You, me and Ozzy Osbourne
You may not know this about me, but I'm a real rock chick -- and I like it heavy! This is a passion I share with my sister. We have a special devotion to Ozzy Osbourne and early Black Sabbath. So we were really thrilled when we got tickets to his Black Rain Tour at Oslo's Spectrum Arena June 10 2007.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. The man's pushing 60 and he's had a hard life -- a very hard life. Would he be weak? Should he have stayed at home? I decided that I wanted to see him no matter what. It would be a kind of pilgrimage to pay homage to what I consider a living legend.
Anyway, it turned out to be academic. Yes, Ozzy isn't young anymore. And yes, he had more energy in his youth. But he still has a lot of it and he has that wild, intense presence which he is famous for.
We heard his voice before he entered the scene and from that moment on we were on a rock 'n' roll roller coaster! He captured the audience and kept us captivated through the concert, all with his unique presence. There was no fancy show: No costumes, no smoke, no choreography, just Ozzy and his band.
This is what Ozzy sang for us:
- Bark At The Moon
- Mr. Crowley
- Not Going Away
- War Pigs
- Believer
- Road To Nowhere
- Suicide Solution
- I Don't Know
- Here For You
- I Don't Wanna Change The World
Extras:
- Mama I'm Coming Home
- Crazy Train
- Paranoid
In other words, the set included most of my favorites from Ozzy's solo years (Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution, I Don't Know, and Crazy Train, but not Perry Mason, which has a strange and whimsical text but is still a great tune). I had hoped for more Sabbath material, but the two we got were great.
Not Going Away and Here For You are both from Ozzy's latest album Black Rain. Not Going Away is by far the strongest track and I was glad we got to hear it. Here For You is a ballad. Old rockers can be really soft and this tune is really sentimental. That's OK, though. I can be sentimental too, sometimes.
