Album: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Year: 1973
It’s weird: I’m discovering that my favorite Black Sabbath songs are so ingrained in me, I’m having trouble figuring out what to say about them. Like for example, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.”
Do I point out that’s one of their great multi-part songs? Do I walk you through how it starts with a typically doomy multi-part riff in the verses before dropping into an acoustic chorus? And that it features a relatively organic Iommi solo prior to becoming a completely different song? And that at the end, it changes again, with a nearly-psychedelic storm of guitars, some of which might even be backwards?
Or do I point out that because it was their fifth album in a little under 4 years, the strain is definitely beginning to show, especially on Ozzy’s voice? So much so that you can practically see him straining to hit the notes he hears in his head when he sings “Whe-aaairrrr can you run to?”
Maybe I’ll just I point out that it doesn’t matter, because I simply love how Ozzy screams “You BASTARDS!!!!” just before Iommi’s solo? For sure should point out that for nearly 40 years I’ve been playing this song just to hear Ozzy sing:
Sabbath, bloody sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you
Yeah!!
… which is followed by one last amazing Iommi riff that would power an entire song by a lesser band before jumping into that nearly-psychedelic coda?
Video for “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”
My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist: