The Devil and Mr. Osbourne — Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath

1973

I like a good scare, but when it comes to devils, demons and the occult, count me out.   The problem is, these topics/influences turn up frequently in rock and roll, going all the way back to blues great, Robert Johnson’s, Crossroads and his fabled deal with the devil.  It’s one of the reasons I was never able to completely embrace Black Sabbath.

Sure, the Spinal Tap mockumentary did a terrific job of exposing the absurdity behind misogynistic, devil worshipping metal bands like Sabbath.  Then in the early 2000’s Ozzy’s reality TV show, further deflated the band’s legacy and fear factor as the Osbourne’s aging, feeble patriarch mumbled and stumbled his way to a new kind of stardom.  I don’t think he ever really knew that we were laughing at him.  Against that backdrop it’s easy to forget that Ozzy Osbourne was a scary dude in the 70s and Black Sabbath were a legitimately frightening band.  For god’s sake, Ozzie actually bit the head off of a live bat during one performance and the damn bat bit him back.  He was treated for rabies.

At the time of its release, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was the kind of record you hid from your parents and kept you awake at night.   Sex, nudity, blood, death, the occult, devil worship, rape and torture are just some of the themes and impressions suggested by Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’s cover art — and it featured a typeface that recalled the Third Reich SS logo.

Maybe it’s best to just not look, because once you get to beyond the myth and marketing,  Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (SBS) is a surprisingly accomplished and enjoyable hard rock record.  Ozzy got the headlines but this was guitarist, Tony Iommi’s band, and SBS remains one of his finest accomplishments.  The recording sessions began in Los Angeles, but Iommi wasn’t able to write anything useful and the band decided to return home to England.  When they began recording again, this time in the dungeon of a rented castle (probably haunted), Iommi found his muse and was off to the races.

SBS is a short record by today’s standards, with just eight songs and wrapping up in less than 25 minutes.  But there’s two or three record’s worth of guitar work in the grooves.  Nearly every song has several memorable buzzsaw guitar riffs, sometimes working together to create unique chord voicings and overtones.  The band frequently gets sidetracked, exploring intricate instrumental passages that veer so far from the original riff that you lose track of what song you are listening to.  And it really doesn’t matter.  Song titles and markers are somewhat irrelevant on SBS as it flows seamlessly from one interesting song suite to the next.

One of the best moments on whole record occurs around 3:20 into the title track, when Iommi  and bassist Geezer Butler drop into low gear with their trademark C# tuning.  The only way to describe the metallic sludge created by this technique is bad –ass.  It’s the kind of tone that instantly makes your balls hang an inch lower.  It’s the kind of tone that makes you want to punch someone in the face.  Metal guitarists the world around are still borrowing the trick, but Iommi may have been the first to pull it off .

Given the offensive cover imagery, you may be surprised to find that SBS is a melodic record that is produced with care and craft.  The title song’s chorus is in fact, so light, melodic, and breezy, you might mistake the band for Bread or America if you heard the part out of context.  Sabbra Cadabra even features the band’s first foray into synthesizers with a guest performance from Yes’s Rick Wakeman.  But the lyrics are the biggest surprise.  On National Acrobat, Ozzy’s reminds us to keep a positive attitude and live in the moment when he says “Just remember love is life, and hate is living death.  Treat your life for what it’s worth, and live for every breath.” You’d never know from the title that Sabbra Cadabra is one of Sabbath’s sweetest love songs as Ozzie reflects on domestic bliss:

“Someone to love me
You know she makes me feel alright
Someone who needs me
Love me every single night

Someone to live for
Love me ’til the end of time
Makes me feel happy
Good to know that she’s all mine.”

Do these sound like the ruminations of a devil worshipping, bat munching, drug addicted, rock and roll demon?  Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is not at all what you’d expect and judging by the cover art, might not even be what they set out to create.  But if you can get beyond the baggage, I think you’ll enjoy Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, one of the many imaginative and consistent hard rock records released in the 70s.  Oh yeah, you might want to hide it from your kids.

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