Probably my favorite Sabbath song.

Excellent video. This video is on that home video they put out where they interview Iommi and Butler between songs.

/Probably the best Sabbath song.

Bill Ward--pure savagery.

I now wish to get my licks in before the dumb "haters" (ignorant children) arrive here.

This is total genius.
Please note the date. The less educated will certainly not comprehend this.

THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN EXISTENCE EVEN REMOTELY LIKE THIS IN 1969 WHEN BLACK SABBATH WAS FORMED

Black Sabbath was the single most profoundly ORIGINAL band ever formed. No band before Sabbath came anywhere near this in sound and no band before Sabbath ever started with their signature sound already fully realized and developed for their first release.

Goth,grunge,doom,heavy metal,industrial,punk,stoner....etc...ALL owe an immeasurable debt to Black Sabbath.

\m/

no band before Sabbath ever started with their signature sound already fully realized and developed for their first release.

This is what impresses me so much about BS to this day.
Geezer, Ward, Iommi were already damn good musicians by the time their first album hit.
Always loved watching Geezer play. His hands are amazing.
Wards' on time every beat, rock steady, improvising all the while with fills nobody had ever heard before.

Ozzy always seemed to me to be the ultimate fan up there on stage, watching the others play and enjoying it so much.

Many to choose from , this is my favorite.

Children of the Grave (new window)

NSFW heavy metal concert banter


craigdamage
All that and a salute to Toni's fingers (Mother necessity where would we be ,Without the inventions of your progeny?)

absolute brummie brilliance.

craigdamage: THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN EXISTENCE EVEN REMOTELY LIKE THIS IN 1969 WHEN BLACK SABBATH WAS FORMED

Blue Cheer (new window) would like a word with you.

/Nineteen sixty-eight

Thanks subby, great song off the first album I ever bought. Saved up my allowance and went downtown two weeks later to buy their first one

/lawn

dstanley: craigdamage: THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN EXISTENCE EVEN REMOTELY LIKE THIS IN 1969 WHEN BLACK SABBATH WAS FORMED

Blue Cheer (new window) would like a word with you.

/Nineteen sixty-eight

Sir Lord Baltimore, Frigid Pink, Pentagram, Dust...

Sabbath was definitly better then most, but there was pleanty of shiat going on then that was similar.

Don't hate the chldren. I have a son 15 and one 13 and both have NO time for PAnic At The Disco or the like. They are both huge BS fans.

/asa well as Cream, Hendrix and Bob Marley. I've taught them well.

Crewmannumber6: Don't hate the chldren. I have a son 15 and one 13 and both have NO time for PAnic At The Disco or the like. They are both huge BS fans.

I'm amazed at some of the songs in Guitar Hero / Rock Band. Good number of old school stuff that the kids are getting into. Whatever it takes.

I listened to "Sweet Leaf" as a kid before I knew what it was about and loved it at first because of the coughing start. When I head the rest of BS's collection I was hooked.

/p.s. your account id would be funnier if your name were blank in your profile

I swear to God--I am just this very second reading the above posts and have NOT yet rushed to wiki or allmusic.com

Check your facts and dates kids.

Sir Lord Baltimore and Pentagram came well AFTER Sabbath.(and Budgie...etc....)

Blue Cheer was before Sabbath(so was MC5) and Sabbath credited Blue Cheer with influence but there is NO COMPARISON.

Blue Cheer was loud and fuzzed but all their songs were major key blues 12-bar stuff. Their songs are all bouncy and up tempo.

Black Sabbath was massive de-tuned minor-key pentatonic slow tempo sludge the likes of which had never been known before.

Yes--there was fuzz guitar and tube amp overdrive before Sabbath but as I said before and will NOT capitulate--

there was NO band anything like Black Sabbath before Black Sabbath.

Just like you can trace "punk" to before the Ramones and Sex Pistols but.......

BigG: Crewmannumber6: Don't hate the chldren. I have a son 15 and one 13 and both have NO time for PAnic At The Disco or the like. They are both huge BS fans.

I'm amazed at some of the songs in Guitar Hero / Rock Band. Good number of old school stuff that the kids are getting into. Whatever it takes.

