Listening to RJD sing "Heaven & Hell" with Sabbath...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

...that diminutive fucker pulled off the impossible. He stepped into the frontman spot of Sabbath and on the first pass delivered an album as good as any done with Ozzy.

I am listening to the "Live At Hammersmith Odeon" album...initially released as a ridiculously limited edition from Rhino Handmade, now impossible to get except at scalper prices...

...BUT...

...the IMPORT edition of "The Mob Rules" includes this album as a bonus disc.

At the time, "Live At Hammersmith Odeon" was considered to be FAR superior to the "official" RJD Sabbath live album, "Live Evil," mainly because "Live Evil" was the product of a shitload of splicing, dicing and overdubs in the studio.

[JCMach1]

1. has to be the definitive Dio song... can close my eyes and hear that song in my head

I think I had a version recorded on cassette from something like the King Biscuit hour when I was a teen... absolutely seminal metal

[lastlib]

2. Damn, I miss Ronny!

to you, RJD!

[Iggo]

3. What I didn't realize at the time, but which became quite obvious as the years went by...

...was that, with Heaven And Hell, Ronnie James Dio delivered a Dio album with Black Sabbath as the backup band.

\m/ \m/

[flying rabbit]

4. Yeah RJD put his unmistakable stamp on everything he did.

:goes to dig up Heaven and Hell CD:

[pipi_k]

5. Didn't much care

for Black Sabbath when Ozzy was with them.

RJD...now that's a different story.

[OmahaBlueDog]

6. I saw Sabbath fronted by Dio at Merriweather Post in Columbia, MD

1982. I think....