This month marks the 50th birthday of the genesis of my favorite form of music. It’s hard to believe that metal’s been with us that long. (Of course, it’s also hard to believe that I’ve been around almost that long.) It was Feb. 13, 1970, when the first true heavy metal record was released, Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut.
Sure, there were bands that showed elements of the style before the release of Black Sabbath. Arguments are often made for Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, Vanilla Fudge, Steppenwolf, even Jimi Hendrix or Cream. No doubt, those bands laid the foundation metal was built on, but Sabbath was the first to completely bring it together.
It’s easy for me to forget just how good this record is. It sometimes gets lost behind other great Black Sabbath records like Paranoid, where every single song is a certified metal classic – or my personal favorite, Sabotage, which I consider their most underrated work. But revisiting Black Sabbath on the album’s 50th anniversary, it strikes me again just what a defining moment the album was in rock.
The album begins with its title track, “Black Sabbath.” Since the record was released nearly three years before I was born, I can’t say for sure, but I have to believe that the opening riff of this song signaled a shift in rock music for listeners hearing it for the first time. Those three simple notes ring out like doom bells across a barren landscape, punctuated by an actual bell toll and Bill Ward’s pounding drums. It wasn’t quite like anything else that the musical world had heard before. Ozzy Osbourne’s mocking voice then croons out dark lyrics about a figure in black before the whole band explodes into a galloping riff that’s the predecessor of bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, who later brought the style to more prominence. Even today, the song stands as a monumental moment in rock music, and arguably, the most important song in metal history.
But most folks know that Black Sabbath didn’t start out as a metal group. They started as a cover and blues band called Earth, and those early years certainly color this record. The blues influence is first felt here on one of my all-time favorite Black Sabbath songs, “The Wizard,” which opens with a harmonica piece and really showcases some of Ward’s best drum licks. If not for the down-tuned, distorted guitar from Tony Iommi, the song could easily be a blues number. The band also offers up a boogie piece in the opening of “Wicked World,” showcasing Ward again, which is followed by a heavy riff that also remains full of soul.
The blues influence, though, is perhaps most notably felt on the band’s cover of Aynsley Dunbar’s “Warning.” It’s a very faithful, practically note-for-note, interpretation of the song that gives Iommi a chance to show off some of the soulful licks that he used sparingly but effectively across the entire Sabbath catalog. “Warning” is one of two covers on the record, a fact that many people aren’t aware of. The other is “Evil Woman,” originally done in a psychedelic version complete with a horn section by the band Crow. Again, it’s a fairly faithful cover, dropping the horns in favor of guitars, but keeping the groove with Geezer Butler’s thumping bass line.
When most people think of Black Sabbath, however, they think of the big slabalicious power chord riffs that Tony Iommi pumped out over the first six records in their catalog. The birth of that sound is on this record as well, in the form of “N.I.B.” It opens with the Butler bass solo “Bassically,” a signature moment for the guy who, in my opinion, was the backbone of Black Sabbath. While Iommi’s huge riff powers the song, as with so many Sabbath tunes, it’s Butler’s bass that steers it. For the most part doubling Iommi’s riff, Butler adds some rhythmic embellishments of his own.
The only real weakness of the album has nothing to do with the music, but is the strange mash-up of songs on the U.S. edition of the album. “Wasp,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” “Bassically” and “N.I.B,” for example, are all packaged as one track on most editions of the record. Likewise for “Bit of Finger,” the dark acoustic number “Sleeping Village” and “Warning.” It can be frustrating when you want to listen to a particular song, and I’ve often wondered why it was done that way.
On another interesting note, “Wasp,” “Bassically” and “Bit of Finger,” all brief instrumental intros to the songs that follow, are not credited as full songs on the European editions, which properly split the songs. “Wicked World” was not included on the original European album, and “Evil Woman” was not included on the original U.S. version. They finally got it all together, along with some alternate versions and outtakes, for a deluxe edition released in Europe in 2009 and finally in the States in 2016.
If it’s been a while since you listened to Black Sabbath’s debut, this month might be a good time to rediscover it. If you’re one of the few who haven’t heard the album, go listen to it now. Even if you’re not a metal fan, you might be surprised at what you find.
