Tony's Guitarist Picks - Tony Iommi

I cannot write a blog about guitarists that I like without writing about Tony Iommi.  If I did such a thing, all of my friends on the Tony Iommi message board [some of whom are also on Facebook] would not only give me a well-deserved rash, they would disown me.  For the uninitiated, who is this Tony Iommi guy?   He is the guiding light of Black Sabbath.  He’s the one guy who has been in every incarnation of the band since their debut album saw the light of day on Friday the 13^th, February 1970.  In short, he’s the guy who invented heavy metal.  He is a king among men.

What sets Tony Iommi apart from other guitarists?  Let me count the ways…

Reason #1 - the riff.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines the riff this way:  Riff Pronunciation: /rɪf/ [noun] a short repeated phrase in popular music and jazz, frequently played over changing chords or harmonies or used as a background to a solo improvisation.  Tony’s greatness lies in the almighty riff.  Regardless of whoever else happened to be in Black Sabbath, the bedrock of every Black Sabbath song is the riff.   I can’t think of many memorable Sabbath solos, but there are many memorable Sabbath riffs.  There are so many great Black Sabbath songs that were it not for the riff, there wouldn’t be much of a song.  Standout riffs:  Symptom of the Universe, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Into the Void, Snowblind, Killing Yourself to Live, Heaven and Hell, War Pigs, Sweat Leaf, Children of the Grave, Children of the Sea, Mob Rules, Paranoid, Black Sabbath… No one has created more, or better metal riffs than Tony.

Reason #2 – the tone.  The last day of the last time Tony Iommi worked a “day job” he lost parts of the fingertips on two fingers of his fretting [right] hand in an accident on the job.  He fabricated prosthetic fingertips so he could play without pain.  He used the lightest strings he could find [banjo strings at first].  He also detuned his strings to ease the tension on his fingers.  Detuning gave Sabbath a heavier sound.  He couldn’t get that effect with standard tuning and heavy gauge strings.  Tony’s amp of choice is Laney.  Always in search of the “perfect” sound he’s used Orange, Fender, Marshall, Hiwatt, and Engl.  But he’s a Laney guy.  His axe of choice is the Gibson SG.  He doesn’t play a stock SG much.  He’s had SGs custom-built for him, either by John Birch, John Diggins [JayDee], or even the Gibson Company itself.   He wants 24 frets instead of the usual 22.  He has his own line of very high output humbucking pickups.  He used to use a Dallas Rangemaster to give his sound a boost.  He uses a lot of wah in his solos, courtesy of the nearly-impossible to find Tycobrahe Parapedal.  Take all of these variables together – the type of amps, type of guitar, type of pickups, the lighter strings, the detuning, the effects [such as they are] – put them all in the hands of Tony Iommi and Voila!  Heavy metal is born.

Reason #3 – the acoustic guitar.  Tony Iommi is not known for his acoustic guitar playing.  Sometimes he’d use it to introduce the song – Children of the Sea [Heaven and Hell], The Sign of the Southern Cross [The Mob Rules], Bible Black [The Devil You Know], and Too Late [Dehumanizer].    Sometimes he’d play it as part of the song – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath [Sabbath Bloody Sabbath], Supernaut [Vol. 4], Glory Ride [The Eternal Idol], I Go Insane [Fused].  Sometimes he’d play it at the end of a song – Heaven and Hell [Heaven and Hell], Symptom of the Universe [Sabotage].  On occasion he’d play a short acoustic piece – Laguna Sunrise [Vol. 4], Fluff [Sabbath Bloody Sabbath], Orchid [Master of Reality], and Scarlet Pimpernel [The Eternal Idol].  Some bands, and I’m thinking of the hair metal bands from the eighties, would use acoustics to show their “sensitive” sides.  These would be the “power ballads” that afflicted music during that time.  I’ve heard Iommi play something resembling a power ballad only twice – Changes [Vol. 4 – he doesn’t play guitar] and No Stranger to Love [Seventh Star].  Iommi doesn’t use acoustics to show any sensitivity.  It’s a matter of dynamics, to change up the sound a little bit just to make things just a bit more interesting.  I wish I knew what kind of acoustic guitar he uses because I love the bell-sounding tones he gets out of it [or them]. 

Reason #4 – volume.  Tony Iommi’s music is not for the faint of heart.  It MUST be played at a high volume.  Of all the concerts I’ve seen since 1982, only four of them left me with crickets chirping in my ears…for days!  Of those four, two were Black Sabbath – once with Ronnie James Dio [Washington, DC - 1992], the other time with Ozzy Osbourne [San Jose, CA – 1999].  I suffered happily each time.

Reason #5 – solos.  Tony Iommi is a riffmaster’s riffmaster.  The solo is not his strong suit like it is for other guitarists [Duane Allman, David Gilmour, Ritchie Blackmore all come to mind].  But he is very, very good.  He’s best when soloing slowly [Shadow of the Wind], or Warp Factor Eight [Symptom of the Universe].  In between those two speeds, Tony is a mere mortal.  His contemporaries Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page were good at playing things off the top of their heads in concert, but Tony Iommi is a different soloist.  Whichever solo he’d record for a specific song, he’d stick pretty close to it when playing live.  The exception to this rule is Heaven and Hell.  He can solo his brains out for days on that one.  But a mere mortal Tony Iommi is better than almost everyone else.  If I had to pick a standout Tony Iommi solo, it would be his first solo from Lonely Is The Word [Heaven and Hell].  I can only describe it as being unlike any other solo in his catalog.

