Re: Re: Black Sabbath
Originally posted by BigBadBaldy
As a real Sabbath fan, this is one of my BIGGEST problems with the way people mistakenly view them.
Sabbath did NOT dement things into negative spiritual personal messages.
the message of black sabbaths albums (the first 7 at least) was neither positive or negative...
if you look closely you can see an album by album evolution of their message
in Black Sabbath they were clearly playing the satanist card to its fullest effect.. it was at least a celebration of satan and the occult.... a negative message depending on personal interpretation.. although many tracks had mixed messages which were misinterperated.. ex. NIB, though by many to mean "nativity in black" was actually the bands name for Geezer Butlers 'nib' like beard.. that entire section of the album (The Wasp, NIB, and others) was IMO the best pure blues writing Sabbath ever did..
in Paranoid the lyrics took on a more popularist, rebel tone, inkeeping with the times and the growing popularity of the band.. the response was predictably positive..
after Paranoid the back lash from right wing groups against the bands new found spotlight caused the lyrical shift we see in Masters of Reality.. we even see pro-christian themes in some tracks
the rest of the albums feature a mix of ideas, i am curious about the hard turn in Sabbath bloody Sabbath... by far their most controversial work (or at least album cover), i cannot help but wonder if that was deliberate plea for media attention in an attempt to rediscover the occult appeal they had going into Paranoid..
in any case.. regardless of their actual lyrical message, the presentation of the music, and their image was decidedly negative or at least dark themed..
hence their appeal to rebellious teenagers who enjoyed the image of listening to 'evil' music.. even if the actual lyrical content was not..
the context of this discussion that i intended was meant to focus more on the actual sound of the music than the lyrics as i am looking for parallel streams in position wrt musical convention that sabbath continued..
definitely, black sabbath is to rock, what Public Enemy was to rap, what NIN was to electronica..
is there a classical equivalent? some composers were certainly black listed by the church.. but i dont know enough about classical to give examples...
In either case, Black Sabbath are the only band I have heard that put out 7 consecutive STUNNING albums without a single stinker right from the start..
no other band (except maybe the beatles) have had that kind of consistency... arguably Led Zeppelin as well but i always thought that Physical Graphiti (although amazing at times) and definitely Presence were inferior albums to Sabbath bloody Sabbath and Sabotage resp'ly. Mind you, Zeppelin was a mess at that period of the bands carrer.
If you like any of those early albums you will likely enjoy them all.. very impressive
