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Every opera singer can learn from this
Watch this if you enjoy knowing how the sausage is made.
A genuine bona fide opera singer is reacting to Stargazer, dissecting the greatness of Ronnie James Dio, and in the process discovering for herself that little phenomena called Ritchie Blackmore.
Now, somebody needs to show this girl Gillan in full flight circa 1969 and we gonna be talkin’ ๐
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
The stu-Dio version with some live concert footage thrown in. Excellent review!.
April 16th, 2021 at 01:58She really knows what she’s talking about.
๐๐ง๐ปโโ๏ธ
One of the most epic songs ever in the history of rock music. Not many bands have ever reached these stellar heights. The vocal power and guitar wizardry in Stargazer is unique. In their prime in 1976, Blackmore and Dio were untouchable.
April 16th, 2021 at 02:37Hello all !
Just so amazing and so enjoyable again and again. After all these years. The Track. The Voice. The Song. The Players. The Uniqueness.
Thank You for giving hope and joy and power to my day. Needed that.
Long live Ronnie, Ritchie, Cozy and the whole Rainbow family.
Best Wishes from the Land of Santa : )
Be well and stay healthy !
April 16th, 2021 at 08:54So underrated music, song, group, Ritchie, Cosy, RJD.
And the bloody radio and tv just talk about Stairway….Led Zep.
Stargazer is a million time better.
Ah well. The world is dumb.
Long live Ritchie and DP family.
Richard Legris.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:40Young girl getting excited about the 70s music. Our Beloved Jon Lord once said about growing up in the late 60s and 70S along those lines ” we are lucky we ve seen it all and there is nothing left”
The young generation long to live and experience what we had music wise but you are left with you tube until the revival of the DP touring wagon after the pandamic.
Peace and Love to you all
April 16th, 2021 at 14:02This young lady’s voice is pure ambrosia!
Yes, I’ve heard better, but she has quite a distinctive sound.
https://youtu.be/hpp_zFIrRFg
I must admit though, that I prefer the dulcet tones of Greta Bradman, as I find her voice hypnotic:
https://youtu.be/uMJkUr0iBJI
However, my all-time favourite is the extraordinary & delightful lass from Wales, Katherine Jenkins, she is simply stunning!:
https://youtu.be/Qxog-JwjhA0
April 16th, 2021 at 14:34She is infectious.
April 16th, 2021 at 16:56Wow. The young lady is, at first startled, then enthralled & finally, delighted. Her unabashed joy is unmistakeable.
April 16th, 2021 at 17:35Wonderful.
Blackwood Richmore @6: yeah, but none of these otherwise upstanding performers is fangirling about RJD on youtube ๐
April 16th, 2021 at 19:39@9 Nick, the first of the three is her? โ
April 16th, 2021 at 23:16There is a thriving YouTube industry of reaction videos like this. Type in โchild in time reactionโ and enjoy.
April 17th, 2021 at 11:54Dio… the unique one… once more Blackers pointed to the very musical person… and had rid of him… but please please… in this youtube cases of hardrock and metal enchantment of opera or voices educated lector… please stop!
April 17th, 2021 at 13:32Because
How it came that these ones are/was listening to these famous rock anthems (Stargazer… Burn… Child In Time… Highway Star… Stormbringer… etc) for THE FIRST TIME????
….& she said burn!
Plenty of vocals & keyboards, but there’s no guitar… Oh those voices! ๐ค๐ต๐ถ:
https://youtu.be/lUgfyUlMPdo
April 17th, 2021 at 23:52I believe what appeals to classically trained vocalists is the amount of control Dio had over his pipes. That is after all what they strive for too.
The little man was very controlled with his voice, only Paul Rodgers is in the same league. They both share that they don’t overstretch themselves as singers, they play it safe and don’t go for that dangerous note they might hit on a good day, but not on a bad one. They’re not Graham Bonnets, Rob Halfords or Ian Gillans – who all took risks in their youth (and play it safer today too – Bonnet perhaps excepted).
