Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears (30th Anniversary) Appreciation

[Volante99]

Didn’t see an Ozzy thread so I thought I would start a dedicated post;

A lot of talk about the Black Album turning 30 this past month, “No More Tears” quietly celebrated its 30th birthday on the 17th of Sept as well.

Maybe a hot take but I think, pound for pound, this is the best solo album the Ozzman ever did. There really isn’t bad song. A 24 year old Zakk Wylde really brought the heat with some memorable, inspired playing, and Randy Castillo is one of the most underrated drummers of his generation. As a budding guitar player in high school, I could NOT get enough of this album. Truly one of the greatest hard rock albums ever, it also features John Purdell (who was at the helm for DT’s “Awake”) as co-producer.

As good as the album is, it also started the unfortunate trend of Ozzy bringing in outside writers which he’s done ever since. Unlike the later albums though, the outside writer for most of the material is Lemmy Kilmister- so the rock n roll spirit is still there. Definitely a more pop, radio friendly album than “No Rest for the Wicked” but the Ozzy camp wisely chose to move away from the 80s metal trappings (much in the same way Metallica did that same year), crafting what I think is a record that’s aged fairly well.

[jammindude]

Knowing the way the music biz works, I sincerely doubt Ozzy has ever written a song in his life.

He might have contributed some lyrics here and there, but Ozzy has been riding on the backs of people with actual talent his whole life.

Even Diary, which I fully admit is one of the greatest metal albums in history, was (IMO) 95% the work of Rhoads, Kerslake, and Dailey. But Ozzy brought the name and the “star power” and had cut-throat management making sure he got the bulk of the credit…after all, it’s his name on the album.

But I will end on a high note and say that NMT is a really fantastic album. It’s always wonderful to hear a collection of well crafted songs put together by a team of musicians and writers at the top of their game….


….with Ozzy showing up to put his stamp of approval with his “prince of darkness” puppet show. 

 

[HOF]

I don’t really like Ozzy in general, but Mama I’m Coming Home, No More Tears, Time After Time, and Road to Nowhere were great songs.

[Volante99]

Knowing the way the music biz works, I sincerely doubt Ozzy has ever written a song in his life.

He hasn’t- I should clarify- when I say “No More Tears” is the first album using outside writers- I meant written by someone outside of the BAND.

At the end of the day Ozzy and Co put together great bands and magic happened. The only REALLY egregious example is how royally they screwed over Jake E Lee and Bob Daisley with the “Bark at the Moon” album.

It is what it is. Dio did the same thing with his band (after himself being screwed over by Ritchie Blackmore). The Ozzy/Sharon philosophy towards musicians has always been “you’d be flipping burgers without us, we’re giving you a stage, building your brand, it’s up to you what you do with it after you time with us”. Zakk Wylde wisely started putting his eggs in different baskets with Pride & Glory and BLS relatively early on and used Ozzy as a launching pad for his own successful career. Steve Vai has only hinted at it, but I think he started seeing the writing on the wall and backed away from the Ozzmosis writing sessions as well.

[WardySI]

It's interesting because generally I despise outside writers and bands relying on covers to gain their success and whatnot, but for some reason I gave Ozzy a pass expect due to not having an appreciation for the fact at that time.  Oh and because it was Lemmy so double pass

But No More Tears? Thanks for the thread because this is my favourite Osbourne and arguably the last of his best (although always a soft spot for Ozzmossis) and personally NMT came at a right time back when and it remains a reliable and Top10'er fer these ears

[DTA]

This and Ultimate Sin are probably my favorite Ozzy albums. I love the production and the catchiness of the songs, especially the title track, S.I.N., Hellraiser, and Mama, I'm Coming Home. The b-sides are pretty good too.

[Peter Mc]

My favourite Ozzy album, really good record.  Not liked anything he’s done since.

[Peter Mc]

Going back to his writing, when Slash released his first solo record, he had a bunch of superstar guest vocalists.  Basically Slash wrote all the music and then passed it to the vocalist to write lyrics and sing it.  Ozzy’s song is the only one where a third writer is credited which backs up that he can’t even write a single lyric on his own even after Slash has written the backing track.

[Stadler]

I don't really care whether Ozzy wrote stuff or not; I'm not necessarily cool with the crediting (though by most accounts, he DID pay for the work, even if the payment was not what some might consider to be appropriate).   By many accounts, he did write a lot of the vocal melodies, even if he didn't write the words.  He's laid claim to a couple:  Am I Going Insane?, The Writ, Who Are You (with the music), part of Fairies Wear Boots.

The NMT record was seminal for me; I had just moved to California, and I got that and We Can't Dance by Genesis and both were albums I listened to A LOT.   NMT is probably my second or third favorite Ozzy album (Diary is first, Blizzard may be second). 

[Adami]

I don't know much about credit, but I have heard he contributes vocal melodies quite a bit.

