763. Black Sabbath / Paranoid. 1970. 5/5

When it comes to reviewing an album such as Paranoid, an album that is one of, if not, the MOST influential albums of all time in the heavy metal music genre, it can be seen to be a lost cause. This album must have been dissected, discussed and detailed hundreds of thousands of times over the past four decades and more, in a positive fashion, in a negative reaction, and even in an ambivalent way. Nothing that I write here will be new. Anything I add will have been said before more times than one could imagine. And the opposite will have been just as furiously debated as well. In the end, all I can do is put down my thoughts and my rating regardless of its originality or circumstance, and add it to the sea that makes up the populous thoughts of this album.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Paranoid for me has always been that, as influential as it has been on the sound that became heavy metal, not all of this album could be categorised as heavy metal. "Planet Caravan" is the best example of this, utilising a much slower pace and gentle music, bongos in the background rather than Bill Ward's usual pounding drums, and Ozzy's very downplayed vocals. There's nothing metal about this track, and yet it is still very much a part of the Black Sabbath sound. The band may have built up its reputation as they progressed over the 1970's, but their influences still came from the 1960's, and the experimentation that bands such as The Beatles used in their music, and the way that bands such as The Yardbirds and The Who and Jethro Tull went about their music. The band themselves apparently had their doubts about putting this song on the album. In many ways, it emphasises the brilliance of the heavier songs on the album rather than detracting from them.

The songs on the album are strong, forthright and eternal. There are songs on this album that are known by people of all ages, no matter what type of music they enjoy and listen to themselves. "War Pigs" often has some sections of society up in arms and proclaiming the evil of the band for the final line of the song ("Satan laughing spreads his wings"), without listening to the song and realising it is preaching against the warmongers of the world rather than being a song about the devil. Ozzy's vocals are at heir best here, not overreaching themselves as they did do on other releases, but reaching highs and emoting through the different ranges required of the songs on display, especially impressive when all he has in support at times are Bill's hi-hats.
"Paranoid" was famously written as an afterthought, when a final song was required to fill out the album. Various quotes range from this taking anywhere between five minutes and two hours to flesh out, but given it produced the bands' only top ten single, it is still a remarkable achievement. Tony's riff is still one of the most renown of all time, with anyone who picks up a guitar being able to play it. Sometimes simple is more memorable. Though I like "Paranoid" it isn't one of my favourite Sabbath tracks. There are so many other brilliant tracks to choose from, but it is always a crowd favourite.
No punters, "Iron Man" is not about the famous Marvel Comics superhero, but rather Geezer Butler's anti-hero who sees the Apocalypse, and then creates it. Dominated by yet another brilliant Iommi riff, the lead break is also a star attraction, with some magnificent drumming from Bill Ward. At times it sounds like he has six arms such is the flurry of tom hitting going on, while Geezer's bass just rumbles underneath in perfect synchronisation. As much as I like "Electric Funeral", the lyrics and music plod along quite a bit during the verses, while Ozzy's vocals show no great inventiveness in the way they are sung, sticking closely to the melody lines as played by the guitar. The song's intensity is lifted by the bridge following this, which improves the song immediately.
"Hand of Doom" is almost three songs in itself, such are the silent breaks between different parts of the song. If you didn't know the song, you could be forgiven for thinking they were separate songs. Great song with powerful images, another hallmark of Geezer's lyrical contributions. The intriguingly titled "Rat Salad" is an instrumental dominated by the solo drum breaks by Bill, which was apparently inspired by the gigs the band played in Europe when they had to perform several slots every day, of which one would be entirely filled by a Ward drum solo. This then moves into "Fairies Wear Boots", which sounds like a hippy flower power song on acid that has been tuned down to get the maximum heavy grunt out of it. I love this song, always have, both musically and lyrically. It's still great fun to sing to.

It may not seem to be a perfect album, given the differences in some of the songs, and they way some of them have been approached. But this is an album on which "War Pigs", "Paranoid", "Iron Man", "Hand of Doom" and "Fairies Wear Boots" have become legendary, and most of these have heavily influenced the genre and so many bands, metal and otherwise. For me, from this "Mark I" era of Black Sabbath, I think there is a split hair between Paranoid and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath as their finest album. Legendary or not, influential or not, this is one of my favourites, and one that everyone should listen to at least once in their lifetime.

