Slide down the mountain
Elizabeth the opera singer is getting her Dio fix by listening to Man on the Silver Mountain, and rather surprisingly, it is the album version.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan8.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/glover3.jpg)
Elizabeth the opera singer is getting her Dio fix by listening to Man on the Silver Mountain, and rather surprisingly, it is the album version.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
The studio version was the start of my journey into the Dio-Rainbow era. It has a lopping groove to it, courtesy of Gary Driscoll and Graig Gruber. I probably enjoy it more nowadays that the live versions.The latter day Dio band slowed down the tempo on stage.
March 4th, 2025 at 21:00The cute nose (and adorable eyebrows) really loves Dio!
Well, I’m happy to say that I’m thankful that the world is big enough for us to have different opinions and tastes 😄
March 5th, 2025 at 06:52dio the best rock singer ever …if dio blackmore and powell had stayed together they could have eventually conquered the world
March 5th, 2025 at 09:21Man on the silver mountain meets woman making nose wrinkle over the rainbow!
https://media.tenor.com/yO4XKnkwqSYAAAAM/nose-wrinkle-judy-garland.gif
I actually prefer MOTSM in its original studio version to any live take I’ve heard from Rainbow. Why, because ELF, especially the rhythm section of Driscoll and Gruber, from years of playing together just grooved more than Powell/Bain, Powell/Daisley, Powell/Glover, Rondinelli/Glover or Burgi/Glover, there is more small detail and musicality. I know that it wasn’t heavy enough for Ritchie, but it was more musical to me with the Elf guys and their American groove. When I first heard Rising I was aghast at how crude the rhythm section sounded in comparison.
It’s a song that is also rarely covered well, this here is the best non-Rainbow version I know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dU-Mk-mJQw
Towards the end it sounds a bit like Jon Lord guested on Bonfire’s MOTSM, with a Hammond soloing over the repeated riff. In real life we all know that Mickey Lee Soule wasn’t allowed to take any solos on the Rainbow debut except for some piano tinkling on If You Don’t Like Rock’n’Roll.
Rainbow versions of MOTSM were also live too fast, robbing the song of its natural grandeur, and/or ruined by silly medleys (which I hate with any band). When Bonnet or Turner sang it, the song also suffered from them not being able to project the (mind you, nonsensical) lyrics. Rolling wheels that can feel, moving suns that can run and all will be made holy again, yeah, sure, whatever, Ronnie, whatever you are smoking I’ll have a whiff of too. 😏
In my book, the MOTSM riff is also in the same class as SOTW, Burn, Sail Away & KAYBD, my five favorite Ritchie riffs. (Add Woman From Tokyo and Might Just Take Your Life if you want to make it six or seven.)
And finally, chord construction-wise in the verses, it’s one of the most complex Rainbow songs (the verse doesn’t even start on the root note of the key of the song) with very little repetition.
March 5th, 2025 at 13:35First song I heard Dio. I can’t forget it. Man on the silver mountain the album version is the best. A perfect song with a great guitar solo. Also an excellent album. Catch the rainbow, still I’m sad, temple of the king…..
March 5th, 2025 at 19:03“dio the best rock singer ever …if dio blackmore and powell had stayed together they could have eventually conquered the world …”
Huh? 🤨 Meanwhile, in another part of town called reality, each Dio era Rainbow album sold less than its predecessor in the US – all the way up to the last one, LLRnR. They sure took their time conquering the world, pretty much the success rate of the not quite flyworthy wizard and his tower to soar away from, oops …
Dio-Rainbow’s last chance to crack the US was a good one – opening for REO Speedwagon on their lengthy 1978 tour before sold-out arenas, it probably cost them quite a bit to get on that tour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TAozwgIOa8
Blackmore boasted ahead of the tour how they would “kill REO every night”. Like hell they did – unlike Judas Priest or the Scorpions who on extended tours opening for KISS cracked the US market for themselves -, at the end of their tour LLRnR stalled at an embarrassing #89 in the Billboard 200 while REO was going double platinum with ‘You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish’ during the same period.
Frustrated, Blackmore dissolved the complete band after the REO tour – except for Cozy (who stayed for one more album) and revamped the sound with Glover, Airey and Bonnet.
Trust the words of a German from experience, Dave: Conquering the world is often easier said than done. 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmowqd15MeY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9iFpcb2EXk
March 5th, 2025 at 21:52The (for that particular line-up) fateful 1978 US tour of Rainbow, nearly thirty gigs with REO, a few with Foghat (at that point still a massive draw in the US) and one with Alice Cooper. The gigs with AC/DC still saw the schoolboy-uniformed Aussies opening for Rainbow – that would soon change …
http://www.dio.net/tour/long_live_rock_n_roll.html
Whoever had the idea of pairing The Cars up with Rainbow? 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdA8EB5Oz6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnr4zItpdH8
I mean I love the Bostonians, but with a Dio era-Rainbow audience they were bound to have a hard time.
Well, one hopes that Rainbow at least picked up some fashion inspiration from The Cars, e.g. that flared trousers and platforms were on the way out. 😏
Let’s see, next Rainbow line-up the flares and platforms were gone with Ritchie and the singer finally had a decent haircut and not moon & stars embroidery on his jeans!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjTaJo2n6hY
March 6th, 2025 at 02:40of course if she compares the vocalities of Dio and Chris Cornell’s…to me they seem like very distant planets…
March 7th, 2025 at 07:48Cornell was a one-of-a-kind-singer, but I don’t really get the comparison to Dio either, Cornell was much rawer and took risks Dio always avoided in his singing style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GurZpsfEWwY
Ronnie was a very controlled and flawless singer, he never attempted anything that might have gone wrong, just listen to how he sings this here compared to the original sung by a then still very young Steven Tyler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GurZpsfEWwY
I’m not faulting Dio’s performance on the song, far from it, it is impressive, but being on safe ground was part of his recipe.
