May 1970 and the world is dealt the debut album by Tony Iommi(guitar),Bill Ward(drums),Geezer Butler(bass) and Ozzy Osbourne(vocals). I’m sure if you dig deep into the real roots of Metal there may be bands that came before them but for myself this album is the beginnings of Metal! Slow,brooding riffs courtesy of Iommi (and his missing fingertips that he lost in a factory accident),Geezer’s fuzz like distorted bass blasted thru his amps,Bill Wards drum jazz like playing fused together with Iommi and Geezers sonics all meshed together with a very young Ozzy many years before he Barked At The Moon. Playing the role of a actual frontman before Hollywood and Sharon drove his stock into the toilet until he regrouped in the studio with Sabbath for there ripping good time all things doom classic 13 album back in 2013!
My first foray into Sabbath was late 1981 I was onboard with the Dio fronted Mob Rules but a fellow that me and Tbone hung out with at the time named Dave Cunis(MIA) had all the Sabbath and once after I came out from behind Kiss’ Flop A Roo album The Elder and I hear Dave telling us how great Sabbath is (and sure they and still are but I will tell Ya all now that I appreciate these guys more now at age 48 than I did 30 years ago at age 18!) Perhaps one reason I didn’t wrap my noggin around the Sabbath fronted Ozzy at the time was he was out of Sabbath back in 1978 and I was drooling over the awesome Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman albums featuring Randy Rhoads(RIP) slaying and shredding on his guitar that were recorded with Ozzy! Why go back? Ummmm yeah dumb ass move on my part!
Sabbath has forged a place,there own niche so to speak so perhaps it’s time to toss down some Yammering on some Sabbath and please feel free to read along as I go through each Sabbath album….
Starting……Now!
BLACK SABBATH-Audio sonics of pelting rain and thunder well basically a real dose of doom and gloom! There’s Iommi and his crack of doom riffs that begin followed by the crash of Bills drums and Geezers bass. The song gears down to a halt and here’s Ozzzzzzzzzzzy! “What is this that stands before me’? sings Ozzy. Yikes! This is creepy metal! Black Sabbath the tune sets the table folks it limps along dragging my senses into a fog hazed drug induced tonic of wham bam thank you Satan mam into a different musical land! Like many other Sabbath tracks this song ramps up and chills back down. Pure genius! 1970 and Sabbath are driving stakes thru the hearts of a hippie generation!
THE WIZARD-Is that seriously Ozzy on Harmonica? Say whaa!? The Wizard drives along and picks up pace after the opening song! Sabbath tosses down the gauntlet that it’s not all gonna be dooming and glooming but there can be a little bit of a uptick in the beat (just a bit). The Wizard is a damn good catchy song! Watch the video posted and yup that’s the album cover of Black Sabbath! What a eery creepy cover but it’s kinda cool with the witch n all!
WASP/BEHIND THE WALL OF SLEEP/BASICALLY/N.I.B- Bill Ward plays some doom like jazz drumming with a Satan Shuffle tossed in for good measure along with Iommi and Geezer laying down some serious law on guitar and bass respectively. 9 minutes 44 seconds of all things heavy! Ozzy is first heard in the right side of your speaker than the left side than both sides! Trippy dudes these cats! The rawness of the music is really something with Tony nailing solo after solo and Geezer slamming down bass line after bass line! Bill keeps the beat a grooving until a fade out at which time Geezer is heard riffing that famous bass intro to N.I.B!
WICKED WORLD-Quick like drum shuffle along with guitar and bass! Lots of different time signatures going on here. Almost a Jazz tune but played at loud volume while Ozzy loads up literally and belts it out.
A BIT OF FINGER/SLEEPING VILLAGE/WARNING-Acoustic guitar begins this 14 minute song. Ozzy man sounds in pain vocally here but that was probably the vibe he was shooting for and before long the acoustic is gone and here’s Sabbath jammimg electric. This is a different Sabbath as there doing long jams but they don’t bore you as a listener!