I listened to "Sweet Leaf" as a kid before I knew what it was about and loved it at first because of the coughing start. When I head the rest of BS's collection I was hooked.

/p.s. your account id would be funnier if your name were blank in your profile

Wow, that never occured to me, good one! I'll go change it right now. Thanks

awesome video!

.....btw--when I say "before" or "after" I refer to albums officially released.

If I recollect some bands like Budgie and Sir Lord Baltimore can be traced back to the mid 60s when they were kids in a garage or doing blues covers in a marquee somewhere.


If you REALLY wanna split hairs as to the origin of "heavy" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUHz0i8_ziA

that clip is live from 1978 but it was written/recorded in 1958.

It was so "heavy" and menacing that it was actually banned from the radio despite being an instrumental.

I remember hearing Black Sabbath, the song, for the first time. It was evil. I used it at a Halloween haunted house. The fact it was in a church made it that much better. People freaked out.

War Pigs, NIB, Symptom of the Universe, Changes, Snowblind. So many classics. BS with Dio was decent, but BS with the Ozzman...well, they are the granddaddies of metal. Like craigdamage said, so many bands owe so much to them.

/Let's not overlook the fact Ozzy is going on forty years of kickin ass and making people famous.

Well, you guys talked me into it. I'm going to put on some Black Sabbath right now. Why don't the radio stations play the intro to NIB? I love that intro. It starts out raw and just slowly builds and builds until it explodes into awesome metally goodness.

\m/

Grassy Ass Subby. Just what I needed for the morning.

craigdamage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUHz0i8_ziA

You could have posted the original version.

This version sucks ass.

the guys from sabbath are the godfathers man.

those other bands you guys mention may have come first, but none of them had any musicians that stand out in the way that everyone in sabbath did. everyone in the original sabbath line-up was absolutely one of the best at what they did.

and nearly 40 years after their first album, their heaviness is in no way impacted by any band that came after them.

There really is nothing better than Sabbath. It's not like I listen to them all the time, but when one of their songs come up, it just puts me in a great place.

the aural equivalent of sludge
I'll take Screaming Lord Sutch (and his heavy friends) over this crap anyday

Black Sabbath has always been one of my favorite bands since buying Paranoid in high school (maybe 8 years ago - I'll kindly get off your lawns now). Very few bands come close to their levels of talent, originality, and influence. The first three albums are masterpieces, and the next three, while not as good, are still excellent. My favorite song by them is probably "Into The Void". The riffs are some of Iommi's nastiest, and it's a great way to close the album. "Children of the Grave", "Faeries Wear Boots", "Snowblind", "Under The Sun", "A National Acrobat", "Hole in the Sky", and "Symptom of the Universe" are all amazing songs, in addition to the hits you know and love.

One band that nobody has mentioned yet is Vanilla Fudge, who was a big influence on both Sabbath and Zeppelin. Elements of Carmine Appice's drumming can be heard in both Ward and Bonham. In fact, his brother, Vinnie, joined BS when Ward dropped out in the 80's.

Hell yeah, DontThinkTwice, Vanilla Fudge is awesome too.

For me though, picking my favorite Black Sabbath song would be like picking one of my favorite children.

That being said, my favorite is probably A National Acrobat.

lsc78
You could have posted the original version.

This version sucks ass.



Please tell me you are aware that was recorded LIVE.
Are you aware that live music is different than recorded music?
Seriously--some people don't know.

I for one really enjoy that version of "Rumble"
Sounds almost like Kyuss covering Link Wray.

Besides--the "original" version on youtube is just an image of a 45 spinning around.

the bass is never loud enough in these vids

The entire series from this concert is legend. Best, hardest Sabbath ever.

craigdamage: Everything comes from something else, especially in rock & roll.

The Beatles (Ozzy's favorite all time band), The Who, Steppenwolf, Hawkwind, The Stooges, Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer... = Black Sabbath

I saw Black Sabbath in 1975 and it is still the most frightening, exhilarating and memorable concert I've ever been to.

artman: The Beatles (Ozzy's favorite all time band), The Who, Steppenwolf, Hawkwind, The Stooges, Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer... = Black Sabbath

sabbath sounds absolutely nothing like any of those bands. heres a list thats just as valid: the kinks, django reinhardt, frank sinatra, elvis.

that run from the first record to sabotage is hard to beat. i dont hate the dio stuff, but its not near as good. master of reality and sabotage are my favorites. bills drumming on symptom of the universe is ruling.