Reason #6 - Diabolus in Musica. Tony Iommi stumbled upon the tritone, known in medieval times as “The Devil in Music.”  It was explained to me this way – “Nearly everything with that evil, doomy feel to it shares that interval relationship.  It causes a sense of unease, anxiety or evil because it doesn't fall where the ear expects it to.  The final note in the three-note/chord riff to Black Sabbath is the best obvious example.”  The music itself isn’t evil, it just sounds that way.  Is there a more scary song than Black Sabbath, the first song from the first album?  What a way to kick off a career!

I asked my friends from the Iommi message board the following:  What one song, in your opinion, captures Tony Iommi's essence, and why?    For me, it’s War Pigs.  I think it’s the best metal song ever done.  So sure of this I originally thought I would put this out as something that was absolute, something that is so self-evident that none would dare argue the point.  But like Magnum PI, the little voice in my head told me “ask the Iommi board guys.”  So I did that and I’m glad I did.  Black Sabbath, and Tony Iommi in particular, are for these guys what the Beatles are to me.  These are the guys who eat, sleep and breathe Black Sabbath.  As for the answer to the question, a trend emerged – most favored Sabbath’s music from the years 1970-75, which means their first six albums with Ozzy Osbourne.  Four songs in particular stood out among the rest – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Symptom of the Universe, Black Sabbath, and Wheels of Confusion.  Why did these tunes in particular get so much love from these guys?

Black Sabbath – This is the “big bang” for heavy metal – where it all started.  This is the very first song from the very first Black Sabbath album.  When Geezer Butler noticed people paid lots of money to have the crap scared out of them, Tony came up with this.  Leave it to him to use a kind of music once banned by the Catholic Church.  It wasn’t intentional to sound evil, just to sound cool.  It starts with the gloomy sounds of rain and thunder, the peal of a distant church bell, then the Riff of Doom.  If you played this combination of notes in the Middle Ages you’d probably have various instruments of mayhem [most of them HOT] applied to your testicles.  If you want to know how to make vibrato work in your guitar playing, listen to the third note of the tritone – perfect vibrato.  There’s a tempo change from the doom crawl to very fast at the 4:35 mark, wah-wah drenched guitar and a scary Iommi solo that builds to a stop-start climax.  If you want to put a sound to the word “ominous” this song will do the trick.

Wheels of Confusion/ The Straightener – This one from Vol. 4 has probably the rawest sounding guitar in the entire Black Sabbath catalog [maybe Supernaut too].  His tone is brutal, with plenty of crunch.  The Straightener is two and a half minutes of Iommi solos.  In addition you hear the acoustic and what sounds like another guitar played through a Leslie speaker.  The Straightener is for Wheels of Confusion what Luke’s Wall is for War Pigs, a good instrumental conclusion to one of Black Sabbath’s more structurally inventive songs.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – it has a little of everything.  Tony had writer’s block when Black Sabbath started work on the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album.  Luckily this song came to him – not one great riff, not two, but three [the main, opening riff, the bridge, and the final, very heavy, detuned part].  Between the riffs are the acoustic interludes.  So you have the heaviness, the light and shade, the tempo changes.  A lot of stuff is happening on this song.  I still have no idea what “Bog blast all of you” means…

 

Symptom of the Universe – Tony shows thrashers how it’s done.  The riff sounds a lot like Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown, only evil.  He slashes and burns for four and a half minutes and then does a head-spinning 180 and plays a very cool jazzy acoustic guitar for the next two.  He makes the transition from hard thrash to acoustic bliss look effortless.  One of his fastest solos helps with the transition.

 

One of my fellow board members put it this way when asked the “name one song” question – “I don't think I can do that. I like so much of what he’s done that no one song can do that. Each one says something different.”  That’s fair enough – I see his point.   Depending on my mood at any given moment, any of these songs [and many of the others] could be “the one.”  But if someone put a gun to my head and said “choose one now!” I’d pick Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, even though War Pigs is my favorite.

There were some other interesting choices to the "name one song" question from the Iommi board crowd. The most interesting choice was Meat from Tony's first "proper" solo album. It's good stuff - I think it has the distinction of being the only Iommi song with a lead female vocalist. It has a sufficiently high doom quotient. From the same Iommi album, my favorites are Black Oblivion, Flame On, and Just Say No To Love [Peter Steele (RIP) even namechecks Tony Iommi and Jon Lord in this one]. Another interesting choice was Heart like a Wheel from Seventh Star. That one sparked a bit of discussion since Seventh Star is probably the most "un-Sababth" album in Tony's catalog. Seventh Star was supposed to be Tony's first solo album, but the record company had other ideas and wanted a "Black Sabbath" album, even though Tony was the only original member left in the band. Interestingly enough, the person who suggested Heart like a Wheel thought he was suggesting heresey, but the reaction to his suggestion was uniformly positive. This song is as close to 12-bar blues as Tony Iommi will get. He's got a very visceral, razor-sharp guitar tone all over Seventh Star. For Heart Like a Wheel, Tony puts his best solo chops on display. Other suggestions from something besides the Ozzy era included Heaven and Hell, Children of the Sea and Die Young. One can conclude there is much affection for the Heaven and Hell album as a whole.  The Tony Martin era got no love whatsoever from these guys. 