EVIL WOMAN- Dig the interplay between Geezer and Tony along with Bill and Ozzy! Snappy little chorus! Ozzy sings Evil Woman don’t play those games with me” The guitar sound is pretty raw on this album but it’s got a great sound to it considering this album is 46 years old this year! That’s nuts!
Up next ……PARANOID!
SWEET. 2016. A new year with some old Sabbath. I started 2016 with some stuff with a Sabbath connection as well. Maybe I will do a few more as you keep doing more. Great minds think alike.
I am the same as you. Mob Rules was my introduction to Sabbath, and I appreciate Ozzy fronted Sabbath now more than before. I was a stupid teenager, but we had so many cool new, heavy bands to listen to, and we went to the record store looking for the newest music, so we had no reason to look to the past. For me, I stayed with my cool uncle and aunt one summer and I found out the 70’s music was really cool.
Nice write up. I can’t wait for the rest. Is this a complete Sabbath series right up until 13?
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Thanks Bop! Great story in regards to Sabbath! Right now I’m doing the Ozzy stuff up Til Never Say Die! 13 is a awesome album so musch so that it placed in my top 5 at Mikes year end list ..
I should and will do it …
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Fantastic album! Anecdote time!
K and I were in our early stages of our relationship. We were just baebaes! I remember staying at his place while he went to work and decided to press play on the ol’ 5 cd carousel…it was night, it was dark. And Black Sabbath starts to play, “what is this that stands before me?” Scared the bejesus out of me! That was my intro to old Black Sabbath. I have since developed a palate for that song!
Great write-up!
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The two scariest songs for me were Black Sabbath and One Of These Days-Pink Floyd. I would torture myself and listen to them in the dark, with my headphones on.
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Both definitely scary songs, and I’ll add ELO’s “Fire On High” to that list. The first minute & a half is like a horror movie soundtrack and it freaked me out when I first heard it at around 10 years old. It still freaks me out.
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Lyrics played backwards. Must be the Devil!!!!!!
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Yes, that Floyd one with that scary voice!
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Ha! Great story. Sarca Sabbath! Black Sabbath is a eery creepy tune! I mean how nuts is that it opens the album as well! So deadly….
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I know! So creepy!
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Are you even doing the later Sab? I hope so.
Remember back in the day when Evil Woman was only on the European release. A buddy of mine finally got it on an import box set called The Ozzy Osbourne Years.
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Thanks Mikey! Good Ol Imports….man we paid ridiculous amounts of $ on this kind of stuff!
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We sure did!
I’m really interested in what happens when you get to album #7 and #8. I personally like them.
The only Ozzy albums I have reviewed are the first three because those are all deluxe. Which BTW have just been re-released so they can be had affordably.
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For me a deluxe featuring live stuff is more up my alley than studio outakes etc. I’m a sucker for live audio …
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Very nice, Derek. Having done my own “complete Sabbath albums” series a few years ago, I’m looking forward to comparing notes.
Is there a more definitive first-song/first-album track than this one? It’s certainly the heaviest.
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Thanks Rich I’m gonna cruise over to your site and read your Sabbath as I go along with mine! No doubt it’s a excellent read Rich! I’m commentimg about your reviews! Haha….
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A Sabbath series – nice idea to start the new year!
I love the statement made with the opener, Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath on Black Sabbath!
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Haha…A Triple Sabbath Combo!
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Always funny to see ‘Wasp’ and ‘Bassically’ mentioned… those titles were never used on the European albums! Starting the year off on a Sabs series? Good call! Are you going right up to 13?
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And ‘A Bit of Finger’ hahaha
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Just the first 8 Sabbath albums with Ozzy! The Dio stuff i did Mob Rules but Heaven And Hell and Dehumanizer I gotta roll out at some point….
Thanks for reading HMO !
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Holy crap that first track. Oh man. OH MAN!
Some night when you’re bored and looking for something to read, this is fun!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/plato-pop/201210/black-sabbath-and-the-secret-scary-music
I am really looking forward to your going through all these Ozzy records with Sabbath. Hooray for Sabbath! Plus, I am a big fan of series. Wahoo for series!!
