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Perhaps surprisingly, I came to Black Sabbath late. My first love had been Deep Purple who I adored. And I was already collecting records by all the greats but for some reason Sabbath evaded my attention until the summer I was 18 and I got the Greatest Hits and I fell headlong into their music.
By this time they’d been together for ten years, which is an eternity when you’re 18. That didn’t seem to bother me about Purple but I think it made me think they were old, which was pretty silly.
There are always bands like this, aren’t they? Groups you managed to avoid even while everyone else was hoovering up their records. But then the dam breaks and you realise what you’ve been missing. So it was with me with Sabbath. I was really surprised at how varied their music was, with delicate acoustic passages on songs like Laguna Sunrise (little did I know that I would live in Laguna and see the sunrise, 14 years later)
But it was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which solidified my love. It had one of the most crushing riffs, an almost Beatlesque acoustic passage and lyrics which talk directly to the rebellious teenage soul.
It did exactly what a compilation should do, it opened the catalogue to me and within 18 months, I had everything, just as the Dio era began, which I thought was stellar.
You don’t need me to document their extensive career but now that we're at the end of it I think we can get a perspective on their contribution. I don’t think there is much doubt that they are one of the tap roots from which all of rock music was birthed. But what gets missed by focussing on the heaviness is the sweet delicacy too. That often sets the context and allows the true power to shine through. And that’s what the imitators often forget. Yes they’re heavy but so much more and that explains their longevity. Even records like Tyr are brilliant, though they didn't sell so well. The riffs in Anno Mundi are hypnotic and compulsive. Even now I am discovering brilliant songs on records like Seventh Sign and Cross Purposes. It’s Tony Iommi that is the lodestar, of course. This is pretty obvious but was proved on the Fused album he made with Glenn Hughes, which has that sonic brilliance dripping from every groove.
I once saw him in conversation with his friend Brian May and he played some unreleased music. Just an instrumental demo. It was superb and made me wonder how much more brilliance is on the studio floor.
I wished I was still 18 and discovering them anew all over again.
