Elf Elf

By the time he came to prominence as the lead singer of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio had accumulated an extensive rock & roll résumé (longer than he'd like to admit, actually) performing with a number of groups, ranging from doo-wop in the late '50s to psychedelic rock in the '60s. But it wasn't until he founded Elf in the early '70s that Dio, or Ronald Padavona as he was then called, took his first tentative steps toward hard rock…

"Elf" is the first album by Ronnie James Dio's blues rock band called Elf. It was released in 1972. In this album, Dio is listed by his birth name Ronald Padavona. He later explained in an interview in 1994 that he was already using Dio as his stage name years before this album, but he used his birth name on this album as a tribute to his parents so that they could see their family name on an album at least once.

By the time he came to prominence as the lead singer of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio had accumulated an extensive rock & roll résumé (longer than he'd like to admit, actually) performing with a number of groups, ranging from doo-wop in the late '50s to psychedelic rock in the '60s. But it wasn't until he founded Elf in the early '70s that Dio, or Ronald Padavona as he was then called, took his first tentative steps toward hard rock. Still, with the honky tonk piano playing of Mickey Lee Soule dominating many of its songs, Elf's self-titled Epic Records debut (produced by Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover) hardly qualifies as a bona fide heavy metal record. In fact, tracks like "Hoochie Koochie Lady," "First Avenue," and "Sit Down Honey" sound more like the Rolling Stones than Black Sabbath…

Schumann composed Kreisleriana in April 1838, at the age of 27: “The youthful thing that I can identify with in Kreisleriana is its spontaneity", writes pianist Aaron Pilsan. "If I had to describe the piece, I would use the German word for crazy, ‘verrückt’, which doesn’t just mean crazy, but also to be disconnected from reality. So, crazy, imaginative and intimate… There is a huge connection between these two German composers, as Jörg Widmann was inspired by Schumann’s music a lot and even his musical language is very similar, even though their styles are obviously very different. The starting point for Widmann’s music is from feelings, from the emotions and sentiments and that is where there is a similarity, but not only there. He even quotes Robert Schumann in his tenth Humoreske, taking a bar directly from Schumann’s Geistervariationen."

Two years after the release of their eponymous debut, Elf went back into the studio to record their second album. In this time, some changes had taken place with regards to the band’s lineup. David ‘Rock’ Feinstein was replaced as the group’s axeman by Steve Edwards and Craig Gruber was brought in to handle bass guitar duties…

By and large, singer Ronnie James Dio is best known for singing about "circles and rings, dragons and kings" (to quote the Black Sabbath classic, "Neon Knights") and other related "medieval" subjects during his career…

This was recorded in early 1972, shortly after the band dropped the name "The Elves" and became "Elf", and not long before recording the first album. The sound quality is amazing, a lot of covers as well as unreleased material, and what's more : Ronnie James Dio covering "War Pigs" more than 7 years before joining Back Sabbath!!!