Rating:  Running as fast as they can, Iron Man lives again!  5/5

388. Deep Purple / Deep Purple in Rock. 1970. 5/5

The early years of the band that would become one of the most influential of all bands during the 1970’s, Deep Purple, were a mixed bag. They recorded and released three albums in an 18 month period, with their best performing songs being cover versions of previously recorded songs, “Hush” by Joe South and “Kentucky Woman” by Neil Diamond, both of which charted in the US. Indeed they were far more successful initially in the US than they were in their home of the UK. It is also noticeable that at this time Keyboardist Jon Lord was the band leader and being the main instigator in the direction of the band and its music. It was during the band’s 1969 tour of North America that Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore got together with drummer Ian Paice to discuss their desire to begin exploring the heavier side of music going forward. To this end, it was decided that the other two members of the band, lead vocalist Rod Evans and bass guitarist Nick Simper would not fit the direction that they wanted to go musically, and that replacements would have to be found.
While Blackmore’s first choice for the role of lead vocalist, a 19 year old named Terry Reid, was found to be unavailable due to his standing contract, another of Blackmore’s acquaintances named Mick Underwood was more helpful. Underwood had been in a band called the Outlaws with Blackmore and was now the drummer in a band called Episode Six, and he suggested to Blackmore that his band’s singer, a guy called Ian Gillan, might be who he was searching for. In June 1969, Blackmore, Lord and Paice went to see Episode Six perform at a pub gig, and from that point on they knew he was their man. Gillan was later offered the job, and was also asked if he knew any bass guitarists who would be interested in what they were setting out to do. He mentioned his current Episode Six band mate, Roger Glover, who was not only a good bass guitarist but an experienced song writer as well. However, Glover did not want to leave Episode Six, so Gillan suggested he could help out with Deep Purple's songwriting as a compromise. On 7 June, Gillan and Glover were asked to play on a Deep Purple recording session for their next single, "Hallelujah", with Glover performing as a session musician. It was after this that Glover changed his mind and decided he would like to join the band. Blackmore was later quoted as saying about the hiring of Glover, "He turned up for the session...he was their bass player. We weren't originally going to take him until Paicey said, 'he's a good bass player, let's keep him.' So I said okay." Not long after he was confirmed, and Deep Purple had their two replacement players. Rod Evans, who had already been voicing his desire to move to the US, did so once his firing from the band had taken place. Nick Simper, who had been unaware of his virtual dismissal until after the new lineup had begun working together on new material, moved on to form his own band Warhorse. And thus, Deep Purple Mark II came into being.
The first album release from the band was Jon Lord contemporaneous “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was the first album of Deep Purple’s that had charted and had success in their home UK, but both Gillan and Blackmore felt that it was a distraction from the direction that they were looking for the band to head in. Lord acknowledged that not all of his bandmates had been happy to go along with his project, while newcomer Glover noted a few years later that at this point of the band’s trajectory it was obvious that it was Lord who was the leader of the band. The writing process for the new album had been interrupted by the Concerto album, along with a gruelling touring schedule the band had begun in order to take advantage of their growing popularity. Songs for the new album were tested on the road, and tweaked and tightened as deemed necessary. Overall it was a seven month period of writing and recording for the album. The band produced the album themselves, but lent heavily on a young sound engineer by the name of Martin Birch to help them recreate the live sound in the studio. Eventually, almost 12 months after the Mark II lineup had first come together, their first effort was released to the world under the title “Deep Purple in Rock”.

