No other band sounded like this at the time. Sure, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin did their thing. Black Sabbath invented something totally new not based in classic blues or rock. Mindblowing for me as a fourteen year old at that time!
I think Black Sabbath was during doom week, thus the slow tempo there. In general Sabbath has a good mix of (kinda) fast and slow. Hope this live version worked for you.
To hear the evolution, skip forward to 1973 their 5th album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the title track is great, My favourites are Spiral Architect & A National Acrobat. They progress in the same direction further with the next album Sabotage with more complex songs. These two albums were Sabbath's peak.
my main problem with Black Sabbath is that the patterns of the songs are very similar to each other… I probably listen more to The Nativity in Black album than to the actual band :/ The Type O Negative's cover of Black Sabbath is way better than the original… 😀
If you want to here more from the Paranoid album, I recommend Hand of Doom/Rat Salad live 1970.(same live performance as War Pigs) Also this concert was actually before the album was released, so some of the lyrics were different, a mix of the early workings of the songs with the final version.
well zeppelin hit in 69' with some pretty heavy hitting drums. and hendrix had been established with some very wild shows as well as Cream…but sabbath had a pretty heavy sound that separated them from other groups. blue cheer had a similiar sound but they were a bit more up beat…
like many artists back in the 70's,80's , and 90's… you really needed to put out material every year at a minimum in order to stay relevant and keep your presence known. i bit easier for the Mtv generation with constant round the clock exposure. something the cats from the 70's really didn't have..
the call and response wasn't something brand new at the time but it wasn't used very much. you have to remember that much of the early to mid 60's music was a lot of motown and shorter beatle-esque formats. check out early WHO material and you can see how much different it was from the more epic and longer tracks they indulged in thru-out the 70's. by 67' things started to change quite a bit. the 50's was all about those short little ditties and it took some time for artists to experiment with longer song formats.. not to mention radio stations weren't exactly open to playing those long songs.
War Pigs is often at or near the top of most lists as the best metal song ever written. It's not hard to see how much inspiration later bands took from this song, especially the combination of crushingly heavy riffs and the rather unusual/complex (for the time, at least) structure with its elongated instrumental sections. This was from their second album, Paranoid, from 1970; the same album that contained Paranoid (a song I'm sure you've heard even if you don't recognize the title) and Iron Man. Between those three tracks it's really easy to understand why Sabbath are considered the band that created the blueprint for all later metal. From that period only Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had a similar influence, but their influence was broader across all genres/sub-genres of rock, while Sabbath's influence was much deeper on metal specifically. This song in particular is remarkable in that no matter how much I hear it I never get tired of it. Every section just flows so well, and the drumming, riffage, and bass groove is just S-tier throughout. Truly a flawless song. Definitely check out the studio version for better/more audible bass.
FWIW, the term "heavy metal" in the musical context originates with Steppenwolf's Born to the Wild (the lyric: "heavy metal thunder") and that song was quite fast with a driving, heavily distorted guitar riff, so from then on journalists started describing all music with distorted, driving riffs as "heavy metal," so it's pretty easy to understand why Sabbath really established that sound in full.
Back in the late 80's I was 15 years old & @ high school, I didn't 'hang' with the Metal dudes, I loved listening to alternative types of music that our University Students ran, I loved listening to: [The Cult, The Cure, Talking Heads, The Cocteau Twins, Metallica, Rage against the Machine, Suicidal Tendencies, The Dead Kennedy's, Danzig, Gaye Bikers on Acid, Blonde, Sex Pistols, New Order, David Bowie, Nik Cave, Iggy Pop, just to name a few]! But it was "Faith No More" that introduced me to their version of War-Pigs! I had to listen to the O.G, Sabbath, after hearing Mike Patton & FaithNoMore's Cover -Nothing beats the Original! Mike Patton is still one of my all time favourite singers.
Not sure on this video of Sabbath. But I can tell you from my own experience that playing hard isn't always as an effect. It's sometimes a necessity to get the sound out on old and weak PA or amps As a bass player I had to play hard, for volume, high up on the strings for tone and extremely consistent (no compression and risking obsessive string slap). Hard to play fast that way but you will get very good at being consistent as any timing issue will cause problems.
Now I have a good amp but my style of playing has not really changed.
If you want to see the next evolution just do "Into The Void" (slooow) or "Children Of The Grave", both from their 1971 album Master Of Reality! 🙂 That's when they tuned down to C# standard! That stuff was heavier than anything that came after for like 10 years at least.
