War Pigs. Live. Heavy.

May 27, 2011 5:41 PM

War Pigs, live in Paris 1970. Slightly different lyrics, still heavier than the gods.

This video captures a classic slab o' Sabbath during its transformation from 'satanic' (according to their record company) screed to anti-war anthem. Originally titled "Walpurgis," its initial couplet - which in "War Pigs" famously rhymes "masses" with "masses" - was instead "Witches at black masses/Bodies burning in red ashes." The equipment may have been rudimentary by today's standards, but damn they just killed it.

Also: The impossibly slow and heavy Birmingham, 1970; the extra echoey Berlin, 1970; Montreaux, 1970, with Ozzy calling it "War Pigs," but singing the "Walpurgis" lyrics; and, just for comparison's sake, Italy, 1992, with the late Ronnie James Dio on (somewhat ad-libbed) vocals.

Extra Bonus: Faith No More, reverential; and Metallica, impromptu.

posted by googly (98 comments total)

Warpigs, Washington DC, inauguration night, 2009.
posted by empath at 5:53 PM on May 27, 2011

You know, if you put the lyrics to War Pigs into a different context, it could easily pass as a mournful gospel tune.

Never realized that before.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:53 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fuck! How heavy was Sabbath for 1970? Heavier than a really heavy thing. Check this live performance of Iron Man (also Paris '70).
posted by MikeMc at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Forty. One. Years. Ago.
posted by fullerine at 5:55 PM on May 27, 2011

fullerine: "Forty. One. Years. Ago."

The amazing thing to think about is that this was only eleven years after Buddy Holly. The sixties seems to compress a ridiculous amount of cultural change into a decade. No wonder my Archie Bunkerish father was freaked out then.
posted by octothorpe at 6:02 PM on May 27, 2011 [34 favorites]

I didn't know these awesome Paris '70 videos existed - N.I.B.
posted by MikeMc at 6:02 PM on May 27, 2011

Sabbath rightfully gets credit for being heavy, but fucking hell -- what a funky-as-fuck rhythm section. Amazing chops and breaks.
posted by bardic at 6:02 PM on May 27, 2011 [6 favorites]

My very first concert was Sabbath. 1976. Ted Nugent opened. Things are different now.
posted by davebush at 6:03 PM on May 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

War Pigs is always relevant. This is not a good thing. Yet it is an amazing song.
posted by philip-random at 6:04 PM on May 27, 2011

The drums in this song are so fucking amazing. They carry the whole thing.
posted by empath at 6:04 PM on May 27, 2011 [13 favorites]

Heavy Metal was the ultimate terror for righteous Christian parents, but what is the message from this song?

1) Hatred and killing are bad
2) Witches are bad
3) Secular rulers are bad
4) God's Judgement Day is coming
5) Satan is evil and will take the sinners
6) Oh Lord, yeah!

This song is a good summary of many important biblical lessons.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:04 PM on May 27, 2011 [25 favorites]

My first concert was Urband Dance Squad opening for living color.

Not sure if I should be proud of that or not.
posted by bardic at 6:05 PM on May 27, 2011

My very first concert was Sabbath. 1978. Van Halen opened. Things are still different now.
posted by lampshade at 6:06 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Led Zeppelin was no slouch in '70 either.
posted by Trurl at 6:08 PM on May 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Awesome. This is exactly why I never bothered getting into grunge.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:26 PM on May 27, 2011

That's killer, heavy shit. Here's The Stooges in 1970, with more context to show how crazy this stuff was back then...


TV Eye
posted by Huck500 at 6:27 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fuck seeing metallica as old men is depressing.

Here's metallica when they were kids. and still fucking awesome.
posted by empath at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2011

I think there's a quote around somewhere along the lines of "On any given night, any band has the potential to be the greatest rock and roll band in the world."

I'm thinking on December 20, 1970, Black Sabbath was the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.

Thank you for the Iggy and Zep links.
posted by marxchivist at 6:32 PM on May 27, 2011 [4 favorites]

Fuck seeing metallica as old men is depressing.

I remember Ozzy talking about Metallica on the Monsters of Rock tour or something... how they came out on stage in black t-shirts and looked like Black Sabbath did in the 70s and how cool that was... it all comes back around.
posted by Huck500 at 6:34 PM on May 27, 2011

Amazing - not one wasted or gratuitous note, beat, or gesture. This is as close to perfection as I think I can stand today. This is now one of my 10 desert-island youtubes.
posted by squalor at 6:37 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fast! and flawless! As amazing as you'd expect from a band that spawned entire genres. Each one of these guys is a total monster, Bill and Geezer are tearing it up.

