Mike on The Art of the Guitar discussed Randy Rhoads making mistakes on an Ozzy Osbourne classic in a new video. Ozzy Osbourne ‘Rejects’ Guitarist For New Album.
“I’ve spent a large part of my guitar life trying to figure out the ‘Crazy Train’ solo and do it justice. And by doing it justice, what I mean is – I’m trying to make my soloing sound as close to the album version as possible.
“But I ran into three problems, two of which I already knew about, one I just found out the other day and it really kind of blew my mind.
“So first of all, when we’re trying to play the ‘Crazy Train’ solo – it’s a difficult solo, first of all. But because we’re not Randy Rhoads, we’re not gonna sound exactly like it – that’s just one of the things that you can’t help.
“The second thing is – I learned this after about three years of trying to play the solo – Randy double-tracked his guitar in the studio. He’s double-tracking the solo, so he plays it twice and you hear two simultaneous solos going on when you hear the solo for ‘Crazy Train.’
“So it’s not like he just played through the solo said, ‘That’s good, see you later.’ He played it again and they layered them together. So if you listen with earbuds, you’ll hear one take in one ear and the other in the other ear.
“And it’s really interesting because playing them together creates the sound that you’re not able to replicate by yourself. When I learned this, I went out and bought a chorus pedal because I thought that would make that sound, but it didn’t.
“There’s a different sound and feel to it when you use a chorus pedal versus when you actually double-track your part – when you play it twice and then put them together. So that’s another giant reason why we can’t sound like the studio version of ‘Crazy Train.’
“Now the third one I just figured out the other day – I was listening to it, dissecting it even more, and there were always a few parts that sounded strange to me. And I couldn’t quite tell why until I slowed it down the other day and listened to each take.
“And I realized that Randy is actually playing different notes for different takes. Now, some people get mad – they’re like, ‘Randy would never make a mistake!’ I know that’s blasphemy and I wouldn’t say that.
“But what I will say is – Randy was a very creative guitar player. It’s got to be very difficult to want to play the same thing two times in a row when you’re in the studio.
“And so there are these little anomalies that happen where all of a sudden he’ll be playing two different notes and since it’s one in each ear, it creates this really insane dissonant effect.
“So if I break this part down, you might be surprised to hear what he’s actually doing.” Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his remarks.
