Friday, May 29: Dio, "Here's to You"
R.I.P. Ronald James âDioâ Padavona (1942-2010)
Strange Highways was a dark, heavy and difficult album, which made âHereâs to Youâ with its hollering and cheering both feel like a welcome respite from the borderline oppressive heft and also a little awkward. Presumably it was meant as another Dio anthem along the lines of âStand Up and Shoutâ and âWe Rockâ, and there was something of a hook in Tracy Gâs riffing as well as the pre-chorus. But Ronnieâs growling had the same belligerence that made âJesus, Mary & the Holy Ghostâ and âEvilutionâ total monsters and this iteration of Dio was all about beatdowns, so âHereâs to Youâ felt a bit stuffy and claustrophobic even as the lyrics offered a rallying cry. Ronnie was aiming for something very deliberate on Strange Highways and for the most part he achieved his goal of crafting a more modern metal record more rooted in the real world, but that created a weird dichotomy on âHereâs to Youâ that he couldnât fully reconcile.












