Magical Moment Photos

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE MORE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH IMAGES ON FINE ART AMERICA BY BEN UPHAM
and
BLACK SABBATH MAGICAL MOMENT PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
and
PURCHASE BLACK SABBATH VOLUME 4 CD
**************************************************************************************************************************************
SOME CHOICE REVIEWS OF BLACK SABBATH VOLUME 4:

#1-
“Classic Metal”
December 3, 2002 By Samhot
Black Sabbath Vol. 4 was the first album where classic sludge-rockers Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne-vocals, Bill Ward-drums, Geezer Butler-bass and Toni Iommi-guitar) started experimenting – which possibly foreshadowed what would be more emphasized on the following album, Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath_. I just want to make a clarification before I move on: Black Sabbath’s music is not about satanism or devil worshipping – it’s subject matter is mainly about the harsh realities of life (i.e., crime, war, drugs, mental illness and more), which is rather “dark”. Moving onto the tracks:

The album opens with “Wheels Of Confusion/The Straightener”, which is a sludgy/heavy powerhouse. This is arguably the heaviest on the album. The lyrics are reflective and sad. “Tomorrow’s Dream” is a r&b-rocker with groove. “Changes” is a beautiful piano-based ballad. The combination of Ozzy Osbourne’s emotive vocals and the sad orchestral backdrops make this a somewhat painful track to listen to at times. “FX” is a short experiment featuring eerie guitar feedback from Toni Iommi. “Supernaut” (to me) proves that music is a transcendent force without limits or boundaries. The mix of boogie, classic psychedelic r&b and metal, shows that unlikely combinations can work – which almost makes it seem like it was never “unlikely” to begin with. “Snowblind” is a slow heavy rocker. Tony Iommi does some of his best soloing on this track. The end features some orchestral backdrops (possibly from synthesizers). “Cornucopia” is probably the most ominous sounding on here (check out the opening section). The dark lyrics contribute to this aspect as well. “Laguna Sunrise” is the beautiful and evocative acoustic guitar instrumental. If anyone were to listen to this calm, sedate and airy track (without knowledge of it being Sabbath), you wouldn’t guess that this was the same band known for their dark and sludgy output – that’s talent. “St. Vitus’ Dance” is an upbeat, summery and “happy” sounding rock track – at least on a musical (excluding lyrics) level. “Under The Sun/Everyday Comes And Goes” sounds the most “Sabbath-esque” on here. The beginning is heavy and ominous. It then segues into a straightforward heavy rocker. The lyrics are deep, thought-provoking and rebellious. They address such issues as religion, personal beliefs and violence.

In short, Black Sabbath Vol. 4 is a classic metal album, which deserves to be owned by diehards, as well as those interested in Black Sabbath, or the roots of heavy metal. This would serve as a good introduction, as it features a well-crafted balance between heaviness and mild experimentation.
********************************************************************
#2-
“Sabbath’s Dark Side Of The Moon”
March 6, 2000 By Johnny S Geddes
1972 was a watershed year for hard rock and Black Sabbath both. Luckily, the maturing group was able to spearhead the next part of the Proto-metal Revolution they’d founded with ‘Master of Reality’ in the form of this, their best work. ‘Volume Four’ was a functional, utilitarian name that was used to try and capture something whose essence could not be described with any adjective except, perhaps, ‘shifting’. Unlike any of their previous three albums, the Sabs were able to keep their distance from a formula [more or less homogenous doom rock with the occasional 'let up' (although their first LP is a mish-mash of blues and the beginnings of their 'doom rock')] and make this effort become an entire soundscape filled with moving atmospheres – the ultimate in a heterogeneous texture.

‘Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener’ – THE STORYTELLER. The whining guitar notes, basic chord structures and past tense narrative lyrics find an experimental-minded band. The shifts in tempo were something they’d become very familiar with by this time but it never had sounded this good. Instrumental ‘The Straightener’ kicks in to round out the epic. Geezer’s bass text is used as a canvas by Iommi here as he spatters riff spirals and twists all over the place. ‘Laguna Sunrise’ – THE MIND CREATES A FANTASY. Pretty number written for the beachfront where the Sabs were staying during their work on ‘Volume Four’. A very haunting superimposition of Spanish guitar over a strings backing.

