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Black Sabbath has been so influential in the development of heavy metal
rock music as to be a defining force in the style. The group took the
blues-rock sound of late '60s acts like Cream, Blue
Cheer, and Vanilla
Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the
bass, and emphasizing screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of
lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their
predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition, Black
Sabbath took that tradition in a new direction, and in so doing helped
give birth to a musical style that continued to attract millions of fans
decades later.
The group was formed by four teenage friends from Aston, near Birmingham,
England: Anthony
"Tony" Iommi (b. Feb 19, 1948), guitar; William
"Bill" Ward (b. May 5, 1948), drums; John
"Ozzy"
Osbourne (b. Dec 3, 1948), vocals; and Terence
"Geezer" Butler (b. Jul 17, 1949), bass. They originally
called their jazz-blues band Polka Tulk, later renaming themselves Earth,
and they played extensively in Europe. In early 1969, they decided to
change their name again when they found that they were being mistaken for
another group called Earth. Butler
had written a song that took its title from a novel by occult writer
Dennis Wheatley, Black Sabbath, and the group adopted it as their name as
well. As they attracted attention for their live performances, record
labels showed interest, and they were signed to Phillips Records in 1969.
In January 1970, the Phillips subsidiary Fontana released their debut
single, "Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games With Me)," a cover of
a song that had just become a U.S. hit for Crow;
it did not chart. The following month, a different Phillips subsidiary,
Vertigo, released Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album, which reached
the U.K. Top Ten. Though it was a less immediate success in the U.S. —
where the band's recordings were licensed to Warner Bros. Records and
appeared in May 1970 — the LP broke into the American charts in August,
reaching the Top 40, remaining in the charts over a year, and selling a
million copies.
Appearing at the start of the '70s, Black Sabbath embodied the
Balkanization of popular music that followed the relatively homogenous
second half of the 1960s. As exemplified by its most popular act, the
Beatles, the 1960s suggested that many different aspects of popular
music could be integrated into an eclectic style with a broad appeal. The
Beatles were as likely to perform an acoustic ballad as a hard rocker
or R&B-influenced tune. At the start of the 1970s, however, those
styles began to become more discrete for new artists, with soft rockers
like James
Taylor and the
Carpenters emerging to play only ballad material, and hard rockers
like Led
Zeppelin and Grand
Funk Railroad taking a radically different course, while R&B music
turned increasingly militant. The first wave of rock critics, which had
come into existence with the
Beatles, was dismayed with this development, and the new acts tended
to be poorly reviewed despite their popularity. Black Sabbath, which took
an even more extreme tack than the still blues- and folk-based Led
Zeppelin, was lambasted by critics (and though they eventually made
their peace with Zeppelin,
they never did with Sabbath). But the band had discovered a new audience
eager for its uncompromising approach.
Black Sabbath quickly followed its debut album with a second album, Paranoid,
in September 1970. The title track, released as a single in advance of the
LP, hit the Top Five in the U.K., and the album went to number one there.
In the U.S., where the first album had just begun to sell, Paranoid
was held up for release until January 1971, again preceded by the title
track, which made the singles charts in November; the album broke into the
Top Ten in March 1971 and remained in the charts over a year, eventually
selling over four million copies, by far the band's best-selling effort.
(Its sales were stimulated by the belated release of one of its tracks,
"Iron Man," as a U.S. single in early 1972; the 45 got almost
halfway up the charts, the band's best showing for an American single.)
Master
of Reality, the third album, followed in August 1971, reaching the
Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic and selling over a million copies. Black
Sabbath, Vol. 4 (September 1972) was another Top Ten
million-seller. For Sabbath
Bloody Sabbath (November 1973), the band brought in Yes
keyboard player Rick
Wakeman on one track, signaling a slight change in musical direction;
it was Black Sabbath's fifth straight Top Ten hit and million-seller. In
1974, the group went through managerial disputes that idled them for an
extended period. When they returned to action in July 1975 with their
sixth album, Sabotage,
they were welcomed back at home, but in the U.S. the musical climate had
changed, making things more difficult for an album-oriented band with a
heavy style, and though the LP reached the Top 20, it did not match
previous sales levels. Black Sabbath's record labels quickly responded
with a million-selling double-LP compilation, We
Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll (December 1975), and the band
contemplated a more pronounced change of musical style. This brought about
disagreement, with guitarist Iommi
wanting to add elements to the sound, including horns, and singer
Osbourne
resisting any variation in the formula. Technical
Ecstasy (October 1976), which adopted some of Iommi's
innovations, was another good — but not great — seller, and
Osbourne's
frustration eventually led to his quitting the band in November 1977. He
was replaced for some live dates by former Savoy
Brown singer Dave
Walker, then returned in January 1978. Black Sabbath recorded its
eighth album, Never
Say Die! (September 1978), the title track becoming a U.K. Top 40
hit before the LP's release and "Hard Road" making the Top 40
afterwards. But the singles did not improve the album's commercial
success, which was again modest, and Osbourne
left Black Sabbath for a solo career, replaced in June 1979 by former Rainbow
singer Ronnie
James Dio (b. June 10, 1949). (Also during this period, keyboardist Geoff
Nichols became a regular part of the band's performing and recording
efforts, though he was not officially considered a band member until
later.)
The new lineup took its time getting into the recording studio, not
releasing its first effort until April 1980 with Heaven
and Hell. The result was a commercial resurgence. In the U.S., the
album was a million-seller; in Britain, it was a Top Ten hit that threw
off two chart singles, "Neon Knights" and "Die Young."
