I’ve finally found a video of the namesake of this site! Sixteenth Century Greensleeves has raced to the head of the pack, beyond Stargazer, far past Man on the Silver Mountain to be my all time favorite Rainbow song.
It’s got all the earmarks of a classic Dio composition lyrically. The local evil wizard woman has kidnapped one of the Villager’s kin. So one brave (extremely short) warrior decides its time to stop turning a blind eye and kick some wizard bitch ass! He rounds up the posse and breaks out the armory to bring the Wizardess to a bloody end.
Possibly my favorite passage in the song comes when he non-chalantly namechecks “Crossbows in the Firelight” as if to let you know not only do they have an angry mob but they’re armed to the teeth with the equivalent of the 16th Century AK.
Blackmore’s intro of actually playing Greensleeves only adds to the amazing display of majesty…
God bless you Richie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio for, if even briefly, putting together this confluence of rock savants.
Ok I saw this on You Tube today and it spurred me on to posting something on ol’ neglected 21CGS. This song isn’t obscure by any stretch of the imagination. It’s probably played as much on Classic Rock Stations today as much as it was back in the 70’s. I basically stunned by the unparalleled level of stoneyness displayed by these guys in direct relation to the actual complexity of this song. Hats off old Stoners for being able to execute this smash hit and smoke bong rips at the same time.
I’m repping my adopted home to the fullest on this one. Scorpions shred Blackout at Madison Square Garden in NYC circa 1984. Be sure to peep that luscious blond Hesher chick in the opening… I’d totally shotgun a joint with her…
There was only 1 rock band I listened to for about 5 years solid and that band was Thin Lizzy. Actually I listened to them so much I was pretty burnt on them up until a year ago. Luckily You Tube is lifting the moratorium and I can hear stuff besides the studio albums and crappy bootlegs.
I think it’s fairly well documented about Phil Lynott being a visionary and a musical genius in his genre. One of my favorite things about them is they were doing proto speed metal way back in the late 70’s. Of course Phil hung out with diverse people as Midge Ure, Lemmy and the Sex Pistols so its not like he was unaware of what was really going on at the time. He even was good friends with Huey Lewis(!?!)
Are You Ready shows such badass metal mastery that its one of my most favorite tunes by Thin Lizzy. I liked the sappy stuff as much as the next guy, but when they turned it up it was a wonder to hear.
Behold Thin Lizzy possessed by the spirit of Maiden… Or WERE THEY?
This song was written in 1975, a good 5 years before Maiden even put out a record…
And what a drum solo at the end pure badassery, pure unadulterated badassery!
The Sweet were Glam Rock Godfathers, the epic, Ballroom Blitz, for example has been covered ad nauseum by many an inferior band.In 1973 The Sweet were on top of the world with 3 top 10 hits including the aforementioned Ballroom Blitz, and had been plunking around in bands since 1965. So lets just say for arguments sake that they “peaked” in 1973.
“Love is Like Oxygen” received a lot of airplay in 1977, four years after their heyday and after they’d dropped the glam angle. Apparently they dug what ELO’s was doing and rode their stylistic dick, but it would be easy to dismiss this song as mere style biting by a band past their prime.
The song itself is an incredibly well written pop song and the guitar hook is pure FM Gold. I could argue that the best “Rock” bands just knew how to hide kick ass pop songs in Wizards’ robes or pyrotechnic stage shows. Look at Kiss for instance, the best Beatles cover band of the 70’s. Anyways, I think that I’ll close quoting Macker505 from you tube who wrote:
Reminds me of my friend Randy. We used to smoke weed then laugh while singing this song. That was back in the mid 70’s.
Whilst I could never claim to be as big a Dio fan as Abe, they’ll always have a soft spot in my heart. For starters Rainbow were ace because of Ronnie James and Heaven And Hell is the most underrated Sabbath album. Holy Diver is an album I turn to again and again whilst other albums I bought at the time have gathered too much dust and eventually must find their way to the charity shop/ebay. Last year Ronnie and the band played the entireity of Holy Diver at London’s Astoria further cementing this album’s classic staus.
Anyhoos enjoy the video and enjoy the fact that it was filmed for Live Aid in Japan in 1987. Metal was conspicuous by it’s absence at 2005’s Live8 affairs making this video all the more extraordinary.
