Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
At the youthful age of 14 I hadn’t quite figured out who I was or what I liked. I do know that I was a blue jeans, black concert tee and flannel shirt wearing freshman in high school who hung out with other kids I probably shouldn’t have. We did typical stuff like smoke dope, sneak off campus for lunch, and on weekends we would go to the battle of the bands at the local roller rink. Our music was druggy stuff like The Doors and, of course, heavy metal.
Even then I didn’t really care much for heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and others who I wasn’t even interested enough in to learn or remember their names.
But then there was Black Sabbath. They were different than the others. Rather than playing a mile a minute, their songs were almost in slow motion, like moving through quicksand. They were dark and gloomy with the obligatory satanic imagery and drug references but they were also just so fucking cool. Ozzy had a voice like no other, Tony’s SG played bluesy riffs and tasty runs and the solid rhythm section could power through anything. This I liked, and I listened.
Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, all in heavy rotation – all on cassette of course..
But it was the first album that really got a hold of me, titled simply Black Sabbath. I mean, the opening track just crawls right out at you, the thunder and rain, the ringing bell and then that main riff kicks in, slow and steady, Ozzy sets an eerie and ominous scene and it’s moving like sludge – until it isn’t. Tony kicks in and things start to get a little crazy and then holy shit that ending just floors me.
I think that this is the probably the finest overall collection of songs they released. I can certainly do without “Iron Man” and even “Paranoid” but “The Wizard” is just a killer tune that I don’t know if they ever matched again.
I guess they recorded this in a single day, virtually live in studio, and I think that immediacy and intimacy comes through and makes this a landmark recording, and the start of a whole new genre of music. An essential album for sure.
On a sad note, everyone doing this challenge got a Black Sabbath album today if they still had one unrated. Of course this was to honor the passing of Ozzy Osbourne who passed on July 22 at the age of 76. I know his health wasn’t good so it brings me joy to know that he got to do the big final concert just a few weeks back. They never made anyone else like Ozzy, am not sure the world could hold more than one.
To learn more about the 1001 Albums Project, I first wrote about it here.
Your thoughts?