Every time he sings Oh Lord Yeah! I find myself yelling it out and startling my cats.
posted by Existential Dread at 6:41 PM on May 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

Fuck seeing metallica as old men is depressing.

Tom Araya turns 50 next week.
posted by Trurl at 6:41 PM on May 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

I really like the Raymond Watts (AKA Pig) electronic/industrial take on the song myself. I've always wondered what would happen if the rest of KMFDM had gotten a hold of the song, too.
posted by FireballForever at 6:42 PM on May 27, 2011

The drums, good God, those drums.
posted by D_I at 6:43 PM on May 27, 2011 [5 favorites]

Factory music: how the industrial geography and working-class environment of post-war Birmingham fostered the birth of heavy metal
posted by Mister Bijou at 6:43 PM on May 27, 2011 [4 favorites]

Oh Jesus, check these guys ripping through Children of the Grave dressed in pastels in front of a giant rainbow. I think Ozzy is wearing yellow spandex capris.
posted by Existential Dread at 6:44 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Cake's version is pretty good.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:46 PM on May 27, 2011

"That's...peanut butter"
posted by Bron at 6:52 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

"I think Ozzy is wearing yellow spandex capris."

I don't think they're capris, I think his pants are just tucked into those awesome silver boots. Compare the previous videos with this live video of "Snowblind" from '78. Sabbath are big rock stars now and it's near the end of Ozzy's time with the band. Ozzy looks and sounds like shit. Damn shame. I never got to see Sabbath live just chubby Ozzy in the '80 touring on two of his worst efforts (Bark at the Moon and Ultimate Sin).
posted by MikeMc at 6:59 PM on May 27, 2011

The amazing thing to think about is that this was only eleven years after Buddy Holly.

Hey, Buddy Holly was an awesome, progressive dude. He essentially created the template for the modern electric rock enseble. I'll bet he would have been pretty into (and no doubt leading) the progression of rock through the 60s.

Also, it's interesting that this music is described as 'heavy'. I agree, but it's more surprising in the same way that early AC/DC is surprising - the distortion is actually quite low, and the instruments are all heard very cleanly in the mix. The heaviness comes from the sparse arrangement more than anything. It helps to have some talent, of course.

Lately we've been over-exposed to shitty, high-distorition, high-compression, wall-of-sound mixes. Take some time and listen to Highway to Hell again. Listen to how f'n clean it is. We need more of that.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:01 PM on May 27, 2011 [8 favorites]

And the distortion in Iggy's voice is actual distortion in his voice...
posted by Huck500 at 7:11 PM on May 27, 2011

Hey, Buddy Holly was an awesome, progressive dude. He essentially created the template for the modern electric rock enseble.

Oh, no doubt. I'm a huge Buddy Holly fan but it's still amazing how quickly rock music progressed (or at least changed) in such a short time.
posted by octothorpe at 7:31 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Dillinger Escape Plan's frightening, funny, jaunty, and utterly math-rock cover of Paranoid (endure the first minute wirh the Cookie Monster vocals -- it gets good, really).
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:36 PM on May 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Fast! and flawless! As amazing as you'd expect from a band that spawned entire genres.

Amazing how fashions and genres can mutate with time. In the early 80's, Punk-Rockers and Metal-Heads hated each other. (Um, Metal-Heads thought that Punk-Rockers were stupid, and Punk-Rockers thought that Metal-Heads were stupid, mostly about lyrics and things like that, but the one tempo critique which the Punk-Rockers made was that Heavy-Metal was too sloww). By the end of the 80's, Punk-Rock had evolved into Hardcore, and Metal had evolved into Speed-Metal, and everyone could kinda get along with each other if they didn't fuss too much about the style of the hair.

But in that dark distant time, the one thing that most kids could agree on was that The Sab was really out of fashion. If you liked them, if you had an admiration for them, well okay, but we didn't see your head poking out singing their praises, back then.
posted by ovvl at 7:38 PM on May 27, 2011

Oh, no doubt. I'm a huge Buddy Holly fan but it's still amazing how quickly rock music progressed (or at least changed) in such a short time.

Yeah not meaning to infer that you weren't, sorry. I think it's more fascinating that the guitar-drum-bass-vocal emsemble is still essentially unchanged after almost 70 years. Saying that this is only 11 years after Buddy Holly isn't really as surprising to me. It's like saying that NWA only came along X years after Grandmaster Flash. Once the music and the instruments are established it goes in all directions pretty quickly. What's amazing is how similar a lot of contemporary music is to music made in the 60s.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:40 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Punk-Rock had evolved into Hardcore, and Metal had evolved into Speed-Metal...But in that dark distant time, the one thing that most kids could agree on was that The Sab was really out of fashion.

