Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)1988 saw the release of "No Rest for the Wicked", the Ozzy Osbourne album that introduced the world to guitarist Zakk Wylde, and got decent airplay on the radio and Mtv with songs like "Miracle Man", "Breaking All The Rules" and "Crazy Babies". Although previous bassist and lyric writer Bob Daisley joined back to make the album, the bassist for the videos and tour was none other than Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler (a fact that critics gleefully used to further fuel the never ending "Ozzy vs. Sabbath" soap opera). Other highlights for Ozzy in this 88-89 time period include playing the huge Moscow Peace Festival with other metal bands, being featured on the related "Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell" album, pay-per-view concerts, and the top-10 duet with Lita Ford "Close My Eyes Forever".
To hold over the fans who had just about worn out their cassette and vinyl copies of "No Rest For The Wicked", 1990 saw the release of "Just Say Ozzy". This was an appropriately low-priced live EP from the tour. (Why do some people complain about the short length? It was an EP, not an LP, and thus supposed to be only a little longer than a single!) In the liner notes, Ozzy explains that when first proposed with the idea, his initial thoughts were along the lines of "Oh no, not another live Ozzy/Sabbath album!" But this release features a refreshingly different selection of songs, and serves to capture this unique line-up. It has no repeats of the same songs found on "Tribute", which had been released just two years prior.
Of "Just Say Ozzy's" six songs, three are from "No Rest For The Wicked": Miracle Man, and the more obscure tracks Bloodbath In Paradise and Tattooed Dancer. With the band here being 1/2 of Black Sabbath's original line-up, it made sense to include two Black Sabbath songs here too: "War Pigs" and "Sweet Leaf". "War Pigs" is quite a common'y played Black Sabbath song, but "Sweet Leaf" was a good unexpected choice for the tour (songs like "Paranoid" and "Iron Man", as classic as they are, had been done to death since Ozzy started his solo career). Finally, this EP also includes "Shot In The Dark", the hit song from the immensely successful, albeit hated by Ozzy, "The Ultimate Sin" album. Both Ozzy and many fans alike have hailed this live version to be superior to the original studio recording. A video for this live version of "Shot In The Dark" got decent rotation on Mtv, created from different shots of the band live, mostly taken from Moscow.
Being a bass player and big Geezer Butler fan, I was anxious to get this album, and I bought it on cassette when it hit the stores in 1990. As far as I know, "Just Say Ozzy" was not released on CD format until 1995, when the rest of Ozzy's back catalog was re-released with 22-bit remastering. But beware that "Just Say Ozzy", along with "The Ultimate Sin" and "Speak of the Devil", are being deleted from Ozzy's catalog. So snatch up these releases while you still can!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Just Say Ozzy
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.
0 comments:
Post a Comment