16 years old when I went to the war,
To fight for a land fit for heroes,
God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
Counting my days down to zero,
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,
And I never did get any older,
But I knew at the time that a year in the line,
Is a long enough life for a soldier,
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names,
And we added two years to our ages,
Eager for life and ahead of the game,
Ready for history's pages,
And we brawled and we fought and we whored 'til we stood,
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder,
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun,
And that's what you are when you're soldiers,
I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
And I fell by his side, and that's how we died,
Clinging like kids to each other,
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
And I wept as his body grew colder,
And I called for my mother and she never came,
Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame,
The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
And now there's nobody remembers our names,
And that's how it is for a soldier.
Four, five days later and I still don't know what to say. Dio was a god among men. He shall be missed.
Below, find some thoughts from the people who knew Ronnie James Dio, and a few videos showcasing his finest performances over 38 years he has recordings for.
Lars Ulrich: "Ronnie, your voice impacted and empowered me, your music inspired and influenced me, and your kindness touched and moved me. Thank you."
Kiss: "Ronnie was a true gentleman who always emanated great warmth and friendship to us and everyone around him. We will miss him."
Mike Portnoy: "Looks like Dime, Randy, Cliff and Bonzo just scored the ultimate singer....this is one of the saddest days in metal ever."
Iron Maiden: "The world has lost an irreplaceable talent and, first and foremost, one of the finest human beings you could ever wish to meet."
Dr. Brian May: "He was in many ways the antithesis of the current mould of TV-bred singers. He had no apparent desire for fame, in the sense that so many X-factor contestants seem to. He was not a TV face, a 'celebrity'. He just loved doing what he did."
Tony Iommi: "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."
Vinnie Appice: "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!"
Michael Anthony: "Ronnie was a great guy. I remember when we opened for them, all of us were back at the hotel having some drinks; it was his birthday, and I remember us all just hanging out, and he was just a great guy."
Doogie White: "I first met Ronnie 10 years or so ago and he said, 'Ah! So you are Doogie, I know who you are, but never knew what you looked like. Come in, son and have a glass of wine. Is red okay?' This was backstage at the Wembley Arena. He dedicated 'Man On The Silver Mountain' to me that night, saying 'To my new friend, Doogie. You may have sung it, but I sang it first.'"
Lemmy: "I'm devastated."
Jon Schaffer: "I think we've all had run-ins with our childhood heroes, and sometimes it can be a disappointing experience. This was definitely not the case with Ronnie. He was a wise, kind, and special person, and a dear friend that will be greatly missed."
Biff Byford: "The last time we met was in Finland last year, both bands stranded in an airport with flight delays. What do you do?! Go to the bar, get drunk and tell rock and roll stories. He told great stories... To absent friends."
For me, Dio was always one of the greatest vocalists I've ever heard. His music has been the source of inspiration and relief. To know that such a giant has left the scene saddens me greatly. You can't make such great music and expect to not be missed. For a man short enough to require platform shoes, Dio has left a bigger hole in the hearts of those who knew him, and those who never had the pleasure, than many of his contemporaries could ever dream.
I've been on a huge Iced Earth kick lately. Iced Earth has always clocked in as one of my favourite bands, but the albums I would generally consider to be best by them were The Dark Saga, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Night of the Stormrider, and of course the masterful 3 CD live set from Alive in Athens. But recently I think all those albums have been supplanted by one I had always sort of dismissed: Horror Show.
Iced Earth has this great tradition of theme albums and concept albums, and they usually work out pretty good (though I'm not sold on the two new Something Wicked albums). The Dark Saga is probably their most famous theme album, and it is about Spawn (the comic book character). But Horror Show takes the theme concept to an excellent conclusion. Each track on the album tackles a horror-esque figure.
The album has two long epic tracks, which I consider the best. "Damien" is about the Antichrist rising to rule over all mankind, and "The Phantom Opera Ghost" is about Erik's mad and murderous obsession with Christine. The album has some fantastic shorter rockers - "Wolf" and "Jack" both rock. "Jack" (about the Ripper) especially I find good. It makes me feel very aggressive when I listen to it. Not to women, but just in general. I'd listen to it before a sporting match.
There's a few good medium length songs. "Dracula", "Frankenstein", and "Jeckyl and Hyde" have good riffs, decent solos, and the lyrics fit the theme. "Ghost of Freedom" is an almost ballad-style song. If you're familiar with Iced Earth, you know that Jon Schaffer (the guy who is pretty much the core of Iced Earth) is a huge Americo-nut. I only found out recently he's pretty much a Tea Partier, which has hurt my opinion of him. I get loving your country, but anyway..."Ghost of Freedom" is very close to a "When The Eagle Cries" stinker, but not quite. Unlike The Glorious Burden, this song doesn't smack of American jingoism, but more of a quieter patriotism. It could be used in the propagation of Canada's national myth, for instance.
"Dragon's Child", originally, sounds like an OK rocker, but that's giving it a lot of benefit of the doubt. The lyrics are boring and the music is pretty plain. "Im-Ho-Tep", by comparison, is a bit more exciting and tends to be a decent middle-of-the-road song.
They use a lot of effects on the lyrics, especially on "Wolf", "Jack", and "Im-Ho-Tep", doubling or tripling lines. On "Wolf", the chorus is jumbled together, probably representing the multiple forms of the subject lycanthrope. "Jack" and "Im-Ho-Tep" use more of an echo, to represent the Ripper's tortured soul and the Mummy's time encased in stone.
Anyway, despite the lower points, I'm addicted to the album. 9.5/10
Goddamn, sometimes a good song can really affect you. I can't pretend to be swayed by pop songs, or sex drugs & rock'n'roll songs, but a well-done song about a powerful piece of literature, or an amazing event can surely move me. Famously, I wept during the first time I heard "Paschendale", by Iron Maiden. And who can blame me? Check it out.