That said, I don't understand the need for songwriting from musical artists. Ozzy isn't a song writer, he's a singer/performer. I don't need him to do more than that if he's not good at it.

[Grappler]

No More Tears is probably my favorite Ozzy album.  It's so heavy and catchy. 

[Adami]

Oh yea, forgot to talk about the album. 

I really love this album. I love the Rhoads ones too, but this one is just fantastic from start to finish. I'd never put Zak ahead of Randy, but this is a tough album to beat.

The ONLY thing that bug me is that the bass intro to NMT seems....odd? Maybe I'm just not counting it right, but I can never quite feel where the drums are supposed to come in.

[DTA]

Oh yea, forgot to talk about the album. 

I really love this album. I love the Rhoads ones too, but this one is just fantastic from start to finish. I'd never put Zak ahead of Randy, but this is a tough album to beat.

The ONLY thing that bug me is that the bass intro to NMT seems....odd? Maybe I'm just not counting it right, but I can never quite feel where the drums are supposed to come in.

That bass part has confused the hell out of me for years…it seems to add an extra best or something every 4 bars to put it onto the upbeat.

[nick_z]

LOVE No More Tears! A ton of good memories from the time it came out. For me, it's the last consistently great Ozzy record, although I like Ozzmosis, and there's some good stuff to be found scattered across his last few records 

My favorites are Blizzard/Diary (can never decide which one), but this comes right after, same level as Bark to the Moon.

[pg1067]

Knowing the way the music biz works, I sincerely doubt Ozzy has ever written a song in his life.

He might have contributed some lyrics here and there, but Ozzy has been riding on the backs of people with actual talent his whole life.

I think this is mostly right (with the addition of vocal melodies to the occasional lyric).

I abandoned Ozzy after No Rest for the Wicked.  After The Ultimate Sin, NRFTW went over the edge from legitimate album to cartoon in musical form.  Not at all what I was looking for, and I CANNOT STAND Captain Pinch Harmonic on guitar.  I own No More Tears, but only because my wife liked the two singles.  It's full of heavily sanitized pablum that isn't fit to lick the soles of Diary of a Madman.

[Stadler]

Can you be more clear? 

I agree with NRFTW; it's decent, but too much crap - "Crazy Babies" is Ozzy at his worst, IMO, and Miracle Man isn't much better - but it DOES have Fire In The Sky (GREAT song) and Hero (as a bonus track).  I hate when Ozzy sings in that voice; I don't know how to articulate it, but it's sing-song-y and whiny, almost sarcastic.   


But NMT is the real deal; that is solid from top to bottom.  Not sure there's a bad song on there.  I'd love for a deluxe version with ALL the additional songs and demos that were released as b-sides.  I'd buy that (but Ozzy isn't great with the deluxe versions; there is always something missing, or something done half-assed.)

[Grappler]

I'm not up to speed on which b-sides belonged to this record, but Ozzy just did release a 30th anniversary edition:

1. ‘Mr. Tinkertrain’
2. ‘I Don’t Want to Change the World’
3. ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’
4. ‘Desire’
5. ‘No More Tears’
6. ‘Won’t Be Coming Home (S.I.N)’
7. ‘Hellraiser’
8. ‘Time After Time’
9. ‘Zombie Stomp’
10. ‘A.V.H.’
11. ‘Road to Nowhere’
12. ‘Don’t Blame Me’
13. ‘Party With the Animals’
14. ‘I Don’t Want to Change the World (demo)’
15. ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home (demo)’
16. ‘Desire (demo)’
17. ‘Time After Time (demo)’
18. ‘Won’t Be Coming Home (S.I.N) (demo)’
19. ‘Mrs J. (demo)’
20. ‘I Don’t Want to Change the World (live)’
21. ‘Road to Nowhere (live)’
22. ‘No More Tears (live)’
23. ‘Desire (live)’
24. ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home (live)’

[Stadler]

Huh, that's a pretty good set; I thought at first that there were a couple b-sides missing - "Aimee" for one - but that was from Ozzmosis. 

Dammit.  How'd I miss that?

[KevShmev]

One of my two favorite Ozzy solo records (Diary of a Madman the other).  So many great songs on this one.  No More Tears (the song) is still hard to top when it comes to his solo career.

[cfmoran13]

And, 30 years for NMT also meas 30 years for...  No More Tours!      This was actually the first time I got to see Ozzy with Sepultura and Alice In Chains.  Great show.

As for the album, it is definitely in my top 2 or 3 of his.  Sonically and musically, it's fantastic.  And, the band he had was awesome.

Side note...  If you want to hear a good interview with Zakk Wylde, check out Dean Delray's 'Let There Be Talk' podcast.  It just came out this week.  It has a little more substance than most Zakk interviews.  The 2 of them have a cool discussion about the whole Ozzy vs. Dio time period.