Those that drifted with the first three Deep Purple albums – all of the time and the music of the day, and all enjoyable for what they are – who then went out and bought this album of the new Mark II era, took it home, put it on their turntable, turned the volume up, heard the crackle of needle on vinyl... could not have been prepared for what came out at them from the opening stanza. From out of nowhere, Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar screams out of the speakers, announcing the arrival of the new formation of the band, and the new direction of their music. Backed by the full quartet of musicians it is a wall of noise, that dies into the more peaceful tones of Jon Lord’s organ, that seems to return order to the album, and perhaps the more languid sounds that fans have been used to. No indeed, and Ian Paice’s drums crash hard, and the first Ian Gillan vocals of the new era hits immediately, singing lyrics that Gillan wrote by taking phrases of old rock 'n' roll songs by Little Richard. By merging the franticness of Little Richard’s work with his own words, “Speed King” takes off immediately at pace and with great fun behind it. Even the breakdown in the middle of the song, with the calmer languid exchange between Lord and Blackmore almost fools you into believing the song will return to a more mortal state of affairs, until it then explodes back to full speed and sound again, playing off against each other in the first of what will become so many wonderful and amazing duels between the two instrumental protagonists over the course of the next few albums. As the first song of the new era, it makes its mark from the start, and lays down the foundation for what became the band’s legacy.
“Bloodsucker” follows in emphatic style, not replicating the speed and aggression of the opening track, instead giving us what would become a standard entry through the years. A great rhythm set down by Paice on drums and Roger Glover’s beautiful basslines is the mainstay throughout the song, which gives Gillan the chance to express himself as only he can, with a great vocal through the first half of the song with an impressive scream in the chorus couple of lines, before going full high pitched larynx stretching in is final efforts of the song. The middle is against dominated by the byplay between Blackmore and Lord which completes another excellent song.
As magnificent as “Speed King” is on this album, and is the point of difference immediately between the eras of the band, it is “Child in Time” that sets this album, and the band, from what everyone else was doing at this time. At over ten minutes in length, the complete change of tempo and mood from the opening makes it obvious, and yet not so obvious by its conclusion. Lord’s organ and Gillan’s amazing vocals take the first stanza of the track, Gillan singing his words of war: “Sweet child in time you'll see the line, the line that's drawn between Good and bad, See the blind man shooting at the world, Bullets flying oh, taking toll, If you've been bad Oh Lord, I bet you have, And you've not been hit Oh, by a flying lead. You'd better close your eyes, Oh-oh, bow your head, Wait for the ricochet”. And then Gillan’s increasingly soaring woahs and ahs that i can’t even pretend to reproduce, take us into the solo section of the track. Blackmore’s solo in this song is the work of a genius. He takes the mood that the song has driven to this point of the track, starts off with the moody harmonic solo that suits everything perfectly, before breaking out into his own wonderfully crafted higher velocity and heavier solo break, taking centre stage and drawing all eyes to him as he riffs and shreds over Paice’s speeded up drum beat and dragging Glover's bass along for the ride, before Lord’s organ joins in to completement it all... and then the abrupt stop into the breakdown back to Lord’s gentle restoration of the beginning of the track, and Gillan's sweet and beautiful vocal back again. And we build to the finish that the song deserves. It is hard to explain the amazing platitudes that this track has, and how even all of these years later it is still one of the all time great songs. It concludes the first side of the album, one that is stamped with greatness.
Side two opens with “Flight of the Rat”, probably not a title that inspires any great enthusiasm for the unknown fan. It features a rumbling and rambling bass line from Roger Glover as its basis, apparently from his rearrangement of the classical track “Flight of the Bumblebee”. The bass is prominent throughout along with the organ, and the solo playoff between Lord and Blackmore again makes the best part of the song. Each has a lengthy time to create their own mark on the track. It is another example of the wonderful completeness of the four musicians in the band, each not only complements what the others are doing, they all have their moment in the sun to shine. “Into the Fire” sets back in that standard rhythm the band does so well, which accentuates the hard drum beat from Paice and staccato stop start from the guitars and organ. “Living Wreck” was one of the earliest tracks completed and recorded, finished in October 1969, and when listening to the album you can notice differences between it and later recorded tracks. As a result it also doesn’t have Martin Birch involved in the engineering, and that too is noticeable. The album then closes out with “Hard Lovin’ Man”, which conversely from the previous track was the first to be recorded at the studio with Birch involved, and the one whose sound convinced the band to have him more heavily involved for the rest of the album and into the future. This song derived from a studio jam and when you listen to it you can hear how that was the case, with Paice’s upbeat double time drums matched by Glover’s bassline, and the two protagonists again playing off of each other on organ and lead guitar. It’s a great way to conclude the album, allowing the band to riff off of each other, and showcasing their undoubted and unbelievable talent.

