the song changes as a heavy guitar begins to play chords. Drums come in with a dun dun dun dun pattern of the toms and bass drum.

1:37 Chorus begins: Dio holds out a sustained note as a heavy riff begins on the guitar. Drums play a steady beat between the snare, high hat and bass drum.

1:59 Verse 3 Begins: Guitar plays a chord heavy riff accented by bass guitar and rhythm bass beats on the drums.

2:22 Chorus begins: Guitar continues its insane heaviness as the drums use fills to carry the rhythm section. Vocals are accompanied by the guitar, bass guitar and drums, which play along with Dio’s powerful melody.

2:51 Verse 4 Begins: Guitar plays a chord heavy riff accented by bass guitar and rhythm bass beats on the drums.

3:14 Chorus Begins: Dio holds out a sustained note as a heavy riff begins on the guitar. Drums play a steady beat between the snare, high hat and bass drum.

3:44 Solo Begins: Chorus riff continues as lead guitar steps in for the kill. Lead guitar plays intricately over a deep, dark rhythm.

4:43 Verse 5 begins: Guitar plays a chord heavy riff accented by bass guitar and rhythm bass beats on the drums.

5:06 Chorus: Dio holds out a sustained note as a heavy riff begins on the guitar. Drums play a steady beat between the snare, high hat and bass drum.

5:23 Verse 6/Augmented Chorus begin: Guitar plays a chord heavy riff accented by bass guitar and rhythm bass beats on the drums.

5:48 Solo 2 begins: Lead guitar plays over the verse riff as the song fades out.