Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Rocktober Deep Cut O: "You Lookin' At Me Lookin' At You" by Ozzy Osbourne

For "O," especially in October, you can look no further than the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne.  The Ozzman has a plethora of hard rock and metal classics that you can hear on classic rock and hard rock radio stations. 

His debut solo album, Blizzard of Ozz, hit the shelves a little over 34 years ago, in September 1980, and eventually went platinum four times over.  It gave us what is probably Ozzy's most recognizable solo song, "Crazy Train," as well as another Ozzy staple, "Mr. Crowley," and the infamous "Suicide Solution," which is unfortunately famous, not because it's a sad commentary about AC/DC frontman Bon Scott's death by alcohol or Ozzy's own struggles with alcohol abuse, but because a depressed teenager allegedly killed himself listening to the song, and then his parents sued Ozzy, claiming their son's death was his fault.  Thankfully, the case was dismissed on First Amendment grounds.

But anyway, the Ozzy song that I'm going with is "You Lookin' At Me Lookin' At You," which was the B-side to the "Crazy Train" single, but not on the original Blizzard of Ozz album.  A remastered version appeared on the 2002 reissue of the album, and I can't believe it wasn't a single in its own right.  The song has everything someone (or a record label) could want in an early '80s hard rock song.  It's catchy, it rocks, it has an easy-to-remember chorus, and it has a sweet Thin Lizzy-esque guitar solo (albeit with one guitarist instead of two).

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