The 1981 Listening Post - Fools Face - Tell America

 Fools Face - Tell America

#571

1981 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Fools Face

Tell America

Genre: Power Pop

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

American Guilt

Land of the Hunted

(Gotta Get) a Letter to You

Valentine

The Truth

I’ve been listening to a lot of Garage/Power Pop bands lately, especially a Louisville, KY group called White Reaper. And this is their spiritual ancestor that I am sure they have never heard. But, dammit, this is the same stuff. And it’s terrific. 

Bands like Fools Face and White Reaper (and the defunct Biters and also defunct Barreracudas) and so many others, they didn’t fall in love with Cheap Trick from the Budokan album like so many of us. Nope. They were there from Cheap Trick, In Color and Dream Police. They are the children of Zander and Nielsen. And they deserved better than the dustbin. 

There’s a healthy dose of Raspberries in this as well. Just delicious. 

If you can get past the seven songs on side one without pulling the needle all the way back to the start, you get to flip it over and treat yourself to even more! Including an opening retro-garage track “L5” which I think really sets the tone for the rest of the side.  

I started by listening to a YouTube playlist but Sheffield got a hold of the entire record and put it on a Google Drive. So I went back and re-listened and boy am I glad I did. The recorded versions are spectacular. It crackles and surprises the way Fingerprintz’s debut did. Or the Nerves. Or Squeeze. 

Except that in Fools Face, every member of the band contributed a at least one or more tunes. They are the Queen of Power Pop. 

The band is terrific but Jim Wirt, the bassist, is magic. He doesn’t overpower anything but, much like Mike Mills of REM, he’s indispensable. When you notice what he’s doing you just want to register to the whole thing just to hear his bass licks. 

Missed?: Absofuckinglutely

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pCwQQUgVbVSMdcuV5R6tqUhzyNpugy6O?usp=sharing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmnXkgQies&list=PLlvn8uktX5Lt5XYXWBIccDEC7v3H7d4Xe

The 1981 Listening Post - Slade - Til Deaf Do Us Part

 Slade - Til Deaf Do Us Part

#570

By Rob Slater

November 13 1981

Slade

Till Deaf Do Us Part

Rob Slater

Genre: Father of AC/DC, Grandpa of Quiet Riot, Brother of Sweet, and on this album Son of    QUEEN!

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Rob’s Rating: Solid 4.75 (was a 4 on the first listen.)

Highlights:   

“M'hat M'coat” - Amazing, bluesy instrumental

"Ruby Red"

"That Was no Lady that Was My Wife"

"Knuckle Sandwich Nancy"

Nevermind, they’re all good.

This album’s running theme (joke) is Rock ‘n’ Roll Religion. You can see it in five of the titles and hear it in many of the other lyrics.   

The opening of "Rock and Roll Preacher (Hallelujah I'm on Fire)" is, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to...” This isn't Prince, but makes you wonder if he heard it and a few years later it inspired the beginning to his song. Though there are the more obvious inspirations.

"Lock Up Your Daughters" starts out sounding like Queen. Can you say, “Tie Your Mother Down.” Actually it continues to sound like Queen.

Both of these songs make you realize where AC/DC must have gotten some of their inspiration.

The first track rock and roll preacher sounds a lot like for those about to Rock We salute you except I think there's gunfire instead of cannon fire. Interestingly enough, Noddy, got the nod to audition for AC/DC after Bon Scott died. I think he would have been much better for AC/DC, though a major blow to SLADE (Who he didn’t tell about the audition). His naughty song writing chops would have kept things at a Bon Scott level, I think. Though we probably wouldn't have Back in Black, which would be a shame.   

"Funk Punk & Junk" (B-side of "Ruby Red") Bonus track on the new extended edition is a GREAT song. (And Slade almost always did extra B-sides of good songs that didn’t make the album. Massive amounts of music over the years.)

They remind me a lot of Sweet as well, though Sweet had a fair amount of U.S. success. It's hard to believe that these guys had put out 9ish (Some were mixes of releases) studio albums by this point. You could certainly see how Quiet Riot did fairly accurate respectful covers and made them into monster Hits in the US. But why not Slade? The mention that they’re a bunch of ugly blokes, but that didn’t seem to hurt AC/DC. They were usually costumed unusually.   

