Ozzy Osbourne solo career appreciation thread

[wolfking]

Usually I am a lone voice in support of The Ultimate Sin (and Kade if he's about) -  good to see some others digging it.    Jake was the king 

I had to look up his name again to remind myself who that guitarist was on those two albums.

He did a fine job, but, for me, his playing just didn't touch that of Rhoads or Wylde.

Jake's solos on TUS are better than anything Wylde has done IMO.  Such tasteful playing.

[bl5150]

Yeah - I would have no trouble putting Rhoads or Lee at the top of the list on any day (Randy was king too ) - although I love the Zakk albums and his guitar playing, relatively speaking he is a bit one dimensional IMO.

[Lowdz]

Usually I am a lone voice in support of The Ultimate Sin (and Kade if he's about) -  good to see some others digging it.    Jake was the king 

I had to look up his name again to remind myself who that guitarist was on those two albums.

He did a fine job, but, for me, his playing just didn't touch that of Rhoads or Wylde.

I'm a fan of that album too, after Diary and Blizzard. I'm only really a fan of the first four albums. Things got progressively shitter after Jake left. And I'm not the biggest fan of Bark either.
There were some good songs on the first Zakk album and the odd good one after that but not enough for me to bother at all.

[cfmoran13]

It's a shame he never recorded anything with Joe Holmes.  From all accounts, he was a really good player, too.  I still need to check out his new band Farmikos.

[ozzy554]

It's a shame he never recorded anything with Joe Holmes.  From all accounts, he was a really good player, too.  I still need to check out his new band Farmikos.

I believe the song Walk On Water featured joe on guitar.

[cfmoran13]

It's a shame he never recorded anything with Joe Holmes.  From all accounts, he was a really good player, too.  I still need to check out his new band Farmikos.

I believe the song Walk On Water featured joe on guitar.

You're right about that song.  Actually, I should've been more specific and said "never recorded an album with" Joe Holmes.  He played for him for 7 or 8 years, right?  One song?!?

[KevShmev]

I'll have to give TUS another whirl; I just don't have much of a memory of any of the solos from it.

It could just be that I love the songs on No More Tears and Ozzmosis a lot more than I do the songs from Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin, but I am just much fonder of Wylde's playing.  That solo in No More Tears is just money.

[bosk1]

That solo in No More Tears is just money.

Definitely.  It is in my top 10 all time.

[King Postwhore]

It's in my head right now. Just an ass kicking solo.  What a great build up as well.

[Lowdz]

I'll have to give TUS another whirl; I just don't have much of a memory of any of the solos from it.

It could just be that I love the songs on No More Tears and Ozzmosis a lot more than I do the songs from Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin, but I am just much fonder of Wylde's playing.  That solo in No More Tears is just money.

I'd take make over Zakk any day. His live solo where he played a clean chords thing using his thumb as a barre was awesome. 2.50 on this video. And he was cool. I've always wanted a blue and black guitar because of jake.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G6D69ILnVrk

[KevShmev]

That solo in No More Tears is just money.

Definitely.  It is in my top 10 all time.

Nice.

It's in my head right now. Just an ass kicking solo.  What a great build up as well.

Absolutely.  And the way the end of it echoes while the bass line that began the song kicks back in is just freaking awesome.

[?]

So far I've listened to DOAM, TUS, NRFTW and No More Tears. The Ultimate Sin is probably my favorite (dat title-track ), followed by Diary. I like the songwriting on the two Zakk albums as well, but his obsession with pinch harmonics bugs me. Ozzy isn't an amazing singer by any means, but he's worked with very talented people over the years and he's been given some great material to perform.

[kirksnosehair]

I really loved Ozzy when I was a kid.  Black Sabbath was one of my favorite bands when I was a teenager and it was a bummer when Ozzy left to go solo but then we got a whole bunch of killer albums out of it and while I don't think Black Sabbath ever completely recovered from Ozzy's departure, but we still got some pretty good albums out of them too, and their stuff with Dio is classic.


