Ultimate Rhoads

I have a full QR show on DVD that is listed as 09/22/80. I think it's really from 79, but it starts with a siren and a flashing emergency light. Anyway I don't think Randy is very into this show. He seems very I'm just going through the motions even though they were filming it with multiple cameras. He just does not look happy to me.

I have an BOO show that says 05.21.81 and he seems much more animated and enthused. I have also noticed him doing what I would call actual head banging that seems absent from any QR footage I have seen. I wonder if he picked that up in Europe. He and Ozzy stay very close together most of the time. During CT outro it looks like Ozzy actually grabs Randy's hair and pulls him in then pushes him away. Really cool chemistry between those two.

This is most likely the Whisky footage that should have been labeled as 9/22/79, as he was on tour with Ozzy supporting the Blizzard album in the UK during September of 1980.
Think about it, QR was four years old by the time of the Whisky gig, had two albums out that no one could buy, unless they were living in Japan, and were still a regional band.
They were going absolutely nowhere, and I would venture to guess that Randy was getting tired of playing the same old tunes, to the same old crowd in the same old bars.
With Ozzy, he had recorded two albums that were available not only in Japan, but also North America, Europe and Australia. He had played to thousands in the UK, US and Canada thus far, playing music that was light years ahead of what he was doing in Southern California not long ago.
By the end of his tenure in QR, there was no longer a challenge for him, as he took that as far as it could go.
With Ozzy, he was certainly challenged by going into a studio with seasoned professionals to write and record something that was meant for the world stage. More or less, he was now the amatuer in the room that was going to have to prove that he could indeed deliver. Out on the road, he was challenged by showing that he could reproduce live what he did in the studio, not just to the band, but to all of the fans who came to see if Ozzy still had it and who the new hotshot was that was playing with him.
Randy was most likely happy because he was realizing his potential and growing as a player and a person. He was finally going somewhere and his life had purpose.
It should be no suprise that he was going into every gig like the Bride entering the House of Blue Leaves.

~Tom

Exactly, very well put! I think he stepped it up on all levels.