March 7th, 2025 at 19:50@6
“ Huh? 🤨 Meanwhile, in another part of town called reality, each Dio era Rainbow album sold less than its predecessor in the US – all the way up to the last one, LLRnR. They sure took their time conquering the world, pretty much the success rate of the not quite flyworthy wizard and his tower to soar away from, oops …”
😂😂
Yeah that surprised me too, when Dio “was such a fantastic singer” 🤣
March 7th, 2025 at 23:05To be fair, Karin, Ronnie had much more success with Black Sabbath in the US than he had with Rainbow. Heaven & Hell climbed to a respectable #28 in the Billboard 200 and eventually went platinum there too, equaling 1.000.000 sales in the US. His first solo album didn’t climb as high (#53), but still achieved double platinum status over the decades. His second solo album climbed even to #23 and went platinum once.
Dio is widely adored in heavy metal circles (and here too I guess) and technically an excellent singer, ultimate control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXnkJkw_sFE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rABJl9qCt34
Cut all the sword & sorcery crap and there was a voice that deserved to be heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sVAM-RAp8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHucLMc8F28
Blackmore would later on disown Rainbow Eyes as Dio “singing it with that little girlie voice he had when he went high”, but I thought that highly unfair, Ronnie sang that (not really rock or even pop) number beautifully, let’s give credit where credit’s due.
It certainly wasn’t lack of ability or talent that held Ronnie back from being even more successful than he was. If anything, he painted himself into a heavy metal corner and – already in his mid-40ies when hair metal reigned – didn’t quite have the David Lee Roth look.
https://bananaroad.com/cdn/shop/products/pst3534_David_Lee_Roth_Van_Halen_Poster_grande.jpg?v=1622386073
March 8th, 2025 at 01:16Oops, my post @9 referenced Dio doing Aerosmith’s Dream On, but the link was wrong, here is the correct one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYF8YMznqjY
March 8th, 2025 at 05:03@11
“let’s give credit where credit’s due.” – yes, that is pretty easy for you to say!
Allow me to explain:
Because I have this phenomenon going on, Synesthesia, listening to certain people or bands etc, I have terrible colours, (not only ordinary colours as green, yellow, blue in combination, but also gruesome metallic combinations) so I’m not making fun or just being in opposition to everyone, I really don’t like the effect certain voices, or certain music have on me.
Dio, and I really am being serious here, makes me feel nauseated in so many ways.
If you knew how much I sometimes WISH that this wasn’t happening because I can never be impartial when ever I’m presented to any music. I could never be a judge in ‘X-Factor’ (nor would I, but that’s another matter )
But on the other hand it is quite extraordinary to experience so all in all I cannot be complaining, only when I’m met in here with mistrust and accusations of being prejudiced.
Funny info:
Purple’s song Woman from Tokyo, it is SO much a song for spring time in my head!
https://youtu.be/uIaXva9akfs?si=XOEIOGfCBo5iqb07
So is The Move’s Message from the country, but those two songs are not similar in any way.
https://youtu.be/DSOvhzjd9gQ?si=wsnakMjLrFGkp1nL
I had a conversation with this guy who sings wonderfully, and he has the same as me, and he admitted that he couldn’t sing anything!
March 8th, 2025 at 13:20That was some comfort for me 😊
Why would anyone listen to someone talking about music in such a superficial way is beyond me.
March 8th, 2025 at 16:57Charismatic Lizzy is apparently currently pregnant with baby #2
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFGJdLrSoOZ/ ,
that means closed season for any caustic quips from me. Best wishes for a good pregnancy and may your and your children’s noses wrinkle forever!
March 8th, 2025 at 21:34@15
Ohh Instagram…. ☺️😉
March 9th, 2025 at 00:57#15 Uwe
Let’s hope that the second child is as beautiful as the mother, but that after the pregnancy the mother no longer gives us superficial listening to Purple Family songs!
listening to the Aerosmith song you really realize that Ronnie sang everything in the same way as 95% of rock singers (and singers in general) do in their repertoire.
sometimes it can be too cold, due to his excellent almost lyrical vocal setting.
he didn’t have the tenor’s high notes, as far as I can remember he never reached G/A/A# above chest C, but then again he never needed it.
I wouldn’t call him the best rock singer for this reason, but he’s definitely one of the best who has influenced a lot of heavy metal singers from the 80s to today.
for his part he had an absolutely natural way of forcing the chest voice into the head voice, mixing them, that when he made the register transition it was almost difficult to perceive the difference.
I was lucky enough to see him live several times, and he never failed a concert, he was always an absolute guarantee on stage, as an incredible voice, as a presence, as a feeling, as emotions.
March 11th, 2025 at 13:06I must have seen Ronnie close to a dozen times live (2x Rainbow, 2x Deep Purple Concerto, 2x Black Sabbath & several times with Dio), I never heard him sing badly. His voice aged over the decades and lost flexibility, but it does that with every rock singer.
And that night in Munich 1977 when they hit the stage late at night after Ritchie’s prison release in Austria, he was absolutely charming and warm to the faithful who had stayed. I have fond memories of him.
March 12th, 2025 at 21:25