Ronnie James Dio & ELF - War Pigs'72 ~ The Bank, Cortland NY late January OR early February 1972 (SBD)

Ronnie James Dio & ELF
War Pigs'72
The Bank Cortland
late January OR early February 1972
Soundboard Recording
MP3 192kbps
Cover Art Included

Rosebud's Picks

CD1
01 Crosseyed Mary (Jethro Tull Cover)
02 Stay With Me (Faces Cover)

 03 Little Queenie/Johnny B Good/Whole Lotta Shakin' (Chuck Berry/Jerry Lee Lewis medley)
04 An Old Raincoat (Rod Stewart Cover)
05 Cold Ramona
06 Black Dog (Led Zeppelin Cover)
07 Lura Lura
08 Four Day Creep (Humble Pie Cover)

CD2
01 Give Me A Chance
02 Rumble (Link Ray Cover)
03 Aqualung (Jethro Tull Cover)
04 Drown Me In The River
05 Simple Man (Graham Nash Cover)
06 Won't Get Fooled Again/Baba O'Riley (Who medley)
07 Pisces Apple Lady
08 Dirty Dollar Bill
09 Buckingham Blues
10 So Long
11 You Shook Me/Rock's Boogie (Elvis Presley Cover)
12 War Pigs (Black Sabbath Cover)

total time: 1hr 40mn 47sc

Ronnie James Dio - vocals / bass
Gary Driscoll - Drums / Percussion
Dave "Rock" Feinstein - Guitar
Mickey Lee Soule - Keyboards

Before Ronnie James Dio climbed to fame as lead vocalist for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow he slogged it out in his local scene like countless other musicians. Ronnie started his musical career in a Doo Wop group called The Vegas Kings. The Vegas Kings changed their name to Ronnie & The Rumblers who changed their name to Ronnie & The Red Caps when they got their chance to record a few singles. The band changed their name yet again to Ronnie Dio & The Prophets before recording more singles and the album Dio At Dominoe's a local restaurant. The restaurant in question became Dominoe's Pizza and has a plague outside commemorating the event that states "WE ROCK". The Prophets became The Electric Elves, then The Elves till finally becoming Elf. Elf released a couple albums produced by Roger Glover who suggested the band to Ritchie Blackmore as an opening act for Deep Purple MKII. Blackmore like Dio's voice so much that he took on Elf (minus the guitarist of course) as the core of the first line-up for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. After Rainbow Ronnie went on to become a Heavy Metal Icon as lead vocalist for Black Sabbath. The rest of course is history.

This is a soundboard recording from pre-fame Elf, with Ronnie already belting out "War Pigs", and also Jethro Tull, and Humble Pie covers. I have included some really cool bonus tracks that any Dio collector should not be with out. These bonus tracks regrettably are only in MP3 128kbps (sorry). I also have included a very good history of Ronnie's days as a starving artist.

MP3