Not to put too fine a point on it, but Black Sabbath blows. They're a joke, a cartoon band. Specifically, they are THE ultimate Beavis and Butthead band, as you may remember. That is to say, they're a dumb band for glue sniffing teenage boys who have killed whatever brain cells they may once have had.
I don't want to be mean. The members of the band may be really great guys. Ozzy has become something of a beloved ironic post-modern dad, or whatever the hell that MTV schtick is. I'm sure he's a nice fellow.
Further, I congratulate them on their success. Being a rock star is nice work if you can get it. It beats pumping gas. More power to them.
However, for unknowable reasons, some fairly large number of people not members of or related to the group are apparently under the mistaken impression that they are a classic band. Not just silly teenage boys, but adults who should know better seem to think this. They have been nominated repeatedly now for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is an outrage against any proper ideas of theology and geometry. It's a confederacy of dunces, I tell you.
Even chief muckity-muck Blogcritic Eric Olsen says they belong in the Hall of Fame - over Lynyrd Skynyrd, for crying in a bucket. What? I wouldn't trade you "Simple Man" for the whole Black Sabbath catalogue- much less "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Free Bird". See, those are real SONGS, with memorable MELODY, by a band that could PLAY their instruments.
Let me try to break it down a bit, starting with Duke Ellington, who famously said, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing". These guys would not have known a groove if it came up and bit them on the ass. "Lumbering sludge" describes their ideas of rhythm. Think of "Iron Man" for starters. They certainly didn't make rock and roll. You might call them "rock," but they had no idea of the "roll" part whatsoever.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - BRICKLAYER
OZZY is a signifying monkey!
2 - Eric Olsen
I can only conclude that Al has not actually listened to Black Sabbath based upon this wholesale denigration. I am not a big Ozzy solo fan - "Crazy Train" is fine but not much else even sticks in my mind.
But Sabbath is an entirely different matter. Starting with songs: every single song on Paranoid and Black Sabbath 4 are classic, have memorable tunes, have Ozzy's amazingly impersonal passion (a contradiction but one that is perfect for the music). There are even acoustic songs (the achingly beautiful "Laguna Sunrise," which evokes just that), "Changes."
In addition their sound was utterly unique - they did invent metal as it is recognized today. Deep Purple was a melodic hard rock band with some prog rock and pop-rock leanings early on, got into a bluesier sound, and were really great for a while, but not metal. LZ was an extension of the hard blues-rock of Cream, Yardbirds, more akin to pyscho-blues than metal.
Sabbath had a pure raging power that only maybe Blue Cheer had achieved but Blue Cheer didn't have songs, was sloppy as hell and sludgy, which Sabbath was not - for as charged and distorted as Iommi's guitar could be, his playing was always clean and the instruments achieved both separation and cohesion. How can you listen to "Paranoid" and not hear it as the greatest metal song of all time? Or "War Pigs," or "Iron Man," or "Supernaut," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"?
Here's some perspective: I had a friend in college (the son of Neil Armstrong, by the way), who was about as snotty a prog rock fan as there was - he wanted musicianship, esoterica, complication. He loved Yes, ELP, PFM, Nektar, Soft Machine, all that stuff. And he loved Black Sabbath. The original Sabbath, from '70 to '78, is the best metal of all time, is great dangerous music, and makes Lynyrd Skynyrd look quaint, anemic, provincial, dated. Skynyrd had some good songs, but that's not a revolution, and a revolution is what Black Sabbath started.
3 - andy
What about Uriah Heap?
4 - Eric Olsen
Uriah Heep was a combo hard rock-prog band with mystical leanings that had a few good songs, one good album ("Demons and Wizards") and a lot of silliness. With the heavy organ sound, more like Deep Purple than Sabbath, though not nearly as good as Purple.
5 - andy
haha! I like em though. I only have one album, but it's not Demons and Wizards. I don't remember what it's called, but it rocks me. I got it for $.75 hehe.
6 - Eric Olsen
Nothing wrong with the Heap, just not a real major act - rock on
7 - andy
Cool. I wanted to get your opinion on them because when I bought the record, some dude told me, "oh man they were the bridge between Led Zep and Black Sabbath". I listened to it and was pretty sure that was bull shit, but I wondered what you thought, cause I've heard that from a few people.
8 - Eric Olsen
LZ was early '69, Sabbath was mid '70 so there wasn't much need for a "bridge" anyway. I see them on different paths anyway - LZ strictly blues-based, at least in the beginning, Sabbath using some blues structures, but mostly creating something more European and angular and consistently roaring.
9 - andy
I thought it was lame simply because of the dates of the 2 bands as well. That and I don't see Sabbath and Zep as being related either.
10 - JR
I really liked Abominog (1982). I had one or two of Uriah Heep's 70's albums on LP, but they never made much of an impression on me.
Back on subject, Al is way wrong on Black Sabbath. I can respect the fact that he has his preferences, but his attempt to attack Black Sabbath on musical merit is completely uninformed. Want something that "swings"? Try "Fairies Wear Boots" or "Never Say Die" (which even swing in the technical sense). Want melody? Try "Supernaut" or "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", or even their theme song "Black Sabbath". I mean, if "Iron Man" isn't a great melody, how did it become the definitive Beavis and Butthead grunt-along. And you want lots of chords? Geez, where to begin? Maybe "Gypsy", or "Air Dance", or any of the acoustic songs or the jazzy pieces. Storytelling? Try "Johnny Blade" Visceral imagery? How about "Hand of Doom"?
