Ramblings on about Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath played their alleged last show over the weekend and as of late, I have been listening to the live recording at California Jam in 1974 (three weeks after I was born!) and A LOT of the Dio era material. I thought it might be fun to reflect a little bit on the Black Sabbath family tree.

I was exposed to a lot of music growing up; my father was a weekend warrior playing sets of covers with his band every Friday and Saturday night, well into the wee hours of the morning. But as a young preteen, the stuff my father liked, typical “classic rock” fare, didn’t appeal to me. I had uncles, two “cool” uncles who thought that heavy metal was the law. Through them, around 1983, I heard Ozzy Osbourne. I mean, it wasn’t hard to seek out Ozzy, he was beloved throughout the 80’s, but through Diary of a Madman, a door was opened that I’ve never been able to shut.

Got a crazy feeling I don't understand

I started to branch out and explore and purchase my own music around 1986. By 1987, Sure, I had a cursory knowledge of the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, but trust me; I was a mulleted heavy metal maniac. I rode my bike to the comic book store on some weekends to spend my allowance, one such weekend, I went to Hills Department Store instead and bought We sold our Soul For Rock and Roll in the $3 cassette bin. I had borrowed Volume 4 and Paranoid from my uncle the summer before, but it wasn’t until I owned this cassette that I truly began to appreciate Black Sabbath.

the superior cover art for the release

The cassette was an early go to on my Walkman between listens of Stay Hungry by Twisted Sister and the Dragnet soundtrack. In 1988, I started hanging out with this dude Joe Russell, who had two older brothers, both of whom lived and breathed metal in the early/ mid 80's. In his basement, one of Joe’s brothers had made a total stoner chill room in the earlier part of the 80’s; blacklight posters, couches and, more importantly, a stereo.  He had also left a large portion of his record collection down there. We would sit in that room and listen to Ozzy’s Speak of the Devil; the lines between Ozzy and Sabbath blurred.

In June of 1989 I went to see Ozzy and as a bonus, Geezer Butler was on bass.  The show was incredible, even if the openers, White Lion and Vixen were some of the worst shit I’ve ever seen. I Don't Know/ Flying High Again/ Mr. Crowley/ Shot in the Dark/ Bloodbath in Paradise/ Sweet Leaf/ Tattooed Dancer/ Miracle Man/ Suicide Solution/ Iron Man/ Crazy Train/ Paranoid. I bought a Great T shirt that eventually just fell apart.

The front of said t shirt

The back of said t shirt

As the 80’s fell away to the 90’s, Sabbath reemerged with Dio on vocals, but I dismissed Dehumanizer at the time, as I was getting into death metal and fast hardcore. I still, surprisingly, listened to Live Evil all the time back then, so I really don’t know what my deal was. I listen to Dehumanizer often now and celebrate everything Sabbath did with Dio. 

In the late 90’s it was announce that hell had frozen over and that Black Sabbath was doing a tour of shows with the original Line up.  My friends and I bought tickets to the February 1^st, 1999 gig in Buffalo. It was going to be the greatest show ever, I was sure of it… AND THEY POSTPONED THE SHOW, which after a long wait was eventually cancelled as well. We all blamed Sharon Osbourne and assumed it was cancelled due to low ticket sales.

I caught a great Dio show in Toronto (with Iron Maiden and Motorhead!) in August of 2003 and it was stellar. A brief, although well rounded set touching on highlights from his heavy metal career, I should have bought a shirt, but I didn’t Killing the Dragon/ the Last in Line/ Stargazer/ Stand Up and Shout/ Rock and Roll/ The Mob Rules/ Dream Evil/ Rainbow in the Dark/ Holy Diver/ Heaven and Hell

A week later I scored free tickets to an Ozzfest and watched Ozzy limply struggle through a performance. It was also weird because Jason Newsted, fresh out of Metallica, was playing bass, the whole thing felt wrong.  Ozzy had this weird prerecorded intro tape to pump up the crowd “I can’t hear you” and the like, but it didn’t feel organic, at all. I longed for the gig I had seen in ‘89 War Pigs/ Mr. Crowley/ I Don't Know/ Flying High Again/ Goodbye to Romance/ Iron Man/ Sweet Leaf/ Children of the Grave/ Suicide Solution/ Flying High Again/ Bark at the Moon/ I Don't Want to Change the World/ Road to Nowhere/ Crazy Train/ Mama, I'm Coming Home/ Paranoid.

