"Mr. Crowley" is a song by English heavy metal singer

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

, about English occultist

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

. Written by Osbourne,

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Randy Rhoads and

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

ist/

lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...

Bob Daisley Robert John Daisley (born 13 February 1950) is an Australian musician and songwriter. A bassist, he is perhaps best known for his intermittent relationship with vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, for whom he contributed bass, co-production and songwriti ...

, it was released on Osbourne's debut solo album '' Blizzard of Ozz'' in September 1980 in the United Kingdom. A live version was released as a UK single in November 1980. In North America, the studio version was released as a single in 1981. The song begins with a keyboard solo by

Don Airey Donald Smith Airey (born 21 June 1948) is an English musician. He came to prominence as the keyboardist of the rock band Rainbow during 1979–1982. He has been the keyboardist of Deep Purple, the band from which Rainbow was a spinoff, since 2 ...

. "I just cleared he bandout of the studio and said, 'Come back in half an hour,'" he recalled. "Ozzy came back, heard it, and said, 'You just plugged into my head, man.'" The first guitar solo by Randy Rhoads became one of the best known in heavy metal. It was ranked 28th best guitar solo by the readers of ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists and fans of guitar-based music and trends. The magazine has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original a ...

'' in 2011. The song was ranked the 23rd greatest heavy metal song of all time, according to a poll by Gibson.

Overview

"Mr. Crowley" was the second of two singles from '' Blizzard of Ozz'', after " Crazy Train". It was inspired by

's book Diary of a Drug Fiend that Osbourne had read, and a deck of

tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

cards found in the studio as recording of the album was commencing. Crowley was an English

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

ist and

ceremonial magic Ceremonial magic (also known as magick, ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of Magic (supernatural), magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories t ...

ian who had founded the Thelemite religion in the early 20th century. Osbourne mispronounces Crowley's name as , rather than the correct .

In popular culture

The official guide to the video game ''

Fallout 3 ''Fallout 3'' is a 2008 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the ''Fallout'' series, it is the first game to be developed by Bethesda after acquiring ...

'' uses the lyrics to the song in its walkthrough of ''You Gotta Shoot 'em in the Head''. The game also features a ghoul character named "Mister Crowley". This song was also featured in the game '' Brütal Legend''. The song was included in ''

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was launched in North A ...

'', along with " Crazy Train" and an in-game avatar of Ozzy himself, who becomes unlocked as a playable character upon completing both songs in the vocalist career, and was made available to download on 31 May 2011 for play in the '' Rock Band 3'' music gaming platform in both Basic rhythm, and PRO mode. On Ozzy Osbourne's 'Hellraiser (30th Anniversary Edition - Official Animated Video)' video, the legend "Mr. Crowley" appears on the sides of the van.

Personnel

– vocals * Randy Rhoads – guitars *

– bass guitar *

– keyboards * Lee Kerslake – drums

Certifications

Other versions

The Cardigans released an

a capella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

version on the

B side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

of their 1995 single 'Carnival'.

References