Jump to content

**Black Sabbath Coven**

Shawn

By Shawn
in Miscellaneous Music

 Share

Recommended Posts

Shawn Newbie

Shawn

Posted
Posted

mk1_unknown.jpg

Congratulations to Terence "Geezer" Butler, Frank "Tony" Iommi, John "Ozzy" Osbourne & Bill Ward for being inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame 2006.

Throwing out a little love for our working class Birmingham mates who have become one of the most influential rock bands of all time. Never taken seriously by the critics in the early days, it's taken 35 years for Sabbath to start getting the respect they deserved from the music "establishment" since the beginning. One of the few bands to appear "magically" with a sound totally unique to themselves...their power has still to be matched by any band.

Some trivia:

They were originally called Earth (and had a saxophone & keyboard player). But when Geezer Butler had a nightmare that formed the genesis for the song Black Sabbath, it changed the entire direction of the band.

Their debut album was recorded & mixed in 8 hours (all the studio time they could afford)

Tony Iommi was briefly a member of Jethro Tull and can be seen performing with them on the Rolling Stones Rock n Roll Circus movie.

Tony's trademark "de-tuned" guitar sound came out of physical necessity. He had the tips of 3 of his fingers (on his fretting hand) cut-off in a factory accident. He had to wear custom made "thimbles" that allowed him to play the guitar (although he couldn't feel the strings). He was inspired by Django's ability to play guitar despite his injury...that gave him the drive to re-learn how to play. However, there was no such thing as "lite-gauge" guitar strings in those days, normal gauge strings required too much pressure on his fingers, so initially he tuned down to Eb and then later went down to C#.

Anyway, one of my favorite bands of all time. Any other Sabbath fans on board?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Werf Newbie

Werf

Posted
Posted

I'll post some album reviews later...

...speaking of Sweet Leaf...that's Iommi choking on a bong hit at the beginning of that song, he didn't know he was being recorded.

You ever hear the Butthole Surfers version - Sweat Loaf?

I was going to ask that. "Son, it's better to regret something you HAVE done, then to regret something you HAVEN'T done... and by the way, if you see your mom this weekend, be sure and tell her, SATAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Uncle Skid Rookie

Uncle Skid

Posted
Posted

From the music trivia department: The debut album from Chicago-based Coven included a song titled "Black Sabbath", roughly a year before Black Sabbath's debut album was released. Bass player of Coven: Oz Osbourne.

Not "the" Ozzy -- this has confused me for years. I actually have a vinyl copy of that record, and I always just assumed it was Ozzy. Weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Robert J Newbie

Robert J

Posted
Posted

Saw this on Wikipedia. Another thing I did not know about the band.

The group found its signature sound almost by accident. When the group was rehearsing in a studio which was situated opposite a cinema showing a horror movie, Osbourne recalls that Tony Iommi said to the rest of the band, "If people pay to see scary movies, why wouldn't they pay to listen to scary music?" The band began to purposely write dark, ominous songs in an attempt to be music's answer to horror films.
:D

I recall a quote from John Paul Jones when he was touring/working with singer Diamanda Galas. She was interested in covering a Sabbath tune, and JPJ argued against it: "They were not really that great of a band". And another (on Zep touring): "We didn’t have a string of off nights. Who do you think we were, Black Sabbath? "

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shawn Newbie

Shawn

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

If you want a small sampler of Sabbath material, go with the following item instead:

f51135b223h.jpg

It's a 2 disc retrospective of the Ozzy years, nicely sequenced and the remastering is superb. The entire Black Sabbath catalog (with Ozzy) has been remastered now (for the Black Box set), I'm sure they'll start selling the remastered single discs at some point in the future.

I know it's been done in Europe, but I'm waiting for remasters of the Dio era. Would love to hear better sounding copies of Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules & Live Evil (and maybe even Dehumanizer).

Edited by Shawn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shawn Newbie

Shawn

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I saw the Dehumanizer tour, it was a great show. I was traveling across country and ended up spending the night in Minneapolis. I got a local newspaper and saw that Black Sabbath was playing that night. Talk about crazy fucking coincidences. Anyway, I was on the phone to the theater in 5 minutes flat and luckily they still had tickets available. It was the "Dio rest area" along my trip. :g

But the real deal was seeing the original lineup on the reunion tour in 1999. That was a show I will never forget as long as I live. Pantera was the opening act, when Sabbath came on afterward they made Pantera sound like Neil Sedaka by comparison. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shawn Newbie

Shawn

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

But the real deal was seeing the original lineup on the reunion tour in 1999. That was a show I will never forget as long as I live. Pantera was the opening act, when Sabbath came on afterward they made Pantera sound like Neil Sedaka by comparison. :lol:

Ozzy still can sing?