Great Reaction! I think you will get many different opinions on the origins of Metal. In my world back then Black Sabbath was definitely harder, heavier music when they came out then any other band. Then Punk came out and many people, including early Metal musicians, believe Metal came out of Punk. The Metal guys liked the anger, frustration and rebelliousness of Punk, but thought the Punk guys were not good musicians and they wanted to play more intricate music with melodies, but keep the anger of Punk. In my opinion there are a lot of Metal bands that are really Hard Rock bands. Eddie Van Halen once laughed at an interviewer who asked him if Van Halen was Metal (his answer was absolutely not).
If you want to see a great live performance from 1969 that you can hear the Bass, the Drummer kicks ass, as well as the singer/guitar player, watch Grand Funk Railroad Inside Looking Out Live 1969.
Dude u gotta do the studio version!! Yea im sure you’ve heard the song.. but have u HEARD the song really listen in on the studio and you’ll love that bass soo much
Excellent analysis. I hope you got the chance to listen to the studio version so you can really hear Geezer Butler's bass performance. I think you would really appreciate it. Geezer is a great bass player, in addition to being the primary lyricist for the band. Both of the first two albums are iconic and excellent. You mentioned being familiar with Iron Man and Paranoid (along with Black Sabbath that you have already done), but most if not all, of the other songs on these first two albums are also top notch. I know your time is limited, but these first two albums are so iconic they are worth a listen in full. Would be great on camera, but I hope you can give them both a listen either way, whether on or off camera.
Lots of great informative comments here that covers some background info so I won't repeat what has already been said. I will just note that the context of this was during the Vietnam War, which led to lots of antiwar songs of the time, including from the British Bands, even though it was primarily an American war. Much more controversial than todays wars due to there being a draft, which theoretically meant all males 18 and older could be called up. But in reality, as the song points out, it was mostly the poor.
Black Sabbath absolute monsters! If you want any other really early proto-metal? there's a "very NOT Pink Floyd" track "The Nile Song" by Pink Floyd early 1969
Faith No More covered this…
wonderful!!! … Slayers's 'War Ensemble' would be good …
No other band sounded like this at the time. Sure, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin did their thing. Black Sabbath invented something totally new not based in classic blues or rock. Mindblowing for me as a fourteen year old at that time!
Is Ozzy making those words up as he goes along? 😀
I think Black Sabbath was during doom week, thus the slow tempo there. In general Sabbath has a good mix of (kinda) fast and slow. Hope this live version worked for you.
I liked your comments on Bill Ward's drumming. He holds a special place in the hearts of British rock musicians.
To hear the evolution, skip forward to 1973 their 5th album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the title track is great, My favourites are Spiral Architect & A National Acrobat. They progress in the same direction further with the next album Sabotage with more complex songs. These two albums were Sabbath's peak.
my main problem with Black Sabbath is that the patterns of the songs are very similar to each other… I probably listen more to The Nativity in Black album than to the actual band :/ The Type O Negative's cover of Black Sabbath is way better than the original… 😀
They try to make it sound like War!
If you want to here more from the Paranoid album, I recommend Hand of Doom/Rat Salad live 1970.(same live performance as War Pigs) Also this concert was actually before the album was released, so some of the lyrics were different, a mix of the early workings of the songs with the final version.
“Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses”
Luuuuv. Wholly originally great.✌️💀🌿
well zeppelin hit in 69' with some pretty heavy hitting drums. and hendrix had been established with some very wild shows as well as Cream…but sabbath had a pretty heavy sound that separated them from other groups. blue cheer had a similiar sound but they were a bit more up beat…
like many artists back in the 70's,80's , and 90's… you really needed to put out material every year at a minimum in order to stay relevant and keep your presence known. i bit easier for the Mtv generation with constant round the clock exposure. something the cats from the 70's really didn't have..
Bill Ward in total BEAST mode! If you ever wanted proof why this guy is my favorite drummer of all time, this performance does the trick. 👌👌
the call and response wasn't something brand new at the time but it wasn't used very much. you have to remember that much of the early to mid 60's music was a lot of motown and shorter beatle-esque formats. check out early WHO material and you can see how much different it was from the more epic and longer tracks they indulged in thru-out the 70's. by 67' things started to change quite a bit. the 50's was all about those short little ditties and it took some time for artists to experiment with longer song formats.. not to mention radio stations weren't exactly open to playing those long songs.
