On the right side of the TV studio stage there stands this tiny blonde boy, on whose neck the guitar is hanging down like it was a block heavier and bigger that he could actually carry...
Randy Rhoads. The Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of rock music.
The video is utterly crappy from the director's angle, typical BS provided by the US TV stations in the 80's. When the soloist should be featured on the screen, the camera guy is showing everything else but Randy. If you take into account that this genuine talent was gone just 8 months later at the age of 26, you'd be completely understood to be willing to just rant the idiot down for not recording for posteriority what actually he should...
The performance itself is also rather mediocre. I don't know whose idea it was to take the song's tempo well down under 100 BPM, but it feels slouchy, like being a drrunk bastard dragged around the pavements.
Still it's the only professional video footage depicting Rhoads performing his stellar compositions and showcasing his godly talent in most amazing of the guitar solos ever composed and recorded.
What actually goes on between 3:40 and 5:40 is probably the most brilliant stuff that was ever conceived to be put into a rock music, with such a genuine nod and reference to baroque and classical leanings. Thanks to Rhoads' formal musical training before his one of rock's most exciting axemen careers had started in 1979, the world had gained one of the most innovative composers in rock and heavy metal. Sadly the shooting star course of his life gave him not much time to out-do Jimi Hendrix and become the most significant electric guitarist that ever lived. Randy died in a plane crash on March 19th, 1982, leaving unfilled void in the heart of millions of admirers of his out-of-this-world musical skills.
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