Headbanging, 1970-style...

20-odd years listening to these guys and they still blow me away every time!

1969

Black Sabbath records their first record.

First song side one.

"Black Sabbath"

Those first three massive churning power chords.

Nothing in rock and roll sounded like that before. PERIOD.

Bands started getting heavier and heavier by around 67-68 or so.

Yardbirds "Stroll On" for example and the jack-hammer chords Pete Townsend did on "Young Man Blues" from "Live at Leeds"

Cream and especially Blue Cheer were "heavy" but NOTHING comes close to Sabbath. Not even MC5.

All others were just 12-bar major key blues with some extra overdrive.

BLACK SABBATH WAS ELECTRIFIED DOOM

Slow-sludgy-molten-stoned-dirge-menacing-and utterly goddamned wicked.

I rest my case--no more.

First heard "Iron Man" when I was seven years old in 1972. It scard the hell out of me. It was like a horror movie set to music. I've been a die hard fan ever since!

i've been waiting all day to play this

As one of the "old guys" around here I can tell you there was nothing like Black Sabbath back in the day. I went to an early Sabbath concert - honestly having no idea about the band. Never saw nothing like it before. Just power unleashed. Thing is, I look back now and see how lucky I was to see one of the greatest bands ever in their prime. Had no idea how great it was then.

I feel sorry for you younger folks that didn't have the opportunity to grow up in the 70's and early 80's like I did. Concerts were a HAPPENING back then. Major stuff for a great band to come to town.

Now I just get to hear about how some song is in a freakin' video game and that someone can really play it on Guitar Hero. Really sucks that great bands are no longer being developed - thanks XBox.

\nn/ \nn/


/too much rock for one hand

Added lyrics?

I was on a cross country flight last weekend and in the row behind, a baby was screaming his head off, for at least half the flight. After the initial burst, I didn't hear almost any of it because I played the first five Sabbath records on full volume on my iPod.

Best album: Master of Reality
My favorite: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sounds like it was recorded with two tin cans and a piece of string: Master of Reality

Incredible band before the cocaine did them in, I love the lyrics, which are *not* D&D territory for the most part. What a bass player Geezer is, too.

Craigdamage: No band before Sabbath ever started with their signature sound already fully realized and developed for their first release.

Nonsense, Led Zeppelin with their debut album did it 13 months before the Black Sabbath album came out, King Crimson did it with the influential In the Court of the Crimson King 5 months before the Sabs first album came out and of course, tons of bands have done that since 1970. I don't get why you think that's a rare thing for a band to do.

Came for a link to the Dresden Dolls live cover of War Pigs and left disappointed.

Black Sabbath from the same concert (new window)

Iommi's intro is frickin' awesome.

\m/

Henry Holland

Led Zeppelin's first record was mostly blues covers(credited and non-credited) and was basically nothing that Cream hadn't already done back in 66/67. (although heavier)

King Crimson's first record--pure masterpiece as it was, was merely a first tier in the development of that band. They developed their signature sound with "Larks Tongues in Aspic" sometime later. (I won't reject dispute on this one)
I would say "In the Court of the Crimson King" was not that too much different than what the Moody Blues were already doing. King Crimson was of course much more radical and experimental and of course "21st Century Schizoid Man" was utterly unique.

I also believe that Queen in the 70s was a band that began with their complete development in full realization from the onset.

chickyraptor: "Ozzy!! I need a word that rhymes with 'masses'"!

(comes to) "Whuh? Masses?"

"Perfect!"

