fuzmeister: Never Say Die!
Black Sabbath are one of my favorite bands of all time. While I do like some of his discography quite a bit (Diary of a Madman anyone?), it has little to do with Ozzy Osbourne himself, but rather the sheer heaviness of the sound coming from the three instrumentalists in the group. The great Bill Ward with his undeniable sense of groove and jazz-adjacent flourishes. The incredible attack and punctuation of every note played by Geezer Butler on the bass. And, finally, of course - Tony Iommi himself - a phenomenal case study in translating simplicity to instantly-memorable hooks by way of the riff. In their time, they were never critical darlings, but we now realize history is not written by the "proper" critics of popular culture at the time.
By the by, I was well-aware of their advertised "Back to the Beginning" gig earlier this month in Birmingham and, of course, I had to watch bits and pieces of the live-streamed event. Now, I'll be the first to say the overall package sounded relatively shit; a chain is only as strong as its weakest link so they say and Ozzy Osbourne's health is likely at the worst its ever been. But still, I couldn't contain my excitement to see the four of them reunited for the first time in twenty years on stage and tear through a short (and predictable) set of some classic songs. It should be noted that drummer Bill Ward was regrettably not present for their 2013 reunion album and subsequent tour.
Since the event, I've been revisiting my old favorites from their catalog (Sabotage anyone?) as well as re-evaluating the... lesser-appreciated releases with the original lineup.
I have to say, I never liked "Never Say Die!" - their final album with the original four - it almost completely abandons the absolutely girth they demonstrated previously both in terms of musical and lyrical content. Not much in the way of spookiness or existential themes here. The guitar riffs - normally the specialty - are almost entirely forgettable. HOWEVER, listening to it several times the past week I've found some strange beauty in what almost certainly is a document of the bands internal collapse during a time of mismanagement and rampant drug abuse.
"A Hard Road" has to be one of the most-underrated Sabbath tunes in the whole catalog with a weird, almost folk-like singalong vibe. "Junior's Eyes" cuts a bit harder when one realizes the lyrics were tailor-made to tackle the recent death of Osbourne's father. "Air Dance" has a guitar solo that tonally borders more on something I'd expect to hear from Zappa than Iommi; stray piano parts are peppered throughout this track as well giving it a weird, jazzy vibe.
I still hate "Breakout" - absolutely one of their worst instrumental offerings with bizarre sax arrangements showing up. The title track (probably the most well-known form this set) is incredibly lack-luster compared to something like "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" or "Tomorrow's Dream." Very mid as the kids say these days.
Anyway, 1978 was a weird year. Overall, it was a strange transformative period for music and pop culture at large. Maybe if the egos and drugs hadn't gotten the best of them we'd be talking about Sabbath's 80s output with Ozzy instead of Dio, Tony Martin, and whoever else I can't remember. I'll save my musings on "Technical Ecstasy" - their penultimate album of the 70s - for another post (lucky you!).
Anyway, thanks for coming to my ted talk. Long live rock and roll.
Mood: Intrigued
Music: Black Sabbath - A Hard Road
Tags (beta): music
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