For the most part I am partial to the sounds Tony Iommi made in the later years, most especially the albums he made with the Iommi-Butler-Dio-Appice lineup.  Not just for the guitar playing, but also for the better production, song structure and Dio’s singing.  When Dio came on board for the Heaven and Hell album, Bill Ward was still the drummer, and Sabbath still had a loose feel to them.  He wasn’t as much a timekeeper as he was a percussionist who just went where the songs took him.  They were “Black Sabbath with a new singer.”  But when Vinny Appice came along after Bill Ward left in 1980, the character of the band changed.  Vinny is more of a time keeper [think “Ringo Starr” in a heavy metal band].  And since he played a straight beat, Black Sabbath morphed into more of a skull-crushing juggernaut.  Tony Iommi [and occasionally Geezer Butler] came up with more up-tempo riffs. 

The sludge from the likes of Master of Reality was gone, replaced by the punishing Mob Rules, Dehumanizer, and The Devil You Know.  The riffs aren’t sinister – they’re brutal, mean, crushing.  Follow the Tears and Bible Black [The Devil You Know], I [Dehumanizer], Turn Up the Night and The Mob Rules [Mob Rules] easily come to mind.   The same can be said for Tony’s album with Glenn Hughes, Fused.  So many riffs, so little time…  I Go Insane [from Fused] is one of the most musically complex things Tony has done.  A nine-minute epic, it has four distinctive parts – the first 3:23 is slow, bluesy.  Then the tempo picks up – at first the music has an almost ethereal quality, but then the guitars build up to the 5:46 mark, where it’s massive, brutal, face-melting, pile-driving riffage.  At seven minutes begins the only proper solo, a minute-long affair that eases into the same theme heard in the first section.  Brilliant!  Computer God [Dehumanizer] is a different beast.  A song about technological tyranny, this one has three parts – a start-stop beginning, a slow arpeggio’d part in the middle [the part I can actually play], and the aggressive finish.  Tony flows from one part to another with ease while Geezer Butler’s bass bobs and weaves throughout.  It’s an impressive piece of arranging.  This is how men play heavy metal.

I Go Insane

Computer God

With 2012 almost upon us, we have the promise of a new Black Sabbath album and tour from the original four [Tony, Geezer, Ozzy and Bill Ward].  These men are in their 60s now, but I have no doubt they have one more great work in them.  Psycho Man from Reunion was merely "ok" - I think they can do better.  Tony Iommi’s skills as a player haven’t diminished.  Judging from his last two studio works [Fused and The Devil You Know], I don’t think his ability to create classic riffs has diminished either.  Tony has no need to prove he can produce great work in his later years – he’s already done that.

Ronnie James Dio Remembered

Sunday morning I saw the sad news on Facebook that my favorite heavy metal singer, Ronnie James Dio, had lost his fight with stomach cancer and passed away at the age of 67. Last fall he was diagnosed with the disease and immediately began treatment in Houston. He first noticed pains in his stomach during rehearsals for a European tour for his own band, Dio. His current band Heaven & Hell were on a break while guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Vinny Appice had wrist and shoulder surgeries respectively. Since Heaven & Hell were on a break, Ronnie wanted to tour with his own band while his other bandmates got much-need paint and body work done. But due to what became a diagnosis of stomach cancer, Ronnie canceled his own tour to concentrate on killing cancer. As early as March of this year, prognosis for a full recovery for Ronnie was good, good enough to start booking European tour dates this summer. Most if not all of his fans [including me] thought he would slay this dragon, but it was not to be. I’ve had two very good friends kick cancer’s ass in the past three years and I thought Ronnie would too. I learned from Tony Iommi a couple of weeks ago [on May 4th, again via a Facebook post] that Heaven & Hell had to cancel their 2010 European tour because of Ronnie’s health. This told me “uh oh, something’s not right here” and on Sunday morning the worst outcome imaginable for Ronnie and his family came to pass. He passed peacefully at a Houston hospital. I’ve seen many posts on websites related to Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Dio and Heaven & Hell with the usual “he will be missed.” Screw that – I miss him now. When I got the news, it was raining outside and the first thing that came to mind was “the sky is crying.”

