Black Sabbath (album)

Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by the English rock band Black Sabbath. It was released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom by Vertigo Records and on 1 June 1970 in the United States by Warner Bros. Records. The album is widely regarded as the first album in the heavy metal genre. Additionally, the opening track, the self-titled "Black Sabbath", has been referred to as the first doom metal song.[2]

Black Sabbath
Studio album by
Black Sabbath
Released13 February 1970 (1970-02-13)
Recorded16 October 1969
StudioRegent Sound, London
Genre
Length38:12
LabelVertigo
ProducerRodger Bain
Black Sabbath chronology
Black Sabbath
(1970)		 Paranoid
(1970)
Singles from Black Sabbath
  1. "Evil Woman / Wicked World"
    Released: 9 January 1970

Upon release, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts and number 23 on the US Billboard 200. It was included in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Recording

According to Black Sabbath's guitarist and founding member Tony Iommi, the group's debut album was recorded in a single day on 16 October 1969.[3][nb 1] The session lasted twelve hours.[5] Iommi said: "We just went in the studio and did it in a day, we played our live set and that was it. We actually thought a whole day was quite a long time, then off we went the next day to play for £20 in Switzerland."[6] Aside from the bells, thunder and rain sound effects added to the beginning of the opening track, and the double-tracked guitar solos on "N.I.B." and "Sleeping Village", there were virtually no overdubs added to the album.[3] Iommi recalls recording live: "We thought, 'We have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff."[7]

The key to the band's new sound on the album was Iommi's distinctive playing style that he developed after an accident at a sheet metal factory where he was working at the age of 17 in which the tips of the middle fingers of his fretting hand were severed. Iommi created a pair of false fingertips using plastic from a dish detergent bottle and detuned the strings on his guitar to make it easier for him to bend the strings, creating a massive, heavy sound. "I'd play a load of chords and I'd have to play fifths because I couldn't play fourths because of my fingers," Iommi explained to Phil Alexander in Mojo in 2013. "That helped me develop my style of playing, bending the strings and hitting the open string at the same time just to make the sound wilder." In the same article bassist Geezer Butler added, "Back then the bass player was supposed to do all these melodic runs, but I didn't know how to do that because I'd been a guitarist, so all I did was follow Tony's riff. That made the sound heavier."

Iommi began recording the album with a white Fender Stratocaster, his guitar of choice at the time, but a malfunctioning pickup forced him to finish recording with a Gibson SG, a guitar he had recently purchased as a backup but had "never really played". The SG was a right-handed model which the left-handed Iommi played upside down. Soon after recording the album, he met a right-handed guitarist who was playing a left-handed SG upside down, and the two agreed to swap guitars; this is the SG that Iommi modified and later "put out to pasture" at the Hard Rock Cafe.[3]

Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne has always spoken fondly of the recording of the band's debut album, stating in his autobiography I Am Ozzy, "Once we'd finished, we spent a couple of hours double-tracking some of the guitar and vocals, and that was that. Done. We were in the pub in time for last orders. It can't have taken any longer than twelve hours in total. That's how albums should be made, in my opinion." Drummer Bill Ward agrees, telling Guitar World in 2001, "I think the first album is just absolutely incredible. It's naïve, and there's an absolute sense of unity – it's not contrived in any way, shape or form. We weren't old enough to be clever. I love it all, including the mistakes!" In an interview for the Classic Albums series in 2010 Butler added, "It was literally live in the studio. I mean, (producer) Rodger Bain, I think he's a genius the way he captured the band in such a short time." In his autobiography Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath, Iommi plays down the producer's role, insisting, "We didn't choose to work with Rodger Bain, he was chosen for us ... He was good to have around, but we didn't really get a lot of advice from him. He maybe suggested a couple of things, but the songs were already fairly structured and sorted."

Genre

AllMusic's Steve Huey feels that Black Sabbath marks "the birth of heavy metal as we now know it".[8] In his opinion, the album "transcends its clear roots in blues-rock and psychedelia to become something more".[8] He ascribes its "sonic ugliness" as a reflection of "the bleak industrial nightmare" of the group's hometown, Birmingham, England.[8] Huey notes the first side's allusions to themes characteristic of heavy metal, including evil, paganism, and the occult, "as filtered through horror films and the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, and Dennis Wheatley."[8] He characterises side two as "given over to loose blues-rock jamming learned through" the English rock band Cream.[8]