‘F.X.’ – THE UNKNOWN REALM. 1 3/4 minutes of sound effects, particularly picking noises. Probably very useful if you’re doped up but much better when sober. ‘Snowblind’ – ROCK REFLECTION ON LIFESTYLE. The ‘best’ rock track of the album, ‘Snowblind’ was a single. It accurately depicts the group’s concerns at the time. Money and fame had allotted them nicer cars and nicer drugs to fool with. ‘Cornucopia’ – ROCK REFLECTION ON SOCIETY. ‘Take a life, it’s going cheap; Kill someone, no-one will weep.’ A thundering bass-driven track that’s almost uglier in structure than the post industrial nightmare described by Osbourne’s frenetic lyrics.

‘Tomorrow’s Dream’ – LOVE DISCARDED. A short rocker that scored as a greatest hit. The whole feel here is of turning away from the woes of the Present and starting a whole new existence. ‘Supernaut’ – THE SELF TRIUMPHS. ‘I’ve seen the future and I’ve left it behind.’ Ward’s frantic cymbal-bashing and Iommi’s smokingly fast riffs and overdubs augment Osbourne’s grandiose lyrical delivery perfectly. A hard, spiralling anthem. ‘Changes’ – LOVE REMOVED. A long piano/synth bit with Ozzy half-lamenting the joy of love taken away, half-asserting his understanding of the adjustment he’s making to compensate. ‘Under The Sun’ – THE MIND REACTS AGAINST REALITY. Very heavy guitar and bass work drones with the strength of the nihilistic, sometimes self-contradicting lyrics. Soon the tempo changes and both the guitars and voice become more desperate to convey their point. The songs ends on a helter-skelter of doomy rhythm and amorphous riffs. ‘St. Vitus’ Dance’ – ANTI-COMMUNICATION. This short, fast rocker bounces Osbounre’s lyrics back and forth. It’s about problems with understanding the female mind.

Altogether and in a sequence, these make up what is termed ‘Volume Four’. There is but one other ingredient necessary to facilitate a successful listening – a mind of any type and in any condition. None of the songs will grow on you; you will see them ever after in the same light under which you orginally found them. The shade of that light depends on your perceptions and no two shades will ever be alike. This is an album saturated in an ebbing, ethereal fluid, one of the consequences being that the sounds recorded on ‘Volume Four’ make it quite impossible to place the whole in any single genre. This is a work that declares there are an infinite number of idiosyncratic interpretations of it available. I have given mine here: to find your own, you need to get this CD.
**************************************************************************************
#3-
“Heavy riffing and variety within and between songs”
August 17, 2009
By dfle3 (Australia)
It’s not unusual for any of this band’s first three albums to get accorded the honor of “best Black Sabbath album”. Their third album, “Master of reality”, pretty much is the prototypical Sabbath album from then on. Even albums after that, up to “Sabotage”, have their fans, who view that album as the band’s best. From my point of view, “Vol.4″ is down a notch in quality from “Master of reality”, but up to, and including “Sabotage”, the band have a remarkable consistency of output, quality wise.
Best song:
Changes – a slow tempo song with heartfelt lyrics. Only the piano and the synthesizer are utilized. Melodic, with Ozzy providing good presence on vocals.
Next best:
FX – an experimental instrumental track, perhaps featuring a guitar or something like that. Maybe it is also a synthesizer. Here the synthesizer sounds like it is providing incidental music for a sci-fi or horror movie.

Cornucopia – the guitar sound makes this track sound like Swamp Rock.

Supernaut – grinding guitar and has a Lenny Kravitz vibe to it (think “Are you gonna go my way”. For that matter, sometimes this song brings to mind the riffs in Pseudo Echo’s version of “Funky Town”).

Under the sun – the intro brings to mind their debut album’s vibe of Gothic Rock. Can be read as a statement of the band’s Philosophy, although, contrasting this song with their previous “After forever”, it has to be remarked that a Black Sabbath ‘philosophy’ seems more of a mask which they wear and discard for something else later…like The Sex Pistols with their superficial embrace of anarchy and, remarkably, fascism (as if those two philosophies aren’t like oil and water)! Drummer Bill Ward provides some big drum fills in this song. Outro is good too…it’s like a rock band’s version of Tubular Bells.
The rest:

Wheels of confusion – an epic 8:14 in length. Intro features a wailing blues sound and then steps into a Steppenwolf type riff (think “Born to be wild”) on both guitar and bass. Guitar has a buzzing sound to it and the vocals lack presence. A prog-rock kind of song.

