LeftyBassist.com

Lost his battle with stomach cancer today.
Sadness
R.I.P. Ronnie and thanks for all the great music.

Holy shit!

I'm cranking this up in tribute tonight: one of my all time favorite albums...

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbaths' vocalist and joined officially in june 1979. With the fresh blood in the band the whole approach to music changed. The new attitude led towards the new record Heaven & Hell which was the bands' best selling record since Sabotage, a multi-platinum record once again. This album surprised all those who thought Black Sabbath without Ozzy Osbourne would be impossible. Together with Dio the band released an all-time Rock N Roll classic. The Songs are much faster and harder but combined with Dio's godlike high-pitched vocals they create a whole different atmosphere than the doomish Ozzy-tracks. The fast opener Neon Knights is topped off by a gigantic solo by Tony Iommi, who surprises with his solos all over the record. But not the entire record is fast and heavy, it also contains acoustic guitars and melancholic singing like on Children Of The Sea. There is only one bad thing to say about this record: with only about 40 minutes it is too short, because you do not wont this record to end when you listen to four great musicians at the peak of their creativity.

1. Neon Knights
2. Children of the Sea
3. Lady Evil
4. Heaven and Hell
5. Wishing Well
6. Die Young
7. Walk Away
8. Lonely Is the Word

Neon Knights
Oh no, here it comes again
can't remember when we came so close to love before
Hold on, good things never last
nothing's in the past, it always seems to come again
again and again, again and again
Cry out to legions of the brave
time again to save us from the jackals of the street
Ride out, protectors of the realm
captains at the helm, sail across the sea of lights
Circles and rings, dragons and kings
weaving a charm and a spell
Blessed by the night, holy and bright
called by the toll of the bell
bloodied angels fast descending
moving on a never-bending light
phantom figures free forever
out of shadows, shining ever-bright
Neon Knights!

Ronnie you will be missed but the voice will live on...

DAMN!

Man that sucks!.... I had no idea he was even sick..Will follow Carmine's lead.

Great points Carmine.
I saw him with Black Sabbath on the "Heaven and Hell" album tour. It was one of the most outstanding concert experiences of my life. Not only were the songs from that album a new style of fire and thunder from Sabbath but to hear Dio's take on the old classics was awesome.

I first became aware of RJD as most people did during his stint with Rainbow and I do not believe that the band was ever able to capture the same spirit after he left. But Rainbow's albums, "Rising", "Long Live Rock and Roll" and "Live" are still great rock albums that hold up even now.

I didn't keep up with much of his solo work after "The Last In Line" but was very into what Heaven & Hell were doing and was hoping to catch them on tour.

It is interesting to note that Dio was a bass player early in his career, he was one of us.

Gone too soon.

And none too shabby either. There's some live/studio audio tracks of his early band Elf on YouTube showing what he could do on both vocals and bass.

Has anyone ever seen any live footage of Elf though?

R.I.P.