In the opinion of the author and former Metal Maniacs magazine editor Jeff Wagner, Black Sabbath is the "generally accepted starting point" when heavy metal "became distinct from rock and roll".[9] In his opinion, the album transfigured blues rock into "something uglier, found deeper gravity via mournful singing and a sinister rhythmic pulse".[9] According to Rolling Stone magazine, "the album that arguably invented heavy metal was built on thunderous blues-rock".[10] Sputnikmusic's Mike Stagno notes that Black Sabbath's combined elements of rock, jazz and blues, with heavy distortion created one of the most influential albums in the history of heavy metal.[11] In retrospect, Black Sabbath has been lauded as perhaps the first true heavy metal album.[12] It has also been credited as the first record in the stoner rock[1] and goth genres.[13]

Taking a broader perspective, Pete Prown of Vintage Guitar says, "The debut Black Sabbath album of 1970 was a watershed moment in heavy rock, but it was part of a larger trend of artists, producers, and engineers already moving towards the sound we now call hard rock and heavy metal."

Music and lyrics

Black Sabbath's music and lyrics were quite dark for the time. The opening track is based almost entirely on a tritone interval played at slow tempo on the electric guitar.[14] In the 2010 Classic Albums documentary on the making of the band's second album Paranoid, Geezer Butler claims the riff was inspired by "Mars, the Bringer of War", a movement in Gustav Holst's The Planets. Iommi reinterpreted the riff slightly and redefined the band's direction. Ward told Classic Albums, "When Oz sang 'What is this that stands before me?' it became completely different...this was a different lyric now, this was a different feel. I was playing drums to the words." The song's lyrics concern a "figure in black" which bassist Geezer Butler claims to have seen after waking up from a nightmare.[12] In the liner notes to the band's 1998 live album Reunion the bassist remembers:

I'd been raised a Catholic so I totally believed in the Devil. There was a weekly magazine called Man, Myth and Magic that I started reading which was all about Satan and stuff. That and books by Aleister Crowley and Dennis Wheatley, especially The Devil Rides Out ... I'd moved into this flat I'd painted black with inverted crosses everywhere. Ozzy gave me this 16th Century book about magic that he'd stolen from somewhere. I put it in the airing cupboard because I wasn't sure about it. Later that night I woke up and saw this black shadow at the end of the bed. It was a horrible presence that frightened the life out of me! I ran to the airing cupboard to throw the book out, but the book had disappeared. After that I gave up all that stuff. It scared me shitless.

Similarly, the lyrics of the song "N.I.B." are written from the point of view of Lucifer, who falls in love with a human woman and "becomes a better person" according to lyricist Butler.[15] Contrary to popular belief, the name of that song is not an abbreviation for Nativity in Black;[3] according to Osbourne's autobiography it is merely a reference to drummer Bill Ward's pointed goatee at the time, which was shaped as a pen-nib.[16] The lyrics of two other songs on the album were written about stories with mythological themes. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is a reference to the H. P. Lovecraft short story Beyond the Wall of Sleep,[4] while "The Wizard" was inspired by the character of Gandalf from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[17] The latter includes harmonica performed by Osbourne.[4] The band also recorded a cover of "Evil Woman", a song that had been an American hit for the band Crow. In his autobiography, Iommi admits the band reluctantly agreed to do the song at the behest of their manager Jim Simpson, who insisted they record something commercial.

Artwork
Mapledurham Watermill

The cover photograph was shot at Mapledurham Watermill, situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, by photographer Keith McMillan (credited as Keef), who was in charge of the overall design. Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in a black cloak, portrayed by model Louisa Livingstone.[18] "I'm sure (McMillan) said it was for Black Sabbath, but I don't know if that meant anything much to me at the time," Livingstone recalled, adding that it had been "freezing cold" during the shoot. "I had to get up at about 4 o'clock in the morning. Keith was rushing around with dry ice, throwing it into the water. It didn't seem to be working very well, so he ended up using a smoke machine," said the model.[19]

According to McMillan, Livingstone was wearing nothing underneath the black cloak, and some experimentation was done involving some "slightly more risqué" photographs taken at the session. "We decided none of that worked," McMillan said. "Any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do."[19]

The inner gatefold sleeve of the original release featured an inverted cross containing a poem written by Roger Brown.[18] The band were reportedly upset when they discovered this,[4] as it fuelled allegations that they were satanists or occultists;[3] however, in Osbourne's memoirs, he says that to the best of his knowledge nobody was upset with the inclusion.[20] Iommi's recollection is somewhat different: "Suddenly we had all these crazy people turning up at shows," he told Mojo magazine in 2013. "I think Alex Sanders (high priest of the Wiccan religion) turned up at a gig once. It was all quite strange, really." The liner notes to the 1998 Reunion album state "Unbeknownst to the band, Black Sabbath was launched in the U.S. with a party with the head of the Church of Satan, Anton Lavey, presiding over the proceedings... All of a sudden Sabbath were Satan's Right Hand Men."

