What is this that stands before me? The First Black Sabbath album: The birth of heavy metal.



What is this that stands before me?  The First Black Sabbath album: The birth of heavy metal.

The atmosphere of the rock and roll scene in 1969 is one of the most interesting in the history of music.  There was the San Francisco Bay Scene that hailed Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Country Joe and the Fish, Grateful Dead, and music that was all things peace, love, and the counterculture movement.  Down in Los Angeles there was what I view as the early hard scene with bands like the Doors and Love, the folk rock scene with bands like The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, the plain bizarre scene with bands like the Mothers of Invention, some of the best pop and contemporary music of the 60’s, and the one and only Beach Boys.  New York City had it's own unique scene with artists like Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel in Greenwich Village, bands ranging from Vanilla Fudge to The Velvet Underground, and some of the greatest songwriters in history including Neil Diamond, Carol King, Gerry Goffin, Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stroller, Laura Nyro, and Neal Sedaka, all housed in New York City's Brill Building.  In the Midwest, the birth of the American hard rock and to a huge degree the future punk scene was happening with bands like the Amboy Dukes, Alice Cooper, MC5, Grand Funk Railroad, Bob Seger System, and The Stooges as well as the one and only Motown scene.  While over in England it was the tail end of the bands that would immerge from the British Invasion scene with The Beatles still being the top dogs.  However, at this point in the late 60’s many bands immerged that were heavily influenced by the American blues scene.  Bands like John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds had for many years at this point incorporated a lot of blues into their music and bands like Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Savoy Brown, and Wishbone Ash emerge and firmly establish the British blues scene.  The original Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin also immerge and set up a huge foundation and standard for heavier blues based rock and roll.  During this amazing period for music in England a blues based band called Earth would develop a sound that although based in blues, was very heavy, dark, and extremely different from the bands that influenced them, Earth would change their name to Black Sabbath, a very fitting name they took from a famous horror movie starring Boris Karloff of the same name.

When Black Sabbath got their first record deal they had very little money to record their debut record.  In November 1969 for the cost of £500.00 they entered Regent Sound Studios in London, turned on the recording equipment, performed what was their live show (most of the songs were recorded in one take with Ozzy doing the vocals while the rest band played, a practice very rarely done in the studio), and 12 hours later the album was recorded, mixed, and complete.  On Friday, February 13, 1970, the self-titled first Black Sabbath album was released and along with Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, the birth of heavy metal was now official.

Now let’s step into Mr. Peabody’s Way-Back Machine and transition back to the year 1993 in the thriving suburb of Sandy, UT.  I was 16 years old and I had saved up my money from washing dishes at the Chin-Wah Chinese Restaurant and bought my very first CD player.  Because CD’s were a lot more expensive than cassettes, for the first couple of years I owned a CD player I went out of my way to buy stuff that I did not own at cassette (I owned about 500 cassettes when I bought my CD player).  I had been a fan of Black Sabbath since I was 10 years old at this point and owned a few of their albums, but for some odd reason I had never bought their first album.  I was at a record shop going through a bin of $9.00 CD’s and there it was, the first Black Sabbath.  I had never heard any of the songs off of it, but for the price of $9.00 I could not say no and I bought it.  Since I did not have a CD player in my bright yellow 1989 Dodge Shadow at that time as I drove home with the first Black Sabbath album I honestly thought and was fully expecting this album to sound more like Paranoid or Master of Reality.  Little did I know what was lying in wait ready to strike.

I walked into my parents’ house, ripped the plastic off the CD as fast as I could, and put the first Black Sabbath into my parents’ CD player.  The sound of a very rainy day accompanying the sound of a very faint church bell came over the speakers creating a very unique atmosphere, then suddenly and without warning Tony Iommi loudly strums an F# and the album is off and running!  I was completely taken back, it had loud and intense chords mingle with very slow and eerie riffs in between bursts of musical energy in the song “Black Sabbath”.  Then where this song becomes even cooler is the last segment when Tony Iommi starts to play the closing riff and the tempo really speeds up.  And that was just the beginning of the CD, then came “The Wizard” with Ozzy Osbourne on the harmonica, a classic blues style song taken up a few notches.  Then the song segments of “Wasp”, “Behind the Wall of Sleep”, “Bassically”, and “NIB” came on and I was again completely blown away.   The foundation of all of the legendary guitar riffs and loud bass lines which would make Black Sabbath famous, and the rest of the album was flawless.  It immediately got a second listen after it wrapped up for the first time.  What made this album so unique to me is the album for being so amazing, it still had a very loose and live feel to it.  It has a feel to it that no other Black Sabbath album has ever been able to recreate, making the album really stand out.

I immediately pulled out my bass guitar and figured out how to play the songs on the first Black Sabbath album and very indirectly Geezer Butler was my bass teacher.  I consider him to be one of the greatest bassists in the history of rock and roll and has one of the most unique playing styles.  When I was 21 I was started to learn how to play guitar and after two years of being completely self-taught I could do a few things, but I still wasn’t great.  Then one day I was in a guitar shop and the guitar books for the first Black Sabbath and Paranoid were on the shelf and I bought them immediately.  These books were challenging for me to learn, but I learned something about my playing style that would help me greatly improve through Black Sabbath.  I don’t know why this is the case with me, but if I can play on song on bass (even if the bass line is incredibly simple) I am over half way there on figuring out the song on guitar.  As I strummed these songs on guitar for the first time the bass lines were immediately in my mind, I positioned my fingers accordingly, and then from these books I was finally able to learn the chords and a lot of the leads.  Just how Geezer Butler had indirectly been my bass teacher, now Tony Iommi had indirectly became my guitar teacher, and I would make my first major quantum leap as a guitarist. 