It would take an invite by Ozzy Ozbourne to open the Reading Festival as a replacement that lit the American fire. In 1981 they released TWO albums. This was the second. We'll Bring the House Down was a collection of previously released and new works. This one was all new and aimed for a harder sound. It was successful at that, but still did not bring them the recognition they deserved on this side of the pond. It would take "My Oh My" and "Run Runaway" (Which I loved.) in a few years to finally break into the American market, sadly they stopped touring in ‘83 before the Quiet Riot singles even came out.   

I wished I’d gone back then and found all this great music. If I don’t get The Very Best of Slade for Christmas or Birthday in February, (Their #1 album came out on my 7th birthday.) I will be buying it for myself! Now, excuse me, I’m going to go listen to it again.   

https://open.spotify.com/album/5TaKuX3UNuNwNLLmAFRsHG?si=BP3Si4DkT_aZQwWiD-EgjQ

The 1981 Listening Post - Really Red - Teaching You the Fear

 Really Red - Teaching You the Fear

#569

1981 Housekeeping.  LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Really Red

Teaching You the Fear

Genre: Punk

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Too Political

Teaching You The Fear

Run ‘Em Out

No Art

At first you think it’s just thrash metal but then we get to the title track and the funky bass, Minutemen aesthetic appears and from there you realize just how terrific John Paul Williams is and how much he elevates what could be a pedestrian punk album. And the sheer psychotic insanity of “No Art” with its cacophonous piano is…*mwah*!

This is the kind of band that I wish I had seen back in 81 if I had the guts to go to an actual punk show. One listen to “Aim Tastes Good” and you realize that the best and most resonant punk of the era was steeped in either surf music or amped up R&B. It’s no wonder these guy were on DKs label. 

This rekkid is a ton of punk ass fun.

Missed?: Hells Yeah.

The 1981 Listening Post - Thee Milkshakes - Talkin’ bout….

 

#568

1981 Housekeeping

Thee Milkshakes

Talkin’ bout….

Genre: Russ Meyer soundtrack.

3.5 out of 5

Or Rat Pfink a Boo Boo. 

Or Incredibly Strange Creatures that became Mixed Up Zombies. 

Basically this is the music that accompanies a Cash Flagg or Russ Meyer joint. Cuz they can’t afford Strawberry Alarm Clock and any Psychedelic Garage bands of the era.

If you study this kind of music and are versed enough in 1-4-5 or blues progressions, you can write this stuff and it will sound a lot like this. Everything feels like it might fall out of tune at any moment. And that’s the charm.

There are no real highlights cuz every song is pretty interchangeable. 

Missed: Not really. But it wouldn’t have killed me to have heard/had it. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/talking-bout/1164709817

The 1981 Listening Post - New Order - Movement

 New Order - Movement

#567

By Chris Roberts

November 13 1981

New Order

Movement

Genre: Alternative Dance Music of the First Order 

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Chris’ Rating: 3 out of 5

Highlights:

Dreams Never End

I thought it would be interesting to review both Depeche Mode and New Order’s debut albums. Both were bands I idolized in high school and college, and I figured I was still capable of having a black celebration on a blue Monday. Both albums are similar anomalies in the bands’ discographies—reflections of seminal band members (Vince Clarke and the late Ian Curtis) who would not enjoy the bands’ greater successes. And both albums draw direct lines from Kraftwerk, albeit in opposite directions. Depeche’s Speak & Spell was as fun and frivolous as a Jolly Rancher. New Order’s historic, important Movement is as fun and frivolous as a bunch of broccoli served in a cramped, sports bar where nobody is wearing a mask.

I may have heard Movement before this review, but if I did, I didn’t remember it. The only song that got me moving was the lead off track, “Dreams Never End,” which contains the DNA for the band’s later sound. It’s no “Ceremony,” (later versions of Movement also include this classic single), but it’s a solid starter. The other eight songs on Movement are Joy Division leftovers, or songs about Ian Curtis, or are just so-so songs. I couldn’t get excited about any of them. None of it is bad—it feels like music without a place in 2021. It’s bleak, but without the melancholic pyschedelia of Siouxsie or The Cure, or Bauhaus’ horror show. And not yet the vibrant, pulsing New Order featured on the Substance double-disk CD, my grail of of alternative dance music and remixes. When it comes to Joy Division, I would rather listen to Unknown Pleasures, or “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and even then, I’m in my fifties and living through a pandemic. Ask me again, when I’m sixty-four.

