Posted on by Nathan Beaudry

Episode 392 – Dio – Dream Evil

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Cassette artwork for Dio’s “Dream Evil” with the song “Overlove” in bold.

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Album Tracks:

  1. Night People
    • Appice, Bain, Dio, Goldy, Schnell
  2. Dream Evil
    • Dio, Goldy
  3. Sunset Superman
    • Appice, Bain, Dio, Goldy, Schnell
  4. All the Fools Sailed Away
    • Dio, Goldy
    • Chorus – Mitchell Singing Boys* 
    • Closes the side on the LP version
    • From a text exchange Nate had with Claude Schnell here are Claude’s own words of the experience of crafting the keyboard solo for the song:
    • Well, the most salient thing about that Dream Evil album for me, is that it includes the track “All The Fools Sailed Away”, which is the one and only Dio tune to ever have a keyboard solo.  As you can imagine, crafting that solo was an arduous process involving more second guessing and observational analysis than a grad school psychology thesis.
    • Being given the chance to FINALLY play a solo on my fourth Dio album was a long awaited and surreal opportunity for my keyboards to shine.  No longer would my playing be relinquished to the admittedly substantive role of only shaping the band’s sound and distinguishing Dio from other groups of the day.  However there’s a huge difference between being given that chance, and coming up with something that Ronnie would think was worthy of actually using in the song.  In fact, for all my meticulous preparation, I was fairly certain that, even if Ronnie liked what I’d play on that fateful day when we’d record my solo, he would nevertheless have his own ideas of what he thought might improve it.  Ego aside, part of me was reluctantly looking forward to what genius insight Ronnie would surely have, and how those changes, subtle as they had been in other similar situations, would elevate my composition to a new and higher level…
    • Well, that didn’t happen!  Nope, nothing like that at all… Engineer Angelo Arcuri  ran the multitrack tape so I could hear exactly where the solo was meant to begin, and after a pass or two suggested that I play along “just to get a feel for it”.
    • I was standing at my keyboard behind Ronnie, who was seated at the console, with Angelo to his right, at the legendary “Village Recorders” studio “D”, the same studio and recording console famously used to record  Steely Dan’s Aja, Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, and The Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup. 
    • I nodded to Angelo after he’d rewound the tape that I was ready, and the track started playing once again through the huge soffit mounted studio monitors.  I played along to the track as Angelo had suggested, wondering when Ronnie would finally offer some commentary about what he’d been listening to for the past ten or fifteen minutes…
    • Well, I finished the solo, Angelo stopped the playback, silence filled the room and, finally, after a very long pregnant pause, Ronnie turned to Angelo and asked: “Did you get that?” which, unbeknownst to me of course he had, having been excoriated so many times in the past for having missed opportunities to record unplanned brilliant and inspired takes.  Angelo answered the question in the affirmative.  Then Ronnie spun his producer’s chair around to face me and said “Claude, that may very well be the best keyboard solo I’ve ever heard!  Can you double it?”
    • The relief and elation was indescribable!  I told him ‘of course I could’ and Angelo suggested doubling it two additional times so that on the record, we could pan two different takes to the left and right stereo image, and then in the center have two takes blended together, creating a positively MASSIVE sound.
    • Once all four takes were done, it was time to listen back and, surprisingly, I realized that this would be the first time I’d ever hear the result of my efforts within the full context of the song for which it was created.  As I listened to the playback, I couldn’t  stifle the smile I felt spreading across my face, and when Angelo stopped the tape, I involuntarily blurted out, and this is an exact quote, “Holy Shit”.
    • Ronnie immediately sprung out of his chair and added: “Holy Shit is right!” and gave me a really big hug.  Then he added:
    • “If I’d known you could write solos like that, we could’ve been doing this all along!”  I’m almost certain that his comment was meant in jest, but it was awfully nice to hear nevertheless.  I shared this story with Jon Lord the next time I saw him a few months later, and his flattering yet somewhat predictable response was: “As you well should’ve been doing, mate”!
    • This then, would become the third of three cherished accolades and moments in time that I knew would reside in my heart forever…
    • 🤘😎🤘
    • =;-{> 
  5. Naked in the Rain
    • Dio
  6. Overlove
    • Appice, Dio, Goldy
  7. I Could Have Been a Dreamer
    • Dio, Goldy
    • Released as a single on July 6, 1987 
  8. Faces in the Window
    • Appice, Bain, Dio, Goldy, Schnell
  9. When a Woman Cries
    • Appice, Bain, Dio, Goldy, Schnell

Article From Hit Parader With Quote About Drum Fills and Bass

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Was voted #8 best album of 1987 in the Kerrang Reader’s Poll in Issue 177 from March of 1988.

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