Hair spray and spandex did mix for a time...

[Warrior Poet]

They were definitly the driving force behind the music, as Ozzy spent much of the show running around, waving his hands in the air, and throwing buckets of water on the crowd. I was floored by how many songs he either blew the lyrics to or just forgot to finish singing while the band kept on playing.

Interesting, I just read on Wikipedia (granted, not necessarily the most reliable authority) that Ozzy's trembling was recently diagnosed as a form of Parkinson's disease. I hadn't heard anything like that. Doesn't change the fact that he had serious substance issues, though.

Warrior Poet

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Interesting, I just read on Wikipedia (granted, not necessarily the most reliable authority) that Ozzy's trembling was recently diagnosed as a form of Parkinson's disease. I hadn't heard anything like that. Doesn't change the fact that he had serious substance issues, though.

Warrior Poet

And the fact that it's caught up with him as he's gotten older....

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

What no mention of Ronnie James Dio? Man I used to love that guy. I also loved the stuff he did with Black Sabbath. And what D&D fan could not appreciate his concerts? Dragons, knights, swords, kewl stuff!

"Holy diver, you've been down too long in the midnight sea..."

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

What no mention of Ronnie James Dio? Man I used to love that guy. I also loved the stuff he did with Black Sabbath. And what D&D fan could not appreciate his concerts? Dragons, knights, swords, kewl stuff!

I liked Dio somewhat, but found a lot of his stuff to be pretty poor musically compared to alot of other people out there. A few excellent songs, but it was almost as if he was a parody of himself after the first few albums. I saw him on the Lock Up The Wolves Tour, which was the album he recorded with Rowen Robertson, who was supposidly going to be the next guitar hero of heavy metal, and disappeared shortly thereafter. Bland, boring show, RJD was rude to the crowd, and I was very disappointed. Ah well.

 

[freebfrost]

Yes, Holy Diver and The Last in Line were very good albums, but he seemed to lose his way after that.

I only have seen him once in concert at a Deep Purple/Dio/Iron Maiden show, and he did a decent job. Nothing outstanding, but he can still belt out the songs - the man still has the pipes.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

Yeah, I only really liked Dio's early stuff. Holy Diver, The Last in Line, and Sacred Heart were great. I really liked Black Sabbath's Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules. And, I also really liked the stuff he did with Rainbow: Long Live Rock 'N' Roll, Rainbow Rising, and Richie Blackmore's Rainbow are all excellent. Hearing Ronnie's voice sing the mini epic "Stargazer" and "Light in the Black" (about a wizard and his demise) is great storytelling through great music

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Then there was that guy who lit his crotch up with a botched spark display that went wrong.... Those guys.... messing around with vital body parts like that....

Blackie Lawless of WASP... one of my fave bands. My alltime favorite D&D character was an antiPaladin I rolled up after buying the "Last Command" LP.

I've always been a huge Dio fan, as well... and my favorite Sabbath albums are "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules" (I love the Ozzy years, too...but more for individual songs, not whole albums). I have all the Dio era Rainbow albums, and nearly all of his solo releases (even have the two LP's he did with Elf).

I agree the first two Dio solo releases were probably his best, though I did use the title track to "Sacred Heart" as the basis for the very first adventure I ran. Great idea; bad adventure.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Blackie Lawless of WASP... one of my fave bands. My alltime favorite D&D character was an antiPaladin I rolled up after buying the "Last Command" LP.

That's it. Couldn't remember who. I'd seen the snippet about it on the "Most Metal Moments" on VH1 awhile back.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Of the 2 in the poll, I voted with Skid Row. Not only did their songs have more of an edge (18 & Life vs Cherry Pie? PLEASE!), but Sebastian Bach actually lived and acted more like a rock star than Jamie Lane...I mean, the man tried to defend his "AIDS kills Fags Dead" T-shirt.

I ask you, what is more rock & roll than being needlessly & casually offensive?

As for

...which eighties screaming rock band reigned supreme?

There are many excellent candidates, but I'd have to eliminate great bands like AC/DC, Sabbath, Purple, Zep, etc, because, in all honesty, they started off in the 60's and 70's. They weren't really bands of the 80's.

Besides, before I'd crown either Warrant or Skid Row, they'd have to fight off bands like Motley Crue, Ratt, Wasp, Cinderella and a whole host of other Spandex & Hairspray bands. Not to mention foreign bands like Trust or Satan Jokers.

Dio, while great, was much more inconsistent in quality and consistent in using the same verbiage over and over- Evil, Rainbows, Magic, and so forth.

Side note- Dio's show with Megadeth and Savatage opening for him in San Antonio was my first true rock concert. Savatage's bass player's line kept going out, so he wound up throwing his instrument at the techs after their set; Megadeth announce that MTV was filming the show, started playing "Devil's Island," and then blew a fuse that darkened the arena for 15 minutes (the first 2 minutes of which people thought was part of the show), and Dio's laser-shooting dragon was fighting his laser-shooting spider...and the lasers set the speakers on fire. I almost never went back to a live show...

Van Halen is truly strong...but they had too much internal strife and linup changes to be truly kings of the era. EVH, however, is one of the premier guitarists of the decade- no doubt.

Blackmore's Rainbow and Yngwie J. Malmsteen also produced great stuff, but also suffered from consistency problems. Yeah- I know nobody plays lik YJM, but sometimes, his music just sounds...overdone.

GNR? Great band. Too unstable, plus they really did more stuff in the late 80's and early 90s. Appetite was released in 1987, after all.

Queensryche, Megadeth, and Metallica- all awesome! Each, however, had consistency problems.

Motorhead...mmmm. Great band, but like AC/DC, suffer from sameness.

Iron Maiden has been touted as by many premier, but for my money, the best rock band of the 1980s (Albums + Live shows) was Judas Priest. Those guys...stellar! IMHO, neither band really had a bad album in that decade- JP edges out IM only because of Halford's vocals.

 

[Thunderfoot]

By any chance, did I just meet you at the MD/DC/VAGameday last weekend? I am horrible remembering names...

Sadly no, I flew back to Illinois to hang out with my family for Halloween. I know an odd time for a family haloiday, but if you knew my family...