Jake and Ozzy...

jabps

jabps

Well-known member
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I gotta say, Jake really undervalues himself and his time in Ozzy.

Flat out Randy is arguably my favorite guitar player, he certainly without a doubt had the most impact on me as a guitarist in terms of inspiration. And in my opinion the stuff he did with Ozzy is just epic stuff, hands down nothing comes close to that in the Ozzy catalog - again my opinion.

That said Jake is easily the second guy "to me" and I've always said, he literally was the perfect replacement for Randy. For some fans he's their favorite, he's their guy. I love Bark at The Moon, and the moment the needle hit the groove I knew I was going to like that guy. It's my third favorite Ozzy album. Fans would have seen right through Ozzy trying to find a soundalike to Randy, Jake was certainly not that. I really wished Jake could have made another album with Ozzy. I liked Badlands and I understood what Jake was trying to do with that band but I think what he did with Ozzy is special even though I'm not a huge fan of the Ultimate Sin in it's entirety. I like some of it but not all, really what stands out on that album is Jake.

Jake was the whole package in Ozzy, fantastic player with his own thing, looked great and looked great on stage. Certainly better onstage than Zakk who often looked like an uncoordinated jobber. Not a knock on Zakk's playing which I liked on his first couple albums.

Just not sure why Jake has really undervalued himself or even where he's read negative comments about him but it's an interesting read as I really don't think that guy realizes how beloved he is in the guitar community.
 
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The biggest point of separation between Randy, Jake and Zakk for me is that Randy and Jake played great and interesting stuff practically all the time. Zakk has his moments of greatness for sure but his stuff is far more interspersed with 'empty calorie' cliches such as the obvious overuse of squeals and generic chug riffs.
 
thegame said:
The biggest point of separation between Randy, Jake and Zakk for me is that Randy and Jake played great and interesting stuff practically all the time. Zakk has his moments of greatness for sure but his stuff is far more interspersed with 'empty calorie' cliches such as the obvious overuse of squeals and generic chug riffs.
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Agreed. The Zakk albums are where Ozzy's music started feeling generic to me.
 
I never really compare them because ALL guys were amazing with Ozzy for their 2 albums. Zakk did more with Ozzy but he's really dialed in on those first 2. Also it isn't about the notes and pentatonics either. Zakk stated that he didn't want to sound like Randy or Jake so he needed to put hisown spin on stuff. I think like the other 2, he had a great sense of melody and you hear it in a lot of his solos like Miracle man and no more tears. I think Zakk was absolutely the right guy and probably could have given much more musically if he wasn't so set on not sounding like the others. This audition demo says it all to me. for the record though, I also hate Zakk after Pride n Glory. He peaked early and then became about squealies and pointless runs.

 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I never really compare them because ALL guys were amazing with Ozzy for their 2 albums. Zakk did more with Ozzy but he's really dialed in on those first 2. Also it isn't about the notes and pentatonics either. Zakk stated that he didn't want to sound like Randy or Jake so he needed to put hisown spin on stuff. I think like the other 2, he had a great sense of melody and you hear it in a lot of his solos like Miracle man and no more tears. I think Zakk was absolutely the right guy and probably could have given much more musically if he wasn't so set on not sounding like the others. This audition demo says it all to me. for the record though, I also hate Zakk after Pride n Glory. He peaked early and then became about squealies and pointless runs.

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Yeah his set with Ozzy at the farewell was IMO horrible. The squeals and overplaying, wasn't good IMO.
 
Oz & Sharon screwed Jake bad and they still have a NDA against him.
The Ozbournes have screwed enough folks for 10 lifetimes.
I like Ozzy & alot of his music but im really hoping they just fade away.
I just had a "prince of Darkness" Batwing mug pop on my browser today. 2 guesses who's selling that ?
She has purple hair and a foul mouth.
 
Ozzy's best songs were written by members of his band, and it seems like things really started losing steam after No More Tears, which is when they increasingly started leaning on outside songwriters. Maybe the well was starting to dry up, or the material wasn't up to snuff? Not everyone is a Daisley or a JEL or a Butler or a Rhoads or a Castillo.
 
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shar-vell Dan said:
Oz & Sharon screwed Jake bad and they still have a NDA against him.
The Ozbournes have screwed enough folks for 10 lifetimes.
I like Ozzy & alot of his music but im really hoping they just fade away.
I just had a "prince of Darkness" Batwing mug pop on my browser today. 2 guesses who's selling that ?
She has purple hair and a foul mouth.
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I get all that and from a business perspective, both of them were snakes. Ozzy could have "manned" up and told Sharon, pay these people or just flat no on replacing Daisley and Lee's tracks. There's no or was no viable excuse for him to wiggle out of some of that responsibility.

