By today’s standards, Black Sabbath’s music is fairly tame. It’s easy to forget that they came to this country in 1969. Think about it, during the “summer of love” they were singing songs like “Black Sabbath,” “NIB”, and “Wicked World.” Not only were the songs in a minor key, they were dark and heavy. They sang about Satan and evil things. This last attribute would give them problems throughout their career in the USA. I’ve always thought that they have gotten a bad rap in that department, and I’m going to try to explain what I have gotten out of their music.
          It’s funny how little of their music gets played on the radio. About all you’ll ever hear is “Paranoid” and “Iron Man.” Black Sabbath is right up there with the Velvet Underground and James Brown in the hugely influential but never played category. Heavy metal was born the day “Black Sabbath” was released. Some will say that Led Zeppelin was the birth of heavy metal, but in 1969 they were more Yarbirds than the rock and roll juggernaut that they’d become later on. No, a whole new genre of rock was born with the first song on that album. The song “Black Sabbath” (yes on the album “Black Sabbath” by the group Black Sabbath) was both a tale of some unfortunate being thrown into Hell and a cautionary tale about what was to come. Not the standard musical fare in 1969! They actually mention Satan by name on two different songs on the album, “Black Sabbath” and “NIB”.
          If you read up on what was being said about them back then, you’ll see many people decrying “Devil Worship” and warning that the youth could get sucked into evil things by listening to the music. It was pretty obvious that they were put off by songs about evil and Satan. An understandable reaction, the trouble is that there is a big difference between singing about him and glorifying him. The song “NIB” is a perfect example. For those of you that have not heard the song, you really must. And make sure that you hear the original, not the lame remake with Primus. The song just drips with power, darkness, and (in my mind) epitomizes the Black Sabbath sound. You gotta play this as loud as you can to get the full effect. Power rock is as much about the physical feel of the sound waves hitting you as the actual music is. The basic chords of the song are as memorable as “In A Gadda Da Vidda” or even “Sunshine of Your Love.” Tony Iommi has a distinctive guitar sound that was originally caused by him having to use prosthetic fingertips. He had to loosen the strings slightly and this gave that incredible dark sound. Here are the lyrics to “NIB”:

Oh yeah!
Some people say my love cannot be true
Please believe me, my love, and I’ll show you
I will give you those things you thought unreal
The sun, the moon, the stars all bear my seal
Oh yeah!
Follow me now and you will not regret
Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me ’till the end of time

Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel

Oh yeah!
Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who I am
My name is lucifer, please take my hand

Oh yeah!
Follow me now and you will not regret
Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me ’till the end of time

Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel
I’m going to feel

Oh yeah!
Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who I am
My name is lucifer, please take my hand

See, isn’t Satan a great guy? No, not really, the song portrays him as a lying, attractive being that will drag you down with him if you believe his lies. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. Black Sabbath (at least during the Ozzy years) never portrayed Satan as anything but something to be feared. He is powerful, scary, and dangerous. For a rock song, this is pretty adventurous stuff. Certainly it has more meat to it than the superficial “evil” songs of late. Think about “Enter Sandman” by Mettalica. The gist is that the sandman is bad and scary. Ummm, not exactly plumbing the depths...
          Black Sabbath was the first to explore the darker aspects of rock and roll in 1969. There was a definite change in the air over the next few years, culminating in the defeat of Hubert Humphrey to Richard Nixon and the concert at Altimont. While the Stones and Led Zeppelin paced public perception, Black Sabbath was way ahead of them. They felt the shift years earlier and started a new way of looking at the world through rock and roll. If you haven’t yet, you should at the very least check out their first album. It’s an original.


N.I.B. - Black Sabbath

I caught a documentary on VH1 about metal. It was done pretty well and it filled in some gaps I had about the development of it. I'm not a metal fn really, but I'm curious about all types of music, where they come from, their influences, etc. Anyway, they were talking about metal's resurgence in Britan in the early 80's and they interviewed some people at a local club that played metal.

Keep in mind that there was no band there, just a DJ, and he played metal exclusively. And of course it was all guys.... Then they showed what some of the guys were doing to kick up the metal experience (without a band) up a notch. They started bringing in cardboard guitars to add to the air guitar experience. Seeing these guys rocking out on cardboard guitars in a club filled with other guys is just... sad. You can see what I'm talking about in this video at around the 2:56 mark and at the end. The rest of it is amazing as well...



This reminds me a bit of the current craze with "guitar hero" and "rockband" games. Guys spent a lot of time perfecting their air guitar performance on the cardboard guitars and God only knows how much time is spent on those games. Why not pick up an actual guitar? The guy in the video admits that it would take him 5 years or so to become competent. Yeah, that's some time, but then you could actually play music instead of waiting for someone to make it for you. The thing that seems to escape most people's notice is that even if you never get all that good at it, your appreciation of music will increase incredibly. Learning an instrument really is the best way to learn about music in general.

So put down the cardboard boys! Chicks dig actual guitarists, not fake ones...

I worked with a guy, a rather odd guy. He could best be described as a redneck marxist. Anyway, he once related a memory from child hood that I could definitely relate to. He said that when he was a kid, the older kids that he was afraid of were the ones with the prismatic KISS belt buckles. You remember them don't you? Around 1978 or so?

(image from wesclark.com)

You remember the kinds of guys who wore them? Well, those types were still around when I got to high school. The big belt buckle thing had passed, but the attitude was the same. Check out this clip from the movie "Heavy Metal Parking Lot." It's from 1986 and filmed in front of the old Caps center in Landover MD before a Judas Priest/ Dokken concert. Check out the hair! Check out the cars! Check out the air guitar! I don't know if you guys that grew up in larger cities had a similar sub-culture, but they are unforgettable. have fun watching this!



I wonder what would have happened if you had told any of those people that Rob Haleford was gay?

On the way over to dad's place I heard "Angel of Death" by Slayer on the radio. It may be the hardest, heaviest music I have ever heard on the air. I had to change the station because I couldn't really take any more of it. It wasn't the style, it just unnerved me... Maybe that's why I didn't think the Batman film was all that, I had already been creeped out by pros...