Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon

Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon - 1983

Randy Rhodes died.
And that's pretty much the whole story here.
Jake Lee is hired as his replacement and it almost works. The title track is great, energetic, shreddy. The rest of the album is....like carbon paper.
If Diary of a Madman is Blizzard of Ozz part 2, this was both of the albums as copied by a cover band. That isn't to say that its unlistenable, it's not. It's fine. There just no explosively mind bending brilliance. Lee doesn't have Rhodes's chops (the closest he gets is on the late album monster "Slow Down" and Ozzy seems to be going through the motions.

Grade: C
ASide: Bark at the Moon
BlindSide: Slow Down
DownSide: Centre of Eternity
DownSide:

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Black Sabbath - Born Again

Black Sabbath - Born Again - 1983

Well, here we are. Another Purple Sabbath crossover. Ex-Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan joined Black Sabbath for their most reviled album of their career.
First off, from the beginning it sounds NOTHING like a Sabbath record. "Trashed", the lead off song is some power speed metal with soaring vocals and a razor bald of a guitar solo. The tinniness of the production is so off putting that the entire record is impossible to penetrate (forget that cover, which should turn any human off), the marriage of Gillan and Sabbath is just a mess.
This, by the way, is the album that spawned the tour that begat the amazing "Stonehenge" segment of Spinal Tap. The story goes that the set Sabbath designed was too big to get into any arena. So, Tap went in the other direction, hilariously. The instrumental "Stonehenge" on this record is a trifle, a placeholder that leads into the shrieking caterwauling of "Disturbing the Priest", a song I can only describe as Metal as imagined by The Residents. Just awful.
On the other hand "Zero the Hero" is a dark epic of political apathy. Gillan's voice sounds like Vince Neil in a song that almost rescues the first side. And Side two opens with a screed against ex-Sabbath manager's daughter and future Ozzy wife and tv reality star, Sharon Arden (Osbourne) and, save the trebly mastering, it's a powerhouse of chukka-metal. The overly earnest slodge that is the title track calls to mind some z-rated horror film. Not quite Troll 2 but maybe Halloween 6. It wants so badly to be grandiose and epic. It fails on both counts. "Hot Line" while a pretty straight forward metal experience is perhaps the only song on the album to be correctly mixed.

If everybody involved with this had been paying attention to the mixing and mastering, I bet this record would be less reviled today. (well, it needs a new cover). As it is, it has to lose a few points for the terrible execution in post. Too bad. Everybody seems to be trying.

Grade: D+
ASide: Trashed, Digital Bitch
BlindSide: Zero the Hero (suck it, Allmusic, I dig this song)
DownSide: Disturbing the Priest, Born Again, Keep It Warm

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Rainbow - Bent Out of Shape

Rainbow - Bent Out of Shape - 1983

(I couldn't be more pleased to be done with Rainbow for a while.....)

1. Stranded - The radio friendliness continues. It's not a good thing. It's not a bad thing. If I had to choose, I would choose to listen to Martin Briley over this. The similarities abound. The Foreigner sound continues. Fortunately, it's the 80s, so the song goes on for a full 2 minutes after it's over. And it's only 3:25 total.
2. Can't Let You Go - I dig this chamber organ opening, however, it has almost absolutely nothing to do with the mid-tempo lover's lament shit that follows.
3. Fool for the Night - Hey, it's this album's St. Elmo's Fire song! Yep, if you like the theme to that movie, you're gonna love the shit that Blackmore and Turner put out on this record. I, however, do not.
4. Fire Dance - Starts off with just terrific instrumentation. If this was 6 years earlier the song would have a LOT more teeth. As it stands it's been softened but it's not less as good anything else in the band's past.
5. Anybody There - Suggesting some sort of otherworldly elegiac masterwork, this instrumental piece is just a piece of 80s metal indulgence. Blah.
6. Desperate Heart - Eye of the Tiger. At this point everyone's got a track with this same chukka-chukka drive. This is one of the least interesting.
7. Street of Dreams - My dream is that this record would end.
8. Drinking with the Devil - Wow, you can't get rocking until this far into the record? Blackmore's problem is that he's not a good lyricist and he leaves that work to the singer. Joe Turner isn't a good lyricist but that's his job and he falls short. The song is one of the better moments on the album, though.
9. Snowman - This dystopian mood piece is a cover of the theme to a british animated version of a children's book, The Snowman. As a result it's haunting, sad, industrial production is the best thing on this record.
10. Make Your Move - Why not open with this one? If ever there was a song that screamed "lead off" it's this one. It should have been the title of the album as well. All of this just proves that Rainbow didn't know nor care about what they were doing. This is a job. One that they're not very good at.

