I've always liked Ozzy Osbourne, but the main focus of this album (for me, anyway) is Randy Rhoads, as it is a tribute to him. All of the songs from "Blizzard of Ozz" are here, and only a few from "Diary of a Madman". I would have liked to hear more from the latter, but oh well. Ozzy is in good form, as he could still sing well back then. The rhythm section is good (a good rhythm section is important, and this one does the job), and they support one of the best lead guitarists I've heard.

The album opens with a performance of "I Don't Know", which is a much more intense and energetic live song. When Randy hit that first bend of the solo, filled with vibrato, I almost died. The classic "Crazy Train" is played, with added fills and little bits. "Mr. Crowley" is another highlight, with some added improvising at the end. "Suicide Solution" is one of the biggest highlights. Firstly, the fills Randy adds are crazy, and then he gets a solo spot, which is outstanding. He switches between lightning fast pentatonic and harmonic minor shredding to dimished scale runs and classically influenced arpeggio bits. It's inspirational, not just because it's fast or anything. The Sabbath covers are OK, not really what I wanted to hear, but good nonetheless. The classic ballad "Goodbye to Romance" is here, and it's very good as well.

Any fan of Randy-era Ozzy needs this album, as well as guitar players looking for inspiration, or just amazing playing.


The tragedy is just too much   October 11, 2006
SUPERMAN (THE 40 WATT IN ATHENS)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Musicians dying before their time is nothing unique in rock'n'roll history. SRV, Hendrix, Joplin, Holly, Morrison, etc.. However, there was always an innocence attached to Randy Rhoads. Here was a classically trained guitarist that was interested in incorporating brilliant and complex guitar arraingments with popular music. He took an alcohilc and believed to be washed-up rocker like Ozzy and helped him to produce his two greatest works ever. You know, a lot of players sound great in the studio, when they can triple track their recordings, but here, Rhoads shreds in fluid beauty, live and in person. Just incredible playing. The only man that could make Ozzy take a backseat on stage, God Bless him.


One of the greatest guitarists of all time   August 22, 2005
Handsome Rob (Appleton, WI USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Randy Rhoads, although only having two studio albums under a major label to showcase his amazing talent, was one of the greatest guitarists ever to play. Born in 1956 in Los Angeles, he began playing the guitar at around age seven. In 1976 he founded the first of the hair metal bands, Quiet Riot. Although they were only signed to a record label in Japan they became a hit amongst the LA club scene. In 1979, Quiet Riot lost Rhoads to ex-Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne. With Ozzy, Randy produced two multi-platinum studio albums until his untimely death in a plane crash on March 19, 1982. Five years later, Ozzy released a slew of live tracks from the Diary of a Madman tour, the Tribute album. Track ratings:
1) I Don't Know- 8/10- Catchier than the studio version, nicely added pentatonic riffs and harmonics, and a vastly improved solo.

2) Crazy Train- 10/10- Slighty heavier than the studio version, and a little more upbeat. One of the best tracks on the disc.

3) Believer- 7/10- ties with (Steal Away) The Night for worst track on the CD, although it's still entertaining. It has a decent bassline and is slightly slower than most of Ozzy's songs.

4) Mr. Crowley- 10/10- Another of the best tracks on the disk, it features two of Randy's best solos. Overall better than its studio counterpart.

5) Flying High Again- 9/10- I actually like the album version of this song better, although the solo is better on the live version. Poison's "Nothing but a Good Time" is an almost exact ripoff of this song, and if you like that song, you'll definitely like this.

6) Revelation (Mother Earth)- 10/10- One of the best songs Ozzy ever recorded, this song escalates into one of Randy's best solos. One of the best tracks on the CD.

7) Steal Away (The Night)- 7/10- so. catchy. Features an over- extended 4 minute drum solo. The song itself is decent, although
it does not compare to the others.

8) Suicide Solution-11/10- Randy's finest 7 minutes and 46 seconds. This is the best version of the song, and the bridge is extremely catchy and may get stuck in your head. At the end of the song, Randy plays a jaw-dropping unaccompanied and improvised guitar solo that lasts over two minutes. This is one of the many reasons why Randy has been idolized by so many guitarists in the past twenty years.

9) Iron Man- 9/10- Gets extra points because this overrated song was shortened. Randy makes it more interesting and less repetitive with the addition of vibrato and harmonics. The song jumps into the best version of Children of the Grave ever recorded.

10) Children of the Grave- 11/10- Although it doesn't have an improvised solo, this track is just as good as Suicide Solution and much MUCH better than its original Black Sabbath version. It has one of the best solos I have ever heard, and is a melancholy reminder of what Randy Rhoads could have done if he hadn't died so early.

11) Paranoid- 10/10- The best version of paranoid earlier. The guitar part is expanded so it is not as primitive as its original release, and features a nice solo.