XXX

Like almost all New Order’s records, Factory’s in-house creative director Peter Saville created the cover. Saville was given complete freedom, and had the confidence, to do whatever he wanted with the Factory covers. He often missed deadlines, exceeded budgets and bypassed the band’s approval, but there’s no denying the results—he made the covers into award-winning, Factory brand statements, where the catalog numbers were emphasized over images of the band. After the “I know what’s cool” Unknown Pleasures cover, Monument is one of Saville’s most memorable designs—a sly tweak on a 1932 Italian exposition poster graphic. Imagine how this cover looked on the shelves of a 1981 Licorice Pizza, sandwiched between The Monkees and Ted Nugent. No illustration, no photography. Just thick bold type, graphic shapes and on-trend colors. The inclusion of color on Monument was an important choice, a psychological transition from Joy Division’s B&W aesthetic. As New Order evolved into a popular dance band, album covers like Power, Corruption and Lies, Technique and Republic would further explode with color. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/2DI73ocB6x1ExxoJbT4QI8?si=qfTVq4QtReioaugLxV5Rbw

The 1981 Listening Post - Models - Local and/or General

 Models - Local and/or General

#566

October 1981

Models

Local and/or General

Genre: New Wave

2.25 out of 5

Requisite 80s cover: I listless version of “Telstar” that just makes me want to hear the original. It’s a little over-lush. And also growly for some reason. Meh.

You know how there are records that you absolutely loved from an era and then, for some reason, just forgot that they existed and when they came back into your life you recalled just how much you loved them and can’t believe they faded out of your life? 

For me that’s a band called Buck-O-Nine, a ska band from the 90s whose song, “My Town” was on constant play on my 10 CD changed in my Mazda Miata in the lat 90s. 

Then, one day, put the CD in the binder and forgot about it. 

Until 2 weeks ago when my son played a ska song he liked and I opened a Ska Essentials playlist on Apple Music and that song came on. 

It’s back in constant rotation. Along with “Round Kid”.

I’m sure there are people in Australia who grew up in the 80s and had this record by Models and absolutely loved one or two tracks on it. And then they never ever listened to it again and forgot that this group even existed. 

And maybe, somehow, their kid came in and wanted them to hear some song by an Australian rock band they never heard of so the sought out an “Rock from Oz” deep tracks playlist and “Local and/or General” came on and they were transported back to their youth. 

And then, like all things of this ilk, they promptly forgot about them again.

Then they died. 

Points off for missing tracks and only live versions available. Too bad, it might rank higher

Since the purpose of the Listening Post project was to determine if I missed something back in the day or not I will be introducing a new feature: Missed? 

Missed: Nah. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5te9qSwP5E&list=PLlvn8uktX5LtzPjUt79ymewVNQBUEuRo2

The 1981 Listening Post - Spoons - Stick Figure Neighborhood

 Spoons - Stick Figure Neighborhood

#565

1981 Housekeeping

Spoons

Stick Figure Neighborhood

Genre: New Wave

3.25 out of 5

Highlight:

Ice Age

Man….there are a lot of bands, aren’t there? Like, a fuck ton of groups and performers. And I’m often amazed. But what amazes me isn’t the vast expanse of bands and songs. Well, yes, the songs. I sometimes sit with my guitar and noodle with chord progressions or simple pentatonic riffs and I’ll play something I like and think, “that HAS to have already been played by somebody, right?”

Or, like yesterday, I’m driving on the freeway, music blaring and Apple Music is playing songs that it thinks I will like and a recent Ozzy song from his last album will come on and I’ll be air guitaring to the riff and thinking…”how is ANYONE writing new riffs after 45 MILLION songs have already been crafted.

And then I think about the fact that when you shuffle a deck of cards, the order of those cards repeating is nearly impossible to imagine because it’s a factorial of 52. Which means it’s 52x52, 52x51,52x50...The number you get at the end is 8×10^6730414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000 

How can that be?

That means that my Genesis/Waking the Trolls Magic the Gathering deck, which has 60 cards, has 8,320,987,112,741,390,144,276,341,183,223,364,380,754,172,606,361,245,952,449,277,696,409,600,000,000,000,000 combinations. And yet I ALWAYS get three freaking Genesis Ultimatums in my hand when it’s TOO FUCKING EARLY FOR THEM!

