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Inductees: Terry Geezer Butler (bass; born July 17, 1949), Tony Iommi (guitar; born February 19, 1948), Ozzy Osbourne (vocals; born December 3, 194...
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Inductees: Terry Geezer Butler (bass; born July 17, 1949), Tony Iommi (guitar; born February 19, 1948), Ozzy Osbourne (vocals; born December 3, 1948), Bill Ward (drums; born May 5, 1948)
Black Sabbath is credited with creating heavy metal. The success of their first two albums - Black Sabbath and Paranoid - marked a paradigm shift in the world of rock. Not until Black Sabbath upended the music scene did the term heavy metal enter the popular vocabulary to describe the denser, more thunderous offshoot of rock over which they presided.
With their riff-based songs, extreme volume, and dark, demonic subject matter, Black Sabbath embodied key aspects of the heavy-metal aesthetic. Yet in their own words, Black Sabbath saw themselves as a heavy underground band. That term denoted both the intensity of their music and the network of fans who found them long before critics and the music industry took notice. In a sense, although theyve sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, they still are a heavy underground band. Though they became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, they werent inducted until 2006. The truth is, they remain one of the most misunderstood bands in rock history.
The Black Sabbath story began in Birmingham, England, where Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were looking to escape a life of factory work through music. The four musicians got their start in such psychedelic outfits as the Rare Breed and Mythology (although Osbourne had been a short-haired Mod who loved soul music). Influenced by the reigning British blues bands - Led Zeppelin, Cream, John Mayalls Bluesbreakers - the four of them formed Earth Blues Company (shortened to Earth), in 1968.
Everything changed when Butler came to the band with an idea for a song inspired by a disturbing apparition. A fan of horror films and the black magic-themed novels of Dennis Wheatley, he flirted briefly with the black arts. But when he saw what he believed to be a figure from the dark side at the foot of his bed one night, he ceased his dabblings in the goth world. With lyrics by Ozzy, the group composed a song about the visitation, entitling it Black Sabbath (after the 1963 Boris Karloff film). It provoked a reaction in audiences unlike anything else in their repertoire, and they knew theyd stumbled onto something powerful and unique. Forced to change their name because there was already another band named Earth, they made an obvious choice: Black Sabbath.
Thats when it all started to happen, Tony Iommi told writer Mick Wall. The name sounded mysterious, it gave people something to think about, and it gave us a direction to follow. Black Sabbath was the polar opposite of the Beatles (though they all liked the Beatles). Whereas the Fab Four sang yeah, yeah, yeah, Osbourne pleaded no, no, please, no in Black Sabbath.
Its a satanic world, Butler told Rolling Stone in 1971. The devils more in control now. People cant come together, theres no equality. Its a sin to put yourself above other people, and yet thats what people do.
With Butler serving as principal lyricist and Iommi as the musical architect, Black Sabbath pursued such themes as war, social chaos, the supernatural, the afterlife, and the timeless conflict between good and evil. The group was a product of the late Sixties. It was a time when youthful idealism had begun to ebb amid the war in Vietnam, the influx of hard drugs, clashes with authority figures, and the bruising realities of working-class life (low wages, grim labor) that lay ahead for many of them.
We arrived at the height of the Vietnam War and on the other side of the hippie era, so there was a mood of doom and aggression, guitarist Iommi told writer Chris Welch in 2003. Thats not to say Black Sabbath were devil worshippers or practitioners or witchcraft, as many believed. Quite a different picture of the band is painted in such songs as After Forever (with the lyric, God is the only way to love) and Osbournes frequent flashing of the peace sign during Black Sabbath concerts.
Black Sabbath recorded its self-titled first album in a single session in November 1969, setting up their gear in a small studio and running through their live set. The lack of frills and contrivance worked to advantage, as the groups riff-driven, blues-based hard rock came through loud and clear on The Wizard, N.I.B., Warning, and, of course, Black Sabbath. The only effects added to the album were the tolling bell and thunderstorm that provide a chilling opening to the title track. Black Sabbath was released on Vertigo in the U.K. and Warner Bros. in the U.S.
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*Sniff*
Maybe...