May 20 - Holy Diver

In the misty morning, on the edge of time
We've lost the rising sun, a final sign
As the misty morning rolls away to die
Reaching for the stars, we blind the sky

We sailed across the air before we learned to fly
We thought that it could never end
We'd glide above the ground before we learned to run,
Now it seems our world has come undone

~ Black Sabbath Children of the Sea
   Ronnie James Dio
   (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)

Ronnie James Dio is one of those musicians that has helped provide the musical landscape for my life.

I owned few albums in 5-6th grade, but one of the first times I tried to make a tape for myself was with my boombox paced next to the speaker and playing the Heavy Metal movie soundtrack.  I would read the liner notes and introduce each song like a DJ.

This was my first exposure to Dio, The Mob Rules with it's slow rolling introduction, set to an epic cartoon, chock full of fantasy sexuality and I ... loved .... it.  I didn't know much about it at the time, I was a musical mess but I knew I loved this.

It was the following year that my best friend Marvin introduced me to Holy Diver and I began to associate this musical sound with the Dungeons & Dragons we would play, it was the perfect landscape and we started defining more clearly our musical tastes.  I have been lucky enough to see him play a number of times, and to this day, Black Sabbath Heaven & Hell remains on my "desert island" playlist.

The day Ronnie James Dio passed left me in shock.  Music is a constant companion, there in your best and worst times - and to think that this person who for 30+ years had been providing a connection and release through my history.  I had lost a friend in a way I couldn't express, I sat in my room and wept for the loss.

\m/ Magic \m/