1172. Elf / Elf. 1972. 3/5

Elf came into being over a period in the late 1960’s, with Ronnie Dio and the Prophets making a name change to become the Electric Elves, along with the addition of a keyboard player. This was eventually shortened to just Elf. The band was in a car accident not long after, putting all of the band in hospital and taking the life of their guitar player Nick Pantas. Eventually the line-up settled, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and bass, David Feinstein on guitar, Gary Driscoll on drums and Mickey Lee Soule on keyboards. The band ended up coming to the attention of Deep Purple members Roger Glover and Ian Paice, who saw the potential of the band. Not only did this end up with Elf being a frequent opening act for Deep Purple over the following three years, it also led to Glover and Paice co-producing the band’s debut album.
I love how on this album, all of the credits for Ronnie’s work are credited to Ronald Padavona. In an interview in his later years, Ronnie claimed that he did this on this album (and only this album) so that his parents could, just once, see their name on an album. It is also interesting to note that guitarist David Feinstein is Ronnie’s cousin, and his guitaring on this album, when given the real chance to shine, is exceptional.


The album opens with “Hoochie Koochie Lady”, a title that leaves you in no doubt as to the heritage behind the music. Very much in the boogie style that a lot of Ronnie’s previous work had been, it is upbeat enough even when it is not what you probably expect coming into the album. This is followed by the similarly styled “First Avenue”, one that does tend to over harp on the title of the song by the end.
“Never More” is a real Deep Purple type tune, much more in standing with the hard rock scene that the band grew towards, with guitar and keyboard combining beautifully. Whether this was written to appease the two producers I don’t know, but the change from the opening two songs is significant. This is followed by “I’m Coming Back to You”, which has an early Elton John feel about it with the keyboards and complementing guitar riff. It mightn’t quite pop like it could but it is an entertaining track.
“Sit Down Honey (Everything Will Be All Right)”, with its piano heavy riff as the base of the song, reminds me remarkably of the song “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger. Now his song wasn’t written until 1979, with this being back in 1972. I wonder if there was any inspiration for that track from this song, because there are some very similar pieces between the two. Even Feinstein’s guitar solo at the close of the song has that same sort of tune to it. Perhaps it is just the style of the song that Seger was trying to copy for his tribute to the time, but it is an interesting comparison.
“Dixie Lee Junction” is a strange song. The first half is very Led Zeppelin-ish in its guitar and vocals output, before it concludes in another full blown boogie and blues number, again giving Ronnie a rather easy job on vocals to just bounce along his lyrics with the music. It’s almost two songs combined into one. Very... strange. More was to come with “Love Me Like a Woman”, which sounds like it is straight out a blues hall in the 1930’s, or even a saloon from the 1800’s if you ignore the slight injection of electric guitar, which does come in strong at the end of the track.
The album concludes with “Gambler, Gambler”, the third hard rock song on the album, still heavily blues influenced and with that boogie piano, but the guitar and vocals make it worth the wait.

It is amazing just how much your feelings about an album can change over a period of time depending on how much you are listening to it, and probably in the environment you are listening to it. Anyone growing up with this album, taking in the music of the day, would have a much easier time of getting on with the album than, say, someone going back as being a fan of Dio and listening to it. And for all of us growing up in the 1980’s that’s the predicament we found ourselves in. And as with all of Elf’s three albums, though I listened to them when I first got them in the 1990’s, there was no real joy there, and the quickly found their way onto the shelves.
Coming into the past few weeks as I prepared to record this podcast episode, I have listened to this album more than I have collectively previous to this. I have let it go, let it play, and after several go’s around I found a way in. Those opening two tracks with their boogie rock feel can dictate how you feel about the album just as it is starting. Especially if you are not really a fan of blues or boogie rock. But after repeated listens, I found my way in, through “Never More” and “I’m Coming Back to You”, which are a much better hard rock sound than those opening two songs, and that allowed me to get through to the end of the album. And then, over more repeated listens, I found the album was much more enjoyable than I had ever felt before.
It is true that it still isn’t my style of music, and that will forever be the case. But there are some things you can hang your hat on. Ronnie’s vocals here are amazing. I mean, they always are, but here they are supreme. It’s a different style of song that he is singing, but purely listening to him sing is always worth the price of admission. And David Feinstein’s guitaring is great. I think he has some really good moments on this album that actually lift the songs when they come along. The drums and keys hammer together nicely, and overall all come together in a good style.
This won’t be to everyone’s taste. Realistically, it isn’t to MY taste. But 50 years on it still has some persuasive argument about it, such that it is worth listening to even just a couple of times to experience where one of the greatest vocalists of all time really began to come of age. That alone is worth a few moments of your day.