How did I come to know the singer who was Ronnie James Dio? The first time I ever heard him was in an animated movie from the early 1980s called “Heavy Metal.” Black Sabbath did a song for the soundtrack called The Mob Rules. A great song, I bought the first two Black Sabbath albums he did, Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. Having been a Black Sabbath fan during the Ozzy Osbourne years, I was pleasantly surprised that Ronnie more than made up for Ozzy’s departure in 1979 and began to put his own stamp on Black Sabbath. But this version of Black Sabbath was not to last. They recorded a live album entitled Live Evil, but they argued over the mixing of the guitars, bass and vocals and soon enough Ronnie James Dio was on his own to form his own band, which he simply called Dio. When this happened I thought I had missed my opportunity to see Black Sabbath live at its best [more on that later]. Ronnie put together Dio quickly. He brought Vinny Appice with him from Black Sabbath, and he brought in Jimmy Bain from their days in Ritchie Blackmore’s band Rainbow. And he brought in a new up-and-coming guitarist from Ireland named Vivian Campbell. They recorded their debut album Holy Diver in early 1983 and went on tour. When Holy Diver was released, I also discovered Ronnie’s back catalog with Rainbow. That catalog consisted of three albums: Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Rising, and Long Live Rock and Roll. After I found these heavy metal gems I found out that Dio was going to tour with Aerosmith in the summer of 1983. Since they were going to open for Aerosmith, would they play songs from Black Sabbath and Rainbow in addition to stuff from Holy Diver? I got my answer when I saw Dio for the first time in July 1983 [or was it August?]. I was not disappointed when I heard the first strains of Man on the Silver Mountain, Rainbow’s first well-known song. He also played Black Sabbath’s Children of the Sea. I was very happy to hear Ronnie was not going to ignore his past. The new stuff from Holy Diver rocked just as well and just as hard. He was a hard act to follow for Aerosmith that night.

So life went on for me in Southern Colorado. I met a great lady who would end up being my wife [she is to this day]. When I met her I asked her what music she liked [here’s a hint: a mural of the Dark Side of the Moon album cover, painted by her, was on the wall behind her in the living in which she was living]. At the time she was working her way through school as a cocktail waitress at one of the local hotels. As we spent more and more time together, she told me that while Dio was in town for the concert I saw, he was at that same hotel and that she worked and she got an autograph from Ronnie. She still has it today. As fortune would have it, we both heard his then-new single while driving somewhere: The Last In Line. We decided right then and there we would go see him when the next tour rolled through Colorado. We got tickets to see Dio at Red Rocks in August 1984. There is no better place anywhere to see a concert than at Red Rocks. Dio headlined the show while Twisted Sister opened. The day didn’t start out too well. It rained all day, it rained through about half of the concert. I was sick with a 102 degree fever [later in the week I was diagnosed with mononucleosis]. I had a COBOL final exam the next morning [I got a ‘B’ if you’re keeping score – good enough]. But I was determined to see the show with Carol, and we did. All the crappiness was worth it.

After Dio’s third album Sacred Heart, there began the personnel shuffle. Original guitarist Vivian Campbell was out. His parting with Dio was not a happy one. I was more interested in starting my life with Carol [we got married in 1987, then I went to Air Force officer training]. Then as if from nowhere came the announcement in 1991 that Ronnie James Dio would get back together with Black Sabbath. Great news for all Sabbath fans! They recorded the album Dehumanizer, released in June 1992. Gone were the fantasies of rainbows, dragons, wizards and kings. The topics here are technology, insanity, the perils of televangelism and other more-earthly concerns. This was skull-crushing riffage at its best. It was a helluva lot better than the “hair metal” crap that came before [Poison, Cinderella, Dokken, Motley Crüe, Bon Jovi, etc]. And even better, Carol and I got to see our favorite lineup of Black Sabbath [Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice] at Constitution Hall in Washington DC. Was it worth the 10-year wait? Damn right it was. It was one of the two loudest shows Carol and I ever saw [the other was the original Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne in San Jose, 1999]. We definitely suffered hearing damage from that show. Yes, once again it was worth it [wouldn’t do it today though]. Two months after that show I shipped out to Korea for a year. A month after I got to Korea I heard Ronnie left the band again. Tony and Geezer wanted to play at Ozzy Osbourne’s “retirement” shows in Costa Mesa in mid-November. Ronnie disagreed and refused to do the shows. Rob Halford filled in for him on vocals. I thought “damn, they blew it again.” But to me Dehumanizer nicely wrapped up some “unfinished business” with the Mob Rules lineup. I got to see them live and thought “ok, we’re good.” I thought the Dio chapter of Black Sabbath had closed for good. However…fast forward to 2006.

The original Black Sabbath [the band with Ozzy] put out a box set of their original eight albums called The Black Box several years ago. Then Rhino Records wanted to remind Black Sabbath fans that there was more to Black Sabbath than Ozzy, so they wanted to put out The Dio Years. Rhino approached Tony Iommi about whether there was any leftover Dio-era stuff still in the can. Tony told them “no,” but he had an idea. He went to see a Dio show when they came around to Tony’s hometown of Birmingham, England and made a proposition to Dio – would you like to write and record some new songs for The Dio Years? Much to my astonishment, Dio said yes. They recorded three new tunes for The Dio Years and hit the road for a short, ten-date tour of North America. Instead of calling themselves “Black Sabbath,” the Dio-era lineup dubbed themselves Heaven & Hell, after the first album they recorded together. The final date was to be a show at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. When word got out about the show at RCMH, the place sold out in 30 minutes! Not only that, the band filmed the show for DVD release and recorded the soundtrack for an accompanying 2-cd set. We Sabbath fans got more than we bargained for, but we didn’t complain. Then a funny thing happened…these guys, who had broken up twice, discovered they were playing well together, enjoyed what they were doing, and actually enjoyed each other’s company. The problems of the past didn’t come back. Then they booked several more tours for 2007. They ended up touring most of that year. Then they toured some more in 2008. When that was done, they all thought “what a shame to end it all now – wanna do an album?” They all thought “sure, let’s do it!” So they did it. Under the name Heaven & Hell, they recorded The Devil You Know. They picked up where they left off with Dehumanizer and gave us fans exactly what we wanted short of a full studio album from the original Sabbath. The Devil You Know is pure headbanging, skull-crushing, face-melting, ear-splitting heaven [no pun intended].

