I Sold My Soul for Black Sabbath

Wherein an inveterate disco dancer claims Black Sabbath, the overlords of heavy metal, for disco. If indeed guitarist Tony Iommi was a master of riffs, then it holds that the repetitive nature of the riff could be marshaled for dancing as well as head-banging. Add a bassist (Geezer Butler) and a drummer (Bill Ward) who could get all start-stoppy funky whenever they wanted. And now you can grasp why metal boys appreciated this rhythmic license given to their girlfriend-hopefuls who just wanted to dance at concerts. As for Ozzy Osbourne, dead at 76 on July 22nd, it's sad that so many tributes had to satisfy rockist articles of faith by claiming that Osbourne did, in fact, write that lyric or have a hand in creating that melody. Isn't his status as one of rock's greatest vocalist enough? You hear the women of ABBA referred to as sirens for their uncanny ability to beckon you to their pop getaways. But Osbourne's voice was a two-minute warning, capable of emptying entire downtown hotels with a single wail. His enormous lung power propelled you away from him, then swept you up in all those metaphors of flight and escape that peppered his/their lyrics. And thus he became hero to generations of no-account kids who hoped for a better life outside of the capitalist grinder. It's appropriate that the most touching of the many tributes raining down this week came from Geezer Butler:

Goodbye dear friend- thanks for all those years- we had some great fun. 4 kids from Aston- who’d have thought, eh?
So glad we got to do it one last time, back in Aston.
Love you.

What follows is my attempt to siphon off all the Sab I'll ever need. Most of the findings here remain true. My Sab is a fast and dancey one. I don't go to them for ballads ("Changes" is fine but I never need to hear it again), interludes (no matter how short or how much heft they lend to each Album), guitar solos ("Warning" drags the debut into the muck of the River Thames), or even songs (again, "Am I Going Insane" causes little pain but Top 40 nuggetry is not their forte). And I don't go to anyone for prog which explains my indifference to Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Paranoid is the most consistent and contains two of their greatest dance tracks - "War Pigs" and "Fairies Wear Boots," Sabotage features Ozzy's best performance and offers plenty of prog weirdness besides, Master of Reality the dankest, Never Say Die! proof that they could outpomp Van Halen.

The comp below fits on two discs and at the very least includes "Supernaut" which most fans nominate as the best cut off Vol. 4 and which the 1976 We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll (notice singular "soul") omitted despite including four (4!) other tracks from Vol. 4.

I Sold My Soul for Black Sabbath

(Bozelkablog, 2025)

"Black Sabbath
"The Wizard"
"Behind The Wall Of Sleep"
"N.I.B."
"War Pigs"
"Paranoid"
"Iron Man"
"Electric Funeral"
"Hand of Doom"
"Fairies Wear Boots"
"Sweet Leaf"
"After Forever"
"Children Of The Grave"
"Into the Void"
"Supernaut"
"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
"Hole In The Sky"
"Symptom Of The Universe"
"Megalomania"
"The Writ"
"Never Say Die"
"Johnny Blade"
"Junior's Eyes" 

 

Black Sabbath: B+
Paranoid: A-minus
Master of Reality: A-minus
Vol. 4: B
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: C
Sabotage: A-minus
Technical Ecstasy: D
Never Say Die!: B+