While I don't find Tony Iommi's guitar work the most difficult to play, I'd rate him against 70 to 80 of the guitarists on that list Rolling Stone came up with. And Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were one of the more respectable rhythm sections in their field, easily more interesting than Lynyrd Skynyrd's.
Black Sabbath SPOKE to a generation of music lovers, even if you and the literati think their audience was just a bunch of stoners and dirtbags. In fact, the same could be said about Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think both bands deserve respect by virtue of the fact that they connected with people on a purely musical level, not because fashion mags like Rolling Stone were promoting them as the cool band of the week.
Stick to what you know, Al. Lynyrd Skynyrd IS a great band, and they DO belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (if you go for that kind of thing). But Black Sabbath vs. Lynyrd Skynyrd? It's strictly a matter of taste.
11 - Mark Salesi
the first four Black Sabbath albums are among the most influential recordings in rock music...especially in things related to heavy metal.
attempts to pick them apart because of supposed lack of melody, rhythm, etc. are a complete waste of time....mostly because they are wrong.
a confederacy of dunces? this post is making my valve act up.
12 - mike
Al: Have you no sense of shame? First, school lunches, and now this: attacking early Black Sabbath? Just because Ozzy has since produced one of the most execrable catalogs in rock history doesn't take away from early BS greatness. Plus, if you don't like their music, you can just take out their vinyl records and play them speeded up. Sounds just like the Ramones.
13 - Dawn
New tagline for Al - "No, I don't" to the question, does Al have a sense of shame.
But then again, he wouldn't be the Al we all know and love.
14 - Craig Lyndall
There was this other guy who came along and wasn't very good at his instrument. Hell, he wasn't really a good singer either. The band's recordings were sloppy and raw. Probably made Rush and Dream Theater fans' ears bleed.
Nirvana.
You don't have to be a great technical musician to write great songs and be memorable. This is ultimately what all great bands are judged on. To deny Black Sabbath their just due as a band with great albums and great songs would be criminal.
For example, I don't like Led Zeppelin. There. I said it. I don't like Robert Plant's voice, and I don't particularly like any of the songs. It was all lost on me. That being said, I would still include them in a list of the top ten bands of all time because to not understand their place in music is ignorant.
Same with Black Sabbath.
15 - Taloran
Alright Eric, I'm gonna try it - see if this is convincing.
Fucking Sabbath fucking sucks. Ozzy is a fucking gibbering moron who couldn't fucking write a fucking song to save his fucking shiteating ass. His music fucking sucks, sucked with Sabbath, sucked after Sabbath, sucks on his lame ass TV show with his shitty fucking family. They're all fucking morons. Fucking Harry Caray could write better fucking songs than fucking Ozzy, and he'd be fucking easier to fucking understand. Fuck Sabbath. Fuck Ozzy. They suck.
16 - Taloran
That said, Randy Rhoads was brilliant. While his choice of people to perform with left me wanting, I found him to be an enticing, original, and exceedingly talented guitarist. Too bad he played with fucking Ozzy.
17 - Taloran
And Bravo to Al for having the guts to go against popular convention and actually come out and say Sabbath was a lousy, talent-free, rhythmically impaired group of idiots who happened to fall out of the garbage truck and get picked up by a major record label.
18 - Eric Olsen
I am not a metalhead - I like the best of almost all genres though, and Black Sabbath was the best metal band ever. Ozzy now is a nonfactor, Ozzy then was a great singer, had soul, and the band made holy, righteous noise. To not see Black Sabbath transcending metal into something precious is to not see James Brown and George Clinton transcend funk, Springsteen working class rock 'n' roll, the Ramones punk, even Skynyrd southern rock (although the Allmans are the ones who REALLY transcended southern rock). To see them as anything less is to NOT GET IT, to MISS THE BOAT.
I enjoyed the scatalogical rant, though, and sense it freed yo ass.
19 - Taloran
Spooky Tooth was better than Sabbath. Then again, so was Abba.
I loved Skynyrd when I was a rowdy teenager, but even then I realized that there was something better about the Allmans. Now I realize that that something was real talent. 39 guitarists jamming together on stage does not good music make.
20 - Taloran
re: Eric's mention of Skynyrd and the Allmans -
The Outlaws
Molly Hatchet
Marshall Tucker Band
Pure Prairie League
Poco
Firefall
Dickey Betts and Great Southern
Boy, Southern Rock was great, wasn't it? Whatever happened to it? It's every bit as lost in the past as Gregorian chants. Are there any survivors other than the Allman Brothers (who, it must be said, are much more a blues-rock band with a southern feel than a true southern rock band)? I guess I hear about the occasional Firefall show at the local get-drunk-and-pick-a-fight place, but Southern Rock as a hugely successful genre is gone.
Little Feat still tours, but they were and remain infinitely more complex that the typical southern rock band.
I guess that genre was replaced by unlistenable hacks (or is it hicks?) like Jimmy Buffett and REM.