My first introduction to Deep Purple came through, inevitably, the song “Smoke on the Water”. Because, you know, growing up, everybody knew “Smoke on the Water”. If you picked up a guitar, someone would expect you to play that riff. So, both that and “Black Night” were songs that I knew. But when it came to albums it was the Mark II reunion album, 1984’s “Perfect Strangers” that was my first experience of an album of the band back in 1986. And I was hooked from the start. Such that it was only natural to then go back and find those two massive and undeniably wonderful albums from their heyday, “Machine Head’ and “Deep Purple in Rock”.
I first had this album as a second hand vinyl copy from one of the many second hand record stores that existed in Sydney in the mid-to-late 1980’s. The iconic cover lent itself to being noticed, but not as much as that opening frenzy that kicks the album off in “Speed King”. That’s an attention drawing moment, where speed IS the king. Then the transformation to “Bloodsucker” and the timelessness of “Child in Time”. Those three songs in particular announced the arrival of Deep Purple Mark II and left no one in any doubt as to what they were here to achieve.
Early on I was always more enamoured by “Machine Head”, the album that came two years after “In Rock” had been released, and I always thought with incredulity why the band had recorded “Black Night” at the same time, but only released that as a single at the same time the album came out, but didn’t actually include it on the album! In a way, it wasn’t until I heard the band’s first three albums that I grew far more admiring respect for this album. Because if you take a listen to the band’s third album, the self-titled “Deep Purple”, the final album with the first line up of the band, and the style of music that it contains, and then listen to this album, the first by the second line up of the band – you would have trouble reconciling that it is the same band. The absolute and astonishing pure aggression, then mixed with the epic and grandiose visions of the five artists involved is another world from what the band had done prior to this album, and that more than anything drew me in deeper to this album. Because how can you possibly change so much in the course of one album, in the course of 12 months, simply by deciding you want to explore other musical options and then exchanging two members of the group for two others from another? There are other examples in music history where an artist or band had changed course in the release of one album, but this is on another level.
I have had this album on again for the past two weeks. And this is another album that doesn’t spend too long out of my rotation. But listening to it over this past period of time, with a critical ear as well as my fan’s ear, I have really found an increased appreciation for this album again. It is a masterpiece, one of several that Deep Purple put together over the course of their career. And listening to this album now, in the same way as listening to Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album, released 55 freaking years ago, is mind blowing. I remember being 13 years old and listening to The Beatles first album “Please Please Me”, and thinking “wow - this is 20 years old. I can’t believe I would be listening to an album that was released 20 years ago”. Nice one Past Bill. I wonder how you would have gone trying to get your head around the concept that in the future you would be listening to albums from 55 years in the past, and still loving them as though they had been released yesterday.

259. Alice Cooper / Easy Action. 1970. 2/5

There was no such thing as an overnight success when it came to the Alice Cooper Band. They had done their time over a period of years during the late 1960’s, coming together originally under the name Nazz before finally morphing into the Alice Cooper Band, being championed by Frank Zappa, and releasing their debut album “Pretties for You” in 1969. It was an album of the times. There was a lot of psychedelia. There was a lot of experimentation. And it felt freeform and often like it was just a studio jam that was considered good enough to make the final cut. The production and direction in the studio seemed unkempt, which from all reports was an accurate description.
The band at this time was still trying to find its feet and was still developing not only its own style musically, but also what kind of stage presence they wanted. They toured behind the release of “Pretties for You”, but the response and sales of the album were slow and not groundbreaking. The decision was made to come back off the road in November and December of 1969 and return to the studio to write and record a follow up album. After the difficulties in production of the first album, this time David Briggs was brought in to do the job. Brigs had already produced Neil Young’s first two solo albums “Neil Young” and “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” and his reputation had grown immeasurably on the back of this, and it was thought it would be a good move for the band. Hindsight tells us otherwise, with drummer Neal Smith later being quoted as saying of Briggs, "David hated our music and us. I recall the term that he used, referring to our music, was 'Psychedelic Shit'. I think “Easy Action” sounded too dry, more like a TV or radio commercial and he did not help with song arrangement or positive input in any way." Nothing like a positive atmosphere in the studio to produce a good album.
It had been 12 months since they had been in the studio to record their debut album, and while the producers behind the glass had changed it seemed that the musical direction was still holding true to what the band had written for the first album. The end result was the album “Easy Action”, one that divided opinions at the time of its release and still does today.

