Released: 1987
Tracks: I Don’t Know; Crazy Train; Believer; Mr. Crowley; Flying High Again; Revelation (Mother Earth); Steal Away (The Night); Suicide Solution (with guitar solo); Iron Man; Children of the Grave; Paranoid; Goodbye to Romance; No Bone Movies; Dee (Randy Rhoads studio out-takes)
Best track: a track that has Randy Rhoads’ guitar playing
Track to skip: skip Tommy Aldridge’s drum solo (end of Steal Away), just on principle
Randy Rhoads is one of my all time favorite guitarists. If you’ve ever wondered why every headbanger on earth just worships him, get this. Ozzy had a great band here, but the actual star of the group and this album is definitely Rhoads. If you don’t know the history of this, Randy Rhoads died in a plane crash in 1982 and Ozzy released this live Tribute to him in 1987. Rhoads was a very young guitarist (only played on 3 albums) before he died and had huge potential. Like Hendrix and other musicians who have died too young, we can only imagine at the incredible music he’d be making if he was alive today. Blows my mind.
Rhoads is the star of this album and he’s all over it. I remember how utterly impressed my friends and I were with this when we first heard it. And don’t be cynical about this, it’s not great just because he died. He actually deserves all the acclaim he has received since his death (unlike others, <cough, Cobain, cough>). I highly recommend this to all musicians, especially guitar players. This is how it’s all done. Go buy it.
Rating: 96
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