Tony Iommi is one of my favorite guitarists in history, besides learning the songs of Black Sabbath and his playing style, he has been inspirational to me for his perseverance and drive to become a great guitarist.   In 1965 when Tony Iommi was 16 years old he worked in a metal shop and on the last day of his job he accidentally cut off the fingertips of his middle and ring fingers on his right hand.  Tony, being a left handed guitarist, was very devastated and uncertain if he would ever be able to play guitar again.  However, Tony’s manager came to his house and brought him over a record by legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and was amazed by what he was hearing.  His manager then mentioned that Django could only play with two of his fingers because of a horrible injury to his hand caused by a fire.  This encouraged Tony to continue playing guitar despite the injuries to his right hand.  At first Tony tried to play the guitar right handed and just couldn’t do it.  One day he found an empty plastic detergent bottle and melted it down into two fingertip sized plastic globs.  He then took a finger nail file and started to file down the globs into a shape where he could use them to play the guitar.  The next problem was the plastic did not have enough friction to hold the strings down when playing.  Tony then cut a small piece of leather into two pieces, re-melted the plastic to insert the leather into the artificial fingertips, and once again used his trusty finger nail file to get the friction in the leather just right.

Once Tony had made his own artificial fingertips, the battle was only half over.  In order for the artificial fingertips to stay on his fingers when he was playing he could not push down on the guitar strings as hard as he was used to, he then started to use lighter tension strings on his guitar and had to retain his fingers not to push as hard.  Most guitarists when they play are feeling for the frets and strings so they know where their hand is as they play.  However, because of Tony’s artificial fingertips, in two of his fingers he could not feel the frets or the strings.  He had to completely retrain himself to where he instead had to really listen for the notes rather than feeling for the notes.  After a very massive trial, Tony was able to overcome what happened to his right hand at the sawmill that unfortunate day in 1965.  I am a firm believer that God will never give us a trial that we cannot overcome and during some of the hardest trials I have gone through I have reflected on Tony’s experience.  It has been my experience through my life that the times of my most intense trials I have experienced the most substantial growth and that God will provide a way for all of us to overcome our trials and it may not always be the easiest way, but it is always the best way.

During the fall and winter of 1998 I was working as a temporary at the U.S. Postal Services main office in Salt Lake City, UT, primarily running an OCR letter sorting machine.  The original four members of Black Sabbath had reunited, performed some shows together in the U.K., and were releasing a new live album with a couple of brand new songs.  I was listening to a radio show where Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward were being interviewed about the new record and just loving every second of it.  Then the reporter asked where Black Sabbath would begin their U.S. reunion tour and straight out of the mouth of Ozzy Osbourne he said “New Year’s Eve in Phoenix, Arizona”.  My jaw about hit the floor, I have family in the Phoenix area and I knew I could pull off going to see this once in a lifetime concert.  I immediately emailed one of my cousins in Phoenix, he bought the tickets, and my brother Alan and I planned our travel to Phoenix for the concert.

The concert itself was one of the biggest events I have ever attended.  It was Black Sabbath with Pantera, Megadeth, Slayer, and Soulfly at Bank One Ballpark.  We were able to get a nice spot on the field of the ballpark and just enjoyed the show.  All of the supporting bands were excellent!  Then it came time for Black Sabbath.  I will never forget how when they entered the stage by being raised by platforms below the stage.  I was completely taken by surprise.  Then the sounds of the faint rain and the church bell started to play over the P.A. and they went right into the song “Black Sabbath”.  I was completely amazed.  I never thought I would ever see the fully reunited Black Sabbath and they did not disappoint.  My cousins, older brother, and I had an amazing time!  One thing that makes this show very special to me is shortly after my cousin bought us the tickets for the New Year’s Eve show in Phoenix, tickets went on sale for the Salt Lake City show.  I was pretty excited that I would be able to see Black Sabbath twice.  But as the tour progressed due to health and other problems only a hand full of the shows of Black Sabbath reunion tour actually happened and the Salt Lake City show actually got cancelled twice.  If Alan and I did not have gone to Phoenix we would not have been able to see Black Sabbath at all.

We spent a few fun days with our family in Phoenix before we headed back to Sandy, UT.  One of my favorite memories of this trip was Alan and I on the way home were north of Flagstaff, Arizona, I was speeding and ended up getting pulled over by Arizona Highway Patrol.  I got out the registration and my driver’s license and was chatting with the officer hoping I would not get a ticket while at the same my older was snacking on some Wheat Thins and spraying some cheese on them.  While I am talking with the officer the spray cheese bottle ran out and a popping sound came out of the bottle.  In a blink of an eye the officer pulled out her gun and was in a defensive position which scared the tar out of me to be bold.  Then she apologized and said “I’m sorry boys, but when I hear popping like that I react”.  I accepted her apology and I think because she realized he scared me pretty bad she gave me a warning rather than an expensive ticket.  This still ranks very high as one of the most enjoyable and memorable vacations Alan and I have ever been on.

The first Black Sabbath album is considered by many to be the flagship heavy metal album and is still influencing many talented musicians.  It is an album that simply cannot be duplicated and 42 years after its worldwide release has earned Black Sabbath a place in the rock and roll hall of fame and the album is today ranked by several critics to be one of the best albums ever made.  It’s amazing what can happen in the studio when a band has very little money and time, but has an amazing amount of creative energy.