We lost Cozy Powell 20 years ago yesterday

Amongst my friends who are musicians or even moderately knowledgeable about music, every one of them knows who he is. And none of them are on this forum.

 

One of my musical heroes, period, alongside genre colossi RJD, Blackmore, Lord and Iommi.

Cozy was one of the few who gave it back to Herr Blackmore, in terms of musical force as much as japery quotient and I have heard this is what engendered the latter's respect for the former.

I knelt before him on several occasions but the last time was during the Black Sabbath TYR tour; like others have said, he was indeed, entirely 'down to earth.'



Dudicus Maximum. Not forgotten...

 

Great drummer, I was fortunate to see Cozy live with Rainbow on June 1978 at the Palace Theater in Albany, NY. Rainbow was the loudest band I have ever seen! Rainbow Rising is my favorite Rainbow album - Cozy’s powerful drumming was a perfect match with Ronnie’s vocals and Ritchie’s guitar playing (Marshall amps on eleven!).

 

I think it was. Not terribly familiar with post-Ozzy Sabbath. It was 1988/89.



Dan

 

died because of someone else's piece of tail

 

Cozy Powell is one of my absolute favorite drummers. Instantly recognizable, he has a style that is both heavy yet nimble. He has been a part of many of my favorite albums through the years.

I recently picked up the MSG album he's on... and was just blown away by his drums once again.

Here's a great performance of "The Loner" from his solo album Over the Top:

 

Okay. Thanks a lot. That knocked my head completely off my shoulders. What a mess.
Cozy albums were hard to fo find back then. I only have Octopus, but I did have a cassette of "Over the Top" someone made for me. The quality was awful but I played the hell out of it.

Great pre- internet, record collecting times.

 

Dance With The Devil / And Then There Was Skin was my first 45, swiped it from my older brother and still have it.

 

I'll tell you all something really sad.

Where I work there is a guy whose name is Gary Moore. He's like in his 40's.

When I first met him I shook his hand and excitedly told him he was my favorite guitarist!

He had no idea what I was talking about. Yet pretty much all my friends know who Gary Moore is/was. Astounds me how unknown he really is here though (USA). This guy has the same name but never knew there was an astounding guitarist by the same name. Sad state of affairs IMO.

 

He's on their live album too. The first one - One Night at Budokan. Which is a great record.

 

IIRC the original LP (and later CD) release of that was edited and cut off his drum solo!!! If you seek out that album make sure you get the Chrysalis 2009 reissue that includes that along with another track or two.

 

That was him on Rainbows first tour, he was with them from 75 to 80.

 

Some of the CDs had the tracks listed but were not actually on the disc. I know because I bought 2 copies before getting them.
One Of the tracks is a cover of locomotion and it rocks.

 

Locomotion? That is really weird for them to cover that. I don't remember that at all but I could be wrong. I just looked at my 2009 reissue with the extra tracks and they are on CD2, track 4 is Tales of Mystery and Track 5 is Cozy's drum solo. Is Locomotion part of Cozy's solo (it's been awhile since I listened to this)? I think I would have remembered that but I don't recall.

Amazingly, looking around I still have the LP! It is in a pile of LPs that I put up for sale on Amazon years ago (never sold). I didn't know I still had it.

The other CD release is have is a single CD version on BGO. I think it is the same tracklist as the LP but I'd have to check.

 

Cool that means I definitely did see him live. I saw Rainbow a couple times in that time period with Dio. One show was really exciting. Ritchie destroyed something like five stratocasters. Smashed them to bits. Stomped on them. Poured beer on them. Threw at least one neck up into the light rig. We knew in advance he was going to destroy some because he was in a music store up that way in the afternoon that a friend of one of my friends I saw the gig with worked at, and he told us Ritchie bought some extras to smashup. I forget the whole story behind the music store visit but the show was an outdoor gig in Allentown with a bunch of bands, think it was in 1978. Saw them about a week later at the Tower near Philly (Cheap Trick opened up) with another friend who wanted to see the guitar bashing but there was none of that at the Tower show.

 

I believe the last album he played on was Yngwie Malmsteen's Facing The Animal

 

And don't forget this baby

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-At-Ro...3466351&sr=8-5&keywords=michael+schenker+live

 

Cool, I 4got about that one.

Cozy is also on some of the shows in the MSG "Walk the Stage Official Bootleg Box Set",as well as the Zoom Club 4 CD sets called "Back to Attack Live", and "Reactivate Live".

 

A bit late, but...

 

Always wondered what Powell's legacy would have been had he been fortunate enough to stick with one successful band rather than been the journeyman version of Bonzo. I was always excited whenever I knew he was playing on a record because I loved his heavy British sound.

 

Sorry I misread that original post.
The EL& Powell studio album was re-released on CD with two extra tracks. I didn't read it close enough, I thought that's what you were talking about. My bad.
One track on the studio album was "the Loco-Motion" a cover of the Little Eva tune, done instrumental and another tune called Vacant Possesion.
"The Loco-Mostion" I think was the B-side of the vinyl 45 of "Touch and Go".

 

yup.
VINYL LP Emerson Lake and Powell - Touch And Go UK pressing | eBay

 

I've always enjoyed his drumming. First I had the "Dance With The Devil" single (didn't know until later how much of a Hendrix rip off this was!), then saw him live with Rainbow. Between the two he had a band called Hammer who I had high hopes for but they seemed to be short-lived. I saw them play live on UK TV sometime circa 1975 and they were a promising hard rock outfit.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I couldn't imagine MSG playing Locomotion, or them doing it but me forgetting!