Masterful vocal control aside, what I found deplorable about RJD was how much he limited himself stylistically as his career developed. On those Elf albums there is still a strong rhythm’n’blues influence in his singing, he’s also rhythmically more adventurous with his voice. Come Rainbow and even more Black Sabbath/Dio, he ditched a lot of rhythm in his singing und it all become these weighty, grandiose, majestic, slightly lava-like melodies reciting fantasy lyrics. It could get a bit dreary at times. Holy toads crawling to the temple of doom, as one of my friends once aptly remarked.
I missed stuff like this here:
https://youtu.be/XS2NHV6VI2w
This is hard to sing – he did it real well with great vocal timing.
Those three Elf albums are really a treasure trove if you like to hear Ronnie stretch out as a vocalist.
April 18th, 2021 at 01:01@14 Uwe, how do you feel about the sounds of Snakecharmer’s (I can’t believe it’s not butter/Paul Rodgers!) Chris Ousey?…
https://youtu.be/QTuHL5Rvr-Q
Or Axel Rudi Pell’s vocal powerhouse, Johnny Gioeli?…
https://youtu.be/KsKbtvGF4IY
There are others, but you get my point. ๐ค
April 18th, 2021 at 12:28BR @13: Yup, pretty fucking amazing. How fresh and still unmannered Coverdale was and the way Glenn’s and his voice gel and harmonize, then separate from each other to meet yet again like in some ritual dance.
Also goes to show how influential Glenn was to Mk III’s harmony sound even when he was not doing lead. That whole Burn chorus is nothing without him. He’s like Michael Anthony’s high pitched backing vocals in Van Halen, no Michael Anthony, no VH trademark vocal sound, simple as that. Michael Anthony was why VH had hits, we all know that DLR couldn’t carry a tune and if you tied it to his back.
Coverdale looked for a vocal foil like Glenn forever in WS, he never found it though Bernie Marsden’s tuneful vocals probably came closest as a great match.
When they were on top of their game, Coverdale’s and Glenn’s voice merged into that one vocal, very much like Ritchie und Jon would together become “the gorgan”, Strat and Hammond belting it out as if they were one instrument. I always wondered whether that was a premediated move when Ritchie set about creating Mk III or whether it was just by coincidence. It was pretty much a solitary phenomenon in the heavy rock world, though there were parallels in other music styles – think of that “one voice” Jon Anderson and Chris Squire had in YES.
April 18th, 2021 at 15:23Really enjoyed that, great to hear her take.
April 18th, 2021 at 19:10If slightly critical, just feel she missed a bit on the ‘I see a rainbow rising’ line and onwards as this is the ultimate peak for me with the ‘I’m coming home’ lines and further ad libs with the change in orchestration kicking in. Never fails to send a shiver down my spine!
I absolutely love seeing reaction videos to Stagazer and Child in Time. The feedback about the lyrics, vocals, and musicianship makes me love these songs even more.
April 18th, 2021 at 23:21Seen this young lady’s video’s, Her facile expressions crack me up๐๐คฃ.
April 19th, 2021 at 12:13Those that are expecting a return to normal touring by the older classic rock bands such as Deep Purple should read this article:
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pete-townshend-post-pandemic/
April 19th, 2021 at 21:14Call me whatever names, mates, but the best example of Dio’s vocal mastery is “Do You Close Your Eyes”. There is that contrast between the majestic vocal melody and rendition and utterly stupid lyrics.
When I was a teen myself, I stuck the poster with the words from this chorus to the wall in my room, and friends who came to visit me, would actually try to answer this question, even without my prompting them. Hearing their responses was a lot of fun!
April 20th, 2021 at 10:08There’s a melody to Do You Close Your Eyes? : – ). That ranks with me – together with Power off SBTE – as among the worst two Rainbow songs ever.
When I first heard it on Rising, it reminded me of Sweet’s Turn It Down. Now I like Sweet, but TID sounds like hard rock must sound to people who hate hard rock. Worse than even the worst Kiss numbers.