“Mr. & Misdemeanor” opens up the album in an almost vaudevillian rock style. It name checks the band’s first album in the lyrics, and as an opening it doesn’t really set the album up in a way that showcases what is to come. Lyrically and vocally it is a bit all over the shop, and musically it seems to miss the target. “Shoe Salesman” follows and is a completely different style altogether. Alice draws his vocals back to his beautiful soaring capabilities, and with backing from Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway, the vocals have a Beatles-like quality about them, not the last time that would occur on this album. The lyrics are pointed and yet short and sweet. “I know a shoe salesman, He's an acquaintance of mine, One day he showed me some, Marks on his arm in a line, I did not know what to say, Do you think those freckles will stay?". Then comes “Still No Air”, the third change up in style of song on the album. It harks back to the psychedelic in style, and off the wall craziness that in some ways is a forerunner to a punk intervention. There are quotes throughout from the musical “West Side Story”, such as “Got a rocket in your pocket” and “when you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way”, as well as “easy action”.
“Below Your Means” has the lead vocal performed by Michael Bruce, an interesting change with Alice partnering up on backing vocals. It does change the tone of the song. The song stretches out to almost seven minutes in length courtesy of a longform instrumental which showcases the excellence of the band itself – Michael and Glen Buxton’s terrific guitaring, wonderful bass lines of Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith’s superb drumming. This song gives them their moment to shine and does highlight the skills that they showcased going forward.
Opening up the second side of the album is “Return of the Spiders”, a song that carries on in a standard that we were to see and hear going forward from the band. Lyrically it's a bit vague (I really have no idea what the song is about) but musically and vocally it sounds like a bridge from the band’s early work and what they would bring forth on their following albums. Neal Smith’s drumming in particular is excellent on this song, as it is through the whole album. “Laughing At Me” sounds like the perfect song to have been released as a single and to promote the band on the radio. Alice’s vocals on this track are sublime, really hitting the tones that would eventually become famous and renown, and his backing from Michael on this track gives it an enjoyable musical combination, almost Beatles-esque in composition. For a mellow flower-power type track this is performed terrifically well. “Refrigerator Heaven” is a classic track, again another track that musically and vocally is channelling the best parts of what would become the great era of this band down the track. It lasts under two minutes, with Alice commenting on those people who decide upon being cryogenically frozen when sick until a cure can be found for what ails them. It’s a short sharp fling and easy enough to listen to and sing along with.
“Beautiful Flyaway” is the second song on the album on which Michael Bruce provides lead vocals, and again to me has Beatles tones about it, which really isn’t that unusual as this was the time when the Beatles ruled the music world but were also on the doorstep to implosion. The album concludes with “Lay Down and Die, Goodbye”, the longest song on the album, and one that dives back into the psychedelic roots of the band and its era. This was originally written and recorded as a B-side by the band when they were still known as Nazz, opening with a sample of the Smothers Brothers quoting “You are the only censor, if you don’t like what I’m saying, you have a choice, you can turn me off” and then careering off into an instrumental jam of the freeform experimental type that was popular at the time, and then finishes with the chorus from the demo. It is arguably a strange choice to finish off an album, but the Alice Cooper Band were not one to do things by the book.

When you are brought up with Alice Cooper’s albums of the mid to late 1980’s, and the sound they have, going back in time to listen to “Easy Action” is a really REALLY tough thing to do. I mean, it's like listening to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and then “St Anger”. Actually, nothing is that bad. But it’s a real mind bender. And this is what I did with all of Alice’s albums prior to 1985. I knew “Constrictor”, “Raise Your Fist and Yell” and “Trash” long before I knew any of those earlier albums, and the era was so different let alone the music being written and released.
When you listen to the album in the context of the era, alongside the band’s first album “Pretties for You” and their third album “Love it to Death”, you get a clear picture of the progression the band was making from their earliest incarnation to their perceived glory years once Bob Ezrin came on board to produce. The production of “Easy Action” seems better than for their debut album, but if, as Neal Smith suggests that David Briggs was uninterested and unhelpful it can be heard in some of the decisions left on the album that perhaps an engaged producer would have done differently.
So. Listening to the album in the modern age. I first got a copy of this album in a release that was made of all of the first five albums about ten years ago. I had heard the album before that and dismissed it pretty quickly. It was nothing like what I had been hoping for and nothing like what I wanted to listen to. I’ve had the CD on again for the last few days, and also on at work, hoping something would jump out and grab my attention, and give me a way into the album in 2025. And when listening to it in isolation there are some good moments on this album. But it is very tied to the era it was recorded and the band that the Alice Cooper Band was in that day and age, There is little of the hard rock and attitude that this lineup eventually became famous for, and suggesting any track off this album as a highlight or to use as an example of this albums’ style is an almost impossible task.
There are seven albums that came from the original Alice Cooper Band, and probably unsurprisingly I would rank this as #6 of those seven releases. Even more than that, when considering all 29 studio albums that comes from this band and then the solo career of Vincent Furnier himself, this does rank at #28 of those 29. It isn’t so much that it is a bad album, because musically there is some very good work done by the band. But the songs are unable to strike a chord or find an audience. Even when it was released, the album bombed, as had their debut album, and there had to have been questions asked as to how much life this band had in them. But their stage show was catching on and drawing fans to their gigs, and the resulting change in style of their music to become this ‘shock rock’ genre rather than the psychedelic form it resided in on “Easy Action”, the stripping down of the sound and songwriting, was partly what was to kickstart the real beginning of their career.

