Goodbye to romance – Ozzy has left the stage
I’ve been the king, I’ve been the clown
Now broken wings can’t hold me down
I’m free again
–from “Goodbye to Romance”
John Michael Osbourne, known much better to millions around the world as “Ozzy,” passed from this realm from an acute myocardial infarction (a heart attack) on July 22, aged 76. Ozzy had been struggling with heart disease and Parkinson’s, and succumbed just two weeks after Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning farewell concert in Birmingham, in the English West Midlands, where the band formed in the late ’60s.
Along with other English bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, Ozzy and Black Sabbath brought a darkness and danger to rock-n-roll that had only been hinted at by the Rolling Stones. With their down-tuned guitars and occult themes, Ozzy and Black Sabbath were a threat to come for the souls of the suburban kids who were moving away from flower power and hippie culture. Sabbath’s lyrics alluded to witch covens, black masses, and necromancy, while their music ushered in a new massive, riff-driven direction for rock music, dubbed “heavy metal.”
Ozzy’s stage antics and drug-fueled lifestyle helped define rock-star mythology, but his heavy drinking led eventually to his ouster from Black Sabbath in 1979. Ozzy however, was far from done – he reinvented himself as a chart-topping solo artist, and ultimately transcended rock altogether, becoming a reality TV star.
Through all of his eras, Ozzy remained first and foremost a great rock vocalist and frontman. There’s no better way to mark the passing of this pop culture anti-messiah than by digging deep into his catalog of classic hard-rock vocal performances. Since his death, there have been no shortage of lists and retrospectives, so we skipped the hits and the iconic Paranoid album. We went for album tracks and less-lauded nuggets from throughout Ozzy’s storied career. If you’re not familiar with some of these songs, dip into the records and…
“LET’S GO CRAZY!!!”
“Black Sabbath”/”The Wizard”
Black Sabbath
1970
The release of Sabbath’s debut album, Black Sabbath, was a harbinger that the days of hippie beads and tie dye were numbered. After I’d worn out my buddy’s copy of Paranoid (that I “borrowed”), I went back to the origins. These two tracks were the first rock songs that actually blew my mind. This music was cataclysmic and terrifying, especially on headphones. The plodding dirge of “Black Sabbath” with Ozzy howling “Oh no, please God help me” stalked my nightmares. The guitar/harmonica stomp of “The Wizard” is devastating and foreboding. These first two tracks from their debut remain my favorite vocal turns from Ozzy.
“Sweetleaf”
Master of Reality
1971
Sweetleaf is bassist Geezer Butler’s love letter to the reefer, and Ozzy delivers it like the House of Dank. Reliably massive riffing from guitarist Tony Iommi, and you can almost see Ozzy’s mischievous grin, passing the bowl and encouraging, “Come on now, try it out!” Pretty sure Ozzy never exhaled.
“Supernaut”
Vol. 4
1972
“I’ve seen the future and I’ve left it behind.” Even though bassist Geezer Butler was the primary lyricist for Sabbath, he was literally putting words in Ozzy’s mouth. Lines like “Don’t try to reach me, cause I’ll blow up your mind” seem like words that came to shape Ozzy’s real life.
“Spiral Architect”
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1973
It’s not often said that Ozzy had a technically great voice, but his 3.5 octave tenor was versatile and expressive. “Spiral Architect” is a good example of Sabbath going a bit orchestral, and Ozzy finding himself just as comfortable in this context as he was with bluesy shouting.
“Symptom of the Universe”
Sabotage
1975
“Symptom of the Universe” is a proto-thrash masterpiece that gets overshadowed by more famous tracks. Sabbath tunes like this, featuring Tony Iommi’s intense power-chord riffing and Ozzy’s shouted & screamed vocal, paved the way for thrash, hardcore, and even Van Halen.
“Believer”
Diary of a Madman
1981
Admittedly, I found the glam metal that arose in the ’80s from the heavy metal of the ’70s to be vapid and formulaic, a commercially viable parody of the hard rock that I grew up on. Ozzy was a part of that hair-metal scene, but hovered above it, a godfather and king maker of stunt guitarists. Most notable among those guitarists was the late Randy Rhoads. Rhoads was a contemporary of Eddie Van Halen in southern California, and whether they knew each other or not, Randy was taking guitar technique to similarly spectacular places. Known for his pyrotechnic solos on hits like “Crazy Train” and “Flying High Again,” Rhoads was also a talented writer. I love his playing on album tracks like “Believer.”
“Tattooed Dancer”
No Rest for the Wicked
1988
“Tattooed Dancer” is a hammer down, sleaze-rock number with yet another stunt guitarist, Zakk Wylde, cold shredding on guitar. Ozzy had fired Wylde’s predecessor Jake E. Lee in 1987, after the Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin albums. Ozzy and his band didn’t miss a beat though, as No Rest for the Wicked went double platinum and cracked the top 20 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
“Old LA Tonight”
Ozzmosis
1995
This is a great specimen of metal balladry, and finds Ozzy’s familiar tenor voice still in damn good shape. For all the hard living and relentless touring (and I’m assuming not a lot of care for his voice), Ozzy was still slinging it as well as ever by the mid-’90s. Critics were beginning to tire of his schtick, deriding the “modern rock consciousness” of Ozzmosis and describing it as “…a parody of the most over-inflated opera.” But the fans still loved it, pushing Ozzmosis to #4 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, and hoovering up over 2 million copies. Notably, Geezer Butler reunited with Ozzy to play bass on this record.
“Dreamer”
Down to Earth
2001
Sticking with the ballad theme, “Dreamer” doesn’t even pretend to be a metal song. It leans heavily into chord changes and instrumentation that are positively Beatle-esque. (But fear not, there’s still a tasty stunt solo from Zakk Wylde.) Some have compared this track to John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and, given John’s “bigger than Jesus” comment and Ozzy’s antichrist pose, perhaps there’s something to that comparison.
“I Don’t Wanna Stop”
Black Rain
2007
Ozzy continued to do his thing in the naughties, with three strong-selling, fan-pleasing albums in the decade. Black Rain rocks pretty damn hard, and “I Don’t Wanna Stop” topped the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, as well as hitting #61 on the Hot 100. But honestly, you kinda had to be a true diehard Ozzy acolyte to get “all fired up” about this album. Still, the WWE adopted it as the theme song for their Judgment Day feature. Ozzy rocks on.
BONUS TRACK ALERT!!!
“Goodbye to Romance”
Blizzard of Oz
1980
One of the first songs Ozzy wrote with Randy Rhoads, with whom he will be forever linked, in life and in death. Seeing Brad Gillis on stage with Ozzy in this clip from 1982 really amplifies the absence of Randy. “Goodbye to Romance” was allegedly written as a kiss-off to Ozzy’s former mates in Black Sabbath. Now it almost seems as if he was singing his own elegy. Goodbye to romance. Goodbye to a blood and guts, hard rock legend.
RIP Ozzy, indeed.
