THE VIDEO Dio, "Rainbow in the Dark," Holy Diver, 1983, Reprise
SAMPLE LYRIC "No sign of the morning com-iiiiing / you've been left on your own! / like a rainbow in the dark / a rainbow in the dark!"
THE VERDICT Okay, so if you're a regular reader, you know I've mentioned a couple times that I am getting married later this month, and I am buggin'. Weddings. Are. Horrible. I sleep like five hours a night because I'm constantly worrying about some idiotic bull. For serious, guys. I considered doing a whole theme month of songs about insanity, but decided I should try more of a "fake it 'til you make it" approach and go super-positive instead.
So this whole month, we're doing songs that somehow relate to my wedding or my relationship with my fiance.
Ha, I can see you cringing through the internet. Come on, you know it can't be that bad. I mean, I'm starting with Dio. You must love Dio.
That said, this is gonna be one of those posts that features lengthy personal digressions (they're all gonna be like that this month), so if you're not feeling that, you might want to bail now. Or at least skim down to the bottom where I actually get around to talking about the video.
So three years ago, driving back to my parents' house from New York in the midst of crazy sporadic downpours and thunderstorms, I actually saw not just one but several rainbows in the dark. I mean forget double rainbows! Friggin' lightning and rainbows at the same time — totally awesome. I'd never seen anything like it before, nor since.
And also coincidentally, the previous weekend, I'd been with some people at a teeny tiny bar in the basement of an also pretty tiny hotel (post my ten-year high school reunion, just to add to the awfulness). For some reason they had a guy playing loud acoustic guitar — like he was really mic'd up in spite of the fact that the room was roughly the size of an average public bathroom. And you know people playing those kind of gigs always like, tell unfunny anecdotes between songs, even though everyone's like pleasssseeee don't talk, we can finally all hear each other without screaming.
Anyway, the high point was when he played what was actually a pretty decent solo acoustic version of "Rainbow in the Dark" which led me to scream and make the Dio sign. He then played the first few bars of "Holy Diver," which now that I think of it would be amazing acoustic, but my cheers were to no avail, as pretty soon it was back to deadly boring Oasis covers. I put some money in his tip jar though and I wrote "PLAY MORE DIO" on it.
So when my fiance and I were very first dating, I told him this story — I can't even remember the context for it. And then the next time I saw him, he'd taught himself to play "Rainbow in the Dark" on his guitar, and played it for me (as well as "Cherry Pie," which I also love acoustic). So see? Relevant.
Okay, to my wedding anyway. I had really hoped we'd be able to incorporate "Rainbow in the Dark" into the wedding in some way, but I don't think it'll actually happen. So this blog post is as close as we're gonna get.
But what of the video? Well, it's astonishingly low-budget. And it takes place in London. Also, this video bizarrely — courageously? — chooses to tell the story of uh, well, of a pervert. We split between a totally badass-looking Dio standing on a rooftop, and then a totally sketchy-looking Englishman stalking a woman through the streets. He adjusts his tie constantly, which is an odd tic.
The woman herself looks like she stepped out of a J. Geils Band video or something along those lines. She's got short 80s hair, and is wearing a red and white polka-dotted dress, red sheer tights, and low white heels (not your typical metal video chick).
One of the most memorable parts of this video for me is when the pervy man gets distracted by a display of lingerie, and we suddenly get this weird montage of the lingerie, signs for peep shows, and a deli display full of meat. Oh Dio, your subtlety is a delight.
She seems to go in the "Cin Cinema," which greatly pleases the perv. He takes off his glasses and is all prepped to follow her inside, when suddenly he stops, shocked — yes, a super-young Vivian Campbell is busting out of there for the guitar solo, and the woman is definitely very interested in him. It scares the pervert right off.
For some reason, this triggers further montages of the fronts of peep parlors and such.
Uhoh! And now here's Jimmy Bain too! Then the woman kisses Viv. The perv is not pleased, to say the least. He drops his little briefcase and just runs away.
I wonder if Vinny Appice was bummed he didn't get to be in this video. Then again, I guess unlike "Holy Diver," at least anyone who's not RJD getting to be in the video would probably be considered an improvement among the band members.
I really enjoy that it seems like this video was not filmed on any kind of closed or even controlled set -- everyone they pass on the street is staring at the actors, or staring straight at the camera. I also feel like how incredibly windy it appears to be on the roof where Dio is gives us further indication of just how low-budge this video is.
But can we also mention that this is an incredible song? For people who aren't familiar with the Dio oeuvre (I know, it's not you, but they're out there), this is the one they'll know — it actually gets played on classic rock radio.
And I mean the keyboard riff in this is classic, just classic. You'd recognize it anywhere. You know me though, as per usual what gets me here are the evocative but somewhat nonsensical lyrics. "When there's lightning / you know it always brings me down / 'cause it's free and I see that it's me / who's lost and never fou-ou-ou-ound!" It doesn't get better than that, people.
Suffice to say I don't know what this song's really about. He keeps being all "you've been left on your own / like a rainbow in the dark." But I feel like seeing a rainbow when you're in the dark would be a hopeful thing. (I mean, when I did see it, it was totally badass.)