133. Black Sabbath / Black Sabbath. 1970. 4/5.

Where would music be without this band? The genre of heavy metal would surely have looked far different than it now does if these four young men had not found each other and began the band that is one of the starting points of it all. But of course, even that had many sliding doors moments for it to come to pass.
Guitarist Tony Iommi started off in a band called The Rockin’ Chevrolets when he was 16 years old. When they broke up he was about to join a band called The Birds & The Bees. In fact, he quit his job as a welder to become a professional musician, but his mother insisted that he go back to work on his last day to finish his employment the right way. That very day in an industrial accident with a guillotine press, Iommi cut the top off of two of his fingers on his right hand. While he had skin from his arm grafted onto the tops of those fingers, he found he was now unable to play guitar without excruciating pain, and he believed his guitar playing days were over. He considered learning to play right handed, but he eventually decided to try different types of covers for his damaged fingers that would allow him to touch and bend and slide along the strings without pain. After much time and many experiments with different materials, Iommi found a way to produce what he calls ‘thimbles’ which he places over the tips of his damaged digits and allowed him to continue playing the guitar.
As Iommi then explained in his autobiography “Part of my sound comes from learning to play primarily with my two good finger, the index and the little finger”. He then had to have the right strings to play with, a lighter gauge in order to allow his damaged fingers to do what he had done before. With music shops telling him he couldn’t get lighter strings, he substituted for lighter banjo strings for two guitar strings, allowing him to go lighter gauge on the other four strings. Eventually, through his persistence he found a manufacturer in 1971 who would produce the strings he wanted and needed, which led to the other companies suddenly jumping on board as well. Add to this the tuning down of the guitars to further help him, and you have the background to how and why Black Sabbath began to create a sound and style that would be the leader of this new genre coming into existence.
In 1967 he was asked to join a band called The Rest, whose drummer’s name was Bill Ward. When they broke up they both ended in a band called Mythology, who also soon found the break up curse upon them. The two still wanted to form a band together, and so it was time to find like-minded musicians. They saw an advertisement in a local music shop: "OZZY ZIG Needs Gig – has own PA". Bill said he knew an Ozzy but this couldn’t be him, and when Tony first saw him, as he described in his autobiography, “I know him from school, and as far as I know he isn’t a singer”. Ozzy knew the guitar player from a band called Rare Breed, who went by the name Geezer Butler. After some conversation the four along with two others, slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips who was a friend of Ozzy’s, and saxophonist Alan Clarke, formed a band called the Polka Tulk Blues Band. Geezer decided to switch from guitar to bass, though at their first rehearsal he just tuned his guitar differently because he didn’t own a bass guitar. The band played a heavy blues, but soon felt that Phillips and Clarke were superfluous to requirements. Rather than fire them, they decided instead to break up… before Iommi, Butler, Osbourne and Ward quietly got back together as a four piece a few days later.
They got around to changing the name of the band to Earth, and were beginning to do regular gigs. And then in December 1968, Iommi left to join Jethro Tull. And that was the end of the band… nah, just kidding, though yes, Iommi did join Jethro Tull. For a month. He even filmed playing with the band on something called The Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus, which you can still find on YouTube. But Iommi didn’t like the way the band fit (or didn’t) together, and after a month he said to Geezer “let’s get the band back together and make a real go of this”. In his autobiography he said “When I came back from Tull, I came back with a new attitude altogether. They taught me that to get on, you got to work for it”.
While playing shows in England in 1969, the band discovered they were being mistaken for another English group named Earth, so they decided to change their name again. A cinema across the street from the band's rehearsal room was showing the 1963 Italian horror film Black Sabbath, starring Boris Karloff and directed by Mario Bava. While watching people line up to see the film, Butler noted that it was "strange that people spend so much money to see scary movies". It was his suggestion that they rename the band Black Sabbath, with their first gig under the name taking place on 30 August 1969.
With songs written, the band spent 12 hours at Regent Sound studio on October 16, 1969 with producer Rodger Bain, and lay down the tracks that were to become immortal. Most of the songs were done in only one or two takes, played live, with Osbourne singing in a separate booth. One day, to record an album that was to change everything, an album that, of course, was released on Black Friday, the 13th of February 1970, and changing the way all lovers of heavy metal react to when they hear the pattering of rain and the beginning of a storm.