You nailed this one, Deke. What an album. Seriously, I always find this one brand new in the bins for $5 and I really have to restrain myself from rescuing them all.
But holy crap. 46 years old? Daaaaaamnnnn!!
Great start to 2016, Deke! Looking forward to being Paranoid…
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Thanks dude! Heff and I were laughing at work on how you powered through the whole Crue catalogue in a week! Hahaha…
Myself this is a first focusing on just one artist perhaps with a Ramble or Two tossed in along the way to break it up …
Lots Of Sab Doom coming up Brother! Thanks for joining in…..
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Yeah, that Crue week was a bit insane, and left me feeling like I needed a shower! I dunno if I could do the same with Sabbath… wow, that’d be a helluva week.
Doing artist series is fun! I did all the Maiden records in tandem with Mike one time, that was really something. I did a huge chunk of Rush too… I think the secret is to pick awesome bands. Like Sabbath!
Bring on the Sabs! Wahooo!!
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Motley Crue have keft a bunch of oeople feeling like they needed a shower.
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Motley Crue is great. It is Vince Neil who sucks.
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That shower comment after listening to the Crue is funny shit dude! Ha!
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Sadly, I apparently recycle my own material. This is from my post on the subject:
“That said, I think I can take a break from listening to this band for quite a while, now. I’ll come back, but I’m gonna need some time before I do! That was A LOT of Crüe.
Also, after all of the Mötley, I feel like I need to take a shower…”
🙂
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I think the band is awesome. I might go to an STD clinic if I ever happen to be in the same room is all.
😉
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Nikki Sixx says that Sixx Am will be releasing 2 full length albums in 2016.
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DJ Ashba needs to maintain his GNR lifestyle!
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He also needs to drop the DJ thing. Makes him sound like some sort of dubstep buttonpusher doofus wub wub wub wub wub wub
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That’s his name. Daren Jay “DJ” Ashba.
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Oh I know, which is precisely why I said what I did. What’s wrong with Daren? Or Jay? Or Daren Jay? They maybe called him DJ as a kid or whatever, but as a grown man in (purportedly) a bad-ass rock band, in this day and age, the name DJ immediately brings to mind somebody who’s gonna add blips and bleeps to the music.
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This bothers me not at all, in a band that had guys named Dizzy, Izzy and Bumblefoot! Surely DJ is nothing on that!
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I dunno, if it was me, and the immediate association I had (and surely other would too) when I heard DJ was Dead Mau5 or Skrillex, I’d be changing it back very quickly indeed.
At least it isn’t Puffy.
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I work with a really nice lady named BJ. It stands for Billie Jo, but at least nobody makes the obvious joke….
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I think Mick and Tommy should be calling up Corabi. New name. New band. Givver.
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Holy shit. That would be amazing.
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Damn I knew I shoulda copyrighted that one!
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Thought i read that Corabi and Mars are gonna do something..why not? That Motley Corabi album has some of Mars best playing ever! Mars solo in Til Death is just so friggin good and LOUD!
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It must be a small town Ontario thing. I have been saying that for about 35 years.
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Oh. And my brothers personalized plate is GIVN R
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Gah! I am defeated.
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You are the givver master online. You keep right on givn r until the governor gives r.
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Awesome! Digi-give ‘er! Of course, I don’t know about your brother but my energy level around here is generally fairly givin’ ‘er too!
Givin’ ‘er ’til the governer gives ‘er! That’s alot of apostrophes!
I also keep the bitches between the ditches.
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Stay outa dem ditches, you craaaaaaaaaaaaszy bitches.
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Have you ever heard of his sidekick The Fresh Prince?
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For me though I’ve never done a full out month of one artist! Usually I’m like a assorted cassette tape! One artist here another one there…I mean the most I diid was the 3/4s Filler week of Kiss…..
See what happens …
Now where’s Crucifix?
Ha!
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Great introduction to a band, isn’t it? In fact, the first four albums are masterpieces. Great post!
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