Was/Is Randy Rhoads overrated???!!!

[quakana]

oops, never answerd the question....The fact that people still talk about, publish articles about and make guitars with his name tagged to them 24 years after his death...the answer would have to be No...not overrated

[stephenslr]

Sometimes... tragically passing away is the best way to become a legend.

Randy like most Metal guitarists was underrated, ask a person on the street what they think of Randy Rhoads and they will say "Randy who" but they will all be able to give you a list of Rock guitar players such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, etc.

Metal is underrated in the whole scheme of things.

s

[Rupe]

Randy obviously had his influences, but the phrasing he used on the solos in songs like Diary, Over the Mountain, and Revelation don't sound anything like anyone else that I had ever listened to...especially Diary (he actually played alot of the Revelation bits in QR), and I am a huge fan of all the guys that he has been compared to in this thread.

As to Bill's point about him sounding like VH, I had a similar experience, and it still haunts me a bit. Randy was the guy who made me pick up the guitar...he was my idol as a young teenager. A friend of mine who was already a fairly accomplished guitar player warned me not to cop all of Randys licks so as not to end up sounding like a clone, so I never really learned much of his material. My second favorite player in that era was George Lynch and I learned a ton of his stuff (he wasn't my favorite so I was safe from sounding like him, right?). To this day when I improvise metal solos I still end up throwing in classic "Lynchisms". I'm getting better but I haven't been cured yet!

[pagemalicious]

I don't think he was so much of a innovator or pioneer, but he was just f*cking amazing

[cloudnine]

Yes, I think Randy is overrated.

This isn't to say Randy wasnt fantastic. No doubt. A lot of his stuff is downright classic. But for the reasons listed here and for my own personal reasons he isn't the innovator and revolutionary he's cracked up to be. God forbid you say anything negative or something that doesn't deify the guy. Thats the problem with a lot of RR fans, I think - any criticism of Randy is immediately met with hostility.

I think part of it is dying in one's prime - if Eddie had died in 84 or even 86, he would be twice as revered as he is today. He would literally be untouchable - noone would dare to criticize him and give him the amount of shit he gets today. I don't see Randy clones all over the place.

I like the guy's playing - but I'm an Eddie guy myself, and IMO Eddie was more interesting and much more important in the scheme of things than Randy was. I don't know if I should be comparing the two - they are quite different, but I guess it's impossible to avoid given their co-existence and perhaps that is unfair to Randy when we look at him and his legacy. I'm sure he felt the pressure regarding this as well.

And that tone, that GOD AWFUL TONE. Apparently though, wasn't Randy going to leave Ozzy's band in the near future before his untimely end because he wasn't interested in playing that type of stuff?

That all being said, I prefer Jake's stuff with Ozzy.

*waits for tomatoes*.

[St.James]

Ok, get the flame throwers ready guys. Here comes a doozy!

On the note of being overrated I have to get this one out there...

In my honest flat out opinion EVH is without doubt the most overrated player to ever pick up the guitar. Sure he's had some good songs, but I don't think I could fill a CD with the good songs.

I thought Sammy Hagar played better than Ed during the Hagar period. Sammy just smokes on the guitar, but Ed just never "WOWED" me like it appears he has others. Sure dude can tap like a mother fucker, but take that away he's just a little more boring. I think that's what it is about EVH for me, he's just boring.

He's got some cool rhythms on some songs but that's it for me. Someone posted a video of Ed playing on SNL years ago. It was just him with the SNL band. He was playing lead, of course, and I was just like, so what? Was boring an very unimpressive. Didn't even sound all that great.

I've seen him live 3 times. Twice with DLR and once with Hagar. Hagar did a solo break without EVH that blew the crowd away... EVH, as usual, was full of fluff... I talked to a lot of people that night who said the same thing.

Ok, guys... Go easy on me!

[Endrik]

I don't understand this, How can you say that Eddie is over-rated? "I don't like his playing" is enough.
Somone who is the greatest player after Hendrix, a guy who invented the tone wich is a foundation of modern rock and metal sounds, a guy who made popular all the techniques we use, a guy who made superstarts popular, a guy who wrote one of the biggest hits in the history. All this doesn't qualify under Over-rated players.
There wouldn't be no George and Steve Lynch, Demartini, Bratta, Vai, Reb Beach and all other great 80's guitar heroes including Randy Rhoads.

Randy Rhoads is great but he didn't cave my anything except for the good music he wrote, Eddie cave me and the others EVERYTHING, the tone, the technique, to be cool as hell etc.

[livebiz]

First, the first two Ozzy albums are two of the greatest albums of the era - in a large part due to Randy Rhoads' guitar. Hard to overrate somebody for that.

Second, the first four VH albums are huge and launched a whole genre of metal. Can't overrate a guy for that either.

You wanna talk overrated - Clap<yawn>ton.

[jgcable]

Ok, get the flame throwers ready guys. Here comes a doozy!

On the note of being overrated I have to get this one out there...

In my honest flat out opinion EVH is without doubt the most overrated player to ever pick up the guitar. Sure he's had some good songs, but I don't think I could fill a CD with the good songs.

I thought Sammy Hagar played better than Ed during the Hagar period. Sammy just smokes on the guitar, but Ed just never "WOWED" me like it appears he has others. Sure dude can tap like a mother fucker, but take that away he's just a little more boring. I think that's what it is about EVH for me, he's just boring.

He's got some cool rhythms on some songs but that's it for me. Someone posted a video of Ed playing on SNL years ago. It was just him with the SNL band. He was playing lead, of course, and I was just like, so what? Was boring an very unimpressive. Didn't even sound all that great.

