January 26 - Holy Diver

So Sunday, Jimmy Bain died. He was 68. Now, I am thinking that some of you might never have heard his name before, but he was a very influential bass player, who stood by Ronnie James Dio's side on some of the most significant moments of Dio's career.

When Ritchie Blackmore walked out on Deep Purple in 1975, he initially teamed up with Ronnie James Dio and the majority of Elf, which was the band Dio was fronting. Elf had been produced by Roger Glover and Ian Pace of Deep Purple, and Blackmore had ample time to get to know them as they were a support act for Deep Purple. After recording their first album, Ritchie Blakemore's Rainbow, Blackmore fired everyone except for Dio, and started recruiting new members: Tony Carey on keyboards, Cozy Powell on drums, and our man of the day, Jimmy Bain on bass. This lineup only lasted for one studio album, but what an album it was! Rainbow Rising is one of the best hard rock albums ever released, with long and intricate songs, great musicianship throughout, and Dio's voice soaring. I am even willing to forgive the lyrics because of the greatness of the music.

In 1982, Dio had spent a couple of years in Black Sabbath, but as they were mixing Live Evil, tensions mounted and he decided to leave, taking drummer Vinnie Appice with him. Vivian Campbell took on guitar duties, and when it came to finding a bass player, Jimmy Bain was the one he turned to, and this is also when I started discovering Dio.

I believe it was in 1984 that my school marching band, Strindheim Skoles Musikkorps, went on a band trip to Stavern, a small town in the southern part of Norway. As usual we stayed at a school, which I remember as a having white stucco-like exterior. One of the sax players, Bård Olsen, was also developing into a great guitar player, and he brought his guitar, which I believe was bright green, and a practice amp, and he and another of the older kids in the band (in Norway, the marching bands are often tied to the elementary schools and completely extracurricular and volunteer run) were playing and singing. At one point, Bård was playing this incredibly catchy riff, clearly in a minor key, but more menacing than sad (I wasn't aware of key signatures at that point - that awareness has come later), and the singer belted out lyrics that stuck with me from that very day: "Holy diver, you've been down too long in that midnight sea..."

A little later I picked up the album because that song kept on playing over and over in my mind. Dio's début album was called Holy Diver and had hit the record stores in 1983 - but by the time I had picked it up, it was available in the bargain basement of Playtime for NOK 49.50. I know this price by heart, because a majority of my records were purchased at that price. That's also when I started reading record covers - and thus I found Jimmy Bain.

So today I am saddened by the loss of a great bass player. According to his Wikipedia entry, he co-wrote the title track, Holy Diver, although in the credits, only Ronnie James Dio is listed. Since this is the song that introduced me to both Dio and Jimmy Bain, I leave you with Holy Diver.