Finally in 2004 I got to see the actual Black Sabbath, SORT OF. Mike Bordin from Faith No More was on drums and although the gig was adequate, I felt cheated by the band using classic riffs (Symptom of the Universe, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) as filler in between songs, this seems to be how they’ve handled those songs at all their reunion era gigs, a shame War Pigs/ N.I.B./ Fairies Wear Boots/ Into the Void/ Black Sabbath/ Snowblind/ Iron Man/ Children of the Grave/ Paranoid. A short set list that left me wanting more, ultimately.

Thankfully, the following summer I got to get a little more Sabbath and this time WITH BILL WARD. Unfortunately, Bill Ward in 2005 was not Bill Ward in 1975 so it wasn’t the straight fire I had hoped for. This set was better than the prior year and After Forever was a nice bonus N.I.B./ After Forever/ War Pigs/ Dirty Women/ Fairies Wear Boots/ Sweet Leaf / Electric Funeral/ Iron Man/ Into the Void/ Black Sabbath/ Paranoid/ Sleeping Village/ Children of the Grave. Still, it’s so obvious that Ozzy is just spent and has been since the early 90’s, poor guy. I hope he gets the rest he deserves soon, I feel like he’s just being propped up on stage to read teleprompters and yell “we love you all” now and then. Listen to the California Jam, Hammersmith Speak of the Devil recording and tell me there’s anything comparison. As the bar was set by that insanely good Ozzy show from ’89, and although I’m happy I got to see the actual Black Sabbath; watching haggard old men (Ward and Osbourne) struggle through a set does not make for a great show.

In 2007 Black Sabbath: The Dio Years came out and I rushed to buy it, thanks to hearing the song The Devil Cried. I thought it was great and as I had become a huge fan of the Dio era, hearing three new songs that were actually good and much better that the tired sounding studio tracks from the 1998 Reunion release. I was even more excited that the Dio fronted Sabbath was coming to Buffalo under the moniker “Heaven & Hell.” The show was astoundingly good. When the band went into the main riff of The Sign of the Southern Cross it was so heavy that it hit like a ton of bricks. I think about that moment often, the riff hitting and the place being decimated; absolute perfection. The Mob Rules/ Children of the Sea/ I/ The Sign of the Southern Cross/ Time Machine/ Falling Off the Edge of the World/ Die Young/ Heaven and Hell/ Neon Knights.  After the The Devil You Know came out, I hoped to see them again, as I liked the record, but sadly, Ronnie Jame Dio passed away and left a void in the world or metal that will never be filled.

Iommi, Osbourne and Butler reunited sans Bill Ward and released 13, which I hated, I’d honestly rather listen to the hack  "Black Sabbath" metal stuff with Tony Martin singing. The Devil you Know was a fine and heavy album, 13 had shitty production (what the fuck Rick Rubin?) and some guy from Rage Against the Machine playing on it, NO THANKS. I have friends that like that record and that’s fine, but if they had seen coked out insane Ozzy in 1989, I’m pretty sure they’d have a different perspective.  Still, I don't want to sound ungrateful, Black Sabbath does mean the world to me. 

Side note, I saw Kelly Osbourne out with some "deep V neck" t shirt emo guy at a coffee shop I was at in the Lower East Side in 2006. She was in line right behind me and I said to her “Hey! You’re Kelly Osbourne!” she looked at me, super disgusted, rolled her eyes and they left. I’ll take that as a win.

Black Sabbath was laid to rest on February 4^th, 2017; Black Sabbath is dead, long live Black Sabbath.