Randy

[bombtek]

Been a LONG time since I've heard this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj86jBPHB7c#t=103

still has that thin Randy tone I really don't like (not AS thin as Blizzard...but still ), but the playing is classic Randy.

[leftykingv2]

I love Rhoads. He was very influential on my playing when I was young. He was one of the first guys along with Van Halen that had the neo classical kind of sound. I honestly think that Randy, Van Halen and Hendrix were the most influential guitar players during the 20th century to the present.

[Newc]

Meh. When Blizzard first came out, I had a friend who was all over it. He puts the album on swearing it's the best thing ever, but all I hear is white noise where the guitar should be, and a distorted violin solo. I was a huge Sabbath fan, so if it didn't have a low-end crunch or a present lead tone, I wasn't into it.

At the time, I didn't think it'd ever amount to anything

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Still one of my favorites! As far as Randy's tone goes, a lot of guys frame it in the context of him being a metal player in the early 80s, but really his roots were more in classical guitar and glam rock from the 70s-compare his tone to Mick Ronson from David Bowie's band or Glen Buxton from Alice Cooper, and it makes a lot more sense. Plus I've got a nice 180 gram vinyl reissue of Diary of a Madman, and his tone being more midrange-centered left a lot of room in the mix for Bob Daisley's brilliant bass playing and Lee Kerslake's drumming! Nothing like the guitar dominated metal records that I feel like most people have come to expect-those dudes were seasoned players leaving sonic space for each other to shine in every song. Here's an old live recording of Crazy Train I found recently...Randy's fills are pretty different than later live recordings of the song, plus it's got that signature Kerslake/Daisley groove in the verses that no other Ozzy drummer seems to be able to nail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oBm6C1zaIs

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

Greatest ever....& Blizzard & Diary really don't represent Randys tone well imo....Tribute however does!!

[Mudlark]

I've also noticed almost none of Ozzy's drummers since Kerslake have used the original 16th note hi hat pattern.
Quarter or 8th notes have taken over.

[Rupe]

Greatest ever....& Blizzard & Diary really don't represent Randys tone well imo....Tribute however does!!

Tribute does a better job, but dumbass Ozzy (more likely Sharon) let Max Norman get his hands on that one too. To really hear his tone, you need to go with the bootlegs or After Hours recordings...nothing at all like what you hear on the albums.

Aside from Newc apparently, every player I knew thought his tone was the coolest, most evil thing that they'd ever heard at that time. If you weren't there, it's easy to look back and make negative comments...but if the most aggressive tone that you'd heard to that point point was EVH (it was), Randy's tone was far more menacing and "metal". Ed's sound may have stood the test of time far better, but in the moment, nobody was was trash talking Randy's sound.

[pianoguyy]

If you weren't there, it's easy to look back

You actually just touched on something I was going to bring up.
Music may have been in my house growing up, but I didn't start playing until 83 (late 82). Everything Randy is retro to me, simply because he was dead before I started.

[Axewielder]

I wish he hooked up with Jackson earlier instead of playing that shitty Sandoval as long as he did.

[watson503]

I remember I was 9 or 10 when I heard the Diary album for the first time and thought it was the coolest thing ever - I still feel the same to this day about those albums with Randy.

[Newc]

I was a huge Sabbath fan at the time those albums came out, so I was used to hearing heavy crunchy guitars and booming bass and Iommi's lead tones. Everything sat in its own place in the mix. Randy's tone was all "high-gain GMaj on the bridge pickup and everything on 10 (except the bass)" to me.

Having seen the After Hours show, as well as Tribute many years after Randy's death, his tone on those was more tolerable, but when I first heard it on those studio albums, I didn't see what all the fuss was about.

[ZL1hawk]

RR was a rare breed of musician. Unfortunately he died before he mastered his craft. He's one reason many of us are playing guitar.