Pages

September 17, 2010

We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll - Black Sabbath


A fulsome doff of the cap to Tony, Bill, Ozzy & Geezer, the acknowledged masters. Culled from 70 - 73 genius run of anvil smitten classics -  Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - all historical permutations of heavy start here. Monolithic, primal and wholly unsubtle. The evergreen thrill of Sweat Leaf's opening salvo of monster riff and Ozzy yell; Sabbath Bloody Sabbath's noisy-quiet template which eventually became Pixies and Nirvana; the magnificent, dunderheaded manual turning of the amp up to 11 at 0:40 in to N.I.B..

In retrospect, a surprisingly pervasive air of unhappy trips and drowsy narcotics. Presumably before the booze and coke fully kicked in.

As y brawd is prone to declare, this really is essential.

Oddi wrth y brawd

5 comments:

Nic said...

This was probably the first Sabbath album I ever heard. Taped it on one of those cheap Woolworths' C120s, so after a few months it sounded even slower and heavier, as the tape slowly stretched.

It includes tracks from the first 5 albums, by the way. Title track from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is a bit of a giveaway :)

Diolch am rannu.

Y Brawd said...

y brawd stands well corrected. its a bloody good album though aint it.

Pastaman Vibration (ye-ah!) said...

Gear. Check out the more expansive "The Best Of" with the coffin shapes on the cover as well. Sabs continue to be a big influence on a lot of new bands and, frankly, it's only musical snobbery that prevents them getting the same slavering kudos that the likes of Zeppelin (rightly) attract. Contents: minimum 25% geezer and no additives. Raw cuss!

Welsh Connexion said...

Pastaman is right - the 'Best of..' lives up to it's title in that it cherrypicks just about all the Sabbath tracks that you'd ever want - importantly it also
presents them in crisp sludge free
remastered versions

I picked up a copy essentially by way of a nostalgia fix but was blown away by how great it all sounded

I vividly recall the early 70s Sabs as being the soundtrack of choice for the cider swilling patchouli reeking trenchcoat brigade - only in retrospect is one able to appreciate the extent to which Ozzie bucked the trend

Not for him the priapic swagger of Bubba Plant or the microphone stand groin extensions of Paul Rogers and the like - no - in between the (dunder)head banging and peace sign flashing Ozzie's
'stagecraft' would more likely see him joyously lurching from one side of the stage to the other, hitching up a pair of baggy loon pants with one hand whilst unselfconciously scratching his arse with the other

Unfortunately the band's determinedly blue collar became increasingly peppered with white powder and the whole enterprise eventually disappeared in a cokestorm of epic proportions

T'was ever thus

Not so much 'good whilst it lasted' - more 'better now it's finished' - viewed from a distance it's now easier to see that Black Sabbath actually delivered far more than many of their more celebrated peers

Do yourself a favour and go for the remastered comp instead

Y Brawd said...

as well as rather than instead, innit.