Customer Reviews

Randy Rhoads Years

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well there are a good amount of people that don't realize that Randy Rhoads is the man that started Quiet Riot when he was 16. Metal Health was not the first album by this band. This album has some tracks from the first 2 Quiet Riot albums which were only released in Japan. Randy was a great guitarist in the '70s before joining Ozzy. I think the songs on this compilation are better than anything Quiet Riot went on to release throughout the '80s and beyond. Kevin DuBrow's voice is much more solid in these recordings. Songs like "Trouble" and "Killer Girls" were remixed and sound better than the originals. "Last Call For Rock & Roll" was originally "Mama's Angels" from Quiet Riot 1 and was re-made with new lyrics and basically turned into a completely different song that is only available on this album and I must say it's a great tune. If you want to hear some of the earlier works of Randy Rhoads and how Quiet Riot started out, this is a compilation well worth purchasing.

This is a great album, and as one of the other reviewers said it is great that Kevin Dubrow took the time to put out this tribute to the late great Randy Rhoads. Even though his playing is nothing compared to his later works with Ozzy, and the lyrics are kind of cheesy, and the overall sound of the band is pop metal doesn't mean that it's not good. To be totally honest even if Randy Rhoads wasn't on this album i'd still be inot it. I think that Kevin Dubrow has an amazingly powerful voice and the rhythm section at that time which featured Kelly Garni on bass and Drew Forsyth on drums was very powerful and solid, and Randy's playing was top notch.

The album begins with the song Trouble. This song was originally on Quiet Riot 2. The first 2 Quiet Riot albums were only released in Japan. There was also another album that was recorded but never released. Trouble is a great song and probably the best on this compilation. Randy's solo is great as usual. The next song is amazing also. It is a live version of Laughing Gas which features an extended solo from Randy and was recorded at the legendary L.A. club The Starwood. It's also cool because he plays parts in the solo that he used in Ozzy. In the middle of the solo he plays parts from Dee and Goodbye to Romance, and when the band comes back in they play the beginning of Crazy Train. The next song is Afterglow (Of your Love.) It is a great song. It's all acoustic except for the solo. It was originally from Quiet Riot 2 but this is a different version. Killer Girls is an upbeat pop metal song. It's a pretty good song. Again like every other song features amazing guitar work by Randy Rhoads. The next song Picking Up the Pieces is as pop as you're gonna get on this album. It was taken from the album Quiet Riot 3 which was never released. It is definately one of the best songs on this album. It also features Randy Rhoads playing bass after Kelly Garni quit the band. Last Call for Rock and Roll is another unreleased song. It was originally written for QR1 but never made it on the album. Breaking Up is a Heartache is the next song. This song like Picking Up the Pieces was on QR3. It also features Randy on bass. The solo in this song is also great because it is prett much the same solo that Randy used in the rare Ozzy song You Looking at Me Looking at You which was the b-side to the original Crazy Train single. On the next song Force of Habit Randy is playing the riff from Suicide Solution during the verse. The next song It's Not So Funny has an amazing solo. It's great because Randy double tracked it. It sounds amazing. This song is also similar to their post Randy songs. The last song on the album Look In Any Window was written by Randy. It is another amazing song with amazing guitar playing. I hope that one day there will be a Randy Rhoads Years Volume 2 becuase there is still many amazing songs that haven't seen the light of day. I suggest this album to anyone, especially guitar players and pop metal fans. I also reccommend the Ozzy albums Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, and Tribute because they feature Randy's amazing guitar playing.

I recently went through the whole QR discography, starting with this CD, going through the success years, and the wasteland of the band's 90s/00s issues.

My conclusions after hours of listening is: the consensus is that the band hit the ceiling with Metal Health and declined irreversebly there after. I disagree. I think all QR albums are pretty much at the same level all the way to Rehab.

The real question is why was MH so successful (n.1 in the US) when that CD was as good as the others. Actually if I have to be fair, QR's output including MH was never that good really-Kevin's (RIP) voice style is definitely an acquired taste, and no offense but CCavazo's playing is nothing to write home about compared to many of his peers in the era. Again, from Metal Health to Alive and Well, QR3 with Shortino or Guilty Pleasures, the level is very, very even.

That's why dear reader we recommend the RandyRhoads years CD to you as the band's best. The songs are really good. The vocals grate but RR's playing is just terrifying. I can only imagine other guitarists being shocked watching RR play live back in the days. The man was just way too ahead, his classical/speed picking technique truly an alter-ego to Eddie Van Halen's tapping/dive bomb antics. Buy and enjoy!

I've always admired Randy Rhoads playing ability, but never actually heard the earlier Quiet Riot material, because it wasn't released in the US. I finally managed to track down cd quality bootlegs of QR1 and QR2 and can compare them to this album. Like some of the other reviews here have already stated, there are songs on here newer than QR 1 & 2, which is very cool. They were of the caliber that had they been released at the time, they probably would have a minor hit. I especially enjoyed the original version of Slick Black Cadillac. I happen to like it better than the version which appeared on the Metal Health album, which recorded by different musicians alltogether. In comparing this album to the actual earlier recordings, I like this one better, because the sound is dramatically improved. The older albums weren't mixed very well, and the bass is very muddy sounding. The drummer was also not particularly good. I'm a drummer, so maybe I'm a little critical, but the drummer overplays is erratic and plays inconsistently. I get the impression he didn't ever play the song the same way twice, which for a drummer is a bad habit.

