Elf and Ronnie Dio

[TeleCat]

Padavona Website (Dio Early Years)

Live At The Beacon (1971) - as The Elves (bootleg)
Live At The Bank (1972) - as The Elves (bootleg)
Elf (1972)
Live! And My Soul Shall Be Lifted (1973) (bootleg)
Carolina County Ball (1974) (US title: L.A.59)
Trying to Burn the Sun (1975)
The Gargantuan (1978) compilation of 1974 & 1975 albums
Ronnie James Dio: The Elf Albums (1991) compiles 1974 & 1975 albums
And Before Elf... There Were Elves (2011) - as The Elves features 12 songs from 'Live At The Bank' bootleg

In case anyone didn't know, Ronnie Dio's band prior to Rainbow was ELF who put out three albums in the early '70's. Here's some rare footage.

 

[TeleCat]

Re: Dio in ELF

But seriously, I picked up The first Elf album (where Dio played bass and used his real name Ronald Padavona) and it's typical early '70's rock. Not bad at all though. The album closer, Gambler Gambler I thought was a great song with a cool lead guitar break. I've yet to get the two subsequent albums (Carolina Country Ball and Trying To Burn The Sun) but have heard some stuff from compilations. The Rainbow Family Album features two songs Nevermore and Wonderworld which are very good. Anyone heard of this band?

 

[APageMark]

Re: Dio in ELF

You can trace Dio back to one his first bands in 1957, the Vegas Kings.

Public records indicate that RJD will be 65 in July. Including the Vegas Kings, that's 50 years of Dio!

Sorry about the tiny image. That's Ronnie on the left

 

[Sweaty]

Got all three Elf albums, they are great, love Ronnie's voice one of my faves.

 

[Rocker440]

I do have a couple of the ELF albums, as well. I remember reading an article or two about ELF touring with Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore being quite impressed with both Ronnie Dio and some of the other members of the band, too. Interestingly when Ritchie left to go solo he mostly 'recruited' those members into his first solo band. Although Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was a great solo album for him and the band, I believe that Ronnie Dio was the only former Elf member to both continue with the touring Rainbow band, and also with future albums, too.

If I remember somewhat correctly RJD was the singer with the most longevity of the three singers of Rainbow, and also with many fantastic songs, music and tremendous stage presence as the vocalist, too! Although Joe Lynn Turner is a helluva singer, songwriter and performer himself, imo!

EDIT: One more singer that I had somewhat forgotten was the fourth singer for the 'reformed' R.B.'s Rainbow with Doogie White on vocals.

 

[Magic]

Elf's drummer, Gary Driscoll, went on to form a band called Bible Black and they released two albums; Ground Zero and Thrasher. Driscoll was murdered in 1987.


Gary Driscoll ~ Drums (Elf, Rainbow)
Craig Gruber ~ Bass (Elf, Rainbow, Gary Moore)
Duck McDonald ~ Guitar (Blue Cheer)
Jeff Fenholt ~ Vocals (broadway singer in Jesus Christ Superstar)

 

[METALPRIEST]

Elf's drummer, Gary Driscoll, went on to form a band called Bible Black and they released two albums; Ground Zero and Thrasher. Driscoll was murdered in 1987.


Gary Driscoll ~ Drums (Elf, Rainbow)
Craig Gruber ~ Bass (Elf, Rainbow, Gary Moore)
Duck McDonald ~ Guitar (Blue Cheer)
Jeff Fenholt ~ Vocals (broadway singer in Jesus Christ Superstar)

This is wild, considering the last Heaven and Hell album had a song with the same title...I need to look into this and check it out.

 

[joe]

My two fav tracks from Elf:

 

[Magic]

This is wild, considering the last Heaven and Hell album had a song with the same title...I need to look into this and check it out.

I saw that, MP, and it also had the title "Thrasher" with a pretty impressive list of artists........


I did several searches and couldn't find the original Bible Black albums anywhere.

 

[snakes&ladders]

GREAT RONNIE & ELF

By blackglove at 2010-12-10