To be fair, Ronnie’s vocal melody isn’t the main culprit – if a little contrived – on the hamfisted song. The riffing is just horribly banal and noisy. Bad enough to make you even smash your guitar.
April 20th, 2021 at 13:28@21 Georgivs & @22 Uwe,
Since day one when I bought my first Rainbow Rising album in the summer of 1976, I have found Do You Close Your Eyes? to be the one track on that album which is the most annoying, grating, irritating song in the entire Rainbow canon. I don’t think much of Starstruck either. When I hear either of them, I instantly push the “next” button. That was a little harder to do with LPs and cassette tapes back in the day though, but I was motivated to make that effort!
And the most irritating of all is the title track from Long Live Rock and Roll. Again, another contrived melody trying just a little too hard to be melodic and catchy, but failing miserably. I understand that Ritchie was trying to broaden the band’s commercial appeal, BUT……..
Down to Earth has a couple of those duds on it too (guess which ones) – no wonder Cozy submitted his walking papers.
April 20th, 2021 at 17:41@22
My, my. Uwe, what next? You going to tell me Rock Fever is a crappy song, too?
April 20th, 2021 at 19:29Gerogvis @21, Hwe @22 & DeeperPurps.
April 20th, 2021 at 20:54I am aiming a water canon at all three of you and forcing you to listen to ‘ Do you close you eyes’ till you like it. If you blink or forwn you will be hosed down ๐
Enjoy!!!!
https://youtu.be/omtQoIvMT_c
Or at least admire RJD outfit and Ritchie stupidity at the end.
Peace and Love to you all.
But Adel, why do I have to listen to it again? I ACTUALLY WAS AT THAT GIG IN MUNICH IN 1977!!! (You can even see a glimpse of me in the audience in the concert vid, I stood on Ritchie’s side, close to the stage. I even had his guitar cable in hand after he massacred his Strat until some guy yanked it from me – not that I minded much, I always found the guitar smash thing a bit naff.) That was a great gig – even more if you were there -, but the song still sucks.
Lady Starstruck appeals to me as a musician because there is a nifty, elegant key change in it somewhere that you hardly notice.
LLRnR I like because I heard it in Munich that night for the first time – the release of the album was still far away – and it was immediately catchy and fitted the occasion: The gig had been rescheduled already once because of Ritchie being behind Austrian bars. At the new date, we had to wait until midnight for Ritchie to arrive from Vienna per car as heavy ground fog prevented any flights. We were the devoted, half the audience had already left as they could return their tickets.
Blackers was on fire that night. I was 16, we were in Munich on a school trip, stealing away (two friends and I) for that gig from our hostel, when we finally returned in the early morning, our teacher, Herr Immel, had a stern word with us, but we were so visibly elated, it rubbed off on him and he smiled in the end and sent us to bed. Poor guy had been worried where we had ended up.
April 20th, 2021 at 22:51@24 Georgiv’s, it’s funny you should mention Rock Fever… because I think I know where they got their inspiration from when they were writing it.
Just listen to both of these songs through (with headphones), then you’ll either say no, or perhaps maybe you’ll catch my drift.
Yes, I know the words are different.
Man, these guys were tight!. Million Dollar Riff was released in October 1975.
https://youtu.be/xZbiTPahfWw
Then Rock Fever was the B side to Stone Cold in March 1982.
https://youtu.be/kuR9AO6n9xs
Well people, what’s your verdict?.
April 21st, 2021 at 02:33Uwe Hornung@ 26
April 21st, 2021 at 10:52Wow I am getting shivers down my spine and watery eyes. You are one lucky guy born at the right place at the right time to experience this. What great memories to hold on and to pass on and i thank you for sharing.
Saddly I never seen Ritchie live on stage and as I was born in Egypt in the early 60s I never got to experience the explosion of live gigs music in Europe. I only started to experience DP and RJD live on stage in the late 90s when I moved to England so Saddly I can only dream of what it could have been like to experience this in the 70s and early 80s.