Tomorrow’s dream – has a boogie rock vibe to it with tinny percussion (sort of like a cow bell). Guitars sound synthy and the vocals lack presence, again.

Snowblind – a riff song with a nice vocal shift in it, where it becomes more melodic. Lead guitar is bluesy and I think the song features the violins at the end. Has a synthesizer too.

Laguna sunrise – the second instrumental on this album. Has two acoustic guitars and what sounds like a symphony, perhaps…violins do feature in this song. A gentle, melodic track.

St.Vitus dance – has a BIG sounding riff (heavy and grating). Instruments have a greater presence in this song than other songs on this album. Think that my notes on this song suggest that the percussion on this song is like that in 60′s pop…a “She loves you” type vibe, or something of the sort.
*****************************************************************************************************************
#4-
“Black Sabbath- Vol. 4″
November 23, 2007
By Harry Brewer (S’port, La.)(VINE VOICE)
ESSENTIAL ALBUM!!!
Sabbath’s fourth studio album is a masterpiece. It peaked at #13 on the charts, very respectable for a metal band without a single released from it. There’s a subtle change in direction on this album. They changed producers with this album &, for the first time, the band received production credit on an album.

The album opens with “Wheels of Confusion/The straightener”, Iommi’s riffing is among his best. Tomorrow’s Dream” is an outstanding song & among the best they ever recorded. It’s a short song by Sabbath standards. Then comes the ballad “Changes” which is the weakest song on the album. A lot of people like this song but it’s one I can do without. Then comes the instrumental “FX”, not really a song, just some noodling by Iommi, it’s interesting but nothing special. It’s under two minutes long so it doesn’t have time to get on your nerves. The next two songs are the highlights of the album, both almost unanimous favorites of Sabbath fans. “Supernaut” is a sci-fi tales that abounds with guitars & leads, it’s got a killer beat & pretty darn vocals by the Ozzman. “Snowblind” follows, it’s more moody & has a definite drug reference. Lyrically, it’s full of imagery & one of their best. Iommi has once again put together a very distinctive riff. “Cornucopia” is the last excellent song on the album. “Laguna Sunrise” (instrumental), “St. Vitus Dance” & “Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes” close out the album. They’re decent enough songs but not particularly impressive.

This was an excellent effort, some might consider this their last great effort. Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath (Their next album) wasn’t quite as good but Sabotage, an underrated album, certainly comes close to equaling this effort.
************************************************************************************************
#5-
“Black Sabbath – who?”
August 14, 2007
By James F. Colobus (Pittsburgh, PA United States)
In my southeastern Virginia high school back in the late 1980s, the members of Led Zeppelin were considered gods among men. If you were a white male and didn’t listen to Zeppelin, you were a pariah. No exceptions. Not that it was difficult to like Zeppelin – they were in constant rotation on WNOR and I rarely heard a song by them I disliked (`Trampled Underfoot’ being a notable exception). Discussions of Zeppelin often devolved into wistful laments that we hadn’t been born a decade earlier and been able to experience the band before John Bonham’s untimely demise resulted in their sudden dissolution. We were all quite certain that Zeppelin were the heaviest band ever and that they would remain so for time immemorial. In retrospect, it seems almost inconceivable that none of us had any idea that another band contemporaneous with Zeppelin matched, if not exceeded, them in heaviness. That band was Black Sabbath and somehow no one in my high school had heard of them.

During the early 90s when the Seattle scene rose to national prominence, bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains rarely missed a chance to proclaim in interviews how much their music had been influenced by Black Sabbath. At the time, I made a mental note to check out Sabbath then misplaced that note for more than 10 years. Finally, in 2004, Sabbath’s Black Box set was released and I made a major impulse buy, sating my long dormant curiosity about Sabbath with one massive purchase. The evening I found Sabbath’s first eight albums on my doorstep, I slid them one by one into my portable cd player, listening to the first four in sequence until late into the night. I was immediately struck by how much my Zeppelin-loving classmates and I would have cherished these albums 15 years earlier. Master of Reality and Vol. 4 became instant favorites and stayed in heavy rotation on my cd player for months thereafter.

