The man, the legend, Ronnie James Dio, passed away on Sunday, May 16th, 2010. Thank you, Ronnie, for the decades of memories. 67 years just doesn’t seem like enough...
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Welcome to Padavona.com, formerly the Dio-The Early Years website.
And Before Elf There Were Elves
This disc was recently released (it can be found here at Amazon). A lot of people seem to be enjoying having this music on disc. It appears to be several of the Elf Live at the Bank tracks. Most of them seem to be cleaned up a bit (certainly some of the track volumes were adjusted). But for those who want to get your hands on a physical CD of some of Ronnie’s early music, give this one a shot.
What Is My Connection to Dio, and How Did I Come to Make this Site?
I’m asked often about my connection to the early days of Ronnie (am I from the Cortland area, did I ever see the Red Caps in concert, etc.) and how I got everything for this site. So, I decided to post the story here on the site. Enjoy, because it’s riveting stuff.
The Name Controversy
When I settled on Padavona.com for the name of this site, I wanted to be sure of the spelling. Out came the Elf CD, and sure enough, the insert spelled it p-a-d-a-v-o-n-a. Then I glanced at the print on the actual disk: p-a-d-o-v-o-n-a. What?? So I went to Google. Sure enough, about half the references used pada... and the other half pado. I even saw Padovana.
I decided, based on certain sources, that Padavona was the correct spelling. Mainly because I found what I am almost certain is his son online, and that's how it was spelled. So there you have it. The one-day controversy.
The Early Years on iTunes!
**NEW** (4/13/10) - I got an email from Joey Niji the other day asking about a couple Bobby Comstock songs. Apparently, RJD sang backup on a couple of them. (I have since had it confirmed by Fabian M. that it was only one of Bobby’s songs). Others of his songs appear on CD collections of music from the Syracuse area along with some of the old Red Caps tunes. Anyway, I thought I’d check iTunes, and sure enough, you can get it there. The song is I Can’t Help Myself, and it is definitely our man Ronnie backing him up. Bobby Comstock was a connection I hadn’t heard of before, but I found an old interview with him where he mentions briefly that he played guitar “on a few of Ronnie Dio’s early things.” (Interview here.) Anyway, here are links to purchase the two songs:
I Can’t Help Myself:
Gonna Make It Alone and Swingin' Street are available for purchase on iTunes. Click the button below to purchase it. If enough of us buy these, maybe more will be released. The songs are really cleaned up and sound great! (These are links to the US iTunes Store.)
Gonna Make It Alone/Swingin' Street:
A reader also pointed me to two additional songs now available on iTunes:
Our Year/Mr. Misery:
This same reader also pointed me to a CD that has Oop-Poo-Pah-Doo and Love pains. The CD is called That'll Flat Git It Vol 4. Here is the Amazon.com link.
Bittorrent
Get the music with Bittorrent! I'm going to give this a shot and see if it works. I had the music posted on the Demonoid torrent tracker. I think anyone can download them with any bittorrent program. Download the torrent and grab all the files (you might need to do a right-click save-as to grab the torrent). Then, PLEASE help seed it so we can get it to as many people as possible. If this doesn't work, I'll try something else. Drop me a note using the contact form and let me know whether or not it works for you.
