Black Sabbath (album)

Name	Black Sabbath
Type	studio
Artist	Black Sabbath
Cover	Black Sabbath debut album.jpg
Released	13 February 1970
Recorded	November 1969
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	37:45
Label	Vertigo
Producer	Rodger Bain
This album	Black Sabbath(1970)
Next album	Paranoid(1970)

Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom, and later on 1 June 1970 in the United States, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart and has been recognised as one of the main albums to be credited with the development of the heavy metal genre.

Recording

In August 1969 the band, who were then known as Earth, decided to change their name to Black Sabbath. This was because there was another band also known as Earth; the name is also an homage to the 1963 classic Mario Bava terror film starring Boris Karloff. Around the same time they recorded and distributed a demo version of their eponymous song. In November 1969 they recorded their debut single, "Evil Woman", released in January 1970, and recorded and mixed the remaining seven songs that would appear on their debut album. According to guitarist Tony Iommi, "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."

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."

Music and lyrics

Musically and lyrically the album was considered quite "dark" for the time. The first song on the album is based almost entirely on a tritone interval played at slow tempo on the electric guitar. The song's lyrics concern a "figure in black" which bass player Geezer Butler claims to have seen after waking up from a nightmare.

Similarly, the lyrics of the song "N.I.B." are written from the point of view of Lucifer. Contrary to popular belief, the name of that song is not an abbreviation for "Nativity in Black". Osbourne said in his autobiography that it is merely a reference to drummer Bill Ward's pointed goatee at the time, which was shaped as a pen-nib.

Lyrics of two other songs on the album were written about supernatural-themed stories. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is a reference to the H. P. Lovecraft short story Beyond the Wall of Sleep, while "The Wizard" was inspired by the character of Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings. The latter includes harmonica performed by vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.

Both the songs "Warning" and "Evil Woman" are covers of blues songs, with lyrics regarding relationships. The first was written and performed by Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation, and the second was written and performed by the band Crow.

Artwork

The album cover features a depiction of Mapledurham Watermill, situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England. Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in black. The silhouette of a raven is visible among the trees on the back cover. On the original release, the inner gate-fold sleeve featured an inverted cross with a poem written inside of it. Vertigo, the band's UK record label, were allegedly responsible for adding the cross. Allegedly, the band were upset when they discovered this, as it fueled allegations that they were Satanists or Occultists. Although, in Osbourne's recent biography, "I Am Ozzy", he says that to the best of his knowledge that nobody was upset with the inclusion. The album was not packaged with a gate-fold cover in the U.S.

Release

Released on Friday the 13th February 1970 by Vertigo Records, Black Sabbath reached number eight on the UK Album Chart. Following its US release in June 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year, selling a million copies.

Legacy

The album has also been credited for pioneering heavy metal, In 2003, the album was ranked number 241 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Critical reception

While the album was a commercial success and is now lauded as perhaps the first true heavy metal album, upon its release it was widely panned by critics. In a review for Rolling Stone magazine, rock critic Lester Bangs felt Sabbath was "just like Cream! But worse". Bangs dismissed Black Sabbath 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". Robert Christgau wrote in The Village Voice that the album was "the worst of the counterculture on a plastic platter".

With the passage of time, reviews have become more positive. Steve Huey, for example, wrote for Allmusic that "Sabbath's slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness", commenting that the album featured "plenty of metal classics".

Track listing

All songs credited to Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne, except "Evil Woman" (Larry Weigand, Richard Weigand and David Waggoner) and "Warning" (Dunbar/Hickling/Moreshead/Dmochowski).

European edition

Side One

#"Black Sabbath" – 6:16 #"The Wizard" – 4:24 #"Behind the Wall of Sleep" – 3:38 #"N.I.B." – 6:06

Side Two

#"Evil Woman" – 3:25 (Crow cover) #"Sleeping Village" – 3:46 #"Warning" – 10:32 (Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation cover)

1996 remastered edition

#

"Wicked World" – 4:47

North American edition

Side One

#"Black Sabbath" – 6:20 #"The Wizard" – 4:22 #"Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B." – 9:44

Side Two

#

"Wicked World" – 4:47 #"A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning" – 14:15 #* Most North American Warner Bros. Records editions of the album incorrectly list the running time of "Wicked World" at 4:30, and of the "Warning" medley at 14:32.

#

"Evil Woman" – 3:25

2009 deluxe edition

Disc 1

#"Black Sabbath" – 6:16 #"The Wizard" – 4:24 #"Behind the Wall of Sleep" – 3:38 #"N.I.B." – 6:06 #"Evil Woman" – 3:25 #"Sleeping Village" – 3:46 #"Warning" – 10:32

Disc 2

#"Wicked World" – 4:47 #"Black Sabbath" (Studio Outtake) – 6:22 #"Black Sabbath" (instrumental) – 6:13 #"The Wizard" (Studio Outtake) – 4:46 #"Behind the Wall of Sleep" (Studio Outtake) – 3:41 #"N.I.B." (alternate version) – 6:08 #"Evil Woman" (alternative version) – 3:47 #"Sleeping Village" (intro alternative version) – 3:45 #"Warning Part 1" (Studio Outtake) – 6:58

Personnel

;Black Sabbath

Ozzy Osbourne – vocals, harmonica on "The Wizard"

Tony Iommi – guitar

Geezer Butler – bass

Bill Ward – drums

;Additional personnel

Rodger Bain – production

Tom Allom – engineering

Barry Sheffield – engineering

Marcus Keef – graphic design, photography

Release history

{|class="wikitable" ! Region ! Date ! Label ! Format ! Catalog |- |rowspan="2"|United Kingdom |13 February 1970 |Vertigo |LP |VO 6 |- |1992 |Castle |CD |CA196 |- |rowspan="2"| United States |1 June 1970 |rowspan="2"| Warner Bros. | LP | 1871 |- |1 July 1988 |CD |2-1871 |- | Europe remastered | 2 July 2009 | Sanctuary | double CD | 2700819 |- |}

See also

Notes

References

Category:1970 albums Category:Black Sabbath albums Category:Debut albums Category:Vertigo Records albums Category:Warner Bros. Records albums Category:Albums produced by Rodger Bain Category:Universal Deluxe Editions