Heaven & Hell hit the road in 2009. Many friends of mine from the Tony Iommi message board went to see them, but not me. Having seen the RCMH DVD was good enough for me, and no hearing damage either. But it was very gratifying to see a new generation of fans for the Dio-era of Black Sabbath. It was great to know the old fans who hadn’t given up the faith were happy as well. I lived vicariously through my message board mates. Just to read the pure joy expressed in the words of who saw them made me happy. The band then took a well-deserved break in the fall of 2009. Ronnie James Dio wanted to do a European tour with his own band, but during rehearsals something was wrong. It was painful for Ronnie to sing. The pain was in his stomach. He went to the Mayo Clinic to get checked out. The diagnosis – stomach cancer. Cancel the European tour. We all assumed Ronnie would slay this dragon. We got word that Heaven & Hell booked summer tour dates for 2010. All looked like Ronnie was getting better and would conquer cancer. But then came that Facebook message from Tony Iommi two weeks ago announcing the tour was canceled – Ronnie was too sick. Uh oh…Then Sunday morning while looking up the usual Facebook nonsense I saw the words “RIP Ronnie James Dio 1942-2010.” Damn – Ronnie lost the fight….

I looked all over the web to see what his contemporaries had to say about Ronnie’s passing. Before I share them with you, allow me to indulge in some thoughts of my own. If this had happened thirty years ago when I was but a teenager, I would have cried for Ronnie as I cried for John Lennon after his murder. But I’m a chronological adult now [I refuse to grow up!]. Dying is a part of living. Ronnie’s music was exhilarating. Sometimes you felt his anger, sometimes you felt his sorrow and pain, sometimes he took you on trips of fantasy and wonder, but it was all good. He was part of my youth, he was part of my adulthood. To all of this I can just simply write “Rest in Peace Ronnie – well done and thank you."

“Yesterday 16th May my dear, dear friend Ronnie James Dio passed away at 7.45am LA time. I’ve been in total shock I just can’t believe he’s gone. Ronnie was one of the nicest people you could ever meet, we had some fantastic times together. Ronnie loved what he did, making music and performing on stage. He loved his fans so much. He was a kind man and would put himself out to help others. I can honestly say it’s truly been an honor to play at his side for all these years, his music will live on forever. Our thoughts are with Wendy Dio who stood by Ronnie until the end, he loved her very much. The man with the magic voice is a star amongst stars, a true professional. I’ll miss you so much my dear friend. RIP.” – Tony Iommi [Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell]

"Ronnie had a unique and wonderful voice. He will be sadly missed in the rock and roll world." - Ritchie Blackmore [Deep Purple, Rainbow]

"Goodbye my dear friend." - Geezer Butler [Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell]

“It is with huge sadness we hear that Ronnie has lost his battle against stomach cancer, and our heartfelt condolences go out to his wife Wendy and family at this terrible time. From his earlier years in Elf, Black Sabbath and Dio, right through to his most recent days fronting Heaven and Hell, Ronnie, time and again, proved his genius as a frontman, always giving his all to his fans and his music. Ronnie was not only an incredibly gifted singer but also a wonderfully warm, intelligent and generous person and this shone through both on and off stage leaving a positive mark on everyone he came into contact with. A longstanding friend of Maiden, we played many shows together over the years and we will all miss him greatly. The world has lost an irreplaceable talent and, first and foremost, one of the finest human beings you could ever wish to meet.” - Steve, Bruce, Adrian, Dave, Janick, Nicko and Rod [Iron Maiden]

“We are filled with great sadness at the terrible news about our friend Ronnie James Dio - our condolences and love go to Wendy and Ronnie's family - Ronnie was a wonderful man and will be sorely missed.” - ROB, GLENN, K.K., IAN & SCOTT [Judas Priest]

“A huge part of my life just disappeared. Words are not enough, emotions are too much. My sincere condolences to Ronnie's family and friends.”- Roger Glover [Deep Purple, Rainbow]

"Ronnie James Dio was undoubtedly one of heavy metal's greatest performers and will continue to influence the world of heavy metal forever. He was certainly a very big influence on QUEENSRŸCHE and along the way became a cherished friend too. We will all miss him greatly, but Ronnie will live on every time we raise our metal horns high! The man on the silver mountain will always be our rainbow in the dark." – Members of Queensrÿche

"Ronnie was one of the kindest souls I have ever met and his talent was beyond inspirational to so many of us. I still have this image of him standing on stage in front of 100,000 belting out 'Man on the Silver Mountain' and remember the shivers it sent up my spine. He will be missed by all of us.” – Nikki Sixx [Motley Crüe]

"R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio. I only got to meet him once and I can honestly say he was the nicest person I have ever met in music. Ronnie was a true gentleman, and obviously one of the best rock singers there will ever be. What a sad loss today.” Billy Corgan [Smashing Pumpkins]