I have a different mental approach to the RJD 3 albums with Rainbow. I just love him so much to the point I just enjoy and charish every track he has done on the 3 albums but that’s not take away and respect your valid point on how weak this track is in comparison to the rest songs on the 3 albums.
Peace and Love rules the world.
@27
Oh yeah, Ritchie is at his best recycling someone else’s riffs… ๐ Rock Fever still rocks, though.
@25
Here is a review of Rainbow Rising that I found the other day on allmusic.com, my fav resource. It seems that it is not only me who estimates Do You Close Your Eyes” highly and specifically notes the vocal performance. And, of course, in all my vanity I decided to share it with you:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rising-mw0000195152
April 21st, 2021 at 21:05Ronnie Dio turns in a great vocal on the stunningly direct (under three minutes!) “Do You Close Your Eyes.”
The Rainbow live in Munich concert does suffer from Blackmore being in hyper mode, he is the one responsible for that approach to certain songs. Certain songs played too fast & DYCYE is appalling in that regard. It isn’t the songs fault mind, it isn’t a bad song, just ordinary for that lineups calibre. The same as Mistreated, another song I always avoid because Dio is far above those inane lyrics of Coverdale & also the blues delivery of it. I have always wondered why Blackmore insisted on Rainbow playing that song. Dio is a majestic vocalist, Coverdale never was! As far as the LLR&R song, that is the beginning of the end as far as classic Rainbow was concerned. Thankfully that album is saved by a few great songs. Cheers.
April 21st, 2021 at 21:36I’m just old, that’s all!
April 21st, 2021 at 22:11Blackmore is on record for saying that Mistreated – a riff stemming back to Mk II days – epitomized the new DP for him as he envisaged it: “It was more like Free, there wasn’t much for Jon Lord to do on it and I liked that.” Indeed, for Purple standards it’s a relatively sparse, even minimalistic song (and for the record, I don’t think it’s exactly up there with Sgt. Pepper for compositional ingenuity to put it mildly).
Ritchie liked that song und thought it “un-purple”, that’s why he played it (even basically rewriting it as Love’s No Friend at one point) though Rainbow never did it well, failing to capture the blues & laid-back funk elements of the Mk III live versions. And Ronnie couldn’t do luv, sex & heartbreak songs credibly at all. (I would have liked to have heard the version though that won Graham Bonnet his audition with Rainbow – the rawness of his voice was much better suited to it.)
I disagree with Coverdale not being a majestic singer. He once was. In late Purple and early Whitesnake he was an exceedingly cool front man and his baritonesque voice commanded attention, towering above the respective bands’ considerable instrumental brawn. He could also transport real emotion with it. No small feat, given that his lyrics never won him – and justly so – a poetry prize.
April 22nd, 2021 at 11:45Whoops, hit the send button accidently before I had time to ‘spell check’ not wearing my reading glasses, for my early morning on post. Yes indeed, Coverdale was initiated for that blues feel that Blackmore was after & he did exceedingly well for a unknown green as the green grass vocalist that he was. He was a fine vocalist back in the day, powerful & he had that more mellow ‘Soldier of Fortune’ voice also. I just don’t hold him in the same esteem as a few of the other guys who fronted those rock bands from that era. He has done well for himself though, even though he sold out as a prima donna to the almighty US of A! Cheers
April 22nd, 2021 at 21:30Neil Murray once characterized DC along these lines: “David is very set in his ways and doesn’t pay much heed to what is going on around him until one day he impromptu changes his mind and then acts as if he had always held that newly formed opinion.”
