Huh, I always thought Dio's versions of the Ozzy stuff bordered on awful. He over emoted too much and the songs just didn't sound right. It would be the same as if Ozzy tried to cover the Dio stuff. Neither has/had the right timbre for the other's songs.
While I didn't like his renditions of Black Sabbath, Iron Man or Paranoid (I suspect he had some disdain for them...at least based on his delivery) as I stated I think he knocked Ozzy off the stage with his versions of NIB and Children of the Grave.
I think both are such sacrosanct oeuvres that never the twain an' all that... I can't tell you how much I adore both but in their natural settings: Ozzy in his Mk1 hinterland and Ronnie pretty much wherever-the-hangment-he-likes-but-there. The truth is, when I'm sailing away with Sabotage I generally feel like I'm in the environ of musical perfection and similarly when Ronnie takes me to L.A. ('59,) Babylon, Heaven or Hell. Then again, whenever Gillan starts out on 'Fighting Man,' it feels like similar territory. Oh and Rob H, Phil M plus one or two others.... AAAAAARGH!
Black Sabbath feat. Dio is similar like Fleetwood Mac feat Buckingham/Nicks. They drastically changed their sound to radio friendly Mainstream Pop. Heaven and Hell sounds too polished for me. Dio couldn't sing the Ozzy Songs, like Gillan or Rob Halford later.
Dio-era Sabbath fans: My prior gushing over "Over and Over aside," we all objectively agree, however, that RJD really phoned in the lyrics and song title for the utterly cringeworthy "Country Girl?" That guy literally rhymed "girl" with "world" like a true amateur, with absolutely no regard for the craft. And what stinks is that Iommi's riff on that track COULD be good, but it's forever marred by RJD's **** word choice.
Oh, to hear that monster groove live... Dio does fine on Ozzy tracks. Never understood what was so wrong with Live Evil, for example. His N.I.B. is always superb. He was never cut out for Paranoid, but then who is? Btw, anyone thinks "Slipping Away" sounds like Zeppelin?
I've never liked "Country Girl". I got blasted for saying so in my Black Sabbath album by album review.
I know the backstory, and somehow I knew I was supposed to dislike the album before I even heard it, but I've never found it intrusive. The power comes through. Mind you, I'm an advocate of Born Again as well, at least soundwise.
Sabbath w/ DIO is radio friendly mainstream pop? How do you come up with this "stuff"? If they're so radio friendly and so similar to Fleetwood Mac, where's Sabbath's string of multi-platinum number ones?
Well the flip side to so-called commercialism is you have Fleetwood Mac with Buckingham & Nicks who achieved a level of greatness the older version of the band could never reach...and Dio did the same creatively for Black Sabbath.
'Country Girl' may not be Ronnie's finest attempt at a Heavy Rock version of War And Peace but it does contain the odd, vocal 'quiver' which grants a stay of execution that ye seem to be threatening! Jason has said he doesn't necessarily bother with lyrics per se and I hold some union with this posture for in music, the sound of the sung word can or may transcend its application or meaning: the voice is an instrument and thus, mild cringe at RJD's not so uncommon dalliance with banal vocab selection is easily side-stepped by the simple act of largely ignoring what he may be saying and swimming in the liquid nectar that pours from the speakers as a consequence of *how* he expresses words. Indeed, from p.57 of this very thread, I mentioned: "Not just tonally unique but exquisitely technical with phrasing and inflections to delight the lifelong scholar: the section from 'Country Girl' (which I probably mentioned somewhere during yon mighty 'Sabbath album-by-album magnum opus) c/o Mob Rules where he sings "In dreams I think of you/I don't know what to do with myself/Time has let me down/She brings broken dreams, falling stars/The endless search for where you are" and on that last word, there's this kind of breathless exhalation thing he does to sustain the delivery - it's just magnificent - sort of 'musically elegant,' if that makes the remotest sense? The whole oeuvre is peppered with such subtle gems."
What about that "don't go chasing wishing wells" song? Also, I think a legitimate gripe with Dio not properly representing the Ozzy era songs is that Dio isn't known to throw a lot of words into his phrases, unlike Ozzy. So for Dio to sing something like "Paranoid" which has a lot of syllables crammed into one phrasing, it sounds forced simply because it's not his style. However, he fairs better on songs like "Children of the Grave" as Curveboy correctly stated prior.
RJD is a very cerebral metal vocalist; almost everything he does probably has a reason. That being said, the sophomoric "Country Girl" lyrics are unforgivable. THAT being said, I remember RJD stating a lot of non-American metal bands sought him out because he didn't sound American, and he attributed that solely to his phrasing. And with the passage you quoted above, I would say such holds true in this instance.
As Trillmeister points out, I don't listen to lyrics very much. Certainly the lyrics aren't the reason I don't care for it. I mean, I don't hate it but I just think it was a poor choice for a side 2 opener. "Falling Off the Edge of the World" would have been way better. It's sounds funny to say when talking about Black Sabbath but the riff for CG is just too plodding for my taste. Still, it's ok.
Yeah, I don't agree either. I think it's more a case of preferring one vocalist over another and deeming that particular material more worthwhile. I think it's even. Dio had his missteps in Black Sabbath just as Ozzy did.