The trouble is, there isn't anything inherently awful about this record. And there's very little to recommend it. But isn't that the way with Rainbow? This is where the Ritchie Blackmore participation in Purple Sabbath Metal Saga ends for a while. I think he doesn't figure for another 10 years. I gotta say, I'm not sure just how important he really is. At least, as far as I'm concerned, his contribution through Deep Purple and his work as Jon Lord's guitar foil to Lord's organ is seminal. As a leader of his own material he's so hit or miss that it's hard to take him seriously. There's some great work in there, but it's slogged down in mediocrity. Not trash, just middling averageness. For that I'm so glad to be done with Rainbow for a while.


Grade: D+
ASide: Fire Dance, Snowman
BlindSide: Drinking with the Devil

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Dio - Holy Diver

Dio - Holy Diver - 1982

Opening with "Stand Up and Shout" A shredtastic offering that uses all the things that I've come to adore in metal (exceptional energetic playing) and none of the things I don't (fantasy mythology), Dio's first solo record is a call to arms from the great midget of rock. This is a song that could fit on Screaming for Vengeance nicely. But I'm not sure I get the big todo behind the title track. In my opinion Survivor is owed royalties for ripping this off from "Eye of the Tiger". Am I wrong? It's good, though. Not the greatest thing I've ever heard....
The album is a great listen top to bottom, perhaps due to the fact that it's loaded with great players and Dio has been waiting his whole life to make it.
"Don't talk to Stranger" might play at being a ballad, but make no mistake this is all cock rock. It lures you in with some nice beatific opening strains but after that minute it gives way to the sword of the master. The false balladeering continues later where the "chalice of the soul" lies in "the palace of the virgin on "Invisible". And seriously, how can you not love "Rainbow in the Dark"? I just read on Wikipedia that the song is about Dio's dissatisfaction with his experiences in Sabbath (And, I imagine, Rainbow given the title). Maybe that's why the song sounds so bloody and superbly desperate. And that synth is just cheesily great.

Holy Diver lives up to its reputation.

Grade: A
ASide: Stand Up and Shout, Rainbow in the Dark
BlindSide: Caught in the Middle, Don't Talk to Strangers, Invisible

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Whitesnake - Saints and Sinners

Whitesnake - Saints and Sinners - 1982

Okay, I admit it. This isn't really fair. I've set a precedent with myself that the Listening Post series is a completion series. I'm supposed to listen to one band's catalog from beginning to end and immerse myself in that chronology.
The task I set at hand was to explore the many tentacled tendrils of the roots of metal as started by Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
So many of the players seem to bounce to other groups in this cluster. Ozzy leaves BS and Dio is brought in. Dio was a singer for Rainbow which was the band by the lead guitarist of DP. And so on....
Ian Gillan's replacement in Purple was David Coverdale. And it only made sense to follow his path as well. And that's where I break tradition with my own rules. I avoided the early records by Whitesnake. I didn't want to hunt them down, buy them, borrow them, anything. Who would want to devote THAT much time to David Coverdale besides Tawny Kitaen?
Maybe I should have. Because this record presents them with an unfair advantage: It skews the curve.
Saints and Sinners is a damn fine record. It's got the blues, the ballads, the shrieks, the harmonies, everything a band would need to succeed in the early days of MTV.
Straddling the delicate balance of Hair/Glam metal and Heavy Metal, S&S succeeds in every single song. I'm not sure what happens in a few years when the band tries its hand at ring grabbing glory but this record is a fantastic amalgam of Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Glam Metal.