I've seen him live 3 times. Twice with DLR and once with Hagar. Hagar did a solo break without EVH that blew the crowd away... EVH, as usual, was full of fluff... I talked to a lot of people that night who said the same thing.

Ok, guys... Go easy on me!

I couldn't disagree more. You are wrong on so many levels regarding EVH that there isn't enough bandwidth on the JCF to get into it.

[guitarsjb]

Although, if I had to choose one who inspired me more I would pick Randy hands down. But you can't take away a damn thing about Eddie at all. Randy kicks Ed's ass in MY book. Eddie did so much for rock and roll it can never be fully explained or described, it just IS. He wasn't what drove me to play, but he is in my influences regardless through others.
I'm thinking this isn't making a lot of sense, but I know what I'm trying to say.

[RacerX]

I think we need to "De-Eddie" this thread!

[pinto79]

I still remember the first time I paid attention to the Solo from Mr Crowley and sat back and thought "That's it. Best thing I have ever heard"

It still bowls me over. Randy is not overrated in my book.

I stood in front of his tomb and wept, and I never knew him personally.

He is certainly missed.

[pro-fusion]

I have a rather bizarre perspective on Randy for someone who plays Jacksons and posts on the JCF:

When Randy was alive, I wasn't a big fan. Not because of anything he did or didn't do, but because I was firmly in the Black Sabbath "camp" in the huge Ozzy/Sabbath divide that existed at the time. They were constantly ragging on each other in the press, and lots of fans (including me) chose sides. Since I was a bigger fan of Dio-era Sabbath than I was of Ozzy solo (though I liked both of the Randy albums), I naturally called myself more of an Iommi fan--and when I started playing, I imitated Iommi, rather than Randy.

As such, I didn't really start grooving on Randy's playing until years later, even though I liked both albums, as I said. So here's my take on Randy:

If you just listen to Blizzard of Ozz, it would be easy to conclude that Randy was overrated, for the most part. His tone sucked on that album, the riffs were not as creative as what Iommi routinely came up with, and apart from Mr. Crowley and Revelation, his solos were firmly '70s blues-rock in style but with more gain. I've not heard the first two QR albums, but it's not hard for me to hear him in that style, based on Blizzard. Listen to Frank Marino's "Power of Rock'n'Roll" album, which came out about the same time--Frank's work on that album (heck, just on the song "Ain't Dead Yet") blows away what Randy did on Blizzard.

However, then you get to Diary of a Madman, which is a true guitar gem--an absolute masterpiece. Even if some of the guitar parts are unfinished scratch tracks, Randy's playing and tone took a quantum leap on Diary. Every riff, every solo, every little fill and lick on that album is perfect. Period. Diary is now one of my absolute favorite albums, and I get really sad to think that it was also Randy's final statement. I have no doubt that he was in a musical growth phase and would have done some amazing stuff had he lived. He probably wouldn't have been the legend he is now, since early death does that to reputations, but he would have been a monster player/writer in a few years and probably gone off in a non-metal genre to continue his growth.

[jgcable]

Randy had great phrasing with Ozzy but they were basically the same licks he played in QR.
His rhythm tone wasn't that great but his lead tone was. I really liked the intentional double tracking of all his solo's. He wanted them to sound double tracked. There was something about Randy's playing that set him apart from many of the lead guitarists at that time. I can't quite put my finger on what it was but I can assure you that he was the absolute talk of the metal town when those 2 albums were released. He was tiny, he played really cool guitars, he was in a fantastic all star band, he was young, he was clean and sober and it certainly seemed like he was a total gear whore who loved guitars. There will never be another Randy. That says alot.

[jgcable]

I have a rather bizarre perspective on Randy for someone who plays Jacksons and posts on the JCF:

When Randy was alive, I wasn't a big fan. Not because of anything he did or didn't do, but because I was firmly in the Black Sabbath "camp" in the huge Ozzy/Sabbath divide that existed at the time. They were constantly ragging on each other in the press, and lots of fans (including me) chose sides. Since I was a bigger fan of Dio-era Sabbath than I was of Ozzy solo (though I liked both of the Randy albums), I naturally called myself more of an Iommi fan--and when I started playing, I imitated Iommi, rather than Randy.

As such, I didn't really start grooving on Randy's playing until years later, even though I liked both albums, as I said. So here's my take on Randy:

If you just listen to Blizzard of Ozz, it would be easy to conclude that Randy was overrated, for the most part. His tone sucked on that album, the riffs were not as creative as what Iommi routinely came up with, and apart from Mr. Crowley and Revelation, his solos were firmly '70s blues-rock in style but with more gain. I've not heard the first two QR albums, but it's not hard for me to hear him in that style, based on Blizzard. Listen to Frank Marino's "Power of Rock'n'Roll" album, which came out about the same time--Frank's work on that album (heck, just on the song "Ain't Dead Yet") blows away what Randy did on Blizzard.

However, then you get to Diary of a Madman, which is a true guitar gem--an absolute masterpiece. Even if some of the guitar parts are unfinished scratch tracks, Randy's playing and tone took a quantum leap on Diary. Every riff, every solo, every little fill and lick on that album is perfect. Period. Diary is now one of my absolute favorite albums, and I get really sad to think that it was also Randy's final statement. I have no doubt that he was in a musical growth phase and would have done some amazing stuff had he lived. He probably wouldn't have been the legend he is now, since early death does that to reputations, but he would have been a monster player/writer in a few years and probably gone off in a non-metal genre to continue his growth.

+1