This precious recording has been 'sleeping' on some studio reels owned by old-time Elf fan James Pownall for about 33 years.
Only recently did Jim realize that his tapes might hold some interest for
others. Therefore, he sent sent a copy to Jeremy Whitted as a feature for his "Dio : The Early Years" website. At first, this recording has been believed to be from a show at the Heater in New York
during 1971. Some additional research yielded a source from Dio's hometown
of Cortland, New York who believes that it was more likely recorded during a show at the Bank in Cortland.
This would have been between Elf's first audition for Roger Glover of Deep Purple and their departure for Europe with Roger to record Elf's first LP demos. Once Roger Glover decided to produce
Elf's debut album, he then hired Elf as Deep Purple's support act
for a few shows on their January 1972 North American tour. Afterwards, Elf
returned to Cortland for a three night stand at the Bank, in order to release a
bit of pressure with old friends one last time before their focus became serious again.
This may explain the amount of covers to be found on this tape.
You would think that the discovery of the only known complete recording of an
Elf show would be plenty enough cause for celebration, yet there is TWO
more facts to glory in: First of all, the first six tracks of this recording are not live takes. but
instead, six unreleased studio tracks. Based on the few ticks and crackles
that can occasionally be heard on these songs, one might speculate that they
originated from acetate sources. The origin of these tracks is still under
investigation.
Secondly, the most incredible surprise for Sabbath fans comes with the
very last live track, which is nothing else but a cover of "War Pigs".
Yes, you read me correctly. It's Ronnie James Dio singing "War Pigs" in 1972!
Until recently, there were
virtually no known live recordings of Ronnie James Dio's pre-RAINBOW band "ELF" circulating.
There is just one small exception, which is just two songs from an unknown show, allegedly recorded
sometime during 1972. This
had become an accepted fact for Dio collectors until just two months ago!
In May 2005, yet another huge Sabbath related discovery has suddenly appeared on
the horizon, with just over TWO HOURS of never before heard Elf live material in excellent sound
quality!
Many thanks to James Pownall for digging this treasure out for us.
And yet another thanks to Jeremy Whitted for sharing it with the masses. An mp3 version of the whole recording is available at Jeremy's excellent website "Dio : The Early Years" and a master generation digital clone has just surfaced in July 2005 in trading circles, so
be sure to sample this as soon as you can !
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If the assumptions concerning the date of the show are exact, Elf''s Line-up at the time was :
Ronnie James Dio (Vocals / Bass)
Gary Driscoll (Drums / Percussion)
Dave "Rock" Feinstein (Guitar)
Mickey Lee Soule (Keyboards)
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Tracklist and running times :
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01 Wake Up Sunshine
02 Smile For Me Lady 03 Rosemarie 04 You Felt The Same Way 05 Driftin' 06 Saturday Night 07 Crosseyed Mary [JETHRO TULL cover] 08 Stay With Me [FACES cover] 09 Little Queenie / Johnny B Goode / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Medley) 10 Did You Ever 11 Cold Ramona 12 Black Dog [LED ZEPPELIN cover] 13 Lura Lura 14 Four Day Creep [HUMBLE PIE cover] 15 Give Me A Chance 16 Nameless Instrumental 17 Aqualung [JETHRO TULL cover] 18 Drown Me In The River 19 Simple Man 20 Baba O'Riley [WHO cover] 21 Pisces Apple Lady 22 Dirty Dollar Bill 23 Buckingham Blues 24 So Long 25 You Shook Me [LED ZEPPELIN cover]/ Rock's Boogie 26 War Pigs [BLACK SABBATH cover] |
3:45
3:35 2:20 4:53 6:13 2:46 3:32 4:25 10:52 3:15 2:56 4:56 4:36 2:56 4:00 2:24 6:31 4:47 2:16 6:45 4:38 2:46 5:49 3:22 10:04 9:16 |
Tracks 1 to 6 : Studio recordings, date unknown.
Track 7 to 26 : Live at The Bank, Cortland, USA, late January, early February 1972.
Complete running time : Approximately 124 minutes.
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This passage is taken from the letter James wrote to Jeremy Whitted. The complete letter can be read at Jeremy's page : "Dio : The Early Years".
They had the talent, the sound, and the clean volume. In the late '60s, Marshalls were the 'hot' guitar amp, available in the ear-splitting 50-watt and paint-peeling 100-watt versions. Rock played two 100-watt Marshalls - awesome, especially in the smaller venues! And they had the sound system (for vocals - this was before the trend of miking the Pignoses and pushing everything through the PA) to keep up. On the 'softer' passages - guitar, piano, or vocals, listen for the rattle of the snares! Occasionally, a band would have the power to get a bit of a buzz from the snares - the Elves had them rattling all night!
For a taste of what a '71-'72 Elves performance was like, dig out that old PhaseLinear, the big speakers, queue up the following, and twist the knobs off!
You can hear some of the evolution of the Elves into the harder, heavier, more metallic band - the Driftin', Wake Up Sunshine, Lura Lura, into the War Pigs, You Shook Me, Buckingham Blues style.
I was actually a bit disappointed in the original Elf album, I didn't think it really captured the talent and power of the band. Listening to this collection again reaffirms that - they were better than that!
I'm actually more of a Rock fan - (guitar), but Ron's talent is certainly part of the Elves sound - and it was clear back then that his vocals were in the rock elite.