Today's song comes from the guy who perhaps can take the most credit for creating heavy metal: Ozzy Osbourne! While his live show isn't quite as over-the-top as Alice Cooper's, he has performed such onstage antics as biting the head off a live bat (provided by an audience member--Ozzy initially thought it was a toy).
The subject matter of his songs is usually quite dark, but if you listen closely, you'll find that most of them have a positive bent. For instance, songs such as "Children of the Grave," "War Pigs," and "Crazy Train" address the negative sides of war and are in fact pacifist anthems. Similarly, today's song, "Mr. Crowley," is about early 20th century occultist Aleister Crowley. Ozzy seems to question Crowley's actions much more than condone them, but like Crowley, Ozzy does seem to like the sensationalism that evil imagery brings.
This song comes from Ozzy's classic 1980 debut album as a solo artist, Blizzard of Ozz, which came out right after his split from Black Sabbath. It is one of only three Ozzy albums to feature legendary guitarist Randy Rhoads, the others being 1981's Diary of a Madman and the posthumous 1987 live Tribute album. Rhoads died in a plane crash in 1982, but was integral in helping craft Ozzy's sound as a solo artist. Here on "Mr. Crowley" you can hear one of his greatest guitar solos. Oh, and it's got a pretty wicked organ intro, too:
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