Music of the Day, 29 January 2025

getting gothic

Maybe my musings on supergroups yesterday triggered the radio station in my mind to serve up a classic metal hit. It could also be partly due to something else, which I’m not at liberty to discuss.

If anyone in the biz has classified this band as a supergroup, I’m unaware of it. How can they not be deserving of it, though?

Perhaps if they’d been known by something other than the frontman’s name, they would be considered a supergroup. Keyboardist Don Airey, bassist and songwriter Bob Daisley, the late drummer Lee Kerslake, and the late great shredder and songwriter Randy Rhoads all belong in the pantheon of metal musicians as much as Ozzy Osbourne does.

I’m not sure when my love of nearly all things Gothic began, but it was probably Gothic architecture. Gargoyles and grotesques,¹ flying buttresses, and stained glass—yes, please! Is it overwrought? Perhaps. Overdone? Never! Not for me, at least. Same with Jane Eyre, which is among the best-known Gothic novels and was one of my favorites for years.

Airey’s bombastic opening to “Mr. Crowley” evokes all of that for me, and I welcome it every time the radio station in my mind starts playing the song. The rest of the music does not disappoint either. This ol’ pedant can’t even be too mad that Ozzy mispronounces Crowley’s name, because the drawn-out “owl” sound² adds a nice touch of menace. As of 2021, Blizzard of Ozz is RIAA certified 5x platinum. I need to add it to my collection soon.

The video is “live,” but it sounds very similar to the studio version of the song. I opted for it just to see Randy Rhoads in action. So much talent …

1. Gargoyles are the often monstrous carvings on buildings; they serve to channel water away from the walls and foundation, slowing erosion. Grotesques look similar but do not have that function, and thus can be freestanding statuary

2. it should be “crow-lee”