360. Elf / Carolina County Ball. 1974. 1.5/5

Having been in a multitude of bands – or at least been in bands that have had a multitude of band name changes – Ronnie James Dio appeared to have hit paydirt when his latest iteration had settled on the name of Elf for their current formation in 1972, having originally been called the Electric Elves in 1967, before shortening that to the Elves in 1969, and finally Elf in 1972. With that name the band had released their self-titled debut album produced by Roger Glover and Ian Paice from Deep Purple, the story of which you can hear on the episode dedicated to that album in Season 3 of this podcast.
Following this album, Dio, who both sung and played bass guitar on the album, decided they needed a new member to take over the bass duties, and so Craig Gruber was hired to perform that task. Also guitarist David Feinstein, who was Dio’s cousin, quit the band, and Steve Edwards was brought in to replace him.
Elf then supported Deep Purple on two separate tours, becoming a well liked touring partner with the band and in the process making other connections that would be instrumental in future plans. After this the band entered the studio to write and record their follow up album in January and February in 1974, and album that when released in the United States and Japan was titled “L.A. 59” after the second track on the album, but for the rest of the world would be known by the first track on the album, “Carolina County Ball”.

Listening to this album, it is interesting even today to hear the kind of music the band plays. For 1974, several songs here are just old time blues ragtime songs. Sure, you may well have heard a bit of this from Marvin Hamlisch on the soundtrack to the movie The Sting, but it probably isn’t what you expect from this album. “Carolina County Ball”, the title track, is very much what this is. The boogie woogie piano throughout, before the wailing blues guitar riff at the end, sets up exactly what you can expect to hear on this album from the outset. And yes, the debut album had this kind of heavy blues influence upon it. But is this what people expected that the follow up would be like as well?
All of the songs on the album are written by Dio and keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule, who also contributed rhythm guitar when needed... which wasn’t often. The piano is the overwhelming influence in the music on the album, probably to excess when there are other elements of the band that could have been utilised better. The opening tracks including “L.A. 59” and “Ain’t it all Amusing” are entertaining enough but are countered by songs such as “Happy”, which paradoxically is quite dreary and uninteresting. "Rocking Chair Rock 'n' Roll Blues" has the quiet slow start that builds to something more powerful by its conclusion, and is a reasonable example of what Dio can do with his voice at both ends of the spectrum, but maybe making this two songs instead of just one would have worked better.
Dio’s vocals showcase here exactly what was being searched for by two of the main influences on his climb to immortality. The power he exhibits at times on songs such as “L.A. 59” and "Annie New Orleans” are certainly more important than any of the music produced here.
The drumming by Gary Driscoll is especially imposing on songs like “Ain’t It All Amusing”, a song dominated by his drum work and the blues guitar of Edwards who also shines when given a decent opportunity to do so. Indeed, this is where the band needed to steer their direction – more guitar from Edwards, and less keyboards from Soule. As it turns out, the future was to pan out in that way, which worked for some of the members of Elf, and not so much for others.

One of the things about doing a podcast called ‘Music from a Lifetime’ is that not all of the albums that I review from the music that I have listened to and/or purchased over the course of my lifetime, turn out to be good. Sometimes it just turns out to be very very different from what you expect it is going to be.
I don’t think anything could have prepared me for Elf and the music they produced on their three albums. Because I came into Elf as the result of one man – Ronnie James Dio. Because at some stage in the early 1990’s, when the band Dio had begun to run out of steam, the Black Sabbath mark II lineup had finally been brought undone by the same jealousies as they had with their original break up, I felt a need to go back and find the roots of the man with the magic voice.
The first time that I heard this album was having purchased the CD from Utopia Records in Sydney, a CD that contains both this album and its follow up “Trying to Burn the Sun”. And I can’t tell you the excitement I felt as i headed for home with the anticipation of what I was going to hear. And then I put it on... and in the immortal words of Edmund Blackadder... “I think the phrase rhymes with clucking bell”.
This was simply nothing like what I imagined I would hear. I would probably have been less surprised if it had been full of Dio just singing gospel songs. The blues? And, I mean, almost pure, unadulterated blues?! I just couldn’t imagine that this was the kind of music that Ronnie James Dio would be involved in. Of course, over future years and further deep diving, I discovered Ronnie and the Red Caps and Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, and got a much clearer aspect of his musical journey. But that doesn’t make this any less difficult to digest.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have resurrected that same CD, the one that I purchased all those years ago, and promptly abandoned to the shelves to collect dust, only moving when I moved house, and it went from shelves to moving box to shelves again. And I have played it again, and searched desperately for something to grab a hold of. And of course, being older and wiser now, I found... not much. I enjoyed Gary Driscoll’s drumming. Steve Edwards when given the chance plays some nice solos. Ronnie’s voice is amazing. There are several pl aces throughout where you can hear exactly why Roger Glover asked him to participate on his post-Deep Purple project “The Butterfly Ball” and then create the best moments on hat album, and why Ritchie Blackmore asked him to join a new project with him post-Deep Purple, the project that became the band Rainbow. So there are moment here that sparkle. But, through the whole experience, every time I have listened to this album over the last little period in order to do this podcast episode, I spent the whole time the album was on looking forward to it being over, so I could then listen to something that I WANTED to listen to, something that I would ENJOY. And sadly, that is the only true impression I can offer of “Carolina County Ball”. The almost desperate desire to run as far away as possible from it. It led to much greater things, but that doesn’t make it a good album. I will say this though. Compared to albums such as Echobrain’s self-titled debut album, or Metallica and Lou Reed’s “Lulu” album, this album is a bloody masterpiece.