The Elves featuring Ronnie James Dio - And Before Elf... There Were Elves
by Kevin Wierzbicki
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Some fans of Ronnie James Dio know that before he joined Rainbow and began his climb to fame he was in a band called Elf, also at one time called the Elves. Elf put out a few albums in the early to mid seventies and there is renewed interest in this material now that Dio is no longer with us. Unfortunately this has given someone the idea that anything that Ronnie ever touched should be dredged up and offered for sale to the public, and that is the case with And Before Elf
There Were Elves. The album consists of twelve cuts from 1971 that are previously unreleased; half are poorly recorded live covers of tunes like bluesman Willie Dixon's "You Shook Me," Faces' pub-rocking "Stay With Me" and Chuck Berry's oft-covered "Little Queenie." For this half of the album the band, also featuring Dio cousin (and future member of the Rods) David Feinstein playing hot guitar, really only coalesces on one song, "Buckingham Blues." The song presages the kind of golden-throated singer Dio is to become whereas the others only present, really, a typical bar band howler. The remainder of the album (studio recordings) is totally at odds with the live half; here there is no loud guitar, only sappy forgettable songs that basically sound like the Elves were trying to knock the Grassroots or the Guess Who off the charts. It's obvious why this material has never been released until now and equally as obvious that it has been made available now to capitalize on Dio's fame before too much time since his death passes. In all fairness the CD is clearly labeled as being very early material but still I have to believe that the entities behind this package are well aware that it will disappoint 99% of Dio's fans.
The Elves featuring Ronnie James Dio - And Before Elf... There Were Elves
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