The one song that features two of the greatest guitar solos of all time: “You could teach those”
The general rule of classic rock is that you borrow the same structure as pop and throw in a guitar solo. But some songs shake up that rule of thumb.
Another rule is that some of the biggest names in rock and roll usually say that you just need to play from the heart to sound good. As much as people might like to try to memorise scales to be the next shredder, sometimes the greatest work comes from your soul rather than the theory course in some thick music industry textbook.
Nevertheless, it is fun to learn the intricacies of music every now and again, and Tom Morello thought everything you need to know about crafting a good solo is in Ozzy Osbourne’s classic ‘Mr Crowley’. And he thought that these tenets are displayed not just once, but twice.
Then again, it’s impossible to talk about Osbourne’s solo career and not talk about Randy Rhoads. Whereas Tony Iommi may have been the riff-heavy mastermind of Black Sabbath, Rhoads was from the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Iommi may have had the blues chops, but Rhoads had a background in classical music and brought a sense of musicality back into ‘The Prince of Darkness’s work.
For all of the dark riffs Osbourne had sung over before, Rhoads sounded unusually positive on his debut, Blizzard of Ozz, storming out of the gate with classics like ‘Crazy Train’. That was the poppy single, though, and ‘Mr Crowley’ was a lot more detailed musically.
With the lyrics referencing the famous occultist Aleister Crowley, the entire track feels like something you would hear out of a midnight mass in the first few seconds before crashing in with Rhoads’s riff. Despite the Spinal Tap irony of being in the saddest key of all time (D Minor), Rhoads seems to know how to make his guitar cry out in pain throughout the track, always composing solos rather than playing fast for the hell of it.
This left a huge impression on Morello, telling Louder, “[My favourite solos are] Number one A and number one B are the solos on ‘Mr Crowley’ by Randy Rhoads. You could teach those on a college-level musicology course or bang your head in a heavy metal parking lot!”. He’s not joking about the theory part of it.
Compared to the other guitar players that came before, there’s something regal about Rhoad’s playing in the second half of the solo. The first one may have just been a taste of what he could do, but this is the kind of smooth playing that seemed to be ripped out of the George Harrison school of soloing, where the guitar has as much of a voice as the singer.
There’s a beauty to that duality. Offering up two solos in the very same song feels more like an exploration of classic rock guitar playing. It has a meta quality to it that is perfectly elucidated by Morello: one part of it makes you want to simply thrash your head, the other part of it has you pressing pause to try and pick out the diminished notes tossed in there. It is innovation at its finest, with Rhoads happening mirrored solos that reveal things about each other, while also just making for a cracking song. It’s why he’s one of the greatest of all time.
It’s just a shame that Rhoads didn’t get the chance to explore more possibilities. He seemed to be on the verge of something big after Diary of a Madman, but his death in a plane crash in 1982 confirmed we would never see him blossom as a player. We were now left with those he inspired, and Morello continues to carry on the legacy Rhoads started.
While his technique has been called into question by some snobs over the years, Morello is far more than just the guy who makes DJ scratch sounds in Rage Against the Machine. Looking through deep cuts like ‘Take the Power Back’, Morello knew how to play those kinds of sweeping solos, doing Rhoads proud by putting the kind of finger-twisting that would leave most other guitarists crying out in pain.
This was all just par for the course for Morello. He may have been responsible for putting rap-rock on the map with RATM, but artists like Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen meant just as much to him as Public Enemy and Beastie Boys. Above all, none of these folks followed rules, and that’s perfectly clear on ‘Mr Crowley’.