Speaking of MtG, did you know that John Darnielle loves it and plays it on the same platform as I do but I don’t know his user name so I don’t know if we’ve ever played but he does talk about it on Twitter. 

Or that someone claims that the most famous person they ever played against was Adam Driver before he was famous. Kylo Ren is a Magic player!!!

Or that Joe Manganiello is a HUGE D&D player?

Or that Deborah Ann Woll from Daredevil and The Walking Dead regularly appears on a Tabletop Gaming Series? I watched her play Wingspan.

Wingspan is a good game. It’s not as much fun as, say, Secret Hitler, which is the greatest game ever. Or Gloomhaven which has certainly become an Everest in my life. 

Spock once said “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”. That applies to just about everything. Including the factorial of playing cards. 

So, I guess it must to music as well. Because I am gobsmacked at how many songs there are that don’t sound like any other songs.

And yet, while those songs are constructed as actual songs with verses and choruses and instrumental solos many many many of them can be incredibly boring. Like playing against a Mill Deck. I love the game and I appreciate the deck’s construction but it makes the experience of playing so uninteresting for me to play against that I just concede and move on.

Stick Figure Neighborhood isn’t quite the Mill Deck of music but it’s close. All the songs are songs and the band is playing them but I am just so uninterested in the content that I ended up writing a dissertation about factorials and Magic the Gathering. 

Daniel Lanois produce this. It’s sound great. But the songs are not great. New Wave for New Wave’s sake. It’s Martha’s Muffin’s without Martha but a lot more energy. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/7JvUNkvrSuNsQWsSbLbIxg?si=VOXvMQrMQry4Oq4PUwZqyg

The 1981 Listening Post - The Buggles - Adventures in Modern Recording

 The Buggles - Adventures in Modern Recording

#564

by Rob Slater

November 11 1981

The Buggles

Adventures In Modern Recording

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Rob’s Rating: 2.2.5 out of 5

Genre: 80s New Wave: Yes or No (Get it?)

1.        "Adventures in Modern Recording" - Nice anthemic opening. Then an almost DEVO groove. NIce harmonies when the chorus hits. Awesome. But it’s about 55 seconds too long, mostly in the chorus.

2.        "Beatnik" - Yes of the 80s. Then another repetitious chorus. 44 seconds too long.

3.        "Vermillion Sands" - Pleasant. Jazzy.  It’s very soundtrack. Horns. Synthesized I assume. Repetitious chorus. 3:33 too long. Though if they cut off the end and made it an instrumental song for a side one ending… that might work.

4.        "I Am a Camera" - Another pleasant tune. Very YES. No surprise that a different version appeared on YES’ album Drama with Horn and Downes. Repetitious chorus. 2:22 too long. 

Side two

1.        "On TV" - Rap/Devo. I like the interstitial music, but not the howling over a rap beat. Repetitious chorus. :33 sec. too long. .

2.        "Inner City" - Love this intro. Pretty good song. Repetitious chorus. 22 sec. too long. 

3.        "Lenny"- Kinda boring. More YES. Nice vocals. 1.11 too long. 

4.        "Rainbow Warrior" - My favorite song, I think. Repetitious chorus. 11 sec. too

5.        "Adventures in Modern Recording (reprise)" - I think I’ve written enough.

        Bonus tracks on a later version: Almost a requisite 80s cover: Fade Away starts out as an homage to Buddy Holly then devolves other than the harmony vocals. At 2:36 it may only be 0.0 sec. Too long. I stopped playing the next one: Blue Nylon.

This is a decent album for an elevator or background or playing during the credits of a movie set in 1980. I thought it was better the first time through when I was listening while building my own music room/studio to wank around with my own music. May be worth listening to once if you don’t have to pay for it. At 34.29 it may be 11:11 too long?

YES, but lacking Drama and not really an Album. Could have used a lot more YES. Horn admitted to being bored by the time he was done recording. An outside producer could have helped, but I’m not sure Howe. Sher wood have been better if it was short, ‘Kay? It was hard to stay aWake man. My eyelids kept falling Downe. To paraphrase some Chillawack lyrics: Jon, Jon, Jon, this went on too long. Maybe a Bru for dinner would have helped. Cheers. Trevor did Squierrel away much of the work for adaptations for later YESSONGS.