"Rest in peace, Ronnie James Dio. Horns at half mast. Such a huge loss...So many memories of Ronnie. Toured together many times. He always had a kind word and a smile and he LOVED the Yankees. In 2004 on the DIO/ANTHRAX tour I would get the Yankee score every inning for Ronnie while he was on stage. He was so into it. Saw Black Sabbath on the 'Black & Blue' tour [featuring BLACK SABBATH and BLUE ÖYSTER CULT] at Madison Square Garden [in New York City] in 1980. First row center. Ronnie was king of the world. Top 3 shows of all time." – Scott Ian [Anthrax]

"Rest in peace, Ronnie James Dio... one of the greatest of all time. Looks like Dime [late PANTERA guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott], Randy [Rhoads; late OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist], Cliff [Burton; late METALLICA bassist] and Bonzo [late LED ZEPPELIN drummer John Bonham] just scored the ultimate singer. This is one of the saddest days in metal ever." – Mike Portnoy [Dream Theater]

"[I was] so very sad to hear of Ronnie's passing... My thoughts, prayers and condolence to his family and friends." – David Coverdale [Whitesnake, Deep Purple]

"It is a very sad day today... I have lost a very dear friend. Ronnie was a true leader of heavy metal, an icon and a visionary... There will never be another like him. Ronnie gave me wisdom, and showed me great compassion when he was in ELF, all those years ago, when we were on tour together in my time in DEEP PURPLE. He was a beautiful soul, kind, considerate and a wonderful teacher. Some day I'll be bringing your microphone up there with me, and we'll sing a song, and share a Vindaloo together...
I'll miss you mate." – Glenn Hughes [Deep Purple, Trapeze]

"Dio was a shining light of rock/metal authenticity. He was a completely dedicated artist with massive talent. It's likely that his vital contributions will continue to inspire well into the future. He is now legend. But more than all this, Ronnie was a really cool guy. I mean reeeally cool. God bless you, brutha." – Steve Vai

"I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Ronnie James Dio. Metal has truly lost one of its greatest voices. My heart goes out to his family and to his many fans. Love and respect.” – Ozzy Osbourne

"I'm truly upset, especially since he seemed to be rallying at the Golden Gods show. Bon Voyage, Ronnie, rest in peace. I'm devastated" - Lemmy Kilmister [Motörhead]

"Backstage at the venue [in Brandon, South Dakota during Rollins' spoken-word tour]. Listening to RAINBOW, tonight's walk-in CD is burning away in my laptop. All Dio all night. Ronnie James Dio, the great vocalist of ELF, RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH, DIO and HEAVEN & HELL passed away [Sunday] morning. What a loss. I have been getting mail all afternoon about it. [Saturday night], there was an Internet rumor of his passing and it was great to hear that it wasn't true. I came back from the gym a few hours ago and Angel, our merch man, told me that it was indeed true. What a voice, what a loss. Dio's passing made me think of my old bandmates in BLACK FLAG as we used to listen to those records quite a bit. Damn, at least he left some amazing records behind. The metal world is stunned, I am sure. Ronnie James Dio, one of the greatest singers ever." – Henry Rollins

"It's a shock to hear that Ronnie has gone. Even though we had all known he was battling with cancer for some time, he was such a wiry fighter, and of such an amazingly optimistic nature, I think I assumed he would go on forever. Well, he fought to the very end... was gearing up to go back out on tour. I know this will be a very hard blow for my friend Tony Iommi. When I last saw Ronnie in Los Angeles, he was as full of life and positivity as anybody I've ever known…and sang up a storm with HEAVEN & HELL in the Universal Amphitheatre. I don't know if he invented the devil-horn salute, but he was certainly the man who, more than ever, made it a universal symbol, a worldwide salute of metal. He was universally loved in the community of rock music, and will be sorely missed." - Brian May [Queen]

"My Dear Friend Ronnie,

Departed but not gone. Resting peacefully (for a while) but never forgotten.

I've had a sackful of mail since your passing; a sharing of grief and sorrow.

We all remember your huge voice of course - my ears are still ringing: Your wicked humour and sense of decency: The utter professionalism and personality that inspired so much respect from your friends in music.

The list goes on but the quality that stands out above all others is your enduring generosity. The one thing that we all treasure, the gift you gave us was your kindness.

We all agree you were the kindest man we ever knew.

Catch up later mate,

Cheers, ig"

Ian Gillan [Deep Purple, etc]

"Hey Ron, I never thought the day would come so suddenly. Ronnie was everything to me. He was my best friend, he was my brother. I sat behind him on my drums each night and played, watching him sing, hearing his roaring voice thru my monitors. Every night he sent chills down my spine with his singing, inspiring me to push it further and play the best I can to the limit. I always knew how lucky I was to be in a band with him, but to become friends was even more special. When I met Ronnie I was a kid, 21 years old, eyes wide opened. He took me under his wing, he showed me the way, he was the greatest teacher and inspiration in my life and most of all, the greatest rock singer in the world! My heart is so broken. We are now in a world without him and I will miss him so much. I can only think of how fortunate I was to make music with him that was in his heart. Music that will remain to be listened to by all his fans all over the world, whom he adored and loved! Ronnie I love you man!!" - Vinny Appice [Dio, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell]


I - Heaven & Hell, Bonn, Germany June 16,2009, from Dehumanizer


Gates of Babylon - Dio, New York 2004 - the old Rainbow song from Long Live Rock and Roll


Stargazer - Dio, New York 2004 - the old Rainbow song from Rising

Tony's Picks - 2009

It's that time of year where music critics everywhere list their "Top 10" music picks of the year. As for me, I didn't hear a whole lot of "new" stuff, but of what I did hear this year, here are my thoughts.

