BLACK SABBATH PART ONE: BLACK SABBATH: (First Sabbath)

Imagine putting on this on your turntable and hearing the thunder, the church bells and the rain and know that it's only going to get darker as the song continues.  After a few cracks of thunder Toni Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward come crashing in just like the thunder you heard.  At about the One minute and 23 second mark Ozzy Osbourne shaky vocals come in and now the nightmare has officially begun.  All three musicians are at the top of their game and you can't help trying to play air guitar, bass or drums to one of them.  I'm guilty of it many times.  I  used to do it all the time in my car while the song was cranked up to as loud as it could go.

Ozzy's vocals would put fear in your heart and you would scream a blood curdling scream along with him.  Toni's guitar playing in your ears would intensify over the course of the song and the album and you would go crazy just trying to keep up with the "Heavy Metal" of it all.  The first Sabbath album had all the makings of an instant classic, but was it?  I don't know the answer, but if you loved heavy Blues Rock and Psychedelic music this album was for you.  It get my attention quite quickly as a teenager.

Sabbath and their music got myself and countless people loving every riff they did.  I loved their music and hearing it I'm sure my parents thought I was going to the dark side.  I secretly was hoping that they thought I did. The music was not for the faint of heart or listeners who  are looking for happy Beatles type music.  I know you readers love the music I feature on here faithfully knows a bit more then an average listener and that you guys and gals also have broad musical palette.

Black Sabbath first six albums are some of the best music ever created.  It was all too hard to pick just one. Each album has a lot of musical gems and each has influenced countless people.  I had to pick one and I picked the first because like the other four, each album after the first had one typical Sabbath hit.  A perfect example would be "Paranoid" off the second and also classic album of the same name. The issue for me was what version or master did I need to get as an essential purchase.  I talked about "Evil Women" in the post about Singles.  "Evil Women" was never issued here in America and sadly it's not the weakest link.  There is no weak link on the first Sabbath album.  The single is still pretty awesome song.

Going back to masters I mentioned in the Singles Post I bought some 1996 Castle masters. They had better liner notes, better sound and most of all just better which include and grossly ignored the poster that came with Masters of Reality.  The poster was included and also now rare American pressing.  It took America quite a while to catch up to what these imports have.  Looking at the Castle CD Masters they are even harder to find as well. I always had the original Warner vinyl masters and really wish I had those Vertigo classics.  They are pretty expensive at this post I saw for over $100 to one at $500.

The two cover songs that are on the album Sabbath makes them unique.  "Evil Women" which I featured in the Singles post was a song by a band called Crow.  It's not that bad, but the horns that dominate the original and the recycled Blues that Sabbath made it their own.  In the song "Warning"
Sabbath takes a classic Blue Horizon label Blues tune by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. Wonderful and aggressive drumming and heavy on the organ the song is made their own by Sabbath.  Geezer's bass playing is very much the main sound at the beginning, and they stretch a simple three and half minute tune to over ten minutes.  It's last four minutes is some damn' good guitar playing by Iommi.

All in all this is the album to start your Sabbath collection.  I'm sure most of you own it or if you don't you should get it.  Technology has made the album sound just as good as those Castle masters, but, like the Castle versions their is not much for notes.  A musicologist like myself likes reading those.  If you can seek out the two CD deluxe edition that is the one to get, the music and notes are worth it.  There is even a second disc for the purists like myself.  There are two highlights that are worth it.  The first is Ozzy no remembering the words to a song.  That is pretty funny in retrospect, because he cannot remember them now, how did remember them in 1970.  The second hearing "Evil Women" with flute.  Not really sure how that would have worked if the band liked it.  It's good for making you think what if, but not for my ears that is for sure.  Sabbath was a band that could do no wrong, and this as some people question is the start of Heavy Metal.  You hear music that is powerful, scary, and loud. I can only imagine hearing this for the first time and being blown away.  I wish I could hear it fresh too.  Awesome music by an awesome group of guys from Birmingham.

Photograph of the first album artwork