Now that several years have passed since I finally became acquainted with Black Sabbath’s music, I can confidently claim Vol. 4 as my favorite of their first eight albums. Derided by many fans and critics upon its release as disappointing and disjointed due to the intense drug addictions afflicting several band members at the time, Vol. 4 remains fascinating to me even after countless listens. It begins on an epic note with `Wheels of Confusion’ which, in its sixth minute, morphs into `The Straightener’ in one of the great transitions in the history of rock music. After the dizzying highs provided by `Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener’, `Tomorrow’s Dream’ is a rather less inspiring but nevertheless strong track featuring some classic Sabbath riffage. The ballad, `Changes’, divides Sabbath fans like few other songs. If, like my friend Chris, you focus on the gorgeous melody of the chorus and ignore the simplistic lyrics, you will love this song. If, like me, however, you can’t get past the words `I’m going through changes…I’m going through changes”, you will limit yourself to admitting only a grudging admiration for the song. `FX’ is a brief bout of bizarre noodling that I am quite sure cannot be anyone’s favorite Black Sabbath song. However, it does provide a somewhat atmospheric lead-in to the paint-peeling romp `Supernaut’, a song as heavy as any in Sabbath’s catalog of `two-ton heavy thing(s)’. The highlight of a song full of highlights has to be when Bill Ward’s drum solo grades into Tony Iommi’s resumption of the song’s key riff. No words can do that moment justice – you’ll just have to hear it for yourself, preferably at high volume. Remarkably, the subsequent track, `Snowblind’ is every bit as good as `Supernaut’, only a whole lot druggier, with Ozzy repeatedly whispering `cocaine’ during the chorus. No doubt `Snowblind’ was the track most responsible for earning Vol. 4 its reputation as Sabbath’s most drug-addled album. `Cornucopia’ begins with a classic piece of Sabbath sludge before speeding up into a series of catchy riffs. `Laguna Sunrise’ is a short mellow instrumental that I can take or leave, but usually choose to listen to since it sets a nice mood for the almost hoe-down worthy `St.Vitus Dance’. In the same way it begins, Vol. 4 closes with two tracks combined into one. `Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes’ is a rant against organized religion with soaring vocals provided over riffs ranging from molasses slow to hummingbird fast. All in all, a tremendous album that was underrated when it was released and remains under-appreciated by many Black Sabbath fans to this day.

When I think of how much I would have loved Vol. 4 back in high school, I feel a twinge of regret. However, there is much consolation in the realization that I waited to experience Black Sabbath for the first time in my 30s when I could appreciate it more fully than in high school when it would have had to compete with Led Zeppelin for my attentions. It is hard to say who would have won had I known about both bands back then, though my subsequent metal-biased listening habits over the years strongly suggest that Sabbath would have stood more than a fighting chance against the mighty Zeppelin.
********************************************************************************************************
BLACK SABBATH DISCOGRAPHY:
1970 Black Sabbath
1970 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1977 We Sold our Souls for Rock ‘N’ Roll
1978 Never Say Die
1980 Live At Last
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon

also:
black sabbath art

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE RARE 1978 PHOTOS OF BLACK SABBATH:
BLACK SABBATH IMAGES ON FINE ART AMERICA BY BEN UPHAM
and
RARE 1978 BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
************************************************************************************************************************************************
BLACK SABBATH DISCOGRAPHY:
1970 Black Sabbath
1970 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1977 We Sold our Souls for Rock ‘N’ Roll
1978 Never Say Die
1980 Live At Last
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon
*********************************************************************************************************************************************
CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO PURCHASE BLACK SABBATH CD’S:
PURCHASE BLACK SABBATH CD’S

Click on the Links below to see Rare Black Sabbath Photos:
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
and
BLACK SABBATH CONCERT PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM

“Black Sabbath Scores”
by Deniese Kusel
The Press Telegram
Long Beach, Ca.
September 10, 1975