April 23rd, 2021 at 16:38Mistreated is of course one of the better tracks on Burn & I only ever listen to Purple playing it. It is Coverdale & Purple at their best in many ways. I don’t think I have ever listened to it completely with Rainbow other than when I first purchased On Stage way back in the late 70’s. The same can be said for Coverdale & Hughes singing Gillan era Purple. Or even worse JLT in Deep Rainbow. It is a bit like Dio having to sing Ozzy’s Sabbath era songs, it just doesn’t work but unfortunately for RJD he had to do it. The Sabbath gig in 1980 was difficult in that way, but I was keen to still hear those songs as well as the Heaven & Hell album songs of course. It was bliss in 2007 to only hear Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules & Dehumanizer tracks. Although I will never forget the disgruntled Sabbath fans leaving the venue & hearing them say, ‘they didn’t even play War Pigs or Iron Man’. We had to laugh as it was well known H & H were not playing 70’s Sabbath material. The same can be said in regards to Queen with Paul Rodgers. I will never listen to that, Freddie Mercury singing or no one else as far as I am concerned.
April 24th, 2021 at 00:46Each to their own. Cheers.
One phenomenon, two phenomena. Please.
Thank you.
April 27th, 2021 at 10:42And this mistreatment kicks some ass too!
https://youtu.be/ulHRgnaNaW8
I like it better than Rainbow’s stab at it, because it feels like what DP might have become, if they’d carried on with new guitarists, after the Bolin tenure ended.
April 27th, 2021 at 14:42Deep Snake! ๐๐ ๐
The Whitesnake version was always superior to Rainbow’s, it captured the essence of the song more, it had swagger and blues. Rainbow’s renditions sounded stiff and heavy-handed, Cozy wasn’t the most gifted slow or even mid-tempo drummer in the world, let’s leave it at that. He got the Rainbow job on the basis of his sheer endurance playing a fast shuffle, not because he was a skillful balladeer or had mid-tempo groove.
“Cozy, bless him, played everything way too fast live.” Tony Carey
https://youtu.be/qU5ECC57Ul8
Indeed. The undue haste ruins the song and drains its power.
April 27th, 2021 at 21:21If you do something stompy in Whitesnake style, you gotta do it right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCUSm-27Mac
Still the nicest Fool For Your Loving rip-off ever. Those early 80ies gigs where Slade was a regular opener for Whitesnake really rubbed off. And Jim Lea had a good ear for the early Whitesnake sound.
April 28th, 2021 at 10:23Uwe, I always thought Slade’s ‘Lock Up Your Daughters’ was an upbeat take on ‘TNT’ by ACDC from the mid 1970’s…
https://youtu.be/NcCXru3ZtOA
Oi!Oi! Oi! ๐ธโก๐ฅ
April 28th, 2021 at 12:16Slade, now there are a few memories indeed. At about the 1974/5 high school era a friend of mine was an ardent Slade fan & we used to argue, jest & banter with each other over the silly thing of ‘who is the best band’, Purple or Slade. I was barracking for Purple of course. Fast forward to 1991 & meeting a Dutch chick who used to go to those gigs back then & she said they were going ga ga at Jimmy Lea, as young impressionable female fans sometimes do & they managed to meet them after a gig. For the record I loathed them back in the day, mainly because of the glam & glitter thing. Over time we let down the drawbridge & accept they were a decent band when the original members were there. Noddy Holder, what a voice he had & a top guy as well. But I would have NEVER had admitted that back in the day. Happy days. Cheers.
April 28th, 2021 at 22:50Slade were cool in my school. This is their story, so grab a favourite beverage & pull up a chaise longue, then settle in for the most entertaining 49 minutes your likely to have today!
https://youtu.be/nXXUoK3OMeM
April 29th, 2021 at 11:56๐คฉ
Any band not only making English spelling accessible to savages from the Continent like me, but also lauded by fellow musicians as diverse as John Lennon, Robin Zander/Rick Nielsen, Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley, Frank Zappa, Noel Gallagher and James Blunt merits a second look/listen!
Slade had great tunes (their own – which set them apart from acts like Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Smokie and Racey pumping out Chinn/Chapman hit factory songs) and a long string of hits, but they were so much more than just a singles band.
