Page 10-Wednesday, June2, 1982-ThenMichigan Doiily

Strange but true: The
Ozzy Osborne Story

4

(Continuedfrom Page 7)
dreck made interesting only by the
"hanging" of some strange creature
who spent the duration of the piece
swinging above the drummer's head.
On "Suicide Solution", the only
bassist had such an easy time of it that
he played his instrument upside down.
Either he was incredibly bored, as I
was, or a poor showboat.
In my book, if it's metal, it had better
be fast (Led Zeppelin excepted), other-
wise the feedback and pounding and
huge over-production sounds like slush.
On the tunes where the band cooked it
wasn't so bad, provided the lyrics were
ignored (easy enough since the noise
drowned most of them out) and the
musical mediocrity excused.
The only musician who really had to
play his instrument was Ozzy's new
guitarist, who played the standard
heavy-metal high-pitched feedback
solos and power chords with decent
results.
"Flying High Again", with its
generous use of echo, finally brought
the band into the fastest portion of the
show. Making generous use of echo, this
performance came off a lot better live
than it did on record. Following up
"Believer", during which Ozzy dren-
ched his adoring throng with water to
rousing cheers, it heralded the finale.
"Do you believe in rock and roll?" he
asked, setting new standards in audien-
ce-performer communication. "You've
got to believe in it!" Oh my.
Anyway, off they went, digging back
for some heavy handed Black Sabbath
material to close the show with. This
pleased the crowd to no end, and I will
admit that.I got a kick out of it when
they broke into the classic chord riff
that defines "Iron Man". They perfor-
med the classic Sabbath tune complete
with a projectionof a.cross above the
head of the drummer.
They closed the fairly short set by
taking "Iron Man" into a frenzied chain-
saw guitar and drum assault beneath a
projected skull called "Children of the
Grave", a peppy little tune also out of

Osborne
... having fun being strange

Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
Swin our artner
Their loving embrace in Regents' Plaza proves that these University square
dancers are no "square dancers" at all.


6 Solutions To Your Problem
Use these numbers to call
The Michigan Daily

his former band's repertoire. The
audience, thirsting for more, brought
them out for an encore.
Ozzy made his re-entrance aboard a
kitschy inflatable hand whose explosion
in the midst of fireworks et al set him
free. He demanded of his audience,
"What do you wanna hear?" Holding
off the obvious temptation to suggest
"Free Bird," I watched them instead
catapult, into a standard called
"Paranoia" to end the show.
As I walked into the parking lot, wat-
ching a fire engine drive up presumably
to clean up for some improperly aimed
firework or something, I wondered how
to comment on the show. Would this be
another condemnation of heavy metal,
"the music of the mindless," etc., etc.?
Talking to people and listening to
them shriek "Ozzy!" from within their
traffic-jammed autos, I knew that ex-
cept for those kiddies in the infirmary,
the folks had a good time.A few brain
cells. lost, a little auditory damage, but
all in a night'sfun.
It may have been mediocre music,
and the theatrics were inane, and it
wasn't the least bit scary, but it still
satisfied the crowd. They want their
heroes .and delusions of strangeness.
They want to be part of a screaming
mob demanding it. And they got it
Monday night. Thank you, Mr. Osbor-
THE DAILY
CLASSIFIEDS
ARE A GREAT
WAY TO GET
FAST RESULTS
CALL 764-@557

4
I

BILLING .......... 764-0550
CIRCULATION .... 764-0558
CLASSIFIED .......764-0557
DISPLAY .......... 764-0554
NEWS ............. 764-0552
SPORTS ........... 764-0562

4

l e itl igttzt + ttil

I