♪ ♫ You take it on faith
You take it to the heart
The waaaaaaaaaiting is the hardest part! ♪ ♫
SCRATCHY: (Singing over the chorus) Ned Beaaaaaaaaatty had the hardest part!
SCRATCHY: (Removing the needle from Tom Petty) Well, look who decided to finally show up for his own feature!
EVIL SQUIRREL: Sorry I’m late, but it took me longer than usual to make the artwork for this week’s song.
SCRATCHY: Why even bother? Nobody notices it anyway.
ES: Sure they do! My readers love my artwork! Some of them even print it out and put it on the icebox…
SCRARCHY: Bullshit! We’ve run this countdown ten times now, and there’s not a single comment about your hideous artwork in any of those posts. Not ONE!
ES: Well…… that doesn’t mean….. I’m sure they’ll notice now that I’m talking about it in today’s intro!
SCRATCHY: I got news for you, chump. They aren’t reading these either. Nope, they’re skipping straight to the song, just like this were…… oh, you know….. the Dusty Vinyl Archive you’re pre-empting for seven months with these stupid skits and artwork!!!
ES: ………… sniff!
SCRATCHY: Sponkies, better get our next guest up here fast before the boss gets too misty…
SPONKIE 1: Look like number 20 is….
SPONKIE 2: DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!
RAINBOW DONKEY: Oh boy. I can’t wait to pick this week’s song!
SPARKLEPONY: I don’t think so, Rainbow Donkey! As your devoted wife, you’re only allowed to choose a song that I approve of…
SPARKLEPONY: You can pick any song from this list.
RD: Didn’t you already get your week to request a song, dear?
SPARKLEPONY: No buts, mister!!! Now move it!!!
RD: Sigh…… yes dear!
RD: Are you OK, sir?
TROLL: No! I stepped in this pile of possum shit! Doesn’t anyone pick up after their pets anymore?
RD: Here, let me help you clean that up….
TROLL: Hey, thanks man! None of the customers at the Chinese buffet will even notice the shit stains on my work pants now…
SCRATCHY: I’ll only say this once…. I will NOT be playing any Irish Rovers songs!
RD: Never heard of them.
ES: Rainbow Donkey’s too cool to be requesting “The Unicorn.” Check this out…
Click!
SCRATCHY: Hey! Who turned out the lights!?!?!?
RD: Go ahead and look at my request, Ms. Scratchy. My glowing hair should give you enough light…
SCRATCHY: (Pulling the record out of the envelope) Fuckin’ A, dude!
When you think of the birthplaces of some of hard rock’s legendary artists, the state of New Hampshire probably doesn’t immediately come to mind. But it was in America’s 44th largest state that Ronnie James Dio was born in 1942. Dio’s first band, Elf, was a frequent opening act for Deep Purple in the early 70’s. When guitarist Ritchie Blackmore split from that group in 1975, he tabbed Dio to be the lead singer of his new band, Rainbow. From there, Dio replaced legendary mumbler Ozzy Osbourne as the frontman for Black Sabbath in 1980…
Strange, Ozzy seems surprised to find out he’d once been fired from Black Sabbath…
Ronnie James Dio’s heavy metal job hopping was largely due to the creative differences he often had with the pre-existing bandmates. So the obvious solution for that was to form his own group, which he did in 1983…. named after himself, Dio. Dio the band’s best remembered album was their debut Holy Diver, which produced this very nice cut that showcases Ronnie’s distinctive metal voice, “Rainbow in the Dark.”
The song’s exposure in the US was largely due to the above video, which was frequently played on MTV around the time the channel came into my home. At the same time it was scandalous for Madonna to be slinking around on stage in a wedding dress singing about being a virgin, it was perfectly OK for Dio to depict his song with a creepy looking man stalking a woman through the streets of London’s pornography district.
This guy must have been the inspiration for Aqualung…
Fun fact about Ronnie James Dio that I did not know until just now… even before I drew the Rainbow Donkey graphic above. He is credited with popularizing the devil horns gesture in rock culture when he began flashing it at live performances during his Black Sabbath days!
The SCT Request Countdown will rock on……. next Monday!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I LOVE this song… but I noticed that he has a german twin, Guildo Horn… a singer too butt…. well don’t google him, please take my word…. or you will get maybe nightmares LOL
Ha! Guido and Dio could be twin brothers from different mothers. He also looks a little like James Taylor, and that’s really scary…
Yep that’s a metal voice alright……like fingernails on a blackboard. I am guessing the only reason Rainbow Donkey chose this song is the Rainbow reference ? That photo of Ozzy is perfect – I think the confused look suits him.
Pam
That and RD is obviously a closet metalhead. Probably another reason Sparklepony gives him such a hard time…
Sparklepony is my favorite!
This is a really good song and I hear it all the time on the oldies radio. 🙂
I was surprised to find out it wasn’t a hit at the time, but I guess I just saw the video so much on MTV that I assumed it got played a lot on radio as well. Sparklepony is happy to know she has a fan club!
I have a handicap (no ears) but even I can tell that’s awful.
Just a side note to Scratchy. E.S. does TOO have some huge fans of his amazing and detailed artwork. So there! I’m one of them too! 😝 I’d never heard of that band nor the song before. I was going to say something about that ‘Ozzy clone” (who turned out to be “The Man” himself in earlier, pre-slightly gaga times). His eyes appear crossed for one thing. 🤨 My younger sibling was the Black Sabbath fan in our household ‘in the day’. My mother was certain he would end up going to Hell for listening to what now is probably really tame music. I never got into the whole metal thing, but I loved their artwork! And so we come full comment circle.
I’ve known Dio for a long time, but did not know RJD ever headed up Black Sabbath, nor that Sabbath continued on after Ozzy left, NOR that Ozzy was effectively fired from the group. I probably learned more making this post than my readers did from reading it after being mesmerized by the fascinating artwork!
Great selection even if Dio has all the looks of Troll’s soiled pants. Yikes! He looks more English than NH’er. Still, who couldn’t rock to this week’s selection whomever suggested it. And for the record, yes, we readers do read the musical tidbits and admire the artwork. Just saying.
Scratchy seems to like getting her digs in at ES for taking away her muzak feature. And she may not get it back after this is done because I already have my next countdown in mind… though that one will not include any artwork. I would have sworn Dio was European and not from America, let alone New Hampshire, either…
Yeah, rock on! Well done, RD. At last a shelf critter with musical taste heh heh!
And may I take this opportunity to praise the beautiful artwork which accompanies this series…
Your praise is duly noted, and The Nest will take note to recognize your birthday again next year. Oh wait, it’ll be a Monday in 2022… I need to start thinking of the worst song possible!
😮
I had no idea Dio was the name of a person and just thought it was an extremetly lame name for a metal band. You made Rainbow Donkey look like quite the head banging badass there! Poor guy. It’s probably how he dreams of being…but then Sparkle Pony shows up to dash his dreams.
When you consider Mr. Dio was also in metal bands named Rainbow and Elf, Dio is probably the least lamest sounding name for a metal band he was in! Metalhead unicorns are pretty dangerous to be around, because once their heads get to banging, someone’s gonna get their eye poked out!