Recently, I decided that I was going to stop buying so many color variants of the same record. It used to be that I would pick up pretty much every color of a certain release if I thought I was going to like it at all. Obviously, this is a good way to go broke, and kind of, sort of, but not really be expanding your collection. You end up with a lot of different colorways, but not a whole lot of different shows to listen to. When you reach the point where you have most of the stuff in circulation, different colors of the same pressing can be somewhat exciting. So even though I have (mostly) sworn off this practice, I have decided that I’ll give myself a pass on Ozzy stuff, since it’s one part of my collection that I really enjoy expanding. With that decision in mind, I was happy to open up my latest record parcel and find all three-color variants of Bones Records newest release, Bark At The Moon ’84 Tour.
Bones Records is a new label in the unofficial market but is an offshoot of the very popular Evil Dead Records. I’m not exactly sure why they decided to expand to a new label, but it might have something to do with fact that as I mentioned in a pervious review, a lot of people tend to associate Evil Dead primarily with Iron Maiden releases. Bark At The Moon ’84 Tour is the second release for the Bones label, with the first one being a similar looking (pressing and packaging-wise) Van Halen soundboard. My hope is that a lot of Ozzy will be coming out on this new label, since Evil Dead Ozzy releases were few and far between. They did have a real banger come out recently though, and you can check out the full review for that one here with the Diary of a Madman: USA ’82 Tour release with Brad Gillis on guitar.
As you can see, the artwork and wax for Bark At The Moon ’84 has a really strong theme of “blue”. The gatefold jacket is blue inside and out, and all three color variations are different shades and mixtures of blue. The Bones Van Halen soundboard also has three color variations, and everything is the same design wise, with just the colors being different. When there Ozzy sets are blue and white, the Van Halen sets are white, black and red, which match the artwork and striped guitar theme. Van Halen is great, but I don’t collect them and refuse to start now since I have way too many other interests. For the record though, a few collectors I know did pick that one up, and it seems to have been pretty well received.
My favorite design is probably the plain, cloudy bluish white version, but for whatever reason, I decided to go with the splatter for my first play test. Even if I didn’t know ahead of time that Bones Records was a subsidiary of Evil Dead Records, I would have figured it out once I opened the package and the ink smell hit me. Both of these labels have some of the best-looking printing and artwork in the game, but the ink smell from wherever they get these jackets printed is very potent and distinct. They eventually air out, but it’s something anyone will notice right away. Aside from that, the packaging is just awesome. The bat artwork looks great, and the printing actually makes it look like it’s embossed, or popping out a bit from the gatefold. The fold also has lyrics printed on the inside, which is definitely an Evil Dead thing.
Even though I only played the splatter copy, I took a look at all the different colors to make sure everything was good. With all three designs, the records were flat and free of defects. The new Bones labels are generic and only marked by side, but I think they look great and are a very cool bit of branding. All the records come in black poly-lined sleeves, and I ended up keeping the cloudy and split versions in those for storage, since I don’t think I’ll need to play them anytime soon. Normally I wouldn’t want to leave any records in low quality paper, but poly-lined sleeves are great to keep everything scratch free. After thorough cleaning, the splatter set was ready for its first spin on the old Rega.
In the world of Ozzy unofficial/bootlegs on vinyl, stuff with Jake E. Lee is still fairly rare for some reason. Sometimes, it seems like we even get more releases with Brad Gillis on them than we do with Jake, which is crazy if you think about it. Jake was with Ozzy for years and wrote several of his most successful and enduring songs. I think that this has something to do with the older Ozzy crowd being attached to Randy, and the younger Ozzy crowd that developed during the No More Tears era really only knowing about Zakk. Like a middle child, Jake is sadly forgotten somewhere in between. That’s why releases like this one, that feature Jake in his prime, are of utmost historical importance.
Soundboard Recording – The Salt Palace – Salt Lake City, Utah, USA – 18th March, 1984
A1 Intro
A2 I Don’t Know
A3 Mr. Crowley
A4 Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebel
A5 Bark At The Moon
B1 Revelation (Mother Earth)
B2 Steal Away (The Night)
B3 Suicide Solution
B4 Guitar Solo
B5 Centre Of Eternity
C1 Drum Solo
C2 Flying High Again
C3 Iron Man
C4 Crazy Train
C5 Paranoid
Audience Recording – Stadthalle – Offenbach AM Main, Germany – 9th November, 1981
D1 I Don’t Know
D2 Crazy Train
D3 Over The Mountain
D4 Mr. Crowley
Right away, it’s obvious that the main portion of this set is a truly excellent soundboard recording. This is the complete show, and my first thought was that the audio had to be official in some capacity. Maybe it was intended to be released at some point as a project similar to The Ultimate Ozzy? It’s obvious that this show comes from a ripped CD, but I don’t think we could ask for better sound for something from 1984. Everything I could find research wise indicated that any recordings or footage of this Salt Lake show are unofficial, but I still find that a bit hard to believe. A tell-tale sign for me is that Ozzy really reined in his swearing during this show, which tells me he must have known someone was recording it.