Grade: A
ASide: Here I Go Again, Young Blood, Rough and Ready, Bloody Luxury
BlindSide: Love and Affection, Rock and Roll Angels, Dancing Girls, Crying in the Rain

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Rainbow - Straight Between the Eyes

Rainbow - Straight Between the Eyes - 1982

The first that struck me on Rainbow's Straight Between the Eyes is that, while it's very energetic and all, it's not a very...cohesive record. The opener, "Death Valley Driver", a cross between "Communication Breakdown" and "Radar Love" is marred by sloppy lead guitar work. Not something I would have expected and it might even be on purpose, but Blackmore seems less assured and more lackadaisical on the entire album. The mid-tempo "Stone Cold" feels like it fell off a Foreigner record and that's how I feel about the entire experience: I've heard this before. Now, there's not a helluva lot that can be done in this milieu that hasn't already been done, let's face it. The entire Purple Sabbath experience sort of culminated with AC/DC's Back in Black. After that, everyone is trying to attain the gold, right? Or the platinum.
The driving skiff-shred of "Bring on the Night" and anthem of "Power" might actually be good if they didn't sound like Michael Parr's soundtrack for St. Elmo's Fire. Sure, that music came out 3 years later but it's all nostalgia now and if it sounds like that and calls that middle of the road metal to mind, it's just not trying hard enough. In the era of Leppard/Osbourne a ballad like "Tearin' Out My Heart" needs to be a LOT better than it is.
This is an era when every band seemed to have one song with "Rock" in the title, extolling the majesty of the idiom. "Rock Fever" is this album's entry. And it's sucky.
Rainbow is never great and never awful. They're just average. But at least they're consistent.


Grade: C
ASide: Death Valley Driver
BlindSide: MISS Mistreated
DownSide: Rock Fever, Eyes of Fire

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Ozzy Osbourne – Diary of a Madman – 1981

Blizzard of Ozz part 2. this one actually follows the same pattern laid down by Blizzard. Great opener “Over the Mountain”, blistering follow-up “Flying High Again”, power ballad “You Can't Kill Rock and Roll”. And so on. Instead of “Mr. Crowley”, the dark side two opener is “Little Dolls”, Just as ominous a track with a little toe in Ozzy's psychedelic roots. Really little.
By now the guys have settled down from the launchpad of “we'll show you how great we are” to the perch of “we've won, we are the gods of metal”. Because of that, there are few surprises. Like we need surprises when you've got Randy Rhodes. Let him loose to do his stuff. He's not gonna be around forever, you know...
I'm usually not a huge fan of Power Metal Ballads, but I have a soft spot for “Tonight”. It evokes lonely Saturday night cruising in the 80s. Hoping for something to happen. Driving your beater or your dad's big boat of a Chrysler down main street while your best friend makes out with the hotter girl in the back seat. Jamming the brakes every once in a while out of jealousy. Ending up in the same place you started. Which really isn't so bad. Cuz one day you'll leave that town. You'll be something.

You don't need Diary of a Madman if you already own Blizzard of Ozz. But it won't hurt to have it or hear it.

Grade: A-
Aside: Over the Mountain, Flying High Again
BlindSide: Little Dolls, Tonight, S.A.T.O.

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Black Sabbath - Mob Rules

Black Sabbath – Mob Rules – 1981

I don't love Mob Rules the way I do Heaven and Hell but it's still terrific. It's as though Iommi was challenging himself in the contest of Sabbath vs Ozzy because he's in terrific form and Butler raises the stakes over the less than perfect Daisley on Ozzy's album.
Somehow Dio is kept in check, mystically speaking. Perhaps that's why he would leave after this record.
There are no surprises, just solid playing, strong writing, and exciting interplay between the band. Perhaps taking a cue from the classical offerings of Rhodes and recalling the best experimentation of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the band comes up with their own neo-classical influenced epic, “The Sign of the Southern Cross” which never devolves into parody, though it easily could have, even with that trippy coda “E5150” which follows.
A song like “Slipping Away” shows the band embracing a more accessible sound while not losing their hard core sludge roots.
All in all, Mob Rules is a worthy follow up to Heaven and Hell.

