Sunday, May 16 2010

RIP Dio

Rest In Peace Ronnie James Dio. A true master of metal and the creator of the “horn hands.” Not only was Dio the one time front man of one of my favorite bands of all time, the almighty Black Sabbath, but in his own right he was a true music industry survivor, having been in bands for well over 50 years. That’s an amazing feat in itself, not to mention the fact that dude went HARD for a vast majority of this years.

Black Sabbath was one of the first concerts that I saw when I was a kid, back in 1989 at the Tower Theater in Philly. It was a sans Dio, sans Ozzy performance, but still made a lasting impression on me, someone who is a lifelong fan. Any kind growing up at that time idolized Sabbath, especially any kid that was into graffiti. And to quote my man Eli Escobar, “Dude stepped into a vary hard postition to fill, and really killed it. Dude was that ill.” Plus I have to admit that the album cover from “Holy Diver” scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.

Like I said, I’ve always been a huge Sabbath fan. Me and Pusher Matt and DJ Ayres and crew even created the Sabbath In The Park franchise in honor of one of the greatest groups of all time, and it transcended being a group and was more of a lifestyle thing I guess. I even made an all Sabbath mix in 2006 to reflect that mind state. Sad to say that when I did it I took a very “Pro Ozzy” stance and didn’t include any of the Dio joints, but that’s not to say that he didn’t contribute anything to the legacy. Quite the contrary – was an integral part. Here’s the mix, after some words:

Like I said, I’ve always been a huge Sabbath fan. Me and Pusher Matt and DJ Ayres and crew even created the Sabbath In The Park franchise in honor of one of the greatest groups of all time, and it transcended being a group and was more of a lifestyle thing I guess. I even made an all Sabbath mix in 2006 to reflect that mind state. Sad to say that when I did it I took a very “Pro Ozzy” stance and didn’t include any of the Dio joints, but that’s not to say that he didn’t contribute anything to the legacy. Quite the contrary – was an integral part. Here’s the mix, after some words:

It began with a dream, and now it is consumed in fire.

“Back in 1989, my best friend Julio and I got tickets to see Black Sabbath perform at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. After weeks of anticipation and mental and physical preparation we got ready to set out on that fateful Friday evening to experience darkness in it’s truest form. We stocked up on the supplies, including a half empty bottle of Old Grand Dad and a nickel bag of brown herb – which we had nothing to smoke it out of so we resorted to coring out an apple. We rode the EL train for miles and waited in line outside of the show in the cold, dark night. Once inside, we were bombarded by the loudest and most potent sounds I had ever heard in my young life. We were witnesses to all the power and glory that is Sabbath. Forever altered, we returned to Julio’s house and broke out the guitars. After a few hours of trying to perfect “Iron Man” we eventually moved on to more challenging – but not as spiritually important – numbers like “Smoke On The Water.”

Fast forward to the summer of 2006. Sabbath was in the air again. It had never left but at this time it seemed to be permeating through the collective consciousness of “the people.” After weeks of publicly declaring my allegiance to Sabbath and insisting that we must take this one step further, together with Matt So Real, Sabbath In The Park was born. What was just a natural progression to us metamorphosed like pupa to chrysalis to moth. The flames burned a little hotter that night. Something was summoned that none of us could have expected, from both a deep dark place and from within ourselves. The spirit was now alive, MAD BEER was in effect, and it was going down, dudes.

After several successful events across the continent, facing and beating “The Man” (proving once and for all that the Power Of Sabbath is too much for man’s puny “laws”) and gaining devotees from all over the globe, we are now pleased to present SABBATH WICKED MIX 666. Recorded live amongst the throngs of evil and including special guest commentary from Austin’s SXSW festival, come with us and live the dream, and bask within the fire of Sabbath.” – Cosmo Baker, 2007

And so with no further ado, I present to you, in the memory of the late great Ronnie James Dio, “Sabbath In The Park Wicked Mix 666.”  74 Minutes of Guitar Licks & Darkness, mixed by Cosmo Baker. A disclaimer though, for although this is up in tribute to Dio, you won’t find any of his work on this mix. When I created this I decided to stay within the confines of all pre-Dio, all Ozzy Sabbath. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – quite the contrary. Sabbath is one of my favorite bands of all time, and I was fully focused on my love for them when I made this. And I’m sure some purists might say that I’m on some bullshit, I don’t really care. I think the spirit is captured in this mix. And this mix, for the record, is one of the finest things that I’ve ever created in my opinion. So with that… Rock on, Ronnie – HORNS UP!