Diary of a Madman

For those , like myself , who'd forgotten how great this song is.

****Headphones Zone****

This song was the first time I'd heard the Hungarian minor scale in a rock context.
Randy's guitar is spectacular.

thanks for that!, brought back some good memories.
sure miss randy

a reply to: skunkape23

I not familiar with a scale by that name.

Counting by semitones:

Major scale: 0 (tonic) - 2 - 4 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11

Natural minor is 0 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 10

What is Hungarian minor?

originally posted by: DictionaryOfExcuses
a reply to: skunkape23



What is Hungarian minor?

1,2,-3,#4,5,-6,7.
Here's a good place to start.

a reply to: skunkape23

is this not a mode of melodic minor?

COOL sounds. 5 visiting #4 as neighbor tone is menacing.

are you a string puller?

originally posted by: DictionaryOfExcuses
a reply to: skunkape23


are you a string puller?

Darn tootin'. Rhoads was a major early influence.

a reply to: gortex

Great tune from his solo heyday. It's all about 'Tribute' for me and I overlook the studio stuff so it's good to have the reminder. On the goosebumps scale, Rhodes/Osbourne continue to bring them on.

a reply to: skunkape23

Nice. I'm more on the acoustic side of the yard but I love it all.

I have an electric very similar to the picture. It is a Guild Starfire III (I think) made in '97. It was probably one of the last instruments to come out of the Waverly, RI factory before they went to Asia. When I got it, it had been after-marketed to death with different tuners, pickups, bridge, saddle, you name it. Some lawyer owned it, and I assume couldn't achieve the sound he wanted and got rid of it. My gain. I restored it with Lollar vintage-voiced HBs (close to stock for the old Guild "toaster" PUs, a genuine Bigsby (which is an upgrade from the "Guildsby"), and the original bridge/saddle.

As far as electric goes, I'm more into the Fender sound, but this axe is something special.

When I see your posts from now on, I will remember: Skunkape is a brother in the tones.

I was a Junior in HS when that album came out.

I spent the next six months in my room every night for hours trying to get a handle on Randy's style, and generally "worshipping at the Alter of Ozzy/Rhodes".

Remember how much harder it was back then? Pre-digital?

You had to raise the tonearm, and estimate the point that led into the lick you were practicing, and lower the tonearm.

Crap. Too far.
Damn. not enough.
Arggh. Middle of the lick.
Ahh. There we go.

Hour after hour after hour.

BamBamBamBam. "Turn that crap off! We're trying to sleep!!!"

Hold on, Mom, I almost got it....

Good memories...

a reply to: gortex

Oh yes!!!!!! Thank you for a great song Gortex!

I really miss hearing these old great tunes!

a reply to: skunkape23

YouTube has so many wonderful guitar tutorials for various genres of music as well as stages of learning.

a reply to: MteWamp

I graduated from high school almost 20 years before that... When I was learning to play, it was wait for the 8-track to get back around to that lick again... damn, gonna take a few more laps.

I can remember learning Steve Howe's "Mood for a Day" off 8-track. I was home for a week after dental surgery. Nothing better to do, haha. I can't imagine lifting the arm on a record player over and over to learn songs, must have ruined a lot of records.

originally posted by: wtbengineer
a reply to: MteWamp

I graduated from high school almost 20 years before that... When I was learning to play, it was wait for the 8-track to get back around to that lick again... damn, gonna take a few more laps.

I can remember learning Steve Howe's "Mood for a Day" off 8-track. I was home for a week after dental surgery. Nothing better to do, haha. I can't imagine lifting the arm on a record player over and over to learn songs, must have ruined a lot of records.

Hehe.
This is the God's honest truth,k?

I had this friend, named Stacy, and he had rack after rack of 8-track tapes.

Rush, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Kiss, AC-DC, Hendrix, all the way up to Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, then to Metallica (those were cassettes, it was before they "hit")

An entire wall of the crappiest sounding, wobbly, "put cardboard strips in so the playback-head lined up" garbage.

Just racks of 8-tracks. An entire wall in his bedroom.

He didn't even PLAY an instrument, but he was my best friend, and we went to concerts together. Always. Seems like hundreds now, hehe. He used to keep his ticket stubs, and tape them to the inside of his bedroom door.

In my mind, it seems like there were HUNDREDS of them.

1980, 1981, just when the "Sunset Strip" hair-band thing was heating up. We lived in Alabama, so we had to read it in magazines. Somewhere between when "Moving Pictures" came out, and when "Metal Health" hit.

The sad thing is, I spent HOURS and HOURS and HOURS at his house at night dubbing 8-tracks to cassettes, because he had a crappy "Realistic" cassette deck, and his 8-track had line-outs.

8-Track tapes... Jesus.

Hell, I couldn't even afford those at the time. I was stuck dubbing 8-tracks to dollar-store (dime-store was the term back then) 50-cent 45 minute cassettes that were so poor quality that the oxide would come off and screw up my High-dollar Sanyo crap-deck.

Sorry, I just tripped all the way down memory lane, haha. Thanks for jarring it loose, Brother!

Still, what a frakkin' ride, no?

a reply to: MteWamp

LOL! I remember those too. Our ages are showing here.

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: MteWamp

LOL! I remember those too. Our ages are showing here.

What do you mean "our"?
I think you're the elder here!

I'm in my PRIME!!


Enjoyed the chat, friend. We'll have to discuss it further sometime, OK?

post error.

a reply to: wtbengineer

Wow, I came into "recording" early 70's "saved" from the 8 tracks....

My dad bought one of these cassettes when they first came out.....



those were the days, recording my albums onto cassette to listen on the road....

I was blessed in being introduced to Genesis and Yes by a drummer....

Siberian Khatru



This never fails to take me to another heaven

Turn of a Century

a reply to: MteWamp

I had that friend too, but all his music was in vinyl. Only my friend did play, he was my bass player. Well, up until he died a while back. He introduced me to a whole lot of music, and a lot of other things too. Thanks for sharing, I think about all this stuff all the time.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Ah, Siberian Khatru! One of my all time favorites! I burned up that yessongs double album back in those days.