For one, Slade had a lot of Beatles songwriter craft in them, this was mainly due to Jim Lea, their musical director and main songwriter. Classically schooled on violin, Jim knew his harmonies. And it might surprise some of you that his compositions are harmonically more varied and ambitious as well as offer more complex chords than, say, DP material of the same period. Listen to this here (Dave Hill mimes – convincingly so, he obviously did his homework – Jim’s bass parts as Jim is busy playing piano):
https://youtu.be/2WvWyMe6y5c
(It’s Noel Gallagher’s favorite song btw.)
But Jim wasn’t only a great songwriter, he is also among the top rock bassists Britain has given to the world. Perhaps my รber-hero as a bassist. Imagine a mix between Jack Bruce’s groove, Geezer Butler’s frenzied energy, Macca’s (and Martin Turner’s) sense of melody & harmony plus Glenn Hughes’ allround swagger and attack as well as John Entwistle’s solo expertise and you’re almost there! So good that Frank Zappa – a tough instrumental taskmaster if there ever was one – complimented Jim’s skills backstage after a Slade gig. (Dave Hill: “This guy looks a bit like Frank Zappa und want to speak to you …” Jim Lea: “Shut the fuck up, HE IS Frank Zappa!!!” )
You wanna hear some snazzy rock bass playing?
https://youtu.be/ffZXnWkbkgs
Or wonder how Janis Joplin’s Move Over would sound with a LEAD bass?
https://youtu.be/r80w8PIJ7QM
You think bass should be melodic? Listen to his fills here:
https://youtu.be/y3morxUSOvk
https://youtu.be/qysk6IgeFmQ
And I have to break it to you, but he is the one who plays the signature riff (on bass) here:
https://youtu.be/CFAd-zpqWiU
Thinking about it, Jim Lea was the bassist, Ritchie always wanted, lightning-fast, pick player, ultra-melodic and with an aggressive edge. He could have also written some commercial tunes for him, but never mind.
So why didn’t Slade make it in America? They wanted to break America as a rock band, not as a singles act – they had done that in the UK already and now wanted to
prove themselves as a more serious proposition. So they knuckled down to it, ditched their “Charles Dickens meets Clockwork Orange”-stage outfits (I always found Slade’s early stage look – hilarious Dave Hill excepted – a bit too unsettling to be real Glam, they had that Dr Feelgood “Don’t mess with us or else …”-aura to them) and … failed, never rising above being an excellent and well-honed opening act to more popular US stadium and arena headliners. Slade certainly knew how to “work” and excite an audience.
But Noddy Holder put down their lack of a commercial breakthrough in the US to this here: “We opened for Humble Pie in the US and they were huge there. But we scratched our heads at how they would play only like six songs in two-and-a-half hours – each one of them stretched out endlessly. We just weren’t that kind of band, we wanted to play short, snappy songs.” And it is true, Slade only had one instrumental virtuoso – Jim Lea. Dave Hill was certainly no slouch on guitar – very succinct in his playing -, but he had no drive to be the guitar hero for the US stadium masses.
Great, criminally underrated band. Whenever I answer the question to my bassist idols with “probably Jim Lea of Slade most of all”, I either get a blank stare (even in bassist circles, “Oh, uhum, that’s an interesting choice …”) or people think I’m joking (“No, I mean really now?!”). It drives me mad.
—-> MY NAME IS JIM LEA AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE !!!
April 29th, 2021 at 23:11she squints a little
smile
smile
The song is a timeless monument of the best Rainbow album ever.
That can only be increased with GATES OF BABYLON.
GATES OF BABYLON and STARGAZER are the ultimate rainbow songs,
absolute masterpieces.
Ritchie at the height of his work as a guitar god
Ronnie James Dio as the rock voice
LLRnR
kraatzy
April 30th, 2021 at 05:02Agreed. I’d add MOTSM, Catch the Rainbow (thank you Jimi Hendrix!), Temple of the King, Tarrot Woman, Lady of the Lake, and, yes, Rainbow Eyes to your list.
GoB came relatively late in the Dio era, Ritchie was already perking his ears for Foreigner. I wish they would have done more in that – more ambitious, even a touch proggy – direction.
April 30th, 2021 at 13:13