Ozzy still sounded quite good on the older material (though he was using a tele-prompter from time to time). He had problems with the more progressive material from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Technical Ecstacy & Never Say Die (he sang SO high on those albums). But Iommi and the band were so ON that it made up for some of the weak vocal spots.

What was great about the show though...was you could see how much fun they were having. Geezer & Ozzy kept goofin' around and trying to make each other laugh...Tony was having so much fun playing these songs again that he had a grin on his face the entire show...and Bill Ward...although he may not have looked very healthy...he completely kicked ass.

It was such a great age range as that show at well. I would say the majority of the crowd was 40+, but many people brought their kids, there were teenagers that were singing all the words to the songs (which was cool). There was really a "community" vibe that is hard to describe.

Edited by Shawn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Alexander Newbie

Alexander

Posted
Posted

I have "Paranoid" and that's it. I love it and would love to get more Sabbath, although as I understand it they have not released individual remasters of the albums (although they are available on a box set). What should I get next? HWright, who is also a Sabbath fan, has recommended one of the recent compilations for the improved sound. He's also recommended the Rhino Ronnie James Dio (possibly two disc) set, which includes some of his Sabbath material along with his solo hits. Any recommendations on how to approach the Dio material as opposed to the Ozzy material?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kreilly Newbie

Kreilly

Posted
Posted

mk1_unknown.jpg

Any other Sabbath fans on board?

I'm a big fan of the original line-up. With the sole exception of Technical Ecstasy, their albums still hold up quite well to my ears. I remember reading an interview with Ozzy after the Never Say Die tour when he was booted out of the band. He criticized Iommi for the jazz influences in Iommi's guitar work on Never Say Die. I also like the album with Ian Gillan. I've seen the original line-up, with Dio and with Ian Gillan. The Dio stuff just doesn't hold up. Fairy tale lyrics straight out of Tenacious D. Every now and then I'll throw on Paranoid or Master of Reality when I need a Sabbath fix. Sabbath and the early Alice Cooper group recorded some great early seventies stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kreilly Newbie

Kreilly

Posted
Posted

I have "Paranoid" and that's it. I love it and would love to get more Sabbath, although as I understand it they have not released individual remasters of the albums (although they are available on a box set). What should I get next? HWright, who is also a Sabbath fan, has recommended one of the recent compilations for the improved sound. He's also recommended the Rhino Ronnie James Dio (possibly two disc) set, which includes some of his Sabbath material along with his solo hits. Any recommendations on how to approach the Dio material as opposed to the Ozzy material?

Avoid the Dio stuff altogether! Pick up a Tenacious D cd, Jack Black does a better Dio than Dio. Just compare the lyrics from the Ozzy years when Geezer wrote anti-war (War Pigs; Children of the Grave), anti-heroin (Hand of Doom), and other songs with some social commentary (Johnny Blade) to Dio's dungeon and dragon rhymes. All of Sabbath's important material was recorded before Dio came on board. I saw them at Madison Square Garden with Van Halen opening in 1978. Then I saw them at the Garden again in 1980 on the Black n Blue tour (Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult). It was night and day. By the time of the Mob Rules tour, the only thing left were Iommi's riffs, everything thing else was cheesy. The best and last post-Ozzy show I saw was with Ian Gillan in 1983. No offense to Dio fans intended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shawn Newbie

Shawn

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

The best and last post-Ozzy show I saw was with Ian Gillan in 1983. No offense to Dio fans intended.

Dio's "schtick" hasn't aged well, while an album like Master Of Reality sounds as fresh now as ever. I still enjoy the Dio albums, but that's primarily for the riffs. Voodoo, Sign Of The Southern Cross, Slippin' Away, etc, they still sound pretty jamming...but you're right about the lyrics. Same reason I don't listen to the first couple Dio solo albums anymore...I liked them years ago but they sound like horseshit now.

It's interesting you mentioned the Ian Gillan thing....

Even though that band was put together and mandated by Warner Bros (Black Sabbath+Ian Gillan)...the actual Born Again album seems to be improving with age. I've always liked the record, thought Trashed & Zero The Hero were a couple of Tony's best riffs in quite awhile. The LP always sounded terrible, they just recently put out a remaster of this that sounds "almost" good. Anyway, Gillan brings a completely unique presence to the entire thing...especially since he's SO over the top on the entire album. He sounded like he was struggling to fit his voice into the Sabbath sound...but that tension actually HELPS the record. Plus Ozzy (nor Dio) could have pulled off a track like Born Again, I think Tony & Ian really clicked...too bad it was a one shot deal.

Edited by Shawn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...