In the years since the iconic cover photo was shot, model Louisa Livingstone has released electronic music under the name Indreba.[19]

Release and reception

Black Sabbath was recorded for Fontana Records, but prior to release the record company elected to switch the band to another of their labels, Vertigo Records, which housed the company's more progressive acts.[21] Released on Friday the 13th February 1970 by Vertigo Records, Black Sabbath reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts.[22] Following its United States release in June 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200,[23][24] where it remained for more than a year and sold one million copies.[25][26]

Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Christgau's Record GuideC–[27]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[28]
MusicHound Rock4/5[29]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[30]
Sputnikmusic4/5[11]

Black Sabbath received generally negative reviews from contemporary critics.[31] Rolling Stone's Lester Bangs described the band as, "just like Cream! But worse", and he dismissed the album as "a shuck – despite the murky songtitles and some inane lyrics that sound like Vanilla Fudge paying doggerel tribute to Aleister Crowley, the album has nothing to do with spiritualism, the occult, or anything much except stiff recitations of Cream clichés".[32] Robert Christgau, writing for The Village Voice, panned the album as "bullshit necromancy."[33] He later described it as a reflection of "the worst of the counterculture," including "drug-impaired reaction time" and "long solos."[27]

Legacy

Retrospective reviews of Black Sabbath have been positive. AllMusic reviewer Steve Huey said it was a highly innovative debut album with several classic metal songs, including the title track, which he felt had the "most definitive heavy metal riffs of all time". Huey was also impressed by how the band's "slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness".[8] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), the journalist Scott Seward highlighted Bain's grandiose production on "an album that eats hippies for breakfast."[30] In the opinion of Mike Stagno of Sputnikmusic, "both fans of blues influenced hard rock and heavy metal of all sorts should find something they like on the album."[11] BBC Music's Pete Marsh referred to Black Sabbath as an "album that changed the face of rock music."[34] In Mick Wall's book Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe, Butler reflects, "The London press absolutely hated us when we made it 'cos they'd never written an article about us, they didn't know of us. When our first album, the first week, went straight into the charts, the London press went, like, what the hell's going on here? And they've hated us ever since."

In 1989, Kerrang! ranked Black Sabbath number 31 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".[35] In 1994, it was ranked number 12 in Colin Larkin's Top 50 Heavy Metal Albums. Larkin praised the album's "crushing atmosphere of doom", which he described as "intense and relentless".[36] In 2000, Q magazine included Black Sabbath in their list of the "Best Metal Albums of All Time", stating: "[This album] was to prove so influential it remains a template for metal bands three decades on."[37] In 2005, it was ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time;[5] it was ranked number 243 in a revised edition of the list in 2012.[38] Rolling Stone ranked Black Sabbath number 44 in their list of the 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time, describing the title track as the song that "would define the sound of a thousand bands".[10] Additionally, in 2017, the magazine ranked it 5th on their list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".[39] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[40]

Track listing

All songs credited to Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne, except where noted.

European edition
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Black Sabbath"6:20
2."The Wizard"4:24
3."Behind the Wall of Sleep"3:37
4."N.I.B."6:08
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."Evil Woman" (Crow cover)
  • Larry Weigand
  • Dick Weigand
  • David Wagner
3:25
6."Sleeping Village" 3:46
7."Warning" (The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation cover)
10:28
1996 CD reissue bonus track
No.TitleLength
8."Wicked World"4:47
2009 Deluxe Edition of European version, disc two
No.TitleLength
1."Wicked World" (Single B-side, TF1067)4:44
2."Black Sabbath" (Studio outtake)6:22
3."Black Sabbath" (Instrumental)6:13
4."The Wizard" (Studio outtake)4:46
5."Behind the Wall of Sleep" (Studio outtake)3:41
6."N.I.B." (Instrumental[nb 2])6:08
7."Evil Woman" (Alternative version)3:47
8."Sleeping Village" (Intro)3:45
9."Warning" (Part 1)6:58

North American Edition
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Black Sabbath"6:20
2."The Wizard"4:22
3."Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Bassically / N.I.B."9:44
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
4."Wicked World" 4:47
5."A Bit of Finger / Sleeping Village / Warning"
  • Iommi
  • Butler
  • Ward
  • Osbourne / Dunbar
  • Dmochowski
  • Hickling
  • Moorshead
14:15
2004 reissue bonus track
No.TitleLength
6."Evil Woman" (L. Weigand, D. Weigand, Wagner)3:25
2016 Deluxe Edition of North American version, disc two
No.TitleLength
1."Evil Woman"3:25
2."Black Sabbath" (Studio outtake)6:22
3."Black Sabbath" (Instrumental)6:13
4."The Wizard" (Studio outtake)4:46
5."Behind the Wall of Sleep" (Studio outtake)3:41
6."N.I.B." (Instrumental)6:08
7."Evil Woman" (Alternative version)3:47
8."Sleeping Village" (Intro)3:45
9."Warning" (Part 1)6:58