Black Sabbath’s claim to fame was that they were louder than any other rock band around. That was in 1970 when they first got together.
Sunday night at the Long Beach Arena they proved, once again, that if you pump out the decibels with enough force, people will cheer for anything.
In their first concert in two years, Black Sabbath kept the audience on their feet well after the second selection, “Hole in the Sky.”
It was obvious that the fans had missed the flamboyant group and were excited to have them back.
With the exception of a good lick sprinkled here and there and some rapid rhythmic changes on the lead guitar, Black Sabbath is just “another loud rock
band.” They were colorful, but prerdictable. The audience response was tremendous and the band worked. Their driving, hard rock sound was reminiscent of early Led Zeppelin.
Tony lommi, lead guitar, is one of few really good left-handed leads around on his customized Gibson. Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, hot after a successful
European tour, spiked his lyrics with shouts and screams. The audience ate up the fleecy costumes and theatrics.
“Snow Blind” and “Symptom of the Universe” — the latter featuring lommi — were highlights of the concert. Bass player Geezer Butler’s fluid movements and showy stage style was a dynamic force in creating the visual imagery for Black Sabbath. Drummer Bill Ward falls into the same league as the hard-hitting Ginger Baker during his days with Cream. Hanging above his drum kit, an acoustical shell captured the sound and held it together.
Clearly, a lot of effort was put into putting the group back into action.
They drew heavily from their new album “Sabotage” for their concert material. Black Sabbath is a working band and seems destined to continue their present success. If hard rock is your bag, then dig them. They go deep.

BLACK SABBATH DISCOGRAPHY:
1970 Black Sabbath
1970 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1977 We Sold our Souls for Rock ‘N’ Roll
1978 Never Say Die
1980 Live At Last
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon

Click the links below to see Rare Black Sabbath Photos:
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
and
BLACK SABBATH CONCERT PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE MORE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

BLACK SABBATH
“TOGETHER AGAIN” (1997)
BY KIRA L. BILLIK
THE WINCHESTER STAR
WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA
AUGUST 16, 1997

Ozzy Osbourne, wearing a black T-shirt and jeans and purple-tinted glasses that sat slightly askew on his nose, sipped from a cup of tea and rolled and smoked a cigarette.
A pile of free weights lay in the corner; an exercise bike stood in the hall. His dressing table was laden with medicine to treat the asthma and allergies he suffers. He looked fit despite doing two shows a night for the past month, although fatigue showed a bit in his eyes.
“The last few gigs have just been, ‘Am I going to get through the first one, because if I get through the first one, then the second one’s a breeze,’” he said. “You have to have a little bit of reserve for the second show — you can’t give all your wind out on the first one.”
Osbourne was backstage at Ozzfest, the massive metal marathon he created. And Black Sabbath, a band Osbourne left eight years ago, is headlining the tour — with Osbourne once again doing vocals.
After being plagued by personal problems that sabotaged several prior reunion attempts, Black Sabbath, widely credited as one of the creators of heavy metal, is a band again.
Hundreds of bands were influenced by guitarist Tony lommi’s sludgy black riffs, Osbourne’s nasal wail, and bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler’s tales of Satan, war and Armageddon. They released a series of classic albums starting in 1970, such as “We Sold Our Soul for Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Mob Rules” and “Paranoid.” Sabbath also was honored with a tribute album, “Nativity in Black,” several years ago.
But if its place in music history is set, its lineup has been anything but. Osbourne left in 1978 after eight years in the band and was succeeded by Ronnie James Dio, who stuck around for three albums, then left. Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan and Tony Martin sang on Sabbath albums in the 1980s and early ’90s; Dio came back for “Dehumanizer” in 1992, only to-leave again.
The original four members — Osbourne, lommi, Butler and drummer Bill Ward — played Live Aid in 1985 and jammed together several times since, but then always went their separate ways.
Osbourne and lommi recently had been working together. So when a vacancy opened up on the Ozzfest roster, Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager, suggested a reunion. Ward wasn’t included this time. Faith No More’s Mike Bordin, who also played in Osbourne’s band, handled drumming duties. “When Sharon came to me with this and said, ‘Do you want to do it?’ I said, ‘Listen, my answer’s yes and that’s as far as I’m going to go with it,” Osbourne said backstage at Ozzfest’s Philadelphia- area stop. “Before, when I used to get involved, I used to get so irate, because I’m not a businessman — I’m a rock and roll performer.”
The band’s difficulties, which have always seemed to involve Osbourne and lommi, are behind them, lommi said. “You begin to realize when you fell out then, it was over silly stuff which seemed important at the time,” lommi said. “I think you’ve just got to have respect for each other, which is probably what we didn’t have in the early days.”
lommi, 49, who sat on the edge of a sofa, was a bit fidgety prior to the show. He wore his usual black, and a large silver cross on a cord around his neck, and hid his eyes behind blue-tinted sunglasses. His dark hair, mustache and goatee are only slightly gray. In the background, the sounds of Paul McCartney’s new album came from Osbourne’s dressing room. lommi has always been the constant in the band throughout as members have swirled around him. And he admits he may have made some wrong decisions in selecting players. Critics and fans have been more and more critical with each version of Sabbath and each deviation from the original. “I think it did go off-track to a point,” he said, “but you don’t realize it when you’re involved in it. You start doing more different sorts of material and then you look back at the old stuff and you think, ‘Blimey, it’s really changed.’ “It’s that unique unit that made that sound and there’s no getting away from it. So anybody else I’ve had in the band, even though they’ve been great musicians, it’s not been the same because it can’t possibly be the same,” he said. Whether Sabbath continues as a band is up in the air. “We’ll have to see when this finishes — whether they loved it, whether they hated it,” Sharon Osbourne said. “Ultimately, there’s always been this invisible thread that keeps them all together — you can’t just cut somebody out of your life totally that’s been there from day one.”
Osbourne takes the same wait-and-see attitude. “I’ve put my foot in my mouth so many times before by saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to do an album, we’re going to do another tour, we’re going to do another Ozzfest.’ Let’s just get this one out of the way and see what happens,” Osbourne said. “It would be nice to do a Sabbath album as the original (lineup),”lommi said a bit wistfully. “My ultimate thing would be to do our own tour.”

