Following the tour to promote that album, and while in the process of beginning rehearsals for the next album, Ozzy Osbourne suddenly quit the band. Aside from his own problems, he has said in interviews and books that he had just become tired of the same quartet, and wanted to do something different. This brought about two situations, firstly with Sabbath immediately bringing in Dave Walker, who had sung in many bands including Fleetwood Mac and Humble Pie for a short time, and getting to work writing new material, and secondly Ozzy pulling together his own musicians in order to do the same. In early January 1978, Black Sabbath with Walker on vocals played live on a BBC music program. It was to be the only time they did so with this formation. Ozzy’s new band had been in rehearsals at the time, when suddenly he had a change of heart, and returned to Black Sabbath. No defining reason has ever been aired for this change of heart, though one could suspect that if Ozzy had seen or heard of his former band already playing together on British TV, perhaps he realised that he wasn’t ready to move on. Either way, Walker was out and Osbourne was back.
The difficulties didn’t finish there though. Back in the fold, Ozzy refused to sing or play any material that had been written with Walker as a part of the band. It mean that the better part of 6-8 weeks worth of material was unusable, and that the band had to start from the beginning again. As they had booked a studio in Canada to record in, it meant that the band had to pull double duty in order to write and record the new album. To do this, they actually hired out a cinema during the day where they could get together to write, before heading into the studio at night to try and put down the tracks as they went. The studio itself also produced a sound that was not to the band’s liking, so they tore up all the carpet in order to help improve that situation. On top of that, there was copious drugs and copious alcohol, such that often the band arrived at the studio to record, only to pack up again because one or more members were unable to perform. And it was no secret that the band themselves were just not getting on like they used to. Add all of this together, and in many ways it is remarkable that the album was made at all. Once it was released, there were many fans and critics who wished that it hadn’t.
Seriously, if you were asked to judge an album just on its first track, you would be giving “Never Say Die!” full marks, because the title track is an absolute ripper. Bombastic, fast, a great riff and bass line and hard driven drums. Truly one of the best Black Sabbath tracks, hands down. No one can deny that it immediately pulls you in to the album and sets it all up for the brilliance to come. And then it ends, like running into a brick wall, and you are left with the rest of the sodden mess. That's a bit harsh I know, but after the beginning its hard to describe the rest of the album in glowing terms.
Following the genius that is present on much of the first six albums, it feels as though the well had well and truly gone dry by the time this came out. Yes, the band had problems, drugs and alcohol were rampant and Ozzy was more or less finished in his enthusiasm for the task at hand, but given the great opening track you would have hoped for more following it. Instead, it mostly becomes a freeform instrumental recital, with fusions of jazz and early electronica replacing the great guitar and bass that the band it built on.
There is a fine line when it comes to comparing albums, and while this album simply cannot be held in the same esteem as the band’s first six albums, there are glimpses of the real Black Sabbath beyond the title track. “Johnny Blade” lyrically and musically is interesting, in that Ozzy actually sings off the riff rather than with it, Tony’s phasing guitar sound enhanced by Don Airey’s keyboards create a sound that harks to the previous album and the way it began to transcend what Sabbath had done to that point in their career. “Junior’s Eyes” began its life as one of the songs written while Dave Walker was in the band, but was transformed lyrically into being about the death of Ozzy’s father, who had passed just prior to his leaving of the band the previous year. “A Hard Road” was the second single released from the album, which did chart (marginally) in the UK, but contains little of the hard core elements of what made Black Sabbath great. The drums are not that frenetic and hard hitting style that Bill Ward had been renown for, the guitar and bass play along nicely together without actually making themselves known in the song. It’s all very genteel and is missing the attitude the band was once known for.
“Shock Wave” is perhaps the most Sabbath sounding song on this album. Tony’s guitar has its sound back, and his solo is true Iommi. Geezer’s bass plays as that second guitar that makes the best Sabbath music and Ozzy sings like he means it. “Air Dance” is a nice enough song but it just isn’t a Sabbath song. It sounds like it is about to break out on a couple of occasions during the track... and the just doesn’t.
“Over to You” is in a classic Sabbath style, not in the bombastic sense but in the psychedelic sense, a song that could almost be found of the “Volume 4” era of the band. No solo to speak of, but Tony’s riff and Geezer’s bass moving up and down the fretboard underneath gives the song a solid sound throughout. Ozzy’s vocal line is his best performance on the album as well.
The closing two tracks are a bit out of the box though, even for this era of the band. “Breakout” is an instrumental, but it is really just a jazz infused track, with horns and brass, and sounds more like the intro to “Saturday Night Live” than a Black Sabbath song. Ludicrous. This then segues straight into the closing number, “Swinging the Chain”, that has similar features but at least has less of the brass horns, which instead are replaced for the most part by the harmonica. Ozzy even refused to sing on "Swinging the Chain", leaving Bill Ward to add the vocals as he had done on “I’m Alright” on the previous album.
There is so much out of whack on this album, it is difficult to believe that it came together at all. Once you get into the deep dive of the time, and read each of the four members autobiographies and get to this part of their lives, it becomes a little clearer as to why this is such a conglomerate mash up.
“Never Say Die!” as an album has always been one of those difficult albums to reconcile with. When I first started listening to heavy metal music, I was exposed to Black Sabbath through a ‘best of’ collection from the time, that perhaps somewhat obviously had no tracks from this album on it. And it was at that time that I was listening to Ozzy’s solo albums and the Dio Sabbath albums, rather than the Sabbath albums of the second half of the 70’s decade. They were the ones that grew in significance to my listening. One of my best mates, who is now my brother-in-law, did get both “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die!” on vinyl, so I got copies of them from him, as well as hearing them often when I was around at his house as he manned the phones at the taxi base his family owned at the time. But this was never an album I just put on to listen to, there were so many better Sabbath albums that I could choose when I was after that kind of sound.
I don’t hate this album, but to me it isn’t Black Sabbath either. I listen to this the same way that I listen to sections of the Tony Martin era of the band, or even “Seventh Star”. These albums in particular are all so different from the sound and genius they created on the first six albums, and that’s the real trick to the situation. If you listen to and compare any of those albums with this one, then the other albums win, hands down, no question. But, if you just put this album on and listen without expectation, the everything flows in the right way. “Johnny Blade”, “Junior’s Eyes”, “A Hard Road”, “Air Dance” - none of these songs are “Symptom of the Universe”, “Children of the Grave”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “War Pigs”. They can’t be. So when I listen to this album and not expect Black Sabbath... it kinda works. For the most part. Not completely.
I’ve had a CD copy of this album for some time, but this year I was able to get the special vinyl release of the album that came out for Record Store Day, and I must say it is still the best way to listen to all Black Sabbath, putting the vinyl on the turntable and turning it up. It works for me for this copy of my album. I can’t say to you that everyone will enjoy this album. I can only offer that it is worth giving it a try.
If nothing else, the aftermath led to better things for all sides - Ozzy was fired after the band spent a year trying to write a follow up to this album, and he left to form Blizzard of Ozz where with the help of some wonderful musicians and writers he was able to rediscover his mojo, while the remainder of the band recruited Ronnie James Dio as Ozzy’s replacement, and well and truly rediscovered their magic. Despite the fact that Ozzy returned 35 years later to record the final Black Sabbath album “13”, “Never Say Die!” put a pin in that original lineup of Butler Iommi Osbourne and Ward. It was a somewhat tame way to conclude a period of music that this foursome had helped to create and then dominate. But then, perhaps the title track is what set up what came next.
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