Ozzy’s Message

As a 47-year-old Ozzy Osbourne fan, I thought I’d heard every conceivable criticism of his music and antics from the mean-spirited people of my generation who’ve forgotten how rock ‘n’ roll enriched our own lives. But now, with the lame excuse of bereavement over a teen suicide, they’re trying to blame a tragedy that must have myriad causes on Ozzy’s masterpiece of anti-booze propaganda, “Suicide Solution.”

Do they read the lyrics they’re condemning? Lines like “Grab a bottle, drown your sorrow” and “Now you live inside a bottle; the Reaper’s moving at full throttle” are bluntly satirical attacks on our hypocrisy about alcohol.

This isn’t Shakespeare, requiring several readings and years of contemplation to interpret. Any adult who can’t understand this ham-fisted pop poetry must think that “Moby Dick” is an anti-whaling treatise and that Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” is about bugs!

GENE FELLNER

South Pasadena