Grade: A
Aside: Mob Rules, Turn up the Night
BlindSide: The Sign of the Southern Cross,
DownSide: Voodoo

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz

Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard of Ozz – 1980

“Daddy, I want music, not talk!” my four year old daughter shouted to me as we were on a run to the pharmacy last night.
“You got it!” I said and fired up Blizzard of Ozz, which was next on the Listening Post list anyway.
“Daddy! Wanna see my leg kick dance?!?”
I looked back and saw Zoe kicking and jerking her feet to the music.
“You like this music, Zig Zag?” my most often used nickname for her.
“Yeah!”.

Until “Goodbye To Romance”, that is. She doesn't dig the ballads.

When I was 15 I had a job in the greasy spoon in the tourist of Bar Harbor. I mixed the cole slaw and, eventually, I was graduated to fish chowder.
That's when I met Pete. My best friend for a couple years until we lost touch in the early 90s, Pete was a lover of all things metal. Pantera, Van Halen and Ozzy. It was he who convinced me to go to the Bangor State Fair to see Ozzy in concert. He convinced me to bring the album cover with me and wave it, which was a burden, actually.
Because of Peter Daher I got to the concert so early that I was 3 people from the stage. Because of him I saw a new band that really caught fire with both of us, a little band called Def Leppard. Because of him Randy Rhodes looked me right in the eye and smiled at me through a solo.
Thanks, Pete.

Blizzard of Ozz is a perfect record. Even if I hadn't had those experiences I would love this record. Watching my daughter react to it the way she did 30 years later proves that for me. I think a lot of that has to do with healthy competition and need to prove himself after leaving Sabbath.
Of course, without Randy Rhodes I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be writing any of that.
Rhodes brought a magical combination of adoration for the idiom of metal, a respect for classical music, a slavish disciples talent (my god, how many fingers did that man even have? 15?) and a sense of a little bit of radio friendly ear candy.
All of this together brings us classics like “Crazy Train”, “Mr. Crowley” “I Don't Know” AND acoustic gems like “Dee” which bleeds into the righteous “Suicide Solution”. There's room for that power ballad because there's so much of everything else going on.

I find it interesting that both Ozzy and Sabbath would choose to use sacrilegious imagery on their covers. From Ozzy's cross-as-weapon to Sabbath's smoking angels (a theme copied by Van Halen just a couple years later). Dead Kennedys would incorporate the same anti-religious themes on their In God we Trust, inc the next year. No doubt this was all a reaction to the Moral Majority's rise in America.
It all fits the music, by the way.
But I digress.
In short:
I love this record.

Grade: A+
Aside: I Don't Know, Crazy Train, Suicide Solution, Mr. Crowley
BlindSide: Dee, Revelation (Mother Earth), Steal Away (The Night)
DownSide:

Listening Post: Purple Sabbath - Rainbow - Difficult to Cure

Rainbow – Difficult to Cure – 1981

So, while the other major metal relics of the 60s (Sabbath, Ozzy) mine dark and exciting territories, Ritchie Blackmore turned Rainbow into the Greg Kihn Band with a dash of Scorpions.
D2C is a toothless record and a weird one. Sel-important and pretentious on songs like the atrocious “Freedom Fighter” and the title track (what the fuck? Beethoven's 9th? THIS is the reason Spinal Tap and Tenacious D existed) and bizarre, like tossing an irish gig in the middle os “Spotlight”.
If I had purchased this in 81 when I saw it for the first time at the mall (and I almost did, many times. I liked the cover. Metal as doctors? They're gonna operate! Cool!) I would have never listened to another note Blackmore would have ever put out or had put out. It's a dull record. And not a lot of fun. Though halfway through the title track it does harken back to the grand ol DP days there's very little to rescue this album. Once you've had to hear the opener, “I Surrender”, which could be seen as a metaphor for the entire band's credo at this point, the album can't recover.

Grade: D+
Aside: Difficult to Cure
BlindSide: Spotlight Kid
DownSide: Freedom Fighter, I Surrender, Magic, No Release.