I kind of fell away from Ozzy after those first few albums of his.  My favorite album among his "newer" stuff (you know, the stuff that's only 20 years old instead of 40    ) is probably "No More Tears"

One thing is absolutely certain: Ozzy Osbourne will be a name that will live on in music history for a very long time.  He's definitely made his mark. 

[bosk1]

That solo in No More Tears is just money.

Definitely.  It is in my top 10 all time.

Nice.

Just to give a flavor for some of the rest of my list (in no particular order):
-Neal Morse, Upon the Door (Paul Gilbert)
-Testament, Return to Serenity (Alex Skolnick)
-Ozzy, No More Tears
-Y&T, Forever (Dave Meniketti)
-Whitesnake, Still of the Night (John Sykes)
-Bon Jovi, Wanted Dead or Alive (Ritchie Sambora)
-Queensryche, Anybody Listening?  (Chris DeGarmo)
-Megadeth, Angry Again (Marty Friedman)

[TAC]

I don't even think I could quantify my 10 favorite guitar solos.
Actually, I do know that Detroit Rock City would be one of them.

[bosk1]

Yeah, it's hard to do a definitive top 10.  But when I think if my top guitar solos of all time, those are most definitely among the ones that I would consistently say deserve to be there.  John Petrucci obviously deserves to be in the conversation as well, but he has so many that it almost isn't even fair (although, despite that, he wouldn't crack my top 3).  And Steve Vai, For the Love of God (the entire song).

[Dublagent66]

Usually I am a lone voice in support of The Ultimate Sin (and Kade if he's about) -  good to see some others digging it.    Jake was the king 

I had to look up his name again to remind myself who that guitarist was on those two albums.

He did a fine job, but, for me, his playing just didn't touch that of Rhoads or Wylde.

Jake's solos on TUS are better than anything Wylde has done IMO.  Such tasteful playing.

First of all, I can definitely say that I appreciate most of Ozzy's solo career.  But, for the life of me I can't figure out how an Ozzy fan could possibly forget about Jake E. Lee.  Yeah, he only played on 2 albums but BATM and TUS are phenomenal albums and Jake was killer on both.  I really hated to see him go.  Then came Zakk and I really liked his playing a lot too.  Honestly, as much as I like Jake and Zakk, they both really couldn't touch what Rhoads was.

[TAC]

Jake was awesome, and I don't even care for TUS. A shame he did jack shit after he left Ozzy. I always thought that was so interesting. Two albums from Randy and two from Jake, and they were both gone. Randy literally and Jake figuratively.

[Imaginos]

Jake was awesome, and I don't even care for TUS. A shame he did jack shit after he left Ozzy. I always thought that was so interesting. Two albums from Randy and two from Jake, and they were both gone. Randy literally and Jake figuratively.

Sure, Badlands weren't a great band, but they weren't that bad either. There's some decent songs on the first album, and it's a nice listen every now and then. But yeah, Jake could've done so much more after he left Ozzy.

[KevShmev]

Usually I am a lone voice in support of The Ultimate Sin (and Kade if he's about) -  good to see some others digging it.    Jake was the king 

I had to look up his name again to remind myself who that guitarist was on those two albums.

He did a fine job, but, for me, his playing just didn't touch that of Rhoads or Wylde.

Jake's solos on TUS are better than anything Wylde has done IMO.  Such tasteful playing.

First of all, I can definitely say that I appreciate most of Ozzy's solo career.  But, for the life of me I can't figure out how an Ozzy fan could possibly forget about Jake E. Lee.  Yeah, he only played on 2 albums but BATM and TUS are phenomenal albums and Jake was killer on both.  I really hated to see him go.  Then came Zakk and I really liked his playing a lot too.  Honestly, as much as I like Jake and Zakk, they both really couldn't touch what Rhoads was.

Honestly, I don't think I ever forgot about Jake E. Lee, so much as that I was never that aware of him.  The two albums he plays on are both good, but neither were ever go-to CDs for me, outside of a handful of songs from the two combined, so it was more a matter of me listening to the albums without him by far the most. I would guess 95% of my solo Ozzy listening over the last 25 years has been from the first two albums, No More Tears and Ozzmosis. Listening to some of the songs from them over the last week plus, however, I will definitely give him props for being a better player than I had ever realized. 

