Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath
•⇔• Debutové album Black Sabbath je zrodem heavy metalu, jak ho známe nyní. Krajané jako Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin a Deep Purple již nastavovali nové standardy pro objem a tíhu v oblastech psychedelie, blues~rocku a prog rocku. Přesto z těchto průkopníků metalu je Sabbath jediný, jehož zvuk dnes zůstává okamžitě rozpoznatelný jako heavy metal, a to i po desetiletích evoluce v žánru. Při vzniku této hudební revoluce jistě hrála určitou roli okolnost — zvuková ošklivost odrážející bezútěšnou průmyslovou noční můru v Birminghamu; ztráta dvou prstů kytaristy Tony Iommiho, která vyžadovala pomalejší hru a uvolnění strun vyladěním kytary, čímž vytvořila Sabbathovský podpisový styl.
•⇔• Tyto vlastnosti odlišují kapelu, ale nebyly zcela důvodem, proč toto debutové album překračuje své jasné kořeny v blues~rocku a psychedelii, aby se stalo něčím víc. Sabbathovská genialita spočívala v nalezení skryté zlovolnosti v blues a poté s ní udeřila posluchače přes hlavu. Vezměte si legendární střih názvu alba.
⊗ (Britské vydání zahrnovalo další coververzi: „Evil Woman“ od Crow, která zcela nenaplňuje svazky originálů kapely; americká verze nahradila „Wicked World“, což fanoušci hodně preferují.) Ale i když na tomto rychle zaznamenaném dokumentu se stále objevují švy, Black Sabbath je nicméně revolučním debutem, jehož charakteristické myšlenky čekají jen na trochu větší zaměření a vývoj. Od nynějška by Black Sabbath postupoval vpřed s vizí, která byla zcela jejich vlastní. Album released: 13 February 1970
Recorded: 16 October 1969
Studio: Regent Sound, London
Genre: Heavy metalstoner rock
Record Label: Vertigo
Producer: Rodger Bain
Duration: 38:12
Tracks:
Side one:
1. Black Sabbath 6:20
2. The Wizard 4:24
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep 3:37
4. N.I.B. 6:08
Side two:
5. Evil Woman (Crow cover) 3:25
6. Sleeping Village 3:46
7. Warning (The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation cover) 10:28
Written by:
• Larry Weigand, Dick Weigand, David Wagner 5
• Aynsley Dunbar, Alex Dmochowski, Victor Hickling, John Moorshead 7
Personnel:
Black Sabbath
• Tony Iommi — guitar
• Geezer Butler — bass
• Bill Ward — drums
• Ozzy Osbourne — vocals, harmonica on The Wizard
Production:
• Rodger Bain — production, Jew’s harp on Sleeping Village
• Tom Allom — engineering
• Barry Sheffield — engineering
• Marcus Keef — graphic design, photography
Charts:
⇔ UK Albums (OCC) #8
⇔ US Billboard 200 #23
NOTE: These lyrics are verified against the lyrics that appear in the “Black Box” booklet. Those lyrics were gone over by Geezer Butler (who wrote most of them anyway) for that set, and for that reason should be considered definitive.
Black Sabbath
1. What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quick, and start to run
Find out I’m the chosen one — Oh no!
2. Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan’s sitting there, he’s smiling
Watch those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please God help me!
3. Child cries out for his mother
Mother’s screaming in the fire
Satan points at me again
Opens the door to push me in
Oh No!
4. This is the end my friend
Satan’s coming ’round the bend
people running ’cause they’re scared
You people better go and beware!
No! No! Please! No!
NOTE: Verse 3 is not commonly used. It has only appeared on some bootlegs, and on the version of Black Sabbath that appears on Ozzy’s “Ozzman Cometh” Greatest Hits album.
Review
By Matthew Wand; January 9, 2020
⇒ Last year in February, the debut release by Black Sabbath turns half a century old. Vinyl Chapters looks back at one of the greatest paradigm shifts in rock history.
•⇔• From the darkest corners of Birmingham, England, four men emerged bringing heavy guitars and their bleak view on the world with them. Black Sabbath’s self~titled album was a new beginning, not just for the band but for the music industry. Formally a blues band named Earth, Sabbath rose to power by mixing overdriven riffs from Tony Iommi with unmistakable vocals from Ozzy Osbourne all held up on the giant shoulders of the rhythm section; Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. Black Sabbath — Black Sabbath opens with the title track; Black Sabbath. As the sound of rain, thunder and church bells tolling in the distance fills your mind with impending dread, the musicians launch into the song with a slow, eerie riff. A riff that is simply and effectively based around a G bar chord. The effect is chilling. When Ozzy’s voice joins the fray, all hell breaks loose. His haunting tone fits the Geezer Butler written words perfectly. The slow groove ends up turning into a gallop as the song comes to an end.
