Yeah, that certainly is Ronnie James Dio showing us why he was a fantastic singer, but had a bit of a rough start in music videos. As much as I still love this one, it is largely to see him trying to look like someone who is taking their job seriously, but coming across as stiff as Alan Bagh in Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010).

I never really thought about this song or music video much until recently. To me it’s Dio once again drawing on his upbringing that famously turned the Italian evil-eye hand gesture into the favorite of faux-Christians as something Satanic. I thought of it as Ronnie going in to vanquish the Devil that has taken seat in the Church. Maybe that’s the thought process that was going on in Clear Channel’s mind when they included this song on their list of songs they sent to the stations they owned as songs they might not want to play shortly after 9/11. It wasn’t a blacklist, but just a suggestion. I understand that. You wouldn’t want to be playing It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. in the days immediately following the attacks. But I find it hilarious that while AC/DC has the most songs on the list–Thunderstruck is not one of them (there are numerous military montages set to that song on YouTube). Yet, Peace Train by Cat Stevens is on the list.

This time Quora came to my rescue as to an interpretation of the song and music video. Basically, it’s about Jesus Christ–the Holy Diver–coming to Earth, delivering the New Testament, being crucified, and then rising back to Heaven having fooled the Devil and redeemed humanity. It fits with the music video. Dio takes the sword that represents the Word of God as the ultimate weapon to deal with the Devil that had taken foot in humanity between the Old and New Testaments as represented by the decaying church. I would say that in the music video, when he gets the newly forged sword, he is tossing aside the Old Testament for the New Testament. The analysis on Quora is more detailed if you are interested.

One of the best things about the music video for Holy Diver is that someone took Pat Boone’s cover version and combined it with the music video. I know this kind of thing bothers some people, but I find it priceless to hear Pat Boone essentially cheering on Ronnie’s character as he goes on his mission.

I have a feeling that director/editor Arthur Ellis would probably approve seeing as he did make the short film Stanley Kubrick Goes Shopping (2001) where you see Kubrick buy the same item 193 times to make sure he has shopped perfectly. He seems to have only done a few music videos, and primarily worked on TV Shows.

Adam Whittaker was the producer of this music video. He and Ellis teamed up to also do Rainbow in the Dark for Dio. He only has a few credits in music videos, but like producers and video commissioners, I’m sure there are plenty more that are undocumented.

Enjoy!