The vocals were rerecorded sometimes with completely different lyrics. This point has been controversial, but honestly in my opinion this is a good thing because some of the lyrics in the originals, were absolutely terrible. Wholesale changes were made to a couple of songs, but again, the newer versions sound much better. They even changed some of the choruses and moved the refrain parts around. Again, it made the songs much better because the originals weren't that great. So in this respect, I'm glad they did take liberties with the vocals.

For me the most pleasant surprise was hearing Randy apparently channeling Glen Buxton. I had read once that Randy Rhoads was a huge Alice Cooper fanatic, which is cool because I am also a fanatic of that band. I can really hear the influences of Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, the guitarists of that legendary band. The song "Look in any Window" is so heavily influenced by very early Cooper Albums like "Pretties for you" or even "Freak Out Song," which I point out was sadly taken out of print for many years. The entire guitar sound both rythym and lead, sound like early Cooper. I love it! There is "Alice Cooper" sprinkled in virtually every song he ever recorded, so it was especially cool to see how this was such a huge part of his overall style so early on.

My last comment is those who make harsh assessments of this album. These guys were 17 to 19 years old when they were recorded. Except for Randy, they all were just learning their instruments and begining to develop writing styles. Randy was going to be a star no matter what, but I feel that had they had better lyrics, they could have been huge.

Okay if your a hard core randy fan this is one of the cds you need in your collection .The cd is a must and is very straight out see where all the coolist licks came from when randy was with ozzy its all here and if you like to play guitar plug it in and jam with cd you will love it . The licks are tremendous to not try . If you do not have it buy it know and jam your heart out as Randy blows them all away . As one of the best guitar players that every lived this one will burn your fingures to the bone .Buy it know what you waiting for .

this album, is perfect it has all of Randy Rhoads old stuff, if your a Rhoads fan, such as my self you'll really like this one. you might want to get some more albums that feature RR's stuff such as "Blizard Of Ozz" and "Diary Of A Madman"

It took forever to actually be released, and Kevin DuBrow still teases us that he has Vol II ready to go, but it was well worth the wait. Yes, the song lyrics are juvenile (Randy didn't write them); yes, the "Laughing Gas" solo is two solos spliced together, with an obvious change in sound quality, (Again, not Randy's doing); and, yes, Kevin probably should not have gone back and re-done his vocal tracks. He is not the aural point of the album. But let's all remember: These songs are seeds of genius that never got a chance to fully blossom. Randy's awesome ability was still growing when he was wrongfully taken from us, and they are probably all we are goimg to get. Treasure them for what they are.

I think it's great that Kevin Dubrow took the time to produce such a great release of Quiet Riot's earlier works with Randy Rhoads. Although these songs do lack some of the luster of Riot's later works, Randy's guitar work more than makes up for the lackluster lyrics. The cut "Laughing Gas" is excellently presented in its live version, which is the way Randy was meant to be heard. If you listen carefully during the middle of the guitar solo on that song, you can hear the song "Dee" which will later appear on the album Blizzard of Ozz that he made with Ozzy Osbourne. It's a little rough, but it's there for the keen of hearing. Also, on the song "Force of Habit" there's a riff that was later used on the Blizzard of Ozz song "Suicide Solution". The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to these two songs, but it nonetheless is a good album. Personally, I would only recommend this to a fan of Quiet Riot, or a fan of Randy's work with Ozzy. This album will have much more meaning that way, and will serve as a comparison to his later works to show his evolution as a musician.

I don't care if the sound quality is not as great as recordings are today. I don't care about top of the line lyrics. I care about one of the greatest guitarists ever to live- Randy Rhoads. These early works with Quiet Riot reflect later acheivements he reached with my other idol- Ozzy Osbourne, it's a shame that he died so early in his life when there was so much more he could have shared with us, this album as well as "The Blizzard of Ozz", "Diary of a Madman" and "Tribute" (by Ozzy) are true classics as well as Randys only professional works available on albums. Blizzard of Ozz was not only a turning point in Ozzys' life and musical career, but it also contains some of his and Randys' best known work together such as Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley, Goodbye to Romance and the controversial Suicide Solution. Long live the King.

This was an early look at the work of Randy Rhoads before joining with Ozzy Osbourne. I personally think Laughing Gas was the best track because of the guitar solo. I can't really say much for the other tracks, though. I feel they were nothing but low budget 80's rock girlfriend/boyfriend songs. The guitar riffs throughout the cd are genious, but the lyrics truthfully take away from the guitar. I suggest finding a cheaper way to get Laughing Gas instead of going out and buying the cd. You could probably download it off a website....