Warning: SHAMELESS PLUG
"Paschendale" is the story about a soldier at the Third Battle of Ypres, best known as the Battle of Passchendaele. This battle was a brutal slaughterfest in a raining field of muck and mud that was intended to be the first part of a major operation designed to cut off a large force of Germans, and deny them a valuable U-Boat base on the North Sea. However, it failed; taking the village of Passchendaele was only supposed to take a week. It took six months and 508,000 casualties to take that damned village.
Passchendaele was a mess of muck and mud; a filth-ridden series of trenches swarming in putrid disease, rats, and human remains. The worst rains recorded in French history thundered down on the battlefield, ensuring that it was impossible to navigate; thousands drowned in the muck, or were wounded and simply hadn't the strength to stay afloat. It was an unconscionable slog; a brutal and useless battle, and probably the worst fighting conditions in human history till Stalingrad.
The battle tells me the story of one particular soldier, who waits and waits for his turn to hop the trenches, waiting in terror and rain and fear. When the moment comes, there's the solos, short, intense, rapid sounds, a verse lamenting slaughter, and the soldier's violent death. It was probably the most hyped song of the Dance of Death album, and it hasn't lost its poignancy yet.
So, what are some others songs that affect me the same way?
Let's see. Let's try...Gettysburg (1863) by Iced Earth.
Yes, the song is like 30 minutes long, and comes in three parts. The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent, where one hundred and sixty-five thousand Americans clashed over three violent days, resulting in around 50,000 casualties. (Yes, that is one in four.) Gettysburg was a fluke; advance columns of Harry Heth's division of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia met with John Buford's Federal Cavalry under the command of the Army of the Potomac.
Buford correctly identified the heights surrounding Gettysburg to be a critical defensive position that must be denied to the numerically inferior Confederates. Buford, and many other Union generals, were familiar with the ability of the Army of Northern Virginia to defend - the Battle of Fredericksburg was not so long ago, where James Longstreet's Corps had handed the Union army a thorough drubbing from a strong defensive position.
Buford deployed his cavalry, dismounted, and engaged Heth. He held for some hours, waiting for reinforcements. Just before he was about to be pushed back, however, John Reynolds and the Union I and XI Corps arrived to reinforce. Reynolds (one of the most experienced and talented commanders in the Union army) took personal command until he was killed, likely by friendly fire. Winfield Scott Hancock arrived on the field to take command around noon; upsetting Oliver Howard of XI Corps who felt he was the senior commander.
Regardless, Robert E. Lee's full army was coming down on two Corps, eventually forcing them back through the town of Gettysburg and onto the hills behind it - Culp's Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Cemetery Ridge, forming a defensive "fishhook" as other Corps arrived - II Corps (Hancock) and III Corps (Sickles) formed the left end of the line along the Ridge, to the hill called "Little Round Top", while I Corps (now under Newton) and XI Corps held Cemetery Hill; XII Corps under Slocum entrenched on Culp's Hill on the far right.
The second day started with Lee's forces preparing an assault on the far left of the Union line. Longstreet formed up two of his three divisions for an assault. III Corps, responsible for that side of the line, moved forward out of position, and was caught in the attack by Hood and McLaws. III Corps was dissected and destroyed in detail; V Corps under Sykes was rushed into position, extending from the end of II Corps's line to the top of Little Round Top, where the 20th Maine Regiment under Joshua L. Chamberlain was placed.
A professor of rhetoric at Bowdoin University, Chamberlain was not a likely soldier. However, operating at the extreme left of the Union line, finding the far right of Hood's division coming up the hill at him, Chamberlain and his Maine boys performed admirably, firing till their ammunition was exhausted, then leading a charge down the hill with bayonets to rout their foe. Had the 20th Maine broken, the Rebels might have swept the line apart; by ending the charge, they ended the day's danger.
On the third day, Lee decided on a grand charge. Three divisions (Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble) under Longstreet attacked Hancock in the line's centre, trying to split the Union force in twain. Fifteen thousand men charged across a mile of field, being wracked apart by cannon and canister, by musket and rifle, and ending up in a vicious hand-to-hand battle. Armistead's brigade of Virginians broke the line, and for a moment the Confederate battle flag flew over Cemetery Ridge. But Armistead was mortally wounded, and the Charge broken. Around half of those who set out never came back, or were badly wounded, or captured.
Lee's final gamble failed spectacularly, and the Army of Northern Virginia was forced to retreat. Just as exhausted, George Meade and the Army of the Potomac followed, failing to press the issue. With around a third of the strength of both armies drained, neither felt like fighting too hard in the days following. It's a terrible time in American history, but capturing it, remembering it, is oh so important.
We'll do one more in this segment of "Historical Songs"...
Silver Wings by Bruce Dickinson is an examination of those who performed night bombing for Bomber Command during World War II, from the perspective of a pilot flying an Avro Lancaster four-engined bomber on a mission towards Germany. Night bombing was a thankless, exceptionally hazardous mission. There was no fighter escort, and by the late war, Germany had developed many, many effective night fighters to engage Allied airplanes.
The song laments the poor prospects of a bomber crew as they enter their raid over a German city - how the searchlight seems to have caught them, how they lose engines and have to dump the fuel, how the pilot advises the crew to bail out, and likely how his plane crashes to the pilot's death. It's a very...powerful song, both in the music and the words.
"Tonight, on silver wings, I am soaring through the mountains of the moon...on silver wings, flying where no angels fly"
Bruce's lyrical ability highlights the incredible joy of flying (he would know, as a pilot), the power one feels, with the simple fact that they were harbingers of death for those in Germany. Flying where no angels could fly. It makes me a little teary just pondering that terrible contrast.