I did have fun writing this review, though! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7GXRxL4SkM&list=PLlvn8uktX5LtyBzpyYxvx82d28thVqKoB

The 1981 Listening Post - TV21 - A Thin Red Line

 TV21 - A Thin Red Line

#563

November 1981 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

TV21

A Thin Red Line

Genre: Should be a New Wave classic

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Waiting for the Drop

Ideal Way of Life

Ticking Away

It Feels Like It’s Starting to Rain

What’s Going On?

Something’s Wrong

Tomorrow…

I am not going to relay the frustrating history of this band’s near success. Instead, I will link to an article that outlines.

But, from the very first track “Waiting for the Drop”, you know that this is a group that was on to something. That something being the burbling sound of epic New Wave. They should have toured with the likes of Echo & the Bunneymen and others and seemed to have been on that path. That no one has ever heard of this band or this record is a sad travesty of rock history.

I sure had no idea who they were until this album was unearthed. 

Elegiac, at times even majestic, TV21 took what they learned listening to Joy Division and amped it up, added other instruments and came up with something that, dammit, we should be talking about in the conversations of influential music of the 80s. 

It’s no surprise that Ian Broudie produced this. It’s easily on par with Crocodiles or Porcupine or Original Mirrors.

While “Snakes and Ladders” is the song the band thought should be the single, I gravitate more to the lushly weird “What’s Going On?” And the almost melancholic “It Feels Like Its Starting to Rain” and the as-good-if-not-better-than-U2 “Something’s Wrong”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi9Tj44aE5k&list=PLvhtFJLy0g8vtfscJ-2RSg_fjdb93YPHg

https://excavatingthe80s.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/tv21/

The 1981 Listening Post - Lindsay Buckingham - Law and Order

Lindsay Buckingham - Law and Order 

#562

By Tami Fitzkoff

October 3 1981

Lindsay Buckingham

Law and Order

Genre: Quirky and Cool

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Tami’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Trouble

A Satisfied Mind

September Song

I’ll Tell You Now

Love From Here, Love From There

Lindsay’s first solo album is great. It may not be for everyone but I dig it. Lindsay at times sounds like Freddie Mercury meets rockabilly with a touch of Dr. Demento and an airy mix of music. It’s whimsical, fun, breezy and cool. It seems to me like Lindsay really enjoyed himself making this record. And I guess it just rubbed off on me. The music just sounds good. I don’t know why he named it “Law and Order,” it’s more like Wild, Wacky and Wonderful but I guess that would be a lame title.

The one song that charted on this album, “Trouble,” (and the only song I knew going into this review) is actually one of my favorite 80’s songs. The chorus has been lodged in my head since I was a kid. The lyrics act as a voiceover whenever I’ve been in uncomfortable situations… “I think I’m in trouble (truh-wah-ble).” It’s a cool smooth song, which oddly starts out with him comically singing “two, a-three, a-four, two, a-three, a-four.” I was surprised that he did three covers on this album. They are rock and roll/country ballads about love and loss “It Was I,” “September Song,” and “A Satisfied Mind.” I had never heard any of them before and Lindsay gives a country Wall Of Sound vibe to each of them and I liked them all. Even the bizarre songs like “Bwana” and “That’s How We Do It In LA” that I find hard to describe, which some people (like my wife) found super annoying, I found to be amusing. And then there were his other  originals, “Mary Lee Jones,”I’ll Tell You Now,” and “Love From Here, Love From There” where I just felt like I could be hanging by a pool enjoying the Buckingham breeze. It’s only 36 minutes and worth a listen.

https://open.spotify.com/album/38UhlwlFmxKBRVCUdaY21m?si=UL1U3675QvyvW6eQ7ngrrg

The 1981 Listening Post - MX-80 Sound - Crowd Control

 MX-80 Sound - Crowd Control

#561

November 27 1981

MX-80 Sound

Crowd Control

Genre: MX-80 doing that MX-80 thang. 

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Crowd Control

Bob Ludwig mastered this. Bob fucking Ludwig. Anyone else a Bob Ludwig Stan? No? Ok. But that’s kind of great.