12) Goodbye to Romance- 9/10- The first song Randy wrote with Ozzy, and the last he performed. Much better than the studio version.

13) No Bone Movies- 8/10- One of the most upbeat and heavy songs on the album. The rating would be higher except Ozzy's vocals are barely distinguishable.

14) Dee- 1000000/10- you get to hear him speak!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the guitar is much clearer sounding than in the studio version.


A couple average nights of now mythic proportions...   May 14, 2002
Jade Blackman (Canada)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I'm glad in this latest reissue of this classic album they've restored the longer clip of the intro number Carmina Burana from the original lp.Listening to it one could get the feeling that perhaps Randy had seen the movie Excalibur and seeing King Arthurs Knights charge forth to one more victory during that piece,it seemed an image that could sit well with Ozzy aswell.
Listening to this particular section always gave me chills as the music slowly faded in,you hear the roar of the crowd as the band enters,Ozzy's extended elation filled remarks,than bang like a sledge hammer Randy's first guitar burst just hits you like a lightning bolt,and it continues from there...
More hair raising on the opening and closing strains of crazy train,the solo to suicide solution,the list could go on.
It's hard to believe now that during this particular point of his career,Ozzy's first shows as a solo artist were almost universally greeted by the press with negative reviews.This was the era that saw him bight the head off a bat and dove,saw him pissing on the alamo,and saw him pegged by various religious organiztions as the human embodiment of the prince of darkness himself.
So while the media was concentrating on the controversial aspects
both on and off stage of Ozzy,something very special was going on
to which I'm sure alot of those same reviewers had now wished they'd been more objective.
Taken alledgedly from two shows taped in Montreal and Indianapolis,this recording finds Ozzy and the band in fine form.
If anyone had any doubts as to Ozzy's intentions during this period one could hear it in his stage chatter here.
And if you thought this was an amazing night like I did when I first heard this album,you'd be floored that amongst alot of tape collectors that at least I knew this was just average for them.One recording in particular I remember was I believe a radio
broadcast for some Swedish radio station,and I remember playing that for one of my friends and seeing her jaw drop.
And as for that guitar solo,it was an ever evolving thing from Randy's Quiet Riot stay.Later on during the tour it eventually begins to evolve into band jam session complete with it's own mucial interlude...But what those and alot of other tapes in circulation don't have is the clarity in sound production.So whilst it may be cool to search around for that live version of other Diary tracks like Over the Mountain from this period (which
believe it or not got alot of radio airplay back than but seldom performed)this is the album I bet you'd return to time and time again for your guitar fix.Listening to it one could easily picture these guys blowing even the mighty Van Halen off stage.Highly recommended.


Straight ahead live album with a dual purpose   June 13, 2008
Paul Lawrence (Australia)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

As the title suggests this release is a tribute. To one Randy Rhoads to be specific, killed in a bout of (terminal as it turns out) stupidity as the light plane he was in crashed as it was buzzing the tour bus. Band biographies are rife with stories of bands cavorting about like chickens with their heads cut off and most of the time all ends well. The tragedy is that it doesn't always and this pretty darn tasty Ozzy live album is not only serviceable in it's own right as a release but does show the talents of the deceased guitarist. Which only reinforces the loss.

Song selection is pretty good with lots of metal, some metal and for a bit of garnish some metal is blasted out of your stereo with only a few let ups of pace. In this case that's probably a good thing as Ozzy works best when firing at a manic pace. And given the guy repeatedly tells the audience to stand up - even for Revelation (Mother Earth) which is one of the mellower cuts - it's probably a necessity to really blaze away.

And blaze this does. Tunes such as I Don't Know, Crazy Train and Mr Crowley all work very well live as they are built of pretty strong stuff. Suicide Solution is a perfect choice for inclusion here as it is essentially about another life cut too short, in this case that of Australian vocalist Bon Scott. Steal Away includes Tommy Aldridges' drum solo so be warned, but the extended guitar solo on Suicide Solution is pretty welcome. As the collection unfolds the scarcity of any let up is impressive and a few Sabbath standards are dusted off in the guise of Iron Man and also Paranoid. I dunno, the first one never really made any impression on me, perhaps you had to be 15 in 1973 or whenever it came out. But the latter is a far more communicative track and really sounds pretty darn metallic and anarchic here. Perhaps my favourite version of my favourite track with which Ozzy is associated.

Goodbye to Romance is well placed after Paranoid and it shows that someone was paying attention to the pacing of this thing which speaks of focus and a certain care factor. And the humour of No Bone Movies is probably a good way to close out the album proper before some Randy Rhoads out-takes finish the disc in a way that makes you contemplate...stuff.

Produced and engineered by Max Norman this all sounds consistent and a couple of liner notes by the Prince of Darkness himself add a certain touch to things. A pretty good live album all round and for Ozzy fans probably a must purchase and the sort of album that will have a very long life span as new generations of rivet heads explore the history of their chosen genre.