New Music

Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue
For me, this was the surprise release of 2009. This band is literally back from the dead. Lead singer Layne Staley died from a drug overdose in 2002, and guitarist/songwriter Jerry Cantrell hasn’t released anything since his 2002 album Degradation Trip Vols 1 & 2. With new singer William DuVall in tow, the band put together an album that finally fuses the elements of their best work [the electric Dirt and acoustic Jar of Flies] into one album. Black Gives Way to Blue is their first collection of new music since 1995 [the Alice in Chains CD]. The ease with which AIC fuses Black Sabbath menace with Beatles melodic sense is still there. William DuVall does not try to copy Layne Staley, but still manages to pull off the great harmonies with Jerry Cantrell that highlighted the band’s previous work. Cantrell’s sludgy-yet-melodic guitar is still present in spades. A new beginning indeed, and a very welcome one at that.

Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know
Formerly known as the Ronnie James Dio-version of Black Sabbath, Dio, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Vinny Appice finally record a follow-up to 1992’s Dehumanizer. In order to keep their fans from confusing them with the original Black Sabbath [and to keep Sharon Osbourne out of the picture legally], these guys renamed themselves after the Black Sabbath album of the same name. The Devil You Know is everything you’d expect from these guys – ear-splitting, skullcrushing, gorilla-stomping riffage. With Tony Iommi’s face-melting riffs, Geezer Butler’s pummeling bass, and vocalist Ronnie James Dio in top form, The Devil You Know is a more-than-worthy addition to the Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell canon. A must-have for metalheads. On a side note, Ronnie James Dio has stomach cancer. The docs caught it early, so I think Ronnie will slay this dragon. Cross your fingers.

Gov’t Mule – By a Thread
With all due respect to the late James Brown, Warren Haynes is now the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. When Warren isn’t recording and touring with his own band Gov’t Mule, he’s touring with the Allman Brothers Band or The Dead. And when he isn’t doing any of that stuff, he’s working on solo stuff. After having recorded Déjà Voodoo, High & Mighty and Mighty High with Andy Hess on the bass, Gov’t Mule has a new bass player in the form of Jorgen Carlsson. He’s a more “in your face” kind of player in the mold of the late Allen Woody, Gov’t Mule’s founding bassist. The songs on By a Thread reflect that aggressive attitude. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top makes a guest appearance on the opening Broke Down on the Brazos. It's fun to hear The Rev. Willie G. and Warren swap solos. My favorite is Railroad Boy, a smoking arrangement of a traditional blues song. Not far behind are the Hendrix-esque Any Open Window and Inside Outside Woman Blues #3. Almost every Gov’t Mule album ends with a long, slow bluesy number. World Wake Up, recorded while Andy Hess was still in the band, is it for this album. It has a weird Pink Floyd-like vibe. It’s a good way to end an album. By a Thread is not as good as Dose or Life Before Insanity, but it’s a helluva lot better than their last effort, the way-below sub-par dub-mix Mighty High. It’s pretty good.

The Allman Brothers Band – Live at the Beacon Theatre, New York 3/19/09 & 3/20/09
This year commemorates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Allman Brothers Band. To celebrate this milestone, the band dedicated every one of the shows they played a during their 2009 Beacon Theatre run to Gregg’s older brother Duane. During the Beacon run, the Brothers played with many guest stars, a lot of whom knew Duane personally and worked with him “back in the day.” I got these two shows for one reason – it’s the first [and so far only] time that Eric Clapton ever shared a stage with the Allman Brothers Band. Duane was an integral part of the Derek and the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which is beyond any doubt EC’s masterpiece. Since the shows were a tribute to Duane Allman, EC was a must-have for the tribute. On both nights the band would play classics from Eat a Peach, Brothers & Sisters, At Fillmore East, then they’d bring out EC to finish the show. They played several selections from the Layla album [Key to the Highway, Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad, Anyday, Little Wing, and Layla], plus selected ABB songs [Stormy Monday, Dreams, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed]. Layla was the encore for both nights. I’ve heard other shows over the years where Warren Haynes took the lead vocal for this song, but for this special occasion, EC did the deed – it is his song after all. Not only are these shows historic, but the musicianship is fantastic. It was every ABB junkie’s fantasy finally coming true. It’s not likely the Allman Brothers Band will ever record another studio album, so I have to be satisfied with these live releases.

Ricky Skaggs – Solo: Songs My Dad Loved
If ever there was truth in advertising in an album title, this is it. Ricky Skaggs has an outstanding bluegrass group called Kentucky Thunder, but on this CD, this is Ricky Skaggs the one-man band. Ricky sings all the songs, overdubbed all the harmonies himself, and played guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and piano. Unlike his albums with Kentucky Thunder, some of which contain a warning that listening to them will cause speeding tickets, this one has a more relaxed pace. Containing many traditional bluegrass numbers, this is a logical follow-up of the concept he did with his previous album from 2008, Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 & 1947. This is an excellent CD from an outstanding musician.

Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
Band singers Rick Danko and Richard Manuel are still dead, Garth Hudson is performing piano and vocal works with his wife as well as continuing as a much-in-demand session musician, and Robbie Robertson has confined himself to creating music for movies. That leaves Levon Helm, the lone American in The Band, to carry the torch for The Band. Electric Dirt, the follow-up to 2008’s Dirt Farmer, is full of blues-gospel shouters, soul-country laments, New Orleans jazz, and mountain-folk reveries. Not bad for a guy who almost lost his voice to throat cancer.

Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
This album originally started as one song. Director Oliver Dahan, the guy who made the movie La Vie en Rose about French singer Edith Piaf, approached Bob Dylan to contribute a song for his new movie My Own Love Song. Dylan gave him Life is Hard, but he soon found himself on a songwriting roll, and Together Through Life was born. Once again recorded with his road band, this album showcases not only a very tight band that can play honky-tonk roadhouse blues with a Tex-Mex flavor. The real fun is the lyrics – they’re Dylan at his caustic, sarcastic best and are [dare I say] fun. Included are tales of lustful desire [Jolene], henpecked husbands [My Wife’s Home Town – which, BTW, is Hell], repentant drunks [If You Ever Go To Houston] .. Then there is Dylan’s latest vision of the apocalypse, It’s All Good. The story starts off bad ("Big politician telling lies/Restaurant kitchen, all full of flies/Don't make a bit of difference"), and gets worse ("Brick by brick, they tear you down/A teacup of water is enough to drown"). In Dylan’s America, it’s survival of the fittest. When Dylan was much younger, he wanted to sound old. He’s there now, sounding grizzly, pissed off and lusty, all at once. Is this Dylan’s best since Blood on the Tracks? No [that honor goes to 2001’s “Love & Theft”], but this album is still worthy of more than just the occasional listen. Unless you’re my wife Carol, in which case “the less heard the better.” After all, Bob is an acquired taste.

Tom Waits – Glitter and Doom Live
What can be said about Tom Waits? On Wikipedia I read the following about his voice: it sounded "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” Good enough for me – I can’t think of anything better. Tom Waits’ voice is unique – it is his instrument. One cannot pigeonhole his music – he’s all over the stylistic map. He draws inspiration from folk, blues, country, jazz ballads, polkas, waltzes, cabaret, swing, popular ballads. In addition to the standard guitar/bass/drums/piano, he also uses such instruments and objects as such instruments and objects as the marimba; trombone; brake drum; banjo; bell plate; bullhorn; conga; accordion; mellotron; maracas; pump organ; basstarda; chamberlain; harmonium; viola; sticks; chairs and musical saw . His label’s website describes his live shows as “part distorted vaudeville, part big top, part piano bar and part stand-up, live shows are meticulously orchestrated to have all the grace and excitement of a derailing train.” That sums up what Glitter and Doom Live sounds like. It captures all those elements. It’s a two-disc set. The first disc is 17 songs recorded in various cities on his 2008 tour. That’s a shame because I got bored one day and counted the number of different songs he did on that tour – I think it was around 64, give or take a couple. But there is a podcast of the entire Atlanta show on NPR’s website. It’s a must-have for, well, ME! As far as the song selection goes, Tom Waits sticks to stuff released after 1990. The second disc is “Tom’s Tales.” These are lots of monlogues that he does in between songs that are all spliced together into one 36-minute recording. We get treated to such things as “Do you know how many omelets you can get out of an ostrich egg? Fourteen . . . that’s a lot of omelets. I’ve gotten along with most of the ostriches I’ve met.” "Shrimp -- they never give anything to charity. That always bothered me until someone told me, well, basically, they're shellfish." I learned the origin of the phrase of 'graveyard shift' and 'dead ringer'. I learned about Nazi alphabet soup. I wish I saw this tour. It sounds like it was a long, strange but very enjoyable trip.


Archive Releases

Neil Young – Archives Volume 1 [1963-72]
This sucker has been in the works for over 20 years, but it finally saw the light of day in three formats – Blu-Ray, DVD, and CD. If you want the Blu-Ray or DVD versions, take out a second mortgage. The eight-CD version is much more affordable. This volume of the archives covers NY’s beginnings in Canada, through his days with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and his work under his own name with and without Crazy Horse. Basically, these are the songs that made Neil Young famous. There’s quite a bit of previously-unreleased material here, different versions and/or mixes, and rare tracks. The stuff that has been released before sounds infinitely better than the CDs on which these tunes were originally released. Also included are complete solo acoustic shows in Toronto in 1969 and 1971, and a 1970 show with Crazy Horse recorded at New York’s Fillmore East. Hardcore NY fans probably have most of this stuff, but with the remastered sound, this archive is worth every penny.

The entire Beatles catalog remastered
Ok, what is understood need not be discussed. The entire Beatles catalog was finally remastered and unleashed on the world on Sept 9th, 2009 [Number 9, Number 9, Number 9…]. They all sound great. Buy them!