Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably noticed a pattern to my last few posts. Basically, it’s gone Pirates -> (Endless) Ocean -> and now, Diving — albeit in this case, I think the Diving is mostly a metaphor…
To, to be fair, I’ve been doing a lot of virtual diving in Endless Ocean Luminous lately, though there is still a pattern here.
Ahem.
Ronnie James Dio was a big name in Metal.
In addition to various stints fronting several famous Metal bands, and serving as the namesake for the bad guy from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Dio is also generally credited as the guy who invented, or at least popularised the ubiquitous Heavy Metal horn gesture.
Among Dio’s most popular songs is Holy Diver, title track from his self-named band’s debut album. Notably, in March 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Holy Diver as the ninth-best Metal song ever.
Now, according to Dio himself, the song is a Science Fantasy story about a messianic figure on another planet. Honestly, I don’t really see it, but I’ll take his word for it.
There’s a clear recurring theme about truth overcoming deceit and at least kinda-sorta the implication of a hero’s quest here. And frequent references to a tiger, though I’m not sure if it’s a real tiger or a metaphor…
Holy Diver
I, uh, I don’t see what you mean, Mr. Dio…
You’ve been down too long in the midnight sea
Oh, what’s becoming of me?
Ride the tiger
You can see his stripes, but you know he’s clean
Oh, don’t you see what I mean?
Lyrics via Musixmatch
All that aside, Holy Diver easily has one of my favourite music videos of all time. On the one hand, I don’t want to bury the lede. On the other hand, words cannot do it justice:
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