I always thought that was kinda funny.
//huge BS fan

On an Ozzy 'hits' album they included an early version of this song with the original lyrics, which were much better:

Witches gather at black masses
Bodies burning in red ashes
On the hill the church in ruin.
Tis the scene of evil doings

It's a place for all bad sinners
Watch them eating dead rats' innards.
I guess it's the same, whereever you may go
Oh lord yeah

Carry banners which denounce the lord
See me rotting in my grave
See them anoint my head with dead rat's blood
See them stick the stake through me
Oh

Don't hold me back cause I just gotta go
Satan's got a hold of my soul now
Lords got my brain instinct with blood obscene
Look in my eyes I'm paranoid
Yeah

On the scene a priest appears
Sinners falling at his feet
Satan sends out to inquire
Casts the priest into the fire

It's the place for all bad sinners.
Watch them eating dead rats' inners
I guess it's the same, whereever you may go
Oh lord yeah

craigdamage: Led Zeppelin's first record was mostly blues covers(credited and non-credited) and was basically nothing that Cream hadn't already done back in 66/67. (although heavier)

King Crimson's first record--pure masterpiece as it was, was merely a first tier in the development of that band. They developed their signature sound with "Larks Tongues in Aspic" sometime later. (I won't reject dispute on this one)
I would say "In the Court of the Crimson King" was not that too much different than what the Moody Blues were already doing. King Crimson was of course much more radical and experimental and of course "21st Century Schizoid Man" was utterly unique.

I also believe that Queen in the 70s was a band that began with their complete development in full realization from the onset.

all this except the first crimson record utterly sucks except for schizoid man, it cant possibly be considered a 'masterpiece'. also, they had developed their sound by the 2nd record for sure, although im not sure what 'their sound' really is being that they changed so drastically so many times. kinda the same with queen, the sound was sort of there on the first record but they didnt REALLY sound like queen til the 2nd one.

i always wondered if in that one verse in fairies wear boots after 'smokin and trippin is all that you do' or whatever where he just goes 'yeeeeaaaaahhh' was a case of him forgetting the words in the studio and they just kept it that way.

SpaceLord: Iommi's intro is frickin' awesome.

yeah, out of tune guitar rules.

craigdamage:

BLACK SABBATH WAS ELECTRIFIED DOOM

Slow-sludgy-molten-stoned-dirge-menacing-and utterly goddamned wicked.

I rest my case--no more.

True that. I'm an oldie. I know more about that musical era than most people know about their spouse's moles. There were "heavy" bands in '69 and '70, but Sabbath was the towering wall of steel evil. No one - NO ONE - had a sound so malevolent and tortured. You can thank Iommi for it; he was the songcrafter. Ozzy was merely the voice (and what a searing, metallic voice he had!).

It's my firm belief that Robert Fripp listened to Sabbath and was taken aback. I'm sure he found the content puerile, but that SOUND! I'm convinced he was seduced by that sound. Fripp composed Red in 1973, released it in 1974. It was his realization of that sound. Fripp was far more introspective (and talented) than Sabbath, but he realized what effect that wall of droning metal had on listeners. The songs "Red" and "One More Red Nightmare" veritably echoed Iommi's sound.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Thanks for the greenlight. /hasn't checked out thread yet

CitizenTed: It's my firm belief that Robert Fripp listened to Sabbath and was taken aback. I'm sure he found the content puerile, but that SOUND! I'm convinced he was seduced by that sound. Fripp composed Red in 1973, released it in 1974. It was his realization of that sound. Fripp was far more introspective (and talented) than Sabbath, but he realized what effect that wall of droning metal had on listeners. The songs "Red" and "One More Red Nightmare" veritably echoed Iommi's sound.

not sure about this. the 'doom' was already apparent in schizoid man. the 2nd side of 'lizard' is just as evil as sabbath ever got on their most satanic fueled day. same with 'pictures of a city' which was around at the exact same time sabbaths debut happened.

oh, and 'devils triangle' which they were doing well before the sabbath debut.

mahavishnunj: CitizenTed: The songs "Red" and "One More Red Nightmare" veritably echoed Iommi's sound.

not sure about this. the 'doom' was already apparent in schizoid man. the 2nd side of 'lizard' is just as evil as sabbath ever got on their most satanic fueled day. same with 'pictures of a city' which was around at the exact same time sabbaths debut happened.

oh, and 'devils triangle' which they were doing well before the sabbath debut.

I hear what you're saying, but early Crimson distortion was of a more trebly, "shocking" nature (Schizoid Man, Pictures of a City, etc). Even Lark's Tongue had some heavy distortion. But the sound in "Red" is altogether thicker, heavier and more malevolent. If it weren't for the musical complexity, I would almost count "Red" as a Sabbath song.

Just MHO.