“MR. CROWLEY”
Ozzy Osbourne
THIS CLASSIC, HAUNTINGLY beautiful composition features some of the late, great Randy Rhoads’ finest musical moments in his brief but brilliant career collaborating with the legendary Ozzy Osbourne. Written in the key of D minor, the song is built around a suite of inventive, sophisticated classical-style chord progressions that combine the modal colors of D Aeolian,
Bb, or D natural minor (D, E, F, G, A, C), D harmonic
Bb, C#) minor (D, E, F, G, A, and, in the intro, a little bit of D Dorian (D, E, F, G, A, B, C), via the Em7 chord.
We’ve arranged the two keyboard synth parts that begin the song for guitar in drop-D tuning, which allows for a satisfyingly fullsounding rendering of the “tall” chord voicings used in this “haunted castle”-like opening theme (see bars 1-11). Some of the fingerings here are a little demanding, requiring big barre chord shapes and a few stretches, but you’ll find that with practice and tactile familiarity (a.k.a. muscle memory), your fingers will learn to reach for and cleanly form the fretboard shapes in a timely manner.
Randy’s two solos in this song (see sections C and E) are among his most inspired melodic inventions ever caught on tape and showcase the guitarist’s signature fiery musical passion and breathtaking lead playing technique, combined with his disciplined, melodic focus and harmonic awareness. Embracing the tried-andtrue blues-rock approach of ripping through minor pentatonic and blues-scale patterns with lots of string bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs and soulful bend vibratos, Rhoads adds musical depth to these mini compositions by thoughtfully and effectively acknowledging and describing the underlying cycle-of 4ths/5ths chord changes in his lines. Especially noteworthy are his extensive use of three-notes-per string patterns with the aforementioned D natural and harmonic minor scales with double hammer-ons and pull-offs, chord tone targeting with rapid-fire triad arpeggios and some chromatic “spice,” which the guitarist judiciously employs with alternate picking in bar 76 to create a blistering, cascading waterfall of notes. Also laudable are Randy’s deft employment of shimmering trills, tremolo picking, finger slides and seamless position shifts.