War Pigs is often at or near the top of most lists as the best metal song ever written. It's not hard to see how much inspiration later bands took from this song, especially the combination of crushingly heavy riffs and the rather unusual/complex (for the time, at least) structure with its elongated instrumental sections. This was from their second album, Paranoid, from 1970; the same album that contained Paranoid (a song I'm sure you've heard even if you don't recognize the title) and Iron Man. Between those three tracks it's really easy to understand why Sabbath are considered the band that created the blueprint for all later metal. From that period only Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had a similar influence, but their influence was broader across all genres/sub-genres of rock, while Sabbath's influence was much deeper on metal specifically. This song in particular is remarkable in that no matter how much I hear it I never get tired of it. Every section just flows so well, and the drumming, riffage, and bass groove is just S-tier throughout. Truly a flawless song. Definitely check out the studio version for better/more audible bass.
FWIW, the term "heavy metal" in the musical context originates with Steppenwolf's Born to the Wild (the lyric: "heavy metal thunder") and that song was quite fast with a driving, heavily distorted guitar riff, so from then on journalists started describing all music with distorted, driving riffs as "heavy metal," so it's pretty easy to understand why Sabbath really established that sound in full.
Back in the late 80's I was 15 years old & @ high school, I didn't 'hang' with the Metal dudes, I loved listening to alternative types of music that our University Students ran, I loved listening to:
[The Cult, The Cure, Talking Heads, The Cocteau Twins, Metallica, Rage against the Machine, Suicidal Tendencies, The Dead Kennedy's, Danzig, Gaye Bikers on Acid, Blonde, Sex Pistols, New Order, David Bowie, Nik Cave, Iggy Pop, just to name a few]!
But it was "Faith No More" that introduced me to their version of War-Pigs!
I had to listen to the O.G, Sabbath, after hearing Mike Patton & FaithNoMore's Cover -Nothing beats the Original! Mike Patton is still one of my all time favourite singers.
Not sure on this video of Sabbath. But I can tell you from my own experience that playing hard isn't always as an effect. It's sometimes a necessity to get the sound out on old and weak PA or amps As a bass player I had to play hard, for volume, high up on the strings for tone and extremely consistent (no compression and risking obsessive string slap). Hard to play fast that way but you will get very good at being consistent as any timing issue will cause problems.
Now I have a good amp but my style of playing has not really changed.
Only other drumming with similar snare activity that comes to mind is on the King Crimson's In The Wake Of Poseidon (song) also from 1970.
If you want to see the next evolution just do "Into The Void" (slooow) or "Children Of The Grave", both from their 1971 album Master Of Reality! 🙂 That's when they tuned down to C# standard! That stuff was heavier than anything that came after for like 10 years at least.
Great Reaction! I think you will get many different opinions on the origins of Metal. In my world back then Black Sabbath was definitely harder, heavier music when they came out then any other band. Then Punk came out and many people, including early Metal musicians, believe Metal came out of Punk. The Metal guys liked the anger, frustration and rebelliousness of Punk, but thought the Punk guys were not good musicians and they wanted to play more intricate music with melodies, but keep the anger of Punk. In my opinion there are a lot of Metal bands that are really Hard Rock bands. Eddie Van Halen once laughed at an interviewer who asked him if Van Halen was Metal (his answer was absolutely not).
If you want to see a great live performance from 1969 that you can hear the Bass, the Drummer kicks ass, as well as the singer/guitar player, watch Grand Funk Railroad Inside Looking Out Live 1969.
Check out the band Budgie. Heavy and not quite as big as ‘ Sabbath.
You might have heard the Faith No More version
Dude u gotta do the studio version!! Yea im sure you’ve heard the song.. but have u HEARD the song really listen in on the studio and you’ll love that bass soo much
Excellent analysis. I hope you got the chance to listen to the studio version so you can really hear Geezer Butler's bass performance. I think you would really appreciate it. Geezer is a great bass player, in addition to being the primary lyricist for the band. Both of the first two albums are iconic and excellent. You mentioned being familiar with Iron Man and Paranoid (along with Black Sabbath that you have already done), but most if not all, of the other songs on these first two albums are also top notch. I know your time is limited, but these first two albums are so iconic they are worth a listen in full. Would be great on camera, but I hope you can give them both a listen either way, whether on or off camera.
Lots of great informative comments here that covers some background info so I won't repeat what has already been said. I will just note that the context of this was during the Vietnam War, which led to lots of antiwar songs of the time, including from the British Bands, even though it was primarily an American war. Much more controversial than todays wars due to there being a draft, which theoretically meant all males 18 and older could be called up. But in reality, as the song points out, it was mostly the poor.
Hello reactions Los jaivas song águila sideral
Black Sabbath absolute monsters!
If you want any other really early proto-metal? there's a "very NOT Pink Floyd" track "The Nile Song" by Pink Floyd early 1969