Customer Reviews

Elf Albums

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a huge fan of Dio's. These 2 Elf albums are both in my top 5 Dio albums of all time, and I have all of his albums, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio. I was extatic when I found this 2 CD set. Then I listened to it. The audio quality is horrible. It sounds like it was recorded from a cassette tape, an OLD cassette tape! At one point (Liberty Road) the music actually DRAGS. It slows down for a couple of seconds before coming back to the original tempo. I stongly suggest buying "Trying to Burn the Sun" and "Carolina County Ball" seperately. As for the content of the albums, well, what can I say? AMAZING(5 stars)!!! Dio captures the emotion of each song like it was his only child. Dio calls this music "honkey-tonk-rock", and, though, if you are a fan of Dio's later work, you might think, "How in the world is THAT voice going to be anything but heavy-HEAVY metal?", it works. And it works brilliantly. Dio should get back to his roots and try another album like these. The voice of an angel and the voice of a devil coming from one man. You must experience Dio. And the best way to do that is to buy these albums. The Rainbow albums that follow are also a must. Through Elf, Rainbow, and Black Sabbath, you can actually hear the graduation (ever so suddely) from honkey-tonk, to medievel, to full blown knock you off your seat metal, i.e. "Falling Off the Edge of the World" from The Mob Rules. These Elf albums are a great place to start a journey that is the life of Ronald Padavona(Dio).

These two albums are definitely among Dio's best work,along with rainbow and a couple of the Sabbath recordings.Both are better than the first Elf album..It has more diverse styles of music than any of the other bands mentioned.Boogie shuffles to blues-rock to soothing spacey ballads to swaggering beats.The problem with this release is that there is a glitch at the beginning of Liberty Road.This is an official release so the only excuse for this is if something damaged the original master since the original release.If so ,I think it should be easy enough to fix by lifting that second or two of music from later in the song as it is repeated ,or from a copy of the vinyl.I have the original and it doesn't have that glitch.Any way it's pretty much inexcusable for an official release.Although personally, out of all of the songs from the Tryin'to Burn the Sun album ,liberty road isn't particularly a stand out so I'll only deduct one star over all.

I've been into Ronnie's music for several years now and own about 90% of his output from his days with Rainbow through his latest, "Angry Machines" with his own band. I've known about how he started his career with Elf for a while but have never seen any of these albums in the music stores until just the other day when I found this compilation of his final two Elf albums. Wow, I had no idea what a shock I was in for when I popped this in the CD player! The shock being two-fold: 1) this is drastically different stylistically and musically than anything he subsequently released, 2) this is some of the finest, most cohesive (as a band) music I've ever heard! At first, I have to admit, I laughed a little at hearing Ronnie sings lyrics like "Annie's on her fanny" from Annie New Orleans, etc. But after that initial reaction, I got right down to the music itself... which just kills pretty much everything else I own (in a good way)! Elf was a great band who deserved a lot more attention back in their heyday. It's damn fortunate that Ritchie Blackmore discovered this band and paved the way for Ronnie's future fame. Otherwise, these albums would probably be long time gone; only to be found on vinyl in some garage sale. I can't understand it either... this band had better arrangements of songs and more interesting lyrics (although often pretty silly and lax) than three-quarters of the bands out in the early-70s. Most of the influences here are '50s and '60s southern style music (some honky tonk and hoochie coo) complete with rolicking piano and sweet vocal harmonies. Some songs on "Trying to Burn the Sun" come close to early Rainbow output... such as Streetwalker. Others are better than anything Rainbow ever did (and I love Rainbow): "Rocking Chair Rock n' Roll Blues" and especially "Wonderworld." In a matter of a few days, this album has achieved status as one of my ten favorite all-time. Who knows, maybe my initial awe will fade but any way you look at it, this stuff RULES!

What can anybody say about this CD ? 2 records in one made by Ronnie's first group, later to become the backbone of Rainbow. It is safe to say these two records are equal to, if not better, than the Rainbow albums. If you are reading this you should already have an idea about Dio's work. Well this is completely different: boogie, ballads, rock and great interaction of guitar and piano, these albums will not disappoint you. To explain my point of view, I am bying this CD a second time because my first copy decided to start scratching at the two best songs, Wonderworld and Streetwalker !! I also highly recommend the Elf album, which was their first, also a masterpiece.

A good 2 lp's-on-one CD release of Elf's second and third albums,'Carolina County Ball'('74)and 'Trying To Burn The Sun'('75).A should-have for most Dio fans.One thing you need to keep in mind is that the material here isn't as well written or as strong sounding as,say his solo efforts or the CD's he'd done with Rainbow or Sabbath.It's decent early '70's hard rock.Some of the tracks I thought were impressive were "Annie New Orleans","Do The Same Thing","Black Swampy Water","When She Smiles" and "Liberty Road".See what you think.Line-up:Ronnie James Dio-vocals,Mickey Lee Soule-keyboards,Steve Edwards-guitar,Craig Gruber-bass and Gary Driscoll-drums.

This terrific CD's only letdown is how poorly it was transferred from its original source tape to CD. Ronnie James Dio and company have created some of the best feel good southern blues rock this side of Lynard Skynard. The ballad When She Smiles could have easily been a Top 40 hit had it been released as a single. Mickey Lee Soule's piano playing is very good. The guitarist on this album is an improvement over the one on the first Elf record. Roger Glover should obtain the original source tapes for a complete remastering job. This music is definitely worthy and would probably be bought again by everybody who already owns it. Apparently Ronnie or somebody at Rhino was able to track the original source down because there is a remastered version of the song Carolina County Ball on his Stand Up and Shout Anthology. Spitfire records would do many Dio fans a great service by rereleasing this CD as part of their Masters series.

As with the others, this is a swamp water storybook. Ronnie James Dio is a storyteller with a world full of magic and with long time fans who are always ready to listen.

It is just a great album. Ronnie James Dio was really coming to form. It is cool to listend how he got started and how he influenced the beginning of Rock and Roll.

Just got this yesterday and listening to it the second time right now. I have the first album called elf, wonder if that's oop. Anyway a few reviews say the audio transfer on this disc is lacking. Sounds good on this end. The packaging doesn't mention remastering but it sounds like it has been. Sounds very clean. It's not the super loud mastered sound that is common on todays discs. If you like the high volume remasters have you seen this: [...] .Something to think about.

Man... I will be short.

If you like what Dio did with sabbath or with his solo career...

You gotta listen to this... you won't believe...

His voice man... his voice!!!

We miss you man!!!

Hail Dio forever!!!

GREAT ALBUM, by the way =)