This is more of MX-80 doing the MX-80 thing. If you loved their last album, which I did, you are gonna like this. If you love Sonic Youth and that sound, then this is for you. 

I can’t expound any further. It’s not as great as Out of the Tunnel, but that was more of a surprise than anything else. This comes mighty close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhPoGOcudD0

The 1981 Listening Post - The Adicts - Songs of Praise

 The Adicts - Songs of Praise

#560

1981 Housekeeping

The Adicts

Songs of Praise

Genre: Punk

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

England

Get Adicted

It’s easy in 1981 to forget that punk was still around. The good stuff was few and far between, as we’ve seen. And music is changing, expanding, splintering. 

That said, Songs of Praise positions The Adicts as Cockney Rejects opening act that is harder and more honest about their punk leanings without devolving into Crass territory. They bring their own fans to the show and all of those people leave after Cockney Rejects second song.

Every song is a perfect example of the style and yet nothing really sticks around. It’s not a sticky record. 

That’s what Green Day and all the pop bunkers of the 90s learned. You gotta add some stickiness to the snot or else it’s just viscous mucus. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kbj89-947M

The 1981 Listening Post - Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

 Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

#559

By Rob Haneisen

November 7 1981

Ozzy Osbourne

Diary of a Madman

Genre: Classic metal 

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Rob’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Highlights: Randy Rhoads

By 1981, the branches of the heavy metal and hard rock tree were already sprouting new niches – some of which bore bountiful fruit and others ultimate became a bit stunted.

And so we have the coincidence of Ozzy Osbourne’s second solo studio album coming out within days of Black Sabbath’s second studio album fronted by his replacement, Ronnie James Dio. “Mob Rules” and “Diary of a Madman” are equally great (I prefer Sabbath’s album) but represent two bands headed in different stylistic directions, and for different levels of popularity.

“Diary of a Madman” was coming hot of the success of his first effort “Blizzard of Oz” and Ozzy again put the ridiculously talented guitarist Randy Rhoads front and center. Rhoads’s unfortunate death in a plane crash while touring for this album in Florida was tragic but his volume of work on Ozzy’s two albums is something to behold. Music afficionados and guitar geeks will marvel at his infusion of neo-classical style with rock and metal. They will rave about his technical wizardry and technique, but let’s be frank: the kid just plain shreds the guitar with the kind of melody, speed and creativity that blows away his contemporaries. Ozzy owes his career to Rhoads because frankly Osbourne’s singing on this album is the only weak link in the armor.

It’s not that it is bad. I just think he sounds on some songs like he is really pushing the upper limits of his range and it’s a bit of a strain. Ozzy’s voice is a high-pitched iconic sound and distinctive. It works damn fine on so many songs. But I kind of grew tired of hearing it by the end of this album.

And Ozzy’s songs don’t really fit the personae on display. Look at the gory, crazed album cover. Look at Ozzy’s moniker as the “Prince of Darkness” or his antics like biting the head off a bat, or a bird or whatever. All of that hoopla doesn’t really match the songs or the content. These are poppy, hard rock songs infused with just enough metal muscle to be called mainstream metal. It’s not hair metal but it’s a style that led to that genre. 

It’s also pretty damn radio-friendly. Big hits on this album included “Over the Mountain” “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” and “Flying High Again”, the latter song I first heard as a kid on a K-Tel cassette called “Nu-Rock” that also included such edgy material as Loverboy and 38 Special.

Just listen to the song “Tonight” from this Ozzy album and imagine Elton John singing it. Very little would change, just add more piano.

The song “S.A.T.O.” has a nice sinister vibe to it, and “Believer” and the title track pack a bit more punch and emotional depth. But the rest of this album doesn’t exactly match the devil-horned reputation all those worrisome parents of impressionable kids were screaming mad about. 

So those two paths? Well, Sabbath kind of faded into its own murk whereas Ozzy rode waves of popularity, the rise of metal on MTV, hair metal, pop metal, and continued radio play. His ear for pop music helped inspire a rotating cadre of musicians that played with him to write some awesome songs. 

Listen this album to hear Rhoads and see the pop star behind Ozzy’s mask. There’s really no madman lurking here.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4xiRrFE0Gq4Si9mAfPB3hZ?si=QKMdErR4S6Wi78BICiXZpg