The Temple of the King

[Bonegavel]

One day, in the year of the fox
Came a time remembered well,
When the strong young man of the rising sun
Heard the tolling of the great black bell.
One day in the year of the fox,
When the bell began to ring,
It meant the time had come for one to go
To the temple of the king.

There in the middle of the circle he stands,
Searching, seeking.
With just one touch of his trembling hand,
The answer will be found.
Daylight waits while the old man sings,
Heaven help me!
And then like the rush of a thousand wings,
It shines upon the one.
And the day has just begun.

One day in the year of the fox
Came a time remembered well,
When the strong young man of the rising sun
Heard the tolling of the great black bell.
One day in the year of the fox,
When the bell began to sing
It meant the time had come for the one to go
To the temple of the king.

There in the middle of the people he stands,
Seeing, feeling.
With just a wave of the strong right hand, he’s gone
To the temple of the king.

Far from the circle, at the edge of the world,
He’s hoping, wondering.
Thinking back on the stories he’s heard of
What he’s going to see.
There, in the middle of a circle it lies.
Heaven help me!
Then all could see by the shine in his eyes
The answer had been found.

Back with the people in the circle he stands,
Giving, feeling.
With just one touch of a strong right hand, they know
Of the temple and the king.

Probably more nostalgia than anything, but this song remains one of my all-time favorites. It's off of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (Ronnie James Dio on vocals). It's a very mellow song with a haunting melody.

As I sat down tonight to do some PC stuff I picked through my paltry CD collection and came across this one and I've been listening to it now for the last hour on repeat.

My first go-around with this was back in the early 1980s when I would sit for hours in front of my Commodore 64 playing one of the Ultimas and listen to albums on repeat (yes, turntables did have repeat functionality). I think I wore this one out. The medieval flavor of the songs went perfectly with the Ultima game's setting.

Since I'm 99% sure nobody here has heard this song, there is an extremely slim chance that you may have heard of one of the songs from the record, "Man on the Silver Mountain," as it gets occasional airplay on classic rock stations.

All in all, a great album (The older ones I still call albums). Nowhere near as heavy as Rainbow's second album Long Live Rock and Roll, but a great listen all the same.