The Randy Rhoads Years features a handful of songs from Randy Rhoads' time in Quiet Riot in the 1970s. It features previously unreleased material and some songs from Quiet Riot's first two albums (which were released only in Japan). However, none of these songs are the same versions that appear on the original albums. At the request of the Rhoads family, Kevin DuBrow remixed all the tracks but one (the previously unreleased "Force of Habit" whose master tapes were lost).
Lead vocals were re-recorded on all tracks (except "Force of Habit") and in one case, the lyrics were re-written with Bobby Rondinelli ("Last Call For Rock 'N' Roll" was formerly "Mama's Little Angels"). The drums were re-sampled, and the guitar tracks were played through Carlos Cavazo's Marshall amplifiers to duplicate the sound that Randy Rhoads achieved in Ozzy Osbourne's band. The reasoning for this was that Rhoads was never happy with the Quiet Riot guitar sound, but very satisfied with the sound on the Osbourne records.
One song ("Trouble") was sped up, as DuBrow felt the original was too slow. DuBrow also added wah-wah to one guitar solo, playing the pedal himself through the original guitar tracks. Rhoads could not afford a wah-wah pedal at the time, but wished he had played the solo with one. "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" had all the instruments stripped from the original track, leaving Rhoads' acoustic guitar. DuBrow used triangle samples to disguise background noise that could not be removed from the track. The one live track, "Laughing Gas", featured an extended guitar solo that was spliced together from two separate recordings. It featured pieces of Rhoads' later songs "Goodbye To Romance", "Dee", and perhaps his best known song, the hit "Crazy Train".
The package features only five of the Japanese album tracks, and in remixed versions. The rest of those songs have yet to see any sort of release outside Japan.
Track listing
- "Trouble" – 4:28 (DuBrow/Rhoads)
- "Laughing Gas (Randy Rhoads Guitar Solo)" – 9:43 (DuBrow/Rhoads)
- "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" – 3:22 (Marriott/Lane)
- "Killer Girls" – 4:18 (DuBrow/Rhoads/Sobol)
- "Picking Up the Pieces" – 3:12 (DuBrow/Rhoads)
- "Last Call for Rock 'n' Roll" – 4:18 (DuBrow/Rhoads/Rondinelli)
- "Breaking Up Is a Heartache" – 2:52 (DuBrow/Rhoads/Garni/Forsyth)
- "Force of Habit" – 3:10 (DuBrow/Rhoads)
- "It's Not So Funny" – 3:46 (DuBrow/Rhoads)
- "Look in Any Window" – 3:34 (Rhoads)
Credits
Quiet Riot
Additional musicians
Production
- Kevin DuBrow - producer
- Lee DeCarlo - producer
- Warren Entner - producer
- Derek Lawrence - producer
Sequel album and home video
At the time of release of The Randy Rhoads Years, DuBrow said in an interview that two more releases were forthcoming. He mentioned a second volume featuring more remixed and unreleased tracks, including Quiet Riot's version of "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)". According to DuBrow, the release of any further tracks completely depended on their quality, and approval by the Rhoads family. He also said a home video release was forthcoming, of an early Quiet Riot club show featuring Rhoads. This same video provided the audio for one half of the live version of "Laughing Gas" on The Randy Rhoads Years. To date neither of these releases have seen the light of day.
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