Ultimate Rhoads

So after much debate, I decided to pick up just the remasters ($29 and some change for both) and HOPE for a stand alone DVD release.. I think its inevitable. Thought Id share my thoughts.

I popped in Blizzard of Ozz first. The overall sound quality is very good.. It is a noticeable difference in sound. I think Randy's guitar sounds a bit louder and more defined. The bass is nice and thumping. In my opinion the drums are little muddy. But not terrible. The whole recording just sounds more "lively". I can also hear some of Randy's second guitar parts more clearly. One thing I was very happy about was that it wasn't mastered too hot. Some of today's recordings are mastered so hot that you cant turn them up loud without them distorting. Not a problem here thank god. I was very worried about that.

The bonus stuff on Blizzard is very cool Holy crap, You looking at me, looking at you is an awesome song! I love Randy's lead in it! Ive heard of the song over the years, but honestly had never heard it.. Just never had a record player hooked up.. The song was always an afterthought. I don't care if it was written in a day, or ten minutes.. I love it. It should have made the album.

Diary is pretty much the same sound wise. Although to my ears I think Blizzard benefited most from the remastering. Blizzard just sounds a tad better to me. By no means is Diary bad, it is a definite improvement. I do wish we would have gotten the full versions of songs with no fade outs. But we can't have it all I suppose. The live CD is of course awesome. I had actually heard it already, but only on my computer. The sound on it is terrific and Randy's playing sounds down right "angry" at times.. Which I like. All of the boots and official live recordings we have of him it never ceases to amazes me at how good he was at improvising his fills and some of his leads. What a creative mind he had. And so young still.

Overall it was for sure worth 30 bucks. I really wanna see the live footage, but I just couldn't justify giving the Osbournes $150 bucks for it. I paid $30 for the cds, a stand alone DVD would probably run $20-25 bucks. Thats $50 bucks total.. Sorry, but the LPs, necklace and book were not worth $100 bucks to me. Ill bide my time and wait.

One thing that did stick in my crawl on the remasters is that Sharon Osbourne is listed as the executive producer. Her name is pretty much above everyone elses. I guess its to be expected, but really??? Oh well. Thats my 2 cents gang..


Matt

they also played you looking at me live in 1980

Weren't they supposed to have extended versions of the songs with talking and stuff before the songs start and after?? I thought I remember that being said before, but haven't heard anyone talk about that being on them since they came out.

Matlike wrote:Weren't they supposed to have extended versions of the songs with talking and stuff before the songs start and after?? I thought I remember that being said before, but haven't heard anyone talk about that being on them since they came out.

Yeah Sharon mentioned "studio chatter" and we thought we were gonna get a version of tonight without the fade out during the last lead, but none of that made it onto the CDs.. Dunno why.


Matt

Remedylane wrote:

Matlike wrote:Weren't they supposed to have extended versions of the songs with talking and stuff before the songs start and after?? I thought I remember that being said before, but haven't heard anyone talk about that being on them since they came out.

Yeah Sharon mentioned "studio chatter" and we thought we were gonna get a version of tonight without the fade out during the last lead, but none of that made it onto the CDs.. Dunno why.


Matt

I would assume it was because it had Bob and Lee on it, and if they tried to make money off of this new stuff, they could sue. They can't sue over the old stuff because they already lost that case, but if they tried to sell something new that featured Bob and Lee then they could sue.

Cryptic Night wrote:

Remedylane wrote:

Matlike wrote:Weren't they supposed to have extended versions of the songs with talking and stuff before the songs start and after?? I thought I remember that being said before, but haven't heard anyone talk about that being on them since they came out.

Yeah Sharon mentioned "studio chatter" and we thought we were gonna get a version of tonight without the fade out during the last lead, but none of that made it onto the CDs.. Dunno why.


Matt

I would assume it was because it had Bob and Lee on it, and if they tried to make money off of this new stuff, they could sue. They can't sue over the old stuff because they already lost that case, but if they tried to sell something new that featured Bob and Lee then they could sue.

I dont think that it as anything to do with the fact its something new and bob and lee would sue, For one they are the same songs and bob already lost his case on that one, plus they played some of the fade out of tonight on the documentary so thats not the reason either. It just baffles me why they choose to leave things out at the last minute, strange that, mabe ozzy and sharon at some point will let everyone know the reasons why.

jas.

jasonmusicman wrote:
I dont think that it as anything to do with the fact its something new and bob and lee would sue, For one they are the same songs and bob already lost his case on that one, plus they played some of the fade out of tonight on the documentary so thats not the reason either. It just baffles me why they choose to leave things out at the last minute, strange that, mabe ozzy and sharon at some point will let everyone know the reasons why.

jas.

I wasn't talking about the songs, I was referring to studio banter and such. I'm sure Bob and Lee could be heard on tape and possibly Sharon was worried they could sue, it's the same reason why Bob can't release his tapes. If he made money on them, the Osbournes could sue him because Ozzy is on there. It may also destroy what they've written as being "history".

And it's possible, I'm not sure, that Bob and Lee could sue if they released the unfaded versions of songs because it's possible they could be seen (From a legal standpoint) as something different than what Bob and Lee had originally sued for. Why it was shown on the documentary, but not on the CDs, I'm not sure.

I thought after 25 years, they become public domain.
I know the Gillan CDs were released after much legal wrangling AFTER a designated 25 year period, so the 'owner', in this case, Ian Gillan wouldn't get the majority of royalties.

Because Ozzy isnt gettng any younger...and $haron has a $300,000 a year cosmetics allowance she has to keep ...so What a better retirement plan then the RR stuff....
Im living, breathing fact that the Boxsets supply, cant meet its demad...

Along with other awaiting members here...Bollocks

Whatever releases there may be in the future, I hope they realize customers would be aprehensive choosing the pre-order route through the Ozzy store.
I know some got their orders quiclky with no issues, but it seems many didn't.
There is the difference between brick-and-mortar versus online store:
My Blizzard disc was messed up, I returned it to the store I bought it from and had a replacement copy, all in the span of a half hour.
Some of these poor folk who went the online route have moved on from days and heading into weeks with little communication and either wrong product, or none at all.
That's just plain lousy customer service.

~T.

Does seem the online route was a bit of cluster f$&k for some people. I know here in Charlotte N.C. it was IMPOSSIBLE to find the box set. The Best Buys around here didn't even have the cds when they came out. I just got my CDs late last week. So even if had decided to buy the box set, I definitely could not have gotten it locally. I guess the box was a nice touch for those that could afford it and didn't mind paying for it. But Im betting they would have sold WAY more had they offered A Blizzard "Legacy" edition with the DVD as a bonus disc. Hell, I even bet they still would have sold close to the same amount of box sets, but would have sold WAY more cds had the DVD been offered that way..


Matt