It would be a difficult task to dispute or argue against the fact that the title track to this album is the finest opening track of a debut album ever. Sure, go ahead and offer me any suggestion you like, but this would surely top them all. And there is very little I could say or offer here that would enlighten you any more than you should already be about the majesty of this track, and its importance in the history of the heavy metal genre. Or its importance to MANY metal sub genres. But I guess that the way people who first heard this track when the album was released in 1970 would be pretty similar to the way I reacted when I first heard this song in 1986. Because even then, it had a presence that demanded to be acknowledged. It is creepy, it is doomy. It is... enthralling. The song was written about an encounter Geezer had with a ghostly presence he saw at the end of his bed, and the music complements those lyrics perfectly. The atmosphere throughout, from the opening of pattering rain to the first guitar chord we hear from Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, the pounding of Bill Ward’s drum toms and the first vocal remonstrations from Ozzy Osbourne, is so different from anything else that any other band has produced that it doesn’t matter if you first heard it in 1970 or a decade later or more, it still make you sit up and take notice. The rise and fall of the music, allowing Ozzy to take centre stage for his vocalising, before the other three mebers take over once he completes each stanza, is perfectly executed. And then once the band rolls into the second half of the song, the transformation is complete, and Black Sabbath the band has well and truly arrived.
On the other hand, “The Wizard”, based around the character of Gandalph from The Lord of the Rings, does blend into other areas. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, apart from a couple of slight flurries prior to the song and vocals coming into synch, there is no guitar solo from the man who would become the father of heavy metal riffs. And the riff here is a beauty, don’t make that mistake, but the soloing section is pilfered by Ozzy’s harmonica which does become the dominating factor throughout the song. Ask anyone what the first thing they think of when they are asked about “The Wizard”, and it is the harmonica. Not Tony’s guitar, not Geezer’s bass, not Bill’s drumming or Ozzy’s vocals. It’s that harmonica. It is the core essence of the track, one that is good all the same but does remind you of the fact that this album, for all of its importance for a new music genre, is still feeling its way around as well.
“Behind the Wall of Sleep” has a set structure about it, with Iommi’s riff followed by a line of lyrics from Ozzy, the verse followed by a solo spurt. The title of the song was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name, though lyrically it does not follow that storyline, but does move along the same mystical and dark themes that were being explored along with the heavy bluesy riff. Following on is the song that closes out the first side of the album, “N.I.B.” Geezer has said in interviews that he called the song “Nib” because of Bill Ward’s beard at the time, which he said reminded him of a pen nib. The adding of the punctuation points between the letters was nothing more than creative licence but of course has stirred up conversation for over fifty years over what the TRUE meaning of the name is, that the letters NIB actually stands for something, such as Nativity in Black. Nothing like creating a controversy and conversation point to build publicity for your album and band! The opening gives Geezer Butler the chance to shine with a warbling wandering bass line which showcases what he was beginning to offer the band in its music, before starting the song proper with his excellent bass riff that then dominates the song throughout. Ozzy sings along the bassline in synchronicity and Tony joining Geezer to double the riff through the verses. Tony’s solo through the middle of the song, and then as the outro to the song, is one of his most iconic, along with that beautiful bassline from Geezer playing alongside and underneath. “N.I.B” has always been a joy to listen to and sing along with, and air guitar along to as well. Along with the title track it is the star attraction of the album, and both are the true beginnings of what Black Sabbath became as a band.
However, for an album that is cited as being either the start of the heavy metal genre of music or at the very least being the major influencer in it coming to life, it is really only the first side of the album that really proves to be the proof of the pudding, if one was to have a critical ear to the album. And one of the main reasons for this is because of the three songs that proliferate the second side of the album, Sabbath themselves only wrote one of them.
In August 1969, the Amercian band Crow released a single from their debut album, “Evil Woman", a song that went to #17 in the US and #65 in Australia. Now, something that seemed to be a habit in the 1960’s especially was that bands would be encouraged to do their own version of a song if it became successful, and with little time difference in the release dates. And such was the case here with Black Sabbath and their debut album. Just six weeks after this single charted, Black Sabbath was encouraged to record their own version of the song in their 12-hour recording session in October. It was suggested that they needed a commercial sounding song with which to release as their own single to promote the album. And so they did, and it was eventually released as the single on January 2, 1970, with “Wicked World” as the B-side. “Evil Woman” is not a bad song, but it is unlike all of the material that the band had written on their own, and as a result it does tend to stick out like a sore thumb when you listen to the album. For a start it seems far too... happy... despite the lyrical content of the song. The mood of the track is very different to everything else presented here, and as an opening to the second side of the album it always feels a little out of place. After listening to it for so many years that doesn’t create a problem for me as a listener and a fan. But the American version of this album does not have this song on it, it has been replaced by “Wicked World”, which does not appear on the original UK version of the album. Now people’s opinions on whether or not “Wicked World” is a better song than “Evil Woman” will be divided, but for me, as a song that is written by the foursome themselves it is reason enough to have it on the album rather than the cover song. Release it as a single? By all means! Or put both of them on there. What does it matter? My personal opinion is that “Wicked World” is superior, but I am happy to sing along to “Evil Woman” every time it comes on.
“Sleeping Village” structurally is a bit unkempt, a song that goes from a quiet and introspective beginning that eventually builds to a fast-paced driving drums and guitar flow through the middle third of the song, to the return to the solace at the conclusion. The double tracked guitar on this song (and on “N.I.B.”) are the only additional pieces on the album that weren’t recorded on the take the band played for each song.
The closing track on the album, “Warning” is a long and rambling classic, but also one the band did not compose. This song comes from the band called the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. Dunbar has played drums for almost literally everyone and he wrote this song while in this iteration of his band. The version of the blues-based exploration recorded here by Black Sabbath stretches over ten minutes in length and retains that original blues backing while incorporating the unique sounds of Iommi’s guitar and Butler’s bass. The vocals are sung over Geezer’s rumbling bass line that join harmoniously with Bill’s drumming, and yet there are points in the song where everything stops, apart from Tony’s guitar that takes off into tangents not heard to this point of the album. Structuraly again it comes across as that freeform explorative type of song that suits the time that the album was recorded, and yet still seems somewhat out of place when it comes to what this band was about to achieve.