BLACK SABBATH DISCOGRAPHY:

1970 Black Sabbath
1970 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1977 We Sold our Souls for Rock ‘N’ Roll
1978 Never Say Die
1980 Live At Last
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

BLACK SABBATH
“TOOK A SABATICAL”
BY MICHAEL LACHETTA
SALINA JOURNAL
SALINA, KANSAS
FEBRUARY 8, 1976

They came out of Birmingham, England, with a hard rock sound blended with the occult, and Black Sabbath made millions of dollars with 6 Warner Brothers albums certified gold.
But Black Sabbath came out of the British slums and they didn’t like what they were becoming so they bid off for nearly a year to get their heads together and now they are coming off a successful American tour that saw them play Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time. Their newly released LP, “Sabotage”, sounds like a winner and they seem as though they know where they are going.
“Comeback?” mused Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. “We’ve never been away.
“We’d just gotten to the point where we’d been playing successfully for over 5 years nonstop and boredom set in. We came to a point where we could do so much and no more. The way I looked at it, we were just touring, going on holiday, making an album and touring again. And in the States we’d done so many bloody tours, we couldn’t go on. Everyone in the concerts was singing along with every song.
“We were getting all sorts of mad phone calls and bloody weird people talking to us and we didn’t want any part of that scene,” Butler said. “We just spent and spent and spent when it was rolling in and didn’t think about it. You just don’t realize how much is going out. You get millions coming in and there’s millions going out. There’s a point where money doesn’t mean anything. We made the choice between going on that sort of unreal trip or getting back to basic life, like going to the pub for a pint every night. We chose the normal way.”
One thing drummer Bill Ward wants to make clear is that Black Sabbath has matured considerably since the days when “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” first supershocked the music scene in 1971.
“We’ve learned an awful lot about making records, about getting them to sound the way we want them to sound in the last couple of years,” Ward said.
Guitarist Tony lommi smiled when he recalled the group’s first album,
“Black Sabbath”. “We did that one in 12 hours,” he said, “because we were under all the pressure a young band works with; we had to get the recording done and get back out on the road again. We’ve come a long way since then.”
Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne looks back on those days with more amazement than anger. “When we first started to record, we were known as the Earth Band,” he remembers. “It didn’t mean anything. We just needed a name and we chose that one. When we started writing songs, one of the first was called ‘Black Sabbath’. It just happened that we like it and decided to call ourselves Black Sabbath. “A lot of people think it’s a huge sort of thing and that it’s a black magic trip. We had connotations of black magic in our earlier writings ’cause it was a different angle. At that time everyone was writing about ‘falling in love’. We wanted something heavier to write about. There’s nothing heavier than black magic and evil. So it’s progressed from there to a sort of paranoia of something else.
“Even now it’s hard to shake off this occult thing. To be honest with you, it’s getting to be old hat. ‘Cause we’re not, and never have been, involved in anything with black magic other than writing about it.