However, his music and his image isn't going to fade away at all and I'm fine with that in regards to the music, it keeps Randy alive, it keeps Jake and all the other musicians and music in the ether and that's a good thing.
 
jabps said:
I get all that and from a business perspective, both of them were snakes. Ozzy could have "manned" up and told Sharon, pay these people or just flat no on replacing Daisley and Lee's tracks. There's no or was no viable excuse for him to wiggle out of some of that responsibility.

However, his music and his image isn't going to fade away at all and I'm fine with that in regards to the music, it keeps Randy alive, it keeps Jake and all the other musicians and music in the ether and that's a good thing.
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What’d be great is if his kids paid up for him and apologized for their parents being horrible human beings.
 
Tine after time great guitarists (and songwriters) have resurrected Ozzy's carreer. And what's particularly interesting is that they are all very different players stylistically. RR, JEL, and ZW...completely different in almost every way, including tone. God really smiled on the prince of darkness 100%.
 
jabps said:
I get all that and from a business perspective, both of them were snakes. Ozzy could have "manned" up and told Sharon, pay these people or just flat no on replacing Daisley and Lee's tracks. There's no or was no viable excuse for him to wiggle out of some of that responsibility.

However, his music and his image isn't going to fade away at all and I'm fine with that in regards to the music, it keeps Randy alive, it keeps Jake and all the other musicians and music in the ether and that's a good thing.
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Ive witness & played 7 decades of music. People at my job have never heard most music i grew up with.
Im constantly getting wakeup calls & reminders about that fact.
I think you'd be surprised how easily folks forget 60's, 70's 80's music. I am.
John Ozbourne had great moments in music, lets just leave it at that.
Jake happened at a moment in time we all needed and im glad i got to see that.
It should be noted that the Ozbournes passed on G. Lynch both before & after Randy.
Im glad Lynch's career path went the way it did cuz that guy has had more influence & impact on me then all of the Ozzy members.

 
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He could throw his weight around a lot more if he wanted to, but he's never been like that. I admire that he's so honest and not fake, despite his amazing musicianship and technical skills. His rhythm work is my favorite of all Ozzy's guitarists, and his tone was my favorite as well. I still like Randy and Zakk's tones, but Jake had the best tone.
 
shar-vell Dan said:
Ive witness & played 7 decades of music. People at my job have never heard most music i grew up with.
Im constantly getting wakeup calls & reminders about that fact.
I think you'd be surprised how easily folks forget 60's, 70's 80's music. I am.
John Ozbourne had great moments in music, lets just leave it at that.
Jake happened at a moment in time we all needed and im glad i got to see that.
It should be noted that the Ozbournes passed on G. Lynch both before & after Randy.
Im glad Lynch's career path went the way it did cuz that guy has had more influence & impact on me that all of the Ozzy members.

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I can honestly see why they passed on George and not just for his looks i.e. short hair at the time. Jake was a better fit for Ozzy as a guitarist and I doubt Lynch could have even come close to replicating Randy's parts. He's just not that type of player, to many quirks in his playing.

That said George is one of my top five. Randy was my biggest guitar inspiration but I took more from George, Gary Moore, Neal Schon and Vivian Campbell stylistically than anyone else. For me, George was the guy in the mid 80's - dude had it all. Unfortunately I find him unlistenable now. And yes I'm very glad he didn't get the Ozzy gig, it would have deprived us of some badass Dokken music.
 
BABMusic said:
He could throw his weight around a lot more if he wanted to, but he's never been like that. I admire that he's so honest and not fake, despite his amazing musicianship and technical skills. His rhythm work is my favorite of all Ozzy's guitarists, and his tone was my favorite as well. I still like Randy and Zakk's tones, but Jake had the best tone.
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Agreed but he also had 3 years of tech advancement over Randy in terms of gear. As I said in a thread the other day, I don't mind Randy's tone because you have to put it in context of 1980 and '81.

I really like Jake's tone on Bark, really tight sounding. Although I like his tone on Ultimate Sin, that whole mix suffers from too much Ron Nevison. Ron had his sound for that era over many different albums.
 
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jabps said:
Agreed but he also had 3 years of tech advancement over Randy in terms of gear. As I said in a thread the other day, I don't mind Randy's tone because you have to put it in context of 1980 and '81.

I really like Jake's tone on Bark, really tight sounding. Although I like his tone on Ultimate Sin, that whole mix suffers from too much Ron Nevison. Ron had his sound for that era over many different albums.
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EVH didn't need any years of tech advancement to have amazing tone. I love RR, he was my number 1 in 1982, but his tone was not the greatest and there is no excuse in my book.
 
Jake is a really good player but Ozzy solo stuff ended with Diary to me
The songs were sooo much better that anything later :m17:
 
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