Black Sabbath
I am going to watch Black Sabbath towards the end of April. The way I got into Black Sabbath is through Randy Rhoads. He was my idol. The Tribute, Blizzard and Diary albums became my bibles in relation to guitar playing. I needed to learn every riff, every lick, every bass line and every vocal melody line. It was an obsession.
On Tribute, I heard three songs that where not written by the usual Ozzy, Randy and Bob Daisley combination. I actually feel sorry for Bob Daisley. Sharon tried her hardest to write Bob out of the Ozzy history and to give the barely sober Ozzy a bigger role in the song writing process. It’s common knowledge that Randy wrote the music, Bob the lyrics and the melodies where Ozzy’s.
Paranoid, Iron Man and Children Of The Grave where the songs. On the album sleeve it mentioned that the songs are written by Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward.
This is the pre internet era, so you couldn’t just Google the names. You needed to read the album sleeve, buy magazines or ask older people if they know anything about the artists.
It was Children of The Grave that got my attention. The way it’s done on Tribute, the original Black Sabbath version sounded lame when I heard it. The tempo was slower and it didn’t have the wonderful Randy Rhoads Guitar Hero solo.
So Black Sabbath is about to release a new album. The first one with Ozzy since 1978’s Never Say Die. It’s called 13. They even got Rick Rubin involved. What he actuakky dies these days is open to discussion. Ozzy calls the album, mind blowing. It’s the usual approach of the old school of marketing. Talk up an album before its release.
Ozzy’s last great album was No More Tears featuring the wonderful bass playing of Bob Daisley. His musical career has been slowly declining however his net worth has been increasing due to Ozzfest and reality TV. Does anyone remember any songs from Black Rain, Scream and Down To Earth. Do people care about a new Black Sabbath album? Heaven and Hell (the recent Dio fronted Sabbath) made their money through ticket sales, which focused on the legacy created by the first two Dio fronted albums.
One thing that Black Sabbath doesn’t seem to know is that this is a new era. They are doing it all wrong, like how it was done in the old days. Top down marketing. Hit the fans across the head with a sledgehammer of marketing propaganda and hope they spread the word. No one in the streets is spreading the word. Yeah its all over the usual music websites and the band is doing radio interviews, but no one is really pushing it socially. Black Sabbath has fans, there is no doubt about that but it does it know any of them.
destroyerofharmony 