Ozzy Osbourne, vocals. Tony Iommi, guitars. Geezer Butler, bass. Bill Ward, drums. These four men make up the classic Black Sabbath line up and would appear on the first eight albums, released from 1970 - 1978. Only Iommi would be around for the entire band’s history and yeah, once the eighties begin, so do the line up changes! The majority of the catalog I enjoy, but that original line up had a very unique chemistry where all four men contributed greatly to the sound. I’m sure you all know what Ozzy sounds like, a very unmistakable voice. Iommi had such a monstrous heavy tone with an identifiable solo style and more importantly, riffs for miles, several of them downtuned. Geezer Butler’s distorted bass tone doubling those riffs, throwing in melodic fills in the empty spaces - one of my bass playing heroes. Bill Ward was a very orchestral and jazzy drummer, not the kind of guy content playing straight 4/4 beats. Basically, all their parts felt like they were part of the composition, like The Who, like Led Zeppelin.
The band started in 1968 as Earth and had to change their name once they found another local band with the same moniker. Geezer thought of the name Black Sabbath after the Mario Bava directed Boris Karloff Italian horror anthology film. I’ll now address the devil thing. The first album, by far, has the most devil references, but even then, it’s more so fear of the devil. In a few albums you will even see some Christian themes. They start with horror movie stuff, but the lyrics get more earth bound in their darkness starting with the second album. Themes of depression, nuclear war, dishonest managers, the military industrial complex, drugs, bad relationships, and loss of loved ones, amongst other things. Very rarely will this band sing about sex and love the way so many other bands of the era did. The times they do can be counted on one hand. During the Ozzy era, Ozzy chipped in the occasional lyric, but the main lyricist was bassist Geezer Butler. Geezer’s lyrics, as the seventies wore on, became both a warning of the evils of the world and catharsis for a bunch of us outcast teenagers.
I will also address the heavy metal thing, which will segue into the first album. The narrative for the past thirty years has been Black Sabbath are the first heavy metal band and the self titled debut album - released Friday, Feb 13th 1970 in the U.K. and June 1970 is the U.S., is the first heavy metal album. Do I agree? I don’t believe heavy metal formed out of thin air one magical day, as elements of it were bubbling up in the sixties. However, I do think Black Sabbath more consistently than any other band played what we now know as heavy metal until Judas Priest came along in the mid 70’s. As far as the first album goes? The most metal album to date, but also steeped in older traditions. As far as metal invention, it would musically get surpassed by the release of DEEP PURPLE IN ROCK a few months later and then again by Sabbath’s own sophomore effort later in the year. The first Black Sabbath album, while helping usher in metal, is also steeped in the latter part of the British blues rock boom that started in 1963. While the earlier people of the scene like Brian Jones and Eric Burdon listened to all those great black blues artists from America, I get the feeling while I’m sure the Sabbath guys appreciate the originals on some level, they were more influenced by the likes of Cream and the other British bands who were influenced by the original source.
The recording circumstances for this album were unique in that it was all recorded in one day! 10/16/69, Regent Studios, the same studio The Rolling Stones recorded their first album. Sabbath never released a proper live album back in the 70’s (LIVE AT LAST fiasco aside), so this is the closest thing to it as these are live performances you are hearing. This is basically a live set, complete with tons of random guitar soloing from Tony Iommi. That aspect of this album is very much a staple of the British blues scene I was talking about. There are a few overdubs in the vocals and dual guitar solos, but beyond that, this is all live.
The first Sabbath release was actually a single released only in the U.K. “Evil Woman (Don’t You Play Your Games With Me)” and the b-side “Wicked World.” The a side opened side two of the original U.K. release and the b-side opened the North American version. I never heard the a side until I was a fan for over ten years because it was a while before that song was on CD in the U.S. and this was before YouTube and streaming services. The a side is a cover from the band Crow that management pressured the band to record. It’s a heavy blues based rocker with a catchy chorus about a girl who gets pregnant and wrongly accuses the singer of being the father. The b side is the first song the band ever wrote and I like it much better. That instrumental intro is totally jazz based (and fun to play on bass) and the singing and riff structure pretty bluesy. Yes, Iommi goes into his off the cuff soloing and the song is about how man can go to the moon yet can’t feed some children on Earth. Recorded around the time of the moon landing.
The second song the band wrote opens the album. It is the song “Black Sabbath” on the album BLACK SABBATH from the band Black Sabbath. A total metal classic. The three note riff is iconic and uses an interval known as the diminished fifth or the tri-tone. Basically, take any key on a piano and play six keys higher or lower. This interval was literally banned in the medieval church because it sounded so sinister. The lyrics are about a run in with the dark one himself and people getting the Hell out of dodge. Basically the musical equivalent of an atmospheric horror film.
“The Wizard” has Ozzy Osbourne wailing away on the harmonica! The guitar and bass play heavy chords in the verse on beats four and one and leave the other spaces for Bill Ward to do his drum magic. Lyrically it’s about some wizard performing white magic and healing people, they say inspired by Lord of the Rings.
“Behind the Wall of Sleep” another heavy blues rocker that has a really swinging rhythm section and a few musical mood changes. Lyrically, the song has always been a bit obscure to me, but through the magic of search engines, it appears Geezer based the song on a Dennis Wheatley novel of the same name. Yeah, more horror based stuff as Wheatley was a horror author and even had a couple of novels adapted for Hammer Horror Films. I’ll have to check the novel out.
“N.I.B.” is another metal classic. Starts out with a bluesy and wah-wah drenched Geezer Butler bass solo and goes into a classic riff in the tradition of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” and Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Lyrically it starts like a typical love song until it’s revealed Lucifer is the one in love with the girl! Catchy as Hell song with fantastic guitar playing throughout. Love the mellow bridge as well.
“Sleeping Village” starts out with some cool clean guitar tone mellow playing from Iommi and a mellow verse sung by Ozzy about waking up in a serene nature situation. In then quickly goes into these monstrous Iommi chords, a freak out jam from the band followed by more soloing from Iommi, sans band. This segues into….
“Warning.” Total twelve bars blues stuff about being ditched by your woman. When people act like this is a pure metal album that invented the genre from scratch, I point them to songs like this and Ozzy’s harmonica and the blues structure of so much going on. I enjoy all this stuff, but it’s not pure metal. This is another cover from Aynsley Dunbar and once again, the band checks out for several minutes so Iommi can solo. Very much like live bands were doing in the late sixties. You will never hear this kind of thing on any other Sabbath album.
So yeah, BLACK SABBATH is a classic album and also unique in the Sabbath catalog. More metal than anything else in February 1970, but still lots of blues and occasional jazz elements. Tons of guitar soloing from Iommi, off the cuff, recorded in a day and bits of horror thrown in for good measure. The opening title track is by far my favorite, by I do like every song here and totally appreciate the uniqueness of this album. While most people rank this among their favorites (well, at least before the days when random dudes on YouTube started claiming HEADLESS CROSS and TYR as the best Sabbath albums), it’s actually my second to least favorite of the eight albums from the original line up. Not a bad thing, though, as Black Sabbath are my favorite 70’s band the way The Beatles are my 60’s band. I just think the songs get more focused and I’m a fan of when they incorporate more progressive rock elements in the mid seventies. Hope you guys enjoy the ride.