[TAC]

Jake was awesome, and I don't even care for TUS. A shame he did jack shit after he left Ozzy. I always thought that was so interesting. Two albums from Randy and two from Jake, and they were both gone. Randy literally and Jake figuratively.

Sure, Badlands weren't a great band, but they weren't that bad either. There's some decent songs on the first album, and it's a nice listen every now and then. But yeah, Jake could've done so much more after he left Ozzy.

Well that's the thing. Badlands WAS a great band, they just didn't do anything with it. The first Badlands album easily makes the list of The TAC Top 10 Most Disappointing Albums Of The 80's.

[bl5150]

Jake was awesome, and I don't even care for TUS. A shame he did jack shit after he left Ozzy. I always thought that was so interesting. Two albums from Randy and two from Jake, and they were both gone. Randy literally and Jake figuratively.

Sure, Badlands weren't a great band, but they weren't that bad either. There's some decent songs on the first album, and it's a nice listen every now and then. But yeah, Jake could've done so much more after he left Ozzy.

Well that's the thing. Badlands WAS a great band, they just didn't do anything with it. The first Badlands album easily makes the list of The TAC Top 10 Most Disappointing Albums Of The 80's.

I recall that quite  vividly - I was a huge Jake fan and although I came to appreciate Badlands (more so Voodoo Highway.........Hard Driver was my main thing on the debut but not much else) I was massively disappointed at the time.   The style wasn't my thing back then and Jake's playing , while good , wasn't in the same league as the Ozzy material.

[LudwigVan]

The interesting thing about Ozzy's solo career is that it had a lot of the trappings of 80s hair\glam metal. The various incarnations of his band certainly looked the part with the stripes, spandex and teased out big hair, and captured some of its sound, but at its core the music rocked harder and has more staying power than any of Ratt, Poison, Warrant or most any other hair metal band you'd care to mention.

I absolutely love Jake E Lee's sound on those 2 albums and was bummed when he left the band.  I rate his tenure with Ozzy over any of the Zakk Wylde stuff.

[BlobVanDam]

Honestly, I don't think I ever forgot about Jake E. Lee, so much as that I was never that aware of him.  The two albums he plays on are both good, but neither were ever go-to CDs for me, outside of a handful of songs from the two combined, so it was more a matter of me listening to the albums without him by far the most. I would guess 95% of my solo Ozzy listening over the last 25 years has been from the first two albums, No More Tears and Ozzmosis. Listening to some of the songs from them over the last week plus, however, I will definitely give him props for being a better player than I had ever realized. 

If nothing else, dat BATM solo is absolute killer.

[King Postwhore]

Bark At The Moon was such a disappointment to me.  The Ultimate Sin was just killer.

[TAC]

Bark At The Moon was such a disappointment to me.  The Ultimate Sin was just killer.

Dude, you have that so backwards. I listened to The Ultimate Sin last night and I don't know how anyone could confuse that with an awesome album. Jakes playing is great but the sings just feel so superficial.

[King Postwhore]

Compared to the first 2 of course but it was light years better than BATM.

[BlobVanDam]

BATM and TUS are very good albums, neither one quite as good as the Rhoads stuff though imo. I used to prefer BATM, but over time I've found myself listening to TUS much more often.

[King Postwhore]

Which to me is always a sign of a better album.

[TAC]

I guess it's me then. I just think TUS is extremely mediocre.

[King Postwhore]

It's middle of the pack for his albums but it's still very good.

[TAC]

Personally I rank it 6th. But I won't beat this dead horse anymore. 

[Kotowboy]

Following recent allegations - he'll be solo again very soon

[bosk1]

No, Tim is correct.  Bark At the Moon slays The Ultimate Sin. 

Too bad he swung and missed so badly on Badlands.  All three albums of theirs were stellar.