Where was your star?
As we continue wandering the magical wilds, we present a tale of a wizard’s mad ambition, from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow:
The singer is one of a troop of workers, enchanted and enslaved, who are building a huge stone tower for a wizard who believes that the tower will let him leap up into the stars.
After nine long years and the deaths of many laborers, the tower is at last completed, and:
All eyes see the figure of the wizard,
As he climbs to the top of the world.
No sound, as he falls instead of rising
Time standing still,
Then there’s blood on the sand
Oh, I see his face….
The bewildered workers are freed, the wizard’s hold over them broken by his death:
Time is standing still,
He gave me back my will,
Going home,
I’m going home
All good old-fashioned heavy metal lunacy. But it is sung by Ronnie James Dio.
Dio makes this all-day wonder (8 1/2 minutes!) into a glorious metal aria, singing with passion and conviction and making the most of his exceptional technical skills. He may sound wild, but every howl and snarl, every quake of vibrato and leap through his considerable range, is a genuine, no-compromise-required artistic choice. Dio plays here and there on the Zeppish, Middle Eastern feel of the song (check right at 1:14) without a ghost of parody or pastiche. And among all the fireworks, every word is perfectly clear. From 1976, “Stargazer” shows off a great singer in his prime, and completely in command.
And Dio is paired up here, of course, with Ritchie Blackmore, arguably the most influential guitarist of the ’70s (no, it’s not that guy who stood behind David Lee Roth). Blackmore’s long solo starts at 3:30, and by 3:55, he’s at top speed. But the solo is musical, melodic, elegant, and absolutely clean, expanding and translating the Oriental mood into shred-free lightning.
“Stargazer” represents the best of ’70s gods-and-monsters metal, without the proggy pretensions that sometimes weighed down both Rainbow and Deep Purple, or the too-dark subject matter that sometimes marred Dio’s lyrics. Dio and Blackmore really were an extraordinarily good match in style, skills, and taste — it’s too bad they didn’t work together more.
Categories: Cheese Wizardry
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