•⇔• In track two, Sabbath break the rules that have not even been set yet. In The Wizard the band harken back to their blues days with a harmonica taking centre stage with guitar licks in the intro and chorus. Within the verse the fearless four~piece lay down a heavy rhythm, building on the opener.
•⇔• N.I.B. is the birth of Heavy Metal. The track opens with a Wah Bass solo nicknamed ‘BASSically’. It takes a lot of the guile and balls for a bassist to play a bass solo on a record, especially your first. It may seem like a mainstay in this day and age, but back in 1970, it was vertically unheard of. That bass solo and the distorted bass intro is just the start as the drums and distorted guitar kick in. Inspired by Cream’s Sunshine of your Love, Nativity in Black is the polar opposite of the blues supergroup hit. It tells the tale of sorrow and fallen angels. The music has the perfect tempo and evokes what Black Sabbath are now infamous for: strong emotion.
•⇔• I have wondered many times over the years, whilst playing this album, how it would have felt to have listened to this LP for the first time without any prior knowledge, or experiencing all that had come afterwards. The thought gives me Goosebumps.
•⇔• Even before the record starts spinning, the hopelessness of the cover art, depicting women in black in front of an Oxfordshire watermill puts you in an uneasy place before the needle even drops.
•⇔• The sheer list of bands, scenes, genres and movements that have named Black Sabbath as a direct influence is endless. Even in music journalism, it’s hard not to compare or to hear Sabbath in a lot of heavy music. To this very day, there are shades of Black Sabbath in any band under the metal umbrella. Black Sabbath would go on to build upon the success of their debut album. They would release album after album of heavier and darker songs with poignant and thought~provoking lyrics. Many covet their second album; Paranoid and its title track, but Black Sabbath is the inception that all heavy metal has grown from. In one masterstroke, this Birmingham quartet had not just snatched up the brass ring and become Godfathers of a musical genre not yet named, but in an act of immaculate consumption, gave birth to a music defining moment. These two sides of vinyl changed the shape of the musical horizon forever.
•⇔• https://www.vinylchapters.com/black-sabbath-black-sabbath-classic-albums/
AllMusic Review by Steve Huey ⌊DECEMBER 11 2020⌋ Score: ★★★★½
•⇔• https://www.allmusic.com/album/black-sabbath-mw0000652046
•⇔• Debutové album Black Sabbath je zrodem heavy metalu, jak ho známe nyní. Krajané jako Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin a Deep Purple již nastavovali nové standardy pro objem a tíhu v oblastech psychedelie, blues~rocku a prog rocku. Přesto z těchto průkopníků metalu je Sabbath jediný, jehož zvuk dnes zůstává okamžitě rozpoznatelný jako heavy metal, a to i po desetiletích evoluce v žánru. Při vzniku této hudební revoluce jistě hrála určitou roli okolnost — zvuková ošklivost odrážející bezútěšnou průmyslovou noční můru v Birminghamu; ztráta dvou prstů kytaristy Tony Iommiho, která vyžadovala pomalejší hru a uvolnění strun vyladěním kytary, čímž vytvořila Sabbathovský podpisový styl.
•⇔• Tyto vlastnosti odlišují kapelu, ale nebyly zcela důvodem, proč toto debutové album překračuje své jasné kořeny v blues~rocku a psychedelii, aby se stalo něčím víc. Sabbathovská genialita spočívala v nalezení skryté zlovolnosti v blues a poté s ní udeřila posluchače přes hlavu. Vezměte si legendární střih názvu alba.
⊗ (Britské vydání zahrnovalo další coververzi: „Evil Woman“ od Crow, která zcela nenaplňuje svazky originálů kapely; americká verze nahradila „Wicked World“, což fanoušci hodně preferují.) Ale i když na tomto rychle zaznamenaném dokumentu se stále objevují švy, Black Sabbath je nicméně revolučním debutem, jehož charakteristické myšlenky čekají jen na trochu větší zaměření a vývoj. Od nynějška by Black Sabbath postupoval vpřed s vizí, která byla zcela jejich vlastní. Album released: 13 February 1970
Recorded: 16 October 1969
Studio: Regent Sound, London
Genre: Heavy metalstoner rock
Record Label: Vertigo
Producer: Rodger Bain
Duration: 38:12
Tracks:
Side one:
1. Black Sabbath 6:20
2. The Wizard 4:24
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep 3:37
4. N.I.B. 6:08
Side two:
5. Evil Woman (Crow cover) 3:25
6. Sleeping Village 3:46
7. Warning (The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation cover) 10:28
Written by:
• Larry Weigand, Dick Weigand, David Wagner 5
• Aynsley Dunbar, Alex Dmochowski, Victor Hickling, John Moorshead 7
Personnel:
Black Sabbath
• Tony Iommi — guitar
• Geezer Butler — bass
• Bill Ward — drums
• Ozzy Osbourne — vocals, harmonica on The Wizard
Production:
• Rodger Bain — production, Jew’s harp on Sleeping Village
• Tom Allom — engineering
• Barry Sheffield — engineering
• Marcus Keef — graphic design, photography
Charts:
⇔ UK Albums (OCC) #8
⇔ US Billboard 200 #23
NOTE: These lyrics are verified against the lyrics that appear in the “Black Box” booklet. Those lyrics were gone over by Geezer Butler (who wrote most of them anyway) for that set, and for that reason should be considered definitive.