(At the same time, the band's former British record label issued a
five-year old concert album, Black
Sabbath Live at Last, that was quickly withdrawn, though not before
making the U.K. Top Five, and reissued "Paranoid" as a single,
getting it into the Top 20.) Meanwhile, drummer Bill
Ward left Black Sabbath due to ill health and was replaced by Vinnie
Appice. The lineup of Iommi, Butler, Dio,
and Appice
then recorded Mob
Rules (November 1981), which was almost as successful as its
predecessor: In the U.S., it went gold, and in the U.K. it reached the Top
20 and spawned two chart singles, the title track and "Turn up the
Night." Next on the schedule was a concert album, but Iommi
and Dio
clashed over the mixing of it, and by the time Live
Evil appeared in January 1983, Dio
had left Black Sabbath, taking Appice
with him.
The group reorganized by persuading original drummer Bill
Ward to return and, in a move that surprised heavy metal fans,
recruiting Ian
Gillan (b. Aug. 19, 1945), former lead singer of Black Sabbath rivals Deep
Purple. This lineup — Iommi, Butler, Ward,
and Gillan
— recorded Born
Again, released in September 1983. Black Sabbath hit the road
prior to the album's release, with drummer Bev
Bevan (b. Nov 25, 1946) substituting for Ward,
who would return to the band in the spring of 1984. The album was a Top
Five hit in the U.K. but only made the Top 40 in the U.S. Gillan
remained with Black Sabbath until March 1984, when he joined a Deep
Purple reunion and was replaced by singer Dave
Donato, who was in the band until October without being featured on
any of its recordings.
Black Sabbath reunited with Ozzy
Osbourne for its set at the Live Aid concert on July 13, 1985, but
soon after the performance, bassist Geezer
Butler left the band, and with that the group became guitarist Tony
Iommi's vehicle, a fact emphasized by the next album, Seventh
Star, released in January 1986 and credited to "Black Sabbath
featuring Tony
Iommi." On this release, the lineup was Iommi
(guitar); another former Deep
Purple singer, Glenn
Hughes (b. Aug 21, 1952) (vocals); Dave
Spitz (bass); Geoff
Nichols (keyboards); and Eric
Singer (drums). The album was a modest commercial success, but the new
band began to fragment immediately, with Hughes
replaced by singer Ray
Gillen for the promotional tour in March 1986.
With Black Sabbath now consisting of Iommi
and his employees, personnel changes were rapid. The
Eternal Idol (November 1987), which failed to crack the U.K. Top
50 or the U.S. Top 100, featured a returning Bev
Bevan, bassist Bob Daisley, and singer Tony
Martin. Bevan
and Daisley
didn't stay long, and there were several replacements in the bass and drum
positions over the next couple of years. Headless
Cross (April 1989), the band's first album for I.R.S. Records,
found veteran drummer Cozy
Powell (b. Dec 29, 1947, d. Apr 5, 1998) and bassist Laurence
Cottle joining Iommi
and Martin.
It marked a slight uptick in Black Sabbath's fortunes at home, with the
title song managing a week in the singles charts. Shortly after its
release, Cottle
was replaced by bassist Neil
Murray. With Geoff
Nichols back on keyboards, this lineup made Tyr
(August 1990), which charted in the Top 40 in the U.K. but became Black
Sabbath's first regular album to miss the U.S. charts.
Iommi
was able to reunite the 1979-1983 lineup of the band — himself, Geezer
Butler, Ronnie
James Dio, and Vinnie
Appice — for Dehumanizer
(June 1992), which brought Black Sabbath back into the American Top 50 for
the first time in nine years, while in the U.K. the album spawned "TV
Crimes," their first Top 40 hit in a decade. And on November 15,
1992, Iommi, Butler,
and Appice
backed Ozzy
Osbourne as part of what was billed as the singer's final live
appearance. Shortly after, it was announced that Osbourne
would be rejoining Black Sabbath.
That didn't happen — yet. Instead, Dio
and Appice
left again, and Iommi
replaced them by bringing back Tony
Martin and adding drummer Bob
Rondinelli. Cross
Purposes (February 1994) was a modest seller, and, with Iommi
apparently maintaining a Rolodex of all former members from which to pick
and choose, the next album, Forbidden
(June 1995), featured returning musicians Cozy
Powell, Geoff
Nichols, and Neil
Murray, along with Iommi
and Martin.
The disc spent only one week in the British charts, suggesting that Black
Sabbath finally had exhausted its commercial appeal, at least as a record
seller. With that, the group followed the lead of the
Eagles and Fleetwood
Mac, putting the most popular lineup of the band back together for a
live album with a couple of new studio tracks on it. Recorded in the
band's hometown of Birmingham, England, in December 1997, the two-CD set Reunion
— featuring all four of Black Sabbath's original members, Iommi,
Osbourne,
Butler,
and Ward
— was released in October 1998. It charted only briefly in the U.K., but
in the U.S. it just missed reaching the Top Ten and went platinum. The
track "Iron Man" won Black Sabbath its first Grammy Award for
Best Metal Performance. The band toured through the end of 1999,
concluding their reunion tour on December 22, 1999, back in Birmingham. In
February 2001, Black Sabbath announced that it would reunite once again to
headline the sixth edition of Ozzfest, Osbourne's
summer concert festival, playing 29 cities in the U.S. beginning in June.
More surprisingly, the group also announced its intention to record a
studio album of all-new material, the original lineup's first since 1978.
By the end of the year, a failed recording session with producer Rick
Rubin proved what an unreasonable idea this was, and the band laid
dormant while Osbourne
enjoyed scoring a hit TV series the following spring.
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