back to basics

[pianoguyy]

I just finished watching a bunch of randy rhoads live videos while listening through headphones.

My issue with old/classic metal/rock is that i can only hear dream on and crazy train so many times in 30 years before ya get sick of it.
But today, a YouTube video suggests a randy video which leads to a binge.
Ya know, sometimes, particularly live when its one track and less effects, i forget how simple his stuff is to play. Yet he makes it work. He sounds amazing. Unlike many players today, you hear ever single note he plays, there's no blur, no 'bumble bee' effect.

I think i could use a refresher. I am going to get the albums out and brush up on my skills.

[ginsambo]

I was watching the October 79 Quiet Riot concert and then the 83 festival with Cavazo etc. What strikes me is that Randy wasn't born the greatest. In fact, aside from his set pieces you can see his compositional and technical progression, which got exponential with each year, especially for the two Ozzy albums. Maybe it was the fact he was teaching and others mistakes and approaches that opened his eyes, but I reckon the reason Randy was great and set apart from the rest even 34 years later because of his composition skills in every area and his self discipline, there was nothing sloppy about his playing. He paid attention to the execution of every double stop, every pedal tone, every bend, every legato accent and put the effort in to compose a lot of question answer phrases and rhythmic phrases in his solo work and play musically and give his solos a voice. It is not like everything was pre planned, just he self disciplined himself to play rhythmically and musically, making every note count rather than just filling. Even though he is long dead he is still a great teacher and this is why he stands above the rest IMO. Many other players have the chops, but they don't have the discipline to exercise themselves into putting them into tight phrasing with the accents and voice and it often goes nowhere. In Ozzy, he could have played alone with just Ozzy singing and it would have sounded tight and of nothing was missing. In this respect Jake E Lee and Zakk are not a touch on Randy and are, like most guitar players out there, masters of fill, speaking, but not really communicating that much. He was just an ordinary guitar player, but with an extraordinary passion for music and the key to it was that he kept humble and always remained self critical, because he loved music that much, unlike so many other rock stars who do kind of rest on their laurels

[Newc]

I went back to David Lee Roth's Eat Em And Smile with Steve Vai, and was amazed at how clean and articulate Steve was (and probably still is - haven't listened to anything else of his but Passion and Warfare, and not for 15 years or more). Randy's tone always annoyed me, but he was definitely articulate. His phrasing was also fairly unique, and I have never heard anyone play Crazy Train's main rhythm correctly.