Why I Like Black Sabbath

In the late 1960s, four lads from the industrial heartland of England, Birmingham, made their entrance onto the music scene.  These gentlemen – Tony Iommi, Terry “Geezer” Butler, John “Ozzy” Osbourne, and Bill Ward created a sound unlike any other.  They were heavier, harder and darker [and probably louder] than anything that preceded them.  First they were the Polka Tuck Blues Band, then they were Earth.  They had to change their name when they found another band named Earth.  A movie theater across the street from where they rehearsed would provide inspiration for a new name.  The movie playing there:  Boris Karloff’s Black Sabbath.  Geezer Butler took note that people would pay money to have the crap scared out of them.  Geezer and Ozzy wrote the words to Black Sabbath.  Tony Iommi stumbled upon the tritone, known in medieval times as “The Devil in Music.”  The music itself isn’t evil, it just sounds that way.  Tony Iommi wasn’t setting out to write Satanic music – he just thought it sounded cool.  Sabbath’s music evolved from the loud heavy blues of the late 1960s.  There wasn’t anything about “wearing flowers in your hair” from this bunch.  If anybody was singing about the occult during that time, they are unknown to me.  These guys weren’t like anything else at the time.  For better or worse [depending on who you talk to], Black Sabbath invented heavy metal.  \m/  What are some of the things that endears me to Black Sabbath?

The Riffs – With all due respect to “the human riff” Keith Richards, he doesn’t have anything on Tony Iommi.  Iommi has a million riffs, and they’re all cool.  Standout riffs:  Symptom of the Universe, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Into the Void, Snowblind, Killing Yourself to Live, Heaven and Hell, War Pigs [of course!].

Doom! – If you want peace and love and hippie shit, you’ve come to the wrong place.  You’ve got death [Behind the Wall of Sleep], drugs [Sweet Leaf, Snowblind, Hand of Doom], nuclear war [Electric Funeral], anti-war [War Pigs], the dangers of messing with the occult [Black Sabbath], hookers [Dirty Women], fleeting fame [Looking For Today], getting ripped off by managers [The Writ], environmental destruction [Into the Void], and even God [After Forever].  So many songs, so many subjects, most of them are unhappy.  There are few love songs, if any.

Tony Iommi – The man had two of his fingertips chopped off [not by choice], detuned his guitars and invented heavy metal.  Black Sabbath has had 37 different people in the band at one time or another [ok, I exaggerate, but only a little bit], but Tony Iommi has been the one constant.  Listen to everything Sabbath has put out and you too will subscribe to the “Iommi = Sabbath Theory.”  Players come and players go, but the records with Tony Iommi still sound like Black Sabbath.  Some lineups have been better than others, but Iommi’s guitar tones from below Hell are always there. 

Geezer Butler – Tony Iommi may have come up with all the riffs, but it was Geezer Butler’s thunderous bass that made Iommi’s riffs the skullcrushers that they are.  Other bassist have played with Sabbath [Dave Spitz, Bob Dailey, Neil Larsen], but none of them had that heaviness that made Black Sabbath what it was.  Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were made for each other.  I wish I could play bass like him, but that isn’t very likely to happen.

Ronnie James Dio – Simply the best heavy metal vocalist that ever walked this Earth.  I discovered him in Black Sabbath after he was without a job when he parted ways with Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow.  I’ve written at length about RJD in these spaces before, so there’s no need to bore you with a rehash.

Antidote to Crappy Music – Black Sabbath is an antidote to crappy music.  Have you ever been in a dentist office waiting room, and they play this God-awful chick music while you’re waiting?  Have you seen commercials that feature the worst Sheryl Crow song imaginable [and let’s face it, they’re ALL really shitty]?  Or do you just hear a random song anywhere that annoys the crap out of you?  Black Sabbath is your antidote.  I guarantee if you have suffered from crappy music, one play of War Pigs will wipe that crap out of your mind.

Christians – Black Sabbath scares the hell out of hard-core Christians.  These people seem to think that the guys in Black Sabbath are Satanists.  While it’s true that Satan got name-checked every now and then, that doesn’t make them Satan worshippers.  But the mere mention of the word Satan gives these people hissy fits.  It shows how small-minded and clueless they really are, which is fine with me.  There’s one song about Satan – Lord of This World.

Finally, they’re dinosaurs, just like me!