Original North American Warner Bros. Records pressings of Black Sabbath quote incorrect running times for "Wicked World" and the "Warning" medley (4:30 and 14:32, respectively). These pressings also credit the album's original songs using the band members' given names: Anthony Iommi, John Osbourne, Terence Butler, and William Ward.[41] The Castle Communications edition of 1986 also featured a live version of "Tomorrow's Dream" as bonus track.

Disc two of the Deluxe Editions contains "N.I.B. (studio out-take)" with vocals which is incorrectly listed "N.I.B. (instrumental)".

Personnel

Black Sabbath

Production

Charts
Chart (1970) Peak

position

Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[42] 6
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[43] 8
UK Albums (OCC)[44] 8
US Billboard 200[45] 23

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[46] Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[47] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[48] Platinum 1,000,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Notes
  1. Other sources give 17 November 1969 as the date of recording.[4]
  2. Although it is described as an instrumental, it is a complete song with vocals.

References
  1. Kolsterman, Chuck; Mlner, Greg; Pappademas, Alex (April 2003). "15 Most Influential Albums". Spin. 19: 84. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  2. William Irwin, Black Sabbath and Philosophy: Mastering Reality (Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), ISBN 978-1118397596
  3. Iommi & Lammers 2012, chapter 16 - Black Sabbath records Black Sabbath
  4. Wells, David (2009). "Black Sabbath (1970)". Black Sabbath (CD Booklet). Black Sabbath. Sanctuary Records Group.
  5. Levy 2005, p. 169.
  6. Black, Johnny (14 March 2009). "Black celebration: the holy grail of Black Sabbath". Music Week. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  7. Rosen 1996, p. 38
  8. Huey.
  9. Wagner 2010, p. 10.
  10. "The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time: 'Black Sabbath'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  11. Stagno, Mike (15 August 2006). "Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  12. "Black Sabbath Biography". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  13. Baddeley 2002, pp. 263–234.
  14. Iommi & Lammers 2012, chapter 14 - The early birds catch the first songs.
  15. Black Sabbath Story Vol. 1. Warner Music. 3 November 1992.
  16. Osbourne 2010, p. 99.
  17. Neeley, Wendell (26 April 2005). "20 Questions with Geezer Butler". Metal Sludge. Archived from the original on 15 November 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  18. Grow, Kory (13 February 2020). "'That Evil Kind of Feeling': The Inside Story of Black Sabbath's Iconic Cover Art". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  19. Schaffner, Lauryn (13 February 2020). "The Woman on 'Black Sabbath' Cover Has Been Found". Loudwire. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  20. Osbourne 2010, p. 103
  21. Iommi & Lammers 2012, chapter 17 - Now under new management
  22. "The Official Charts Company - Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath Search". The Official Charts Company. 17 September 2013.
  23. George-Warren 2001, p. 82.
  24. "Black Sabbath Billboard Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  25. Ruhlmann, William. "AMG Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  26. "Black Sabbath Biography". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  27. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0-89919-025-1. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  28. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Black Sabbath". Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  29. Graff & Durchholz 1999, p. 1187.
  30. "Black Sabbath: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 6 March 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  31. McIver, Joel (17 November 2009). Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Music Sales Group. p. 119. ISBN 978-0857120281. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  32. Bangs, Lester (17 September 1970). "Album reviews Black Sabbath". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  33. Christgau, Robert (19 November 1970). "Consumer Guide (14)". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  34. Marsh, Pete. "Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath Review". BBC Music. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  35. Hotten, Jon (21 January 1989). "Black Sabbath 'Black Sabbath'". Kerrang!. London, UK: Spotlight Publications Ltd. 222.
  36. Larkin 1994, p. 183.
  37. "Best Metal Albums of All Time". Q. London: 126. August 2000.
  38. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #243". Rolling Stone. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  39. Grow, Kory (21 June 2017). "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media LLC. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  40. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
  41. As per the album labels from the original North American LP release of Black Sabbath, Warner Bros. Records, catalog no. WS 1871, released June 1970.
  42. "Dutchcharts.nl – Black Sabbath – {{{album}}}" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  43. "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  44. "Black Sabbath | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  45. "Black Sabbath Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  46. "Canadian album certifications – Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath". Music Canada.
  47. "British album certifications – Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Black Sabbath in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  48. "American album certifications – Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 

Bibliography

Further reading
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