Black Sabbath
1. What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quick, and start to run
Find out I’m the chosen one — Oh no!
2. Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan’s sitting there, he’s smiling
Watch those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please God help me!
3. Child cries out for his mother
Mother’s screaming in the fire
Satan points at me again
Opens the door to push me in
Oh No!
4. This is the end my friend
Satan’s coming ’round the bend
people running ’cause they’re scared
You people better go and beware!
No! No! Please! No!
NOTE: Verse 3 is not commonly used. It has only appeared on some bootlegs, and on the version of Black Sabbath that appears on Ozzy’s “Ozzman Cometh” Greatest Hits album.
Review
By Matthew Wand; January 9, 2020
⇒ Last year in February, the debut release by Black Sabbath turns half a century old. Vinyl Chapters looks back at one of the greatest paradigm shifts in rock history.
•⇔• From the darkest corners of Birmingham, England, four men emerged bringing heavy guitars and their bleak view on the world with them. Black Sabbath’s self~titled album was a new beginning, not just for the band but for the music industry. Formally a blues band named Earth, Sabbath rose to power by mixing overdriven riffs from Tony Iommi with unmistakable vocals from Ozzy Osbourne all held up on the giant shoulders of the rhythm section; Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. Black Sabbath — Black Sabbath opens with the title track; Black Sabbath. As the sound of rain, thunder and church bells tolling in the distance fills your mind with impending dread, the musicians launch into the song with a slow, eerie riff. A riff that is simply and effectively based around a G bar chord. The effect is chilling. When Ozzy’s voice joins the fray, all hell breaks loose. His haunting tone fits the Geezer Butler written words perfectly. The slow groove ends up turning into a gallop as the song comes to an end.
•⇔• In track two, Sabbath break the rules that have not even been set yet. In The Wizard the band harken back to their blues days with a harmonica taking centre stage with guitar licks in the intro and chorus. Within the verse the fearless four~piece lay down a heavy rhythm, building on the opener.
•⇔• N.I.B. is the birth of Heavy Metal. The track opens with a Wah Bass solo nicknamed ‘BASSically’. It takes a lot of the guile and balls for a bassist to play a bass solo on a record, especially your first. It may seem like a mainstay in this day and age, but back in 1970, it was vertically unheard of. That bass solo and the distorted bass intro is just the start as the drums and distorted guitar kick in. Inspired by Cream’s Sunshine of your Love, Nativity in Black is the polar opposite of the blues supergroup hit. It tells the tale of sorrow and fallen angels. The music has the perfect tempo and evokes what Black Sabbath are now infamous for: strong emotion.
•⇔• I have wondered many times over the years, whilst playing this album, how it would have felt to have listened to this LP for the first time without any prior knowledge, or experiencing all that had come afterwards. The thought gives me Goosebumps.
•⇔• Even before the record starts spinning, the hopelessness of the cover art, depicting women in black in front of an Oxfordshire watermill puts you in an uneasy place before the needle even drops.
•⇔• The sheer list of bands, scenes, genres and movements that have named Black Sabbath as a direct influence is endless. Even in music journalism, it’s hard not to compare or to hear Sabbath in a lot of heavy music. To this very day, there are shades of Black Sabbath in any band under the metal umbrella. Black Sabbath would go on to build upon the success of their debut album. They would release album after album of heavier and darker songs with poignant and thought~provoking lyrics. Many covet their second album; Paranoid and its title track, but Black Sabbath is the inception that all heavy metal has grown from. In one masterstroke, this Birmingham quartet had not just snatched up the brass ring and become Godfathers of a musical genre not yet named, but in an act of immaculate consumption, gave birth to a music defining moment. These two sides of vinyl changed the shape of the musical horizon forever.
•⇔• https://www.vinylchapters.com/black-sabbath-black-sabbath-classic-albums/
AllMusic Review by Steve Huey ⌊DECEMBER 11 2020⌋ Score: ★★★★½
•⇔• https://www.allmusic.com/album/black-sabbath-mw0000652046