Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Black Sabbath (1970)
Hey, it's Halloween, so it's fitting that I write about that most Halloweeny of songs, "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath from the album Black Sabbath.
The band featured Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. Originally called Earth, the group changed its name after discovering another English band called Earth. Butler noticed a theater across the street from their rehearsal space was showing the 1963 Italian horror film Black Sabbath starring Boris Karloff. He was already obsessed with the occult at the time and claims to have had a vision of a large black figure standing at the end of his bed. He told Osbourne and the wrote a song called "Black Sabbath" based on Butler's experience. After recording the song, the band changed its name to Black Sabbath.
"What is this that stands before me?/Figure in black which points at me/Turn 'round quick and start to run/Find out I'm the chosen one/Oh, no!"
"Black Sabbath" is often referred to as the first heavy metal song, thanks to the heavy riff played by Iommi, which highlights the dark and dissonant tritone. It's definitely scary sounding and Osbourne's haunted vocals only amplify the effect.
"Big black shape with eyes of fire/Tellin' people their desire/Satan's sittin' there, he's smilin'/Watches those flames get higher and higher/Oh no! No! Please God, help me!"
The song marked a definitive shift from the psychedelic hippie music that was all the rage at the time and no doubt had many straight-laced parents freaked out.
"Is it the end, my friend?/Satan's coming 'round the bend/People running 'cause they're scared/The people better go and beware/No! No! Please, no!"
The sheer heaviness of the song is impressive, but the last two minutes pick up the pace as Iommi solos and Ozzy does that possessed dance of his.
Other bands were already playing heavy rock, like Blue Cheer, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Cream, but Sabbath made it their thing. The critics were not thrilled, but fans were into the new sound. The Sabbath debut got to #8 on the U.K. album chart and #23 in the U.S. The band didn't waste any time, recording their second album Paranoid just four months after the first album came out. And they went on to have a long rollercoaster of a career, as did Osbourne, who went solo in 1980 and became a superstar in his own right. And they owe it all to that evil-sounding song that scared the crap out of everybody.
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