Shouldn’t I like Black Sabbath?
TLDR - I couldn’t get into The Sabbs.
What I listened to:
Black Sabbath (1970)
Paranoid (1971)
Master of Reality (1971)
Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 (1972)
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
A series of stressful-yet-positive life events have resulted in a radio silence. Details aside, I’ve been picking up and putting down The Sabbs because I want to like it, and I also want to be in the right frame of mind to fully accept it into my life. Alas, it’s been easier to put away than to dust off.
But there are elements of Black Sabbath that make me want to like them.
Things I like about Black Sabbath.
Their backstory.
Formed by next-to-nobodies in Birmingham England
Lead guitarist, Tony, had an accident in a sheet metal factory, slicing two fingers off, so he had to tune down his guitar by a minor third and manufacture prosthetic tips to play
Tony auditioned for Jethro Tull and got it, but turned it down after two performances, just because he wasn’t feeling it one day
The whole “guess we’re in a band now and we gotta make it work” mentality: Bill Ward (drums) + Tony Iommi (guitar) were a duo, separately from the other duo of Ozzy Osbourne (vocals) and Geezer Butler (guitarist-turned-bassist)
Their brand was a misunderstanding.
Their connection to satanism was a marketing ploy by managers and not their personal religious views
Of course, as it profited they didn’t argue, and took the money, but satan worshiping is (at least an early) Black Sabbath myth
Many songs expressing fear of paranormal, etc. to warn folks against how cray witchy things can get
Listen to After Forever
When they were branching to the US, a Warner Bros parade was sponsored by the Church of Satan and was a massive misunderstanding of the band. Bonus round, Black Sabbath wasn’t even there at the parade.
Some of their inspiration.
Nerdy stuff! H. P. Lovecraft and Tolkein
Being afraid of the dark!
Blues music
Despite these compelling fast facts, two weeks ago I started drafting a post roasting the hell out of the Sabbs. The first four albums had a few standout tracks, but nothing was gripping me like I experienced with Nirvana and ABB. I spent a lot of time mulling over what to do about that. Should I write and say “Hey sorry, this ain’t it chief, but here’s what’s next and hopefully I like that better?” or try to keep going?
When I was drafting my hate post I had listened to the first four albums and read about half of a book called Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe by Mick Wall. Then I got on a plane and made the split decision to give the fifth album a try. I downloaded Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and hit play, which turned out to be a phenomenal decision, because it was gold. And finally I had something to write about. So here are all my thoughts on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and why it’s worth listening to.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
I give you my stream of conscious notes taken in real time when this album hit my ears.
Sabbath was a BLUES band
A National Acrobat
What the heck this is so great
Avenged sevenfold sucks at the light stuff but the Sabbs is rocking this. Wowowowowo how can my fave Sabbs song be the literal fluff stuff
GOOD SHIZ?!!?!?!?! All the piano is so great
Good
Who Are You?
Dud :/
Looking for Today
Soooooooo good
Black Sabbath really did start out as a blues cover band, which I thought was interesting considering we just left the Allman Brothers. In the first few albums I could faintly hear it, but the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath title track proved it for me.
Fluff gave this band dimension for me, similar to Orchid from Master of Reality. There’s a lot happening musically here.
When it comes to Sabbra Cadabra, I’m partial to music heavily featuring piano. Piano is the instrument I love the most so it’s easier for me to relate to music whenever I hear it.
Spiral Architect made me reach for the “love” button on my streaming app… that’s how much I enjoyed it.
The others.
Although Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was the only album that I would say I honestly enjoyed listening to (and have since returned to a handful of times to listen to again), there are some tracks from the other albums that I thought “had legs” in a compositional sense.
The standout tracks
This one IS really good like siri turn it up
Side note: I’m sorry to say that I like the tracks where Ozzy’s voice is manipulated the most
The “almost theres”
has the wonderful rain and church bell soundscape at the beginning and is built around a tri-tone
The lyrics from Paranoid
“finished with my woman ‘cause she couldn’t help me with my mind”
sounds like The Predecessor to Nirvana
Then there’s the song everyone has heard before…
It makes me think of the pitiful, acne-riddled, prepubescent “guitar players” who played this lick over and over again
What’s on the cutting room floor.
All the other albums after Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Ozzy’s solo period which felt out of scope for this
A third of the book I was reading by Mick Wall
After Sabbath Bloody Sabbath feeling like the diamond in the rough, I don’t have a desire to listen further. And I read enough of Mick’s book to develop more of an interest in Sharon Arden/Osbourne, whose business prowess and chaos made and sustained Ozzy’s solo career.
I’m open to coming back around to later Sabbath years, and also exploring Ozzy’s solo career, but I’m very interested in moving onto something new, in the hopes that I like it a bit more and can return to writing with some frequency.
What I learned along the way.
Because I struggled so much with leaning into Black Sabbath, I asked around a fair bit and had some great conversations with actual fans. Two themes emerged.
Generational fans
Fans of a certain generation latched onto this music similarly to Nirvana’s fans. (By the way, Kurt Cobain once described Nirvana as a cross between Black Sabbath and the Beatles.) Every generation has something to scream about and they need loud voices to help.
Nostalgic fans
When people grow up listening to Ozzy or Black Sabbath because someone close to them was a generational fan, that music becomes embedded in their own story. It’s less about the brand or the songs and all about the memories made with their loved ones.
And this theme made me think of my own nostalgia music which certainly will not be found on the RS Top 100— Christian artists like Sandi Patty, the Gaithers, and Audio Adrenaline. Maybe that will be its own post one day but for now…
