This afternoon I saw some article about Jake E Lee pop up in my newsfeed and it made me want to give a listen to those albums he did w/ Ozzy. IIRC, the last time I had heard Bark at the Moon was when it was remastered in the mid-90s. Ish. As far as I can remember, the difference was subtle except for the addition of one song. 
 
Unfortunately, those albums like the bulk of my record collection got left behind, but, this wasn't the first time that I'd own more than one copy of Ozzy's albums, so I bought both Bark at the Moon and Ultimate Sin on iTunes, put them on my iPhone and hooked it up to the monitors in the gym and hit the cross-trainer.
 
First song went by w/o me noticing a thing. At that point I wasn't aware that the album had been messed with after the 90s remaster, anyway. Second song (You're No Different) I noticed that the keyboards seemed louder in the middle section but having not heard the album in 15 years or so, I wasn't sure. The song ended  - wait, this one used to fade out, right? And one song after the other, the changes were becoming more and more obvious. Rock And Roll rebel had some additional guitar fills which left me with the impression that they were lifted off demos and rehearsals.
 
Then Center of Eternity began. Now why would anyone in their right mind get rid of that bell sound at the beginning and replace it with some odd sounding FM-ish plastic down-pitched poor excuse for a bell? Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?
 
Anyway, I finished the album disgusted. That's one version I'm never listening to again. Fortunately, they left Ultimate Sin alone - which is a good thing, considering that Ozzy hates that one, who knows what he'd be capable of...
 
I can understand remastering, and to some extent I can even understand some old deaf musicians succumbing to loudness war and butchering their old albums. But totally remixing?
 
I guess this doesn't beat the time they re-issued the first 2 albums w/ re-recorded the drums and bass parts... 
 
Ozzy should team up w/ Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and digitally add Jabba and a couple of ewoks to his album covers, maybe even replace the crosses w/ walkie-talkies...
 
 

Almost as bad as Lucas replacing the original Darth Vader in the after-death scene with that annoying young Vader, ya?

I had forgotten that one! Oh the horror!
I guess that that would be like replacing the drums and bass tracks on Blizzard and Diary.

Well I used to think the same thing about colorizing black and white films.....  And well.... I still feel the same way about colorizing black and white films. 

Oh crap.  I posted but forgot to change the title!!!

Exactly.
 
And since I'm in a b!tchin' mood and we've mentioned the new generation in that other thread, having bumped into that stuff on iTunes, I feel like I must pay my respect to kids, particularly those young guys doing Hip Hop.
 
I guess that when your definition of making music is to synchronize repetitive beats and melodies stolen from hits from the past decades, you might as well push the clueless-ness to its limit and make music under the name Ozzy.
 
Not Ozzie, not Ozzy Smith, not Little Ozzy - no, no: just "Ozzy"... The one who doesn't need a last name.
 
You can also name your Facebook page "Ozzy but not Osbourne". (I'm not kidding).
 
Actually, it sort of make sense... I guess that if you are a parasite musically, you might as well assume it all the way and pick an artist name that's associated w/ something famous so your face pops up when someone search for that stuff...
 
I've also seen some of those guys doing music under names like "Rocky" and "Hulk" and even "Batman"... I'm sure their music was too revolutionary for my old ears, so I didn't preview it.

I wanted to just be Craig, but it was taken so I had to settle for being CraigB instead...

craigb
I wanted to just be Craig, but it was taken so I had to settle for being CraigB instead...

C, If u was makin real beatz, u wouldnov let dat bother u, yknowhamsayin?

I remember reading that ozzy had Diary redone with a different drummer and bassist because of his refusal to credit the original musicians. I mean Daisley and Kerslake were half of the reason Blizzard and Diary were so successful. Yeah, you got Ozzy's unique voice going over the top, but without good SONGS, the albums wouldn't have gained near the popularity they achieved. And that was almost completely the result of Daisley, Rhoads, and Kerslake (with some great production by Max Norman). It just gets on my nerves how Ozzy likes to profit by the sweat of others.

Yup. 
 
You know, I grew up listening to that stuff. My first vinyl album, my first tape, the reason I picked up the electric guitar and classical guitar - that's even where I learned english in big part - it's all those first few albums. Even when my interest for 80s heavy metal was waning - I'd discovered Sabbath by then, so Ozzy was still in the picture. And I kept buying the records until Ozzmosis I think...
 
I guess it makes it hard for me to just let go of that stuff because the man is taking stupid decisions. As much as he can do stupid things, his music will always be a big part of my life. But it's not as if I'm looking up to him as a hero and a moral inspiration.
 
Though we do share a passion for crosses and having pets everywhere in the house. :P