As I mentioned at the outset, Bones Records is an offshoot of Evil Dead. So, one of the first things I wanted to check out was whether this record has the same issues as Diary of a Madman: USA ’82 Tour has. If you haven’t read that review yet, the main problems were audible spaces between tracks, and a lack of fading at the beginning and end of the LPs. Unfortunately, the same issues are present here as well, but the good news is that they are a bit less noticeable. The fading is still non-existent, and you really get blasted out when changing sides. The most noticeable case of this is certainly at the start of Side C, where the drum solo comes in at full volume. I have no idea why, with all the effort they put into all other areas of production, that they can’t or won’t fade the tracks in and out.
Thankfully, although they are still present, the spaces between the songs are a lot less noticeable than on Diary of a Madman: USA ’82 Tour. If I didn’t tell you about it, there’s a chance that you might not even notice them, which is certainly a good thing. It’s easy to forgive some little things because overall, the quality of these records is outstanding. These are some of the very best quality unofficial releases I’ve ever seen, and they sound great. There was no surface noise at all on the copy I listened to, and whoever did the transfer knew how to make the audio sound great on vinyl.
What about the show itself? Honestly, this is one of the best recordings with Jake that I’ve ever heard. While there isn’t much available on vinyl, almost all the shows with Jake are available on CD or as a download somewhere, and I have heard pretty much all of them. I have this Salt Lake show in multiple other formats, but as sometimes happens, I didn’t fully appreciate it until I got to listen to it on vinyl. There are various rumors that Ozzy and Jake didn’t get along very well personally, but you would never suspect that by listening to them work together. Truly, I think these are probably the best live versions of “Bark at the Moon” and “Centre of Eternity” that are out there. “Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebel”, which is played early on in the show, is certainly a standout piece for Jake as well. Ozzy hits a bit of a rough patch with the vocals during this song but recovers very quickly and has an otherwise outstanding performance.
For a period of time at the beginning of the Bark at the Moon Tour, Tommy Aldrige was out of the band, and Carmine Appice was brought in to play drums. If memory serves, I believe this had something to do with travel arrangements rather than anyone wanting Tommy to leave the band. It’s fairly well known that Sharon Osbourne didn’t like Carmine so much, and it doesn’t seem like Ozzy was too thrilled with him either. By the time this show in Salt Lake City came around, Tommy was back in the band, and Ozzy sounds pretty happy about it when he goes to announce the drum solo. As usual, Tommy does a killer job all the way through.
I have stated in the past that I am not the biggest Bob Daisley fan, and that I can’t stand hearing him constantly complaining about Ozzy, but that guy was a great bass player. This performance in particular is a real standout for him, especially on the Black Sabbath numbers and on “Iron Man” specifically. All of the bass playing is excellent, but I’m guessing that Bob must have taken a bit more liberty to spice things up with the older songs. Jake certainly also did this, playing unique solos of his own creation on those numbers, while sticking to the original parts almost exactly for Randy’s material. If you want to hear Jake playing more Sabbath numbers, there is a rare bootleg called “Jake Rendered Sabbath” that has him playing at the tail end of the “Speak of the Devil” tour. Even though it’s only available on CD, it’s certainly worth checking out.
Since the entire Salt Lake concert only took up three sides of an LP, this left Bones with an extra side to do something with. They could have left it blank or etched it like a lot of labels are doing these days, but they decided to add some extra value and include part of the short set Ozzy performed in Offenbach Germany in 1981. Obviouslly, this was well before Jake was in the band, and these songs feature Randy Rhoads on guitar. This is not listed on the record jacket anywhere, but the date and venue are all we need to figure that out.
Portions of this German show take up the entirely of Side D, and the sound quality is somewhere between decent and good. This is not a soundboard recording and sounds like it was captured with a tape recorder underneath someone’s seat. Things become a bit muted during “Crazy Train”, but it’s 100% listenable all the way through. In any case, it’s great that we have it available and I think it makes for a nice bonus to this set. The same issues with spaces between songs are present, but once again, it’s hardly noticeable. This would have been the tour where the band was playing with Saxon, and the complete set was short, containing just eight songs. Since we only get to hear four of them here, it really makes me want to find a source so I can hear the rest of the show.
Overall, Bark At The Moon Tour ’84 is an excellent release. If you are an Ozzy collector and/or a Jake E. Lee fan like I am, you won’t want to miss this one. Thankfully, it seems to be widely available, and like other Evil Dead Records, you should be able to find it available at a good price. Regarding audio quality, I would say this one is a solid 10/10 until you consider the track spacing and fading. Taking that into account, it’s still an easy 8.5/10 for me. As always, pressing and packaging from these guys is excellent, and gets a 10/10. Since Bones Records seems to be a new venture, I’m hoping we get to see lots more Ozzy releases from them in the future, and hopefully some of them will feature Jake on guitar. Pick this one up while you still can, and happy hunting!