Ultimate Rhoads

It's been said that you can see and begin to know the creator by examining his works. Given the brief sample of studio and live guitar playing left by Randy Rhoads, what does his playing tell you about him as a person?

Genuis...

He had flawless technique and passion. His vocabulary was quite deep and showed he had a sophistication most guitar players rarely (if ever) achieve.

I think his live playing shows us again that Randy never stopped learning, not that he wasn't satisfied with his work but more like he kept pushing his limits further. Like I said in another topic, I get the impression that the studio tracks were just the foundation and with each show he built further on it.

Never stop learning, just like he said in the award video, and like he wanted more guitar lessons while on tour.

Interesting question, hard to answer...

The most prominent thing that comes to mind for me is the "neatness" of his music, both theoretically and technically. It's been said before, those old songs have to be played the way they were composed. You can't simply wildly improvise blues/rock lines over the tracks, it wouldn't sound right. Each note is rhythmically and melodically exactly where it should be, especially in the context of the musical themes of the songs as a whole. None of Randy's playing (even when live) is ignorant of the rest of the track. Continuity and contrast, immaculately measured. You can think of a RR song as a newly laid brick wall. It has perfect symmetry, move just one note/brick, and the entire wall wont look quite as pretty.

What does that say about him as a person? Neat, tidy, someone who would dot their I's and cross their T's. A person who is unwilling to leave a job half done. Someone who is never satisfied until everything is rounded off neatly.

Certainly a mistake would not go unnoticed, you can probably pick this out with the accuracy with which Randy multi-tracked his recordings. Some muso's are willing to let one track fall out of sync for a moment here or there, not Randy.

At the same time probably not the most liberated individual, letting work take such a strong hold on his life.

Whether or not these observations were prevalent in other aspects of Randy's life, who knows?

Rob

To me, his playing said that he wanted to be original.