Once I had my heavy metal awakening in the latter part of 1985, I began to try and listen to as many new bands as I could possibly get a hold of. This phenomenon meant that I was discovering and experiencing Ozzy Osbourne and Dio at the same time as Black Sabbath, and the albums both of those vocalists helmed the vocals of Black Sabbath. Add to that the difficulty of also discovering Deep Purple and find out that their lead vocalist ALSO helmed a Black Sabbath album, and it was a confusing time. So while I was listening to Ozzy’s first albums after he left Black Sabbath and loving them, the first Sabbath albums I was exposed to on a regular basis were “Heaven and Hell” and “Mob Rules”, those where Dio was the lead singer. This made it an interesting experience when I first heard the earlier albums, and especially this album, because of the big differences in music, direction and vocals. Whenever I put this album on to listen to – and that is still on a regular basis – I still have my head giving me both sides of the argument. You cannot argue just how influential this album has been, not only on the burgeoning career that the band went on after this, but on hundreds of bands around the world since. Perhaps thousands. Probably hundreds of thousands. What is introduced to the world of music, especially by the songs “Black Sabbath” and “N.I.B.” is incalculable. That combined sound of Tony Iommi’s guitar and Geezer Butler’s bass created the sound of heavy metal, and is forever the sound of Black Sabbath. Argue the semantics over the various vocalists that have played in the band, the sound of Black Sabbath is those two giants playing together. On any album where Geezer Butler is absent, THAT is when you notice the difference, not with the singer.

And yet, it isn’t the perfect representation of the band that was to come. It certainly lay down the platform, which was built on magnificently. But I don’t think anyone would consider that this is the best Black Sabbath album. It gave the band their first recorded effort, and from here they expanded and multiplied. “Paranoid”, “Master of Reality”, “Volume 4”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “Sabotage”. What an amazing run of albums followed this debut, taking the best of what this album holds and forming it into something even more incredible, while still being able to experiment around the edges like some songs on this album do and create further entries into the genre they were creating. I first had a copy of this album recorded for me by my heavy metal music dealer in those final years of high school, but probably got more exposure of it from one of my other mates Peter, who eventually became my brother-in-law. He became a huge fan of Sabbath’s Ozzy albums in particular, and often when I went around to his house, he would have this album on. And it was terrific. When I started university at Wollongong, which necessitated a 25 minute drive from my house, I had this album on cassette in the car with “Paranoid” on the other side and it used to get a hefty workout. Eventually I came to own it on vinyl as well, and then CD to complete the collection of the day.I have had this back in rotation for the better part of a month. It is an album I wanted to reacquaint myself with fully before composing this episode, because it is an important album and one that everyone will have a strong opinion on. 

And so on 20 something occasions I have listened to this album again – at home in the Metal Cavern, on my deck with a scotch, in the car and on my return to work. And it is still such a terrific album, there can be no doubt about that.

So why, when it comes to ranking all of the Sabbath albums, does it only come in at number 10 out of the 19 studio albums? Probably for the reasons I have already covered. In the main, on the back of this album, there was so much better to come, as the band improved and pushed itself, and created some of the most magnificent music not only in heavy metal, but in music in general. There’s a phrase that goes “You have to start somewhere”. That phrase doesn’t really work in the case of “Black Sabbath” the album, because starting here is already a mile in front of 99% of what other bands achieve in their entire existence. This is fork in the road for music. From this point on, you either head down the good road, or the road paved by this album. I know which road I’ve taken, and I’ve never regretted it for a moment.