A Day of Dio

Inspired by falsity of the Dio Death Scare this morning (I had "Wishing Well" of all songs stuck in my head afterward), I've been listening to Dio in his various guises - lead singer of Rainbow, lead singer of Sabbath, fronting his own band - all morning. It's been a wonderful time: I had forgotten how good Holy Diver is as an album, I had an excuse to give Heaven & Hell another listen, Cozy Powell and his crazy legs of steel impressed me once again on "Kill the King," but the real find was when I was trolling YouTube looking for live versions of "Gates of Babylon" and came across a copy of the recording of Dio and Yngwie Malmsteen did of "Dream On" for an Aerosmith tribute album. It's a really excellent cover, with plenty of places for expansion that where both Dio and Malmsteen take advantage, but my favorite addition is the far more baroque bass line that's evident from the beginning:



Best wishes to the man who sings it all, hoping that he'll be doing sets for years yet.

Cut Me Another Slice of Your Referential Pie

Inspired in part by Hot Tub Time Machine and its frequent and dramatic use of Motley Crue, I recently upped my Crue quotient and dug into Dr. Feelgood. It's been a worthwhile experience, but it's also led to another entry on the "songs that sound like other songs" list that's been a frequent Baroque Bleak Brutal topic in the recent past. Most of "Another Slice of Your Pie" is pretty standard Crue material: lyrics dripping with barely-disguised sexual innuendo matched up with some blues rock riffage and call and response vocals, all of which might have easily come out an Aerosmith song of the same vintage. Where things get really referential, though, is the ending. There's some hint of the idea in the bridge, but for the last two minutes the song goes from pretty straightforward rocker to a halfway decent imitation of the metal portion of "She's So Heavy." A band paying homage to the Beatles ain't no strange thing, I suppose - Oasis certainly made a career out of doing so - but what makes it noteworthy is the sudden change of gears, like the band decided they had to make a reference to the Beatles somewhere on Dr. Feelgood, and decided to tack it on to "Another Slice of Your Pie." Check it out: