Temple of the King

It was my first semester of life in university for me, and it didn’t take me long to settle in, but I never really clicked with most of my classmates, partly because I was not Chinese educated nor very interested in studying. But i found a few good friends like Dave and Ray, who shared a lot of my interests – music, PC games, you know, the important stuff.

One day Dave came to my room and told me that another pal of his, Jedi, had problems getting past a certain PC game (I think it was Ultima VIII:Pagan) and needed help from someone who completed it before. So I went with Dave to this guy’s room, and helped him get through the difficult level (something about jumping off a ledge and catching the precipice). Suddenly the cassette player hit this sweet, magical song, that starts with enigmatic words:

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

I asked Jedi what song that was, and he was kinda surprised i haven’t heard of such a classic. “It’s ‘Temple of the King’ by Rainbow”. Later I went out to buy the album, and from fellow headbanger Dave I learnt about Ritchie Blackmore and the bands heavy connections to other 70’s rock legends like Deep Purple and Ronnie James Dio.

I’ve probably heard the song a million times since then, but although most people know it as a cheesy karaoke staple along side tunes like Hotel California and Stairway to Heaven, I still love the lilting melody and symbolic lyrics.

But what does the song really mean? I guess I never really thought Dio had any specific meaning he wanted us to get. A google search shows some guesses about Solomon’s great temple, but i don’t really see the connection. To me, I think its more about looking for and finding what you really want in life, that is the temple of the king.

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, hes gone
To the temple of the king.

Far from the circle, at the edge of the world,
Hes hoping, wondering.
Thinking back on the stories hes heard of
What hes 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.

[tags]ronnie james dio, dio, ritchie blackmore, rainbow, temple of the king, rock, metal[/tags]