“The new album, ‘Sabotage’, is basically about insanity,” Osbourne continues. “When I say insanity, I don’t mean generally, but the kind that each and everyone of us has felt at one time or another. Like it’s about the changes we’re all going through ’cause of the changes in the standards of everything in our lives. The music just happened to fall into place. It was just kind of what we were feeling at the time. We didn’t start out to write an album. We just went into the studio and started recording and at the end of the session, we analyzed what we had done and we realized it was basically about going mad. We know that’s the way all of our albums have come about. We don’t start out to put ‘our thing’ over or program it. We just go in and record and this paranoia just happened.”
So “Sabotage” is kind of a rebirth of Black Sabbath, a return to what lommi calls “basic roots.” “We’d been working so’ consistently,” Osbourne interjected, “the time both in the States and all over the world that at the end of our last tour our bodies and our minds were really screwed up.
“There was so much pressure that we were going on stage and just going through the motions. We were on the road and going home and going straight into the studio to do what I call ‘hotel albums’, in the sense that we were writing in hotel rooms and then doing the songs that night in a gig going home and recording them and then going back on the road.”
“We’ve matured,” said Ward. “And I’d say our audiences have matured
somewhat too. When we started I think we appealed to a younger group. People associated us with the 14 to 17 year-old crowd. But now I like to think it’s maybe 14 to 30. They’ve grown up with us. We’ve sort of gained some new territory in the audience area. And we still manage to give them what they want to hear when they come to our live shows.”

BLACK SABBATH DISCOGRAPHY:
1970 Black Sabbath
1970 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1977 We Sold our Souls for Rock ‘N’ Roll
1978 Never Say Die
1980 Live At Last
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

CLICK ON LINKS BELOW TO SEE MORE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
AND
BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS by BEN UPHAM

BLACK SABBATH AT TEN: NOT A HALLOWEEN SHOW
by DAN WARFIELD
S&S ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
“European Stars and Stripes”
Hesse, Germany 10-31-78

BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony lommi was in a fine mood in his Frankfurt hotel, taking a day off from the decade-old band’s heavy schedule to catch up on his rock-star press duties. With a new album out and doing well, the four Englishmen are keeping busy.
“We spent three months in Toronto recording,” said lommi, reviewing the band’s schedule, “then a British tour, a couple of weeks off, six weeks in America coming up, come home for five days, then come here, seven days off, back to America for six or seven weeks, have a break for a short while. . .”
He and the other Sabs — lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward have adapted to the grinding life on the road that goes with stardom, successfully combatting the centrifugal forces and the tendency to 24-hour-a-day lunacy that have taken their toll on so many other groups.
“All the people see is the hour and a half you’re on a stage,” said lommi. “They don’t see the travel, the interviews, press, writing songs, recording”.
“But you’ve got to keep getting it out — and I enjoy it anyway. We certainly wouldn’t do it if we didn’t enjoy it. It keeps you young.”
He isn’t worried about how long they can keep it up. “Everybody asks that question,” he said. “Years ago people used to think if you’re over 20 you’ve passed it. Who knows? Could last a week, could last another 20 years.
“There’s a lot of bitchiness that goes on, it’s all turned round the wrong way. It’s like boxing. People say if you’ve been around 10 years you’ve had it.”
Among the most relentless critics of Sabbath and their ilk have been the artsy-trendy British rock press, which generally has nothing good to say for styles that happen to be out of fashion, and which has an impact on British
record sales almost equivalent to the power of radio airplay in America. In spite of that, the group continues to draw sellout crowds and to sell records at a respectable level.

