Some random thoughts (or not) regarding Ozzy Osbourne (+)

Most of the time, I use this blog as a forum for my musical opinions, with some autobiography thrown in. It's my life, and welcome to it. 

Once in a while I've taken the opportunity to eulogize or memorialize, in my small and barely significant way, people who have recently died. Betty Davis, Steve Albini, and guitarist Bruce Anderson, for example. 

The big news this week in obituaries, but not the only, has been for Ozzy Osbourne. Looking around my personal library, I don't think there's a minute of Ozzy's voice anywhere, unless he's on a Plunderphonics recording. Even then, I don't think so.

I shared a dream I once had about Ozzy on Facebook: 

I don't often remember my dreams, but sometimes they are vivid. I had a dream I was on stage with Ozzy Osbourne. The band was going to play "Paranoid". I don't play guitar at all, but I had on a Les Paul and a slide on my finger. I tried to explain my lack of guitar ability to Ozzy, who said, "Uh uh uh just slide your finger up and down at the right time." Somehow I got through it.

I was never a big Sabbath guy, but respect.

I don't have the literary imagination to have made up such a myth in my waking life. I think it's a variation on the dream where you're off to a final exam in a college class that you've never attended, and not have read the materials. 

I spoke to my father yesterday, who mentioned that he read my post but didn't really know who Ozzy was. He expressed skepticism. I said I thought he started as someone who was earnest but became someone who chased money. He responded, in so many words, that Ozzy went from a creator to a show business figure. Bingo. 

I never really cared that much for Black Sabbath. Maybe that's an oversight on my part. I acknowledge BS as an original force, and there's no denying Ozzy's part in it. By the time he'd launched his solo career, he played up the evilness of his persona to the point of self-parody, regardless of what the music sounded like. (I'm certainly more sympathetic to the darkness of BS). By the time The Osbournes hit cable TV? Oh I watched it a bit, less than my daughter, but his act was full on farce by that point. My friend Daryl Fleming even stated the opinion that the show marked the decline of civilization. Maybe that's overstated, but I can hardly argue against it given our current circumstances. 

As an aside, I've heard some isolated tracks from BS drummer Bill Ward, and I have to say he sounded pretty damned good. Maybe even the best musician in the band. 

I've just reserved a book from the library which I'm very interested to read: Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste by Nolan Gasser. I question these things myself, sometimes "out loud" in the text of these brief missives on this blog. 

No doubt the idea of having affection for anything you liked at 13-14 years old, you will always like. Largely that's true but not universal in my experience. I still enjoy Yes' Close to the Edge ("I can't believe you like that band!" -my wife) but don't have much affection for Steve Miller's Book of Dreams or Styx' The Grand Illusion. Hey, it was the 70s! I was just starting to figure these things out! 

So Ozzy, I don't know. I'm not torn up about this, but maybe I'll spend a little time with your early work soon. The library is really good for things like that.

Other obits:

Sometime in the last 24 hours, Hulk Hogan died. 

Anyway...

Also, Chuck Mangione, who I was certain wasn't still alive. I learned to play "Feels So Good" off the radio on tenor saxophone in my high school days. That's as good a purpose for that piece as any.

Also also, I just read on Facebook that Bill Exley from the Nihilist Spasm Band died July 15. If there's anything you remember about NSB records, in all likelihood it's Bill's shouted texts. ("Stupidity! Stupidity, stupidity!", sampled on a Nurse With Wound record.) My band Water Shed 5tet opened for the NSB some time in the late 90s, a CMU-sponsored show but no doubt arranged through Manny Theiner. I think our slot on the billing angered the more avant-garde contingency locally. The NSB however were perfectly nice and friendly. Bill even then seemed like an old gentleman. He particularly seemed interested in my Theremin, which I let him play during our sound checks. He mentioned something about the other people in the band had not permitted him to play their (homemade) instruments after his passionate performances had broken some of them (and possibly a Theremin they had owned too?). My drummer Jay told me after the show he was sure Bill wanted to play my Theremin in performance but didn't want to ask. I should have let him! At least I think so, it's still operational today. 

Bill is seen in the center below. No doubt you've seen enough images of Ozzy Osbourne this week, I don't need to post another.