lommi took a stand against Melody Maker columnist Allan Jones in May, by delivering what Jones described as “a finely judged left hook” to the writer’s lip at a Glasgow meeting. “Yes,” said lommi, “I hit him.” But, says lommi, it wasn’t because Jones speaks less than kindly about the musical powers of the band (“musically Black Sabbath are an Irish joke”) or of their stage show (“looked like Mott the Hoople groupies masquerading as gay Cossacks”), nor even about the way they talk (“that comical accent that so afflicts those unfortunate enough to have been born in the colourful vicinity of Birmingham”) — it was, says lommi, for a more personally offensive bit of prose.
Their previous meeting had been four years before, when lommi agreed to an interview in his home, about 70 miles north of London in Leicestershire.
“I said I’d meet him at the station. Took him back to the house, had dinner. It was fine. He talked about my house in his story, because I collect antiques. He expected me to live in a cave. He ran it down because I collect
antiques and paintings. I said to him be careful of the dog, he put that the dog attacked him. It wasn’t to do it with music. It was to do with my own private life.”
lommi doesn’t spend much time at home, but in mocking his personal art collection, Jones hit more of a nerve than he expected to. “When you go back it’s fresh. You go back and look at it . . .” Words failed him for a moment at the thought. The house is full of art and antiques, including several highly crafted copies of works hanging in the Prado near Madrid, and many originals. “I’ve got some from big estate sales — large paintings, that most people wouldn’t have the room to put in their homes. “It’s a creation, like music. I can appreciate things like that. I buy them because I really do like them. Old French antique furniture — you’ll never, ever see that again. In years to come, hopefully somebody else will have it in another 100 years who can appreciate it. It isn’t really mine. I’m preserving it for future generations.”
The roots of his reverence for the art and artisans of the past may have had some connection to his first choice of profession, as a typewriter repairman.
Black Sabbath , known as Earth to begin with, started as a workingman’s band in Birmingham. England a decade ago. lommi, Osbourne the slaughterhouse worker, truck driver Ward and accountant Butler lived for their after-hours gigs in the clubs of Birmingham, blasting the workaday blues away with heavy-metal ecstasy.
The name change to Black Sabbath, inspired by a Boris Karloff horror film — and the development of a wild stage show that mixed up rock music, stylized black masses, devilish incantations and witch-cult carryingson, gave the band enough of a boost (and a bizarre reputation) to let them make a fulltime go of it.
Their first single, “Paranoid,” was a surprise hit . Both in England and around the world, and within a year their status as a cult band, in more ways than one, was assured.
But the black magic image, insists the band today, was a gimmick, not a call to devil-worship. The idea was to become known as musicians, not as an art theater troupe. They still haven’t totally lived down their early theatrics.
In the years that followed, the band moved into the center ranks of the sixties-style heavy metal band parade, and as the ranks have thinned, are coming to be pegged as survivors among an endangered species. In a sense, the band is a free-floating anachronism in which the sixties energy remains unabated. Most of their personal friends from the early days are out of touch, said lommi, with a slight trace of regret. “You lose a lot of contact. People move away, and we’re away all the time . . . ”
The central themes of their music haven’t changed radically over the years, but Sabbath has always tried to play something besides 100 percent rock.
“The new album has one called ‘Airdance’ that has a jazzy feel,” said lommi, “another called ‘Breakout’ where we’re using brass gives some light and shade to the album.
“I’ve done an acoustic thing with an orchestra, used a choir and a harp, we always do one sort of different thing on each album.”
One thing that’s remained constant is the cross that hangs from lommi’s neck. They all have one. “It’s like a lucky thing,” he said, fondling it. “I’ve gone out on stage without it a couple of times and I’ve run back to get it. It’s like a lucky charm— it’s the symbol of the band.”

BLACK SABBATH DISCOGRAPHY:
1970 Black Sabbath
1970 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1977 We Sold our Souls for Rock ‘N’ Roll
1978 Never Say Die
1980 Live At Last
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon

CLICK ON LINKS BELOW TO SEE BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS:
BLACK SABBATH FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM
AND
BLACK SABBATH PHOTOS by BEN UPHAM