...meanwhile, in the middle 1980s a bunch of kids were rediscovering their appreciation of "The Sab" and started a band called Soundgarden. Progress ensued.
posted by FreedomTickler at 7:44 PM on May 27, 2011 [4 favorites]

AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie '78
posted by 445supermag at 8:04 PM on May 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ah, sweet. This reminds me why I was a Sabbath freak when I was thirteen years old. They really were that fucking good, weren't they?
posted by Decani at 8:24 PM on May 27, 2011 [5 favorites]

Man, I never realized until watching this how badass of a drummer Bill Ward really is. The dude is a machine. How does he hit them that hard without breaking skins/cymbals on every song?
posted by DecemberBoy at 8:38 PM on May 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

I really liked watching Bill Ward wipe his facial hair and move the hair off his forehead during the tappity-tappity-tappity part on the cymbal and then WHIRL-POUND-POUND like a maniac on the DUM-DUM part, and then back again. The body language as he turns into that double hit is thrilling.
posted by stevil at 8:46 PM on May 27, 2011 [5 favorites]

marxchivist - the quote is from Neil Young who did a Crazy Horse tour where they billed themselves as the third greatest garage band. Number 1, he explained, was the Stones. Number 2 is your thing - that on any night, a different band somewhere is that 2nd greatest garage band. Crazy Horse, therefore, was 3rd.
posted by stevil at 8:48 PM on May 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

I loved this song, especially played at top volume on my chessy little Montgomery Wards plastic stereo with a nickel taped to the tone arm to keep it from skipping . . . Oh Lord Yeah! It drove my parents nuts, which was a lot of its charm to me.
posted by birdhaus at 8:48 PM on May 27, 2011

The original Heavy Metal Thunder.
posted by Ardiril at 8:55 PM on May 27, 2011

the quote is from Neil Young who did a Crazy Horse tour where they billed themselves as the third greatest garage band. Number 1, he explained, was the Stones. Number 2 is your thing - that on any night, a different band somewhere is that 2nd greatest garage band. Crazy Horse, therefore, was 3rd.

OT, reminds me of the comment Tom Wolfe made at this year's National Magazine Awards, an assembly of print media's power elite: "There are three great magazine editors in this room," he said. "David Remnick of The New Yorker, Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair, and the third, well, you know who you are."

Now, back to the rock.
posted by stargell at 8:58 PM on May 27, 2011

I was never a huge Sabbath fan, but I think I would have been had I been exposed to recordings like that. And Bill Ward on the drums. Wow!

When I see and hear this footage it makes me think of the big-budget, major-label audio engineering techniques of the 1970s, and just how effective they were at squashing and eliminating all of the energy and talent out of the performances they recorded.
posted by i_have_a_computer at 9:05 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

bardic: "My first concert was Urband Dance Squad opening for living color.

Not sure if I should be proud of that or not."

Mine was... Petra. *sigh*
posted by symbioid at 9:07 PM on May 27, 2011

Heavier than a really heavy thing.

In the land of heavy!

Did 'Paranoid' get panned when it was released? I can remember people not wanting to admit they owned the album.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 9:14 PM on May 27, 2011

Mine was... Petra. *sigh*

Stryper was mine.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 9:16 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

DecemberBoy: "Man, I never realized until watching this how badass of a drummer Bill Ward really is. The dude is a machine. How does he hit them that hard without breaking skins/cymbals on every song?"

Ha! That was exactly what I was thinking. I really really have a lot more respect for him after seeing these clips.
posted by symbioid at 9:18 PM on May 27, 2011

FireballForever: "I really like the Raymond Watts (AKA Pig) electronic/industrial take on the song myself. I've always wondered what would happen if the rest of KMFDM had gotten a hold of the song, too."

I like Bong Ra's take...
posted by symbioid at 9:22 PM on May 27, 2011

bardic:

Sabbath rightfully gets credit for being heavy, but fucking hell -- what a funky-as-fuck rhythm section. Amazing chops and breaks.

Agreed. I always thought the best metal had a fairly big groove to it. Listen to Pantera, even some of the early Metallica records; they all owe a lot to funk in a weird kind of way.
posted by littlerobothead at 9:27 PM on May 27, 2011

war pigs fdome!
posted by ennui.bz at 9:40 PM on May 27, 2011

"Stryper was mine."

You poor bastard. I shouldn't talk I guess, mine was Journey (the Departure tour IIRC).
posted by MikeMc at 9:50 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ozzy always sounds like he needs to blow his nose.
posted by Daddy-O at 9:53 PM on May 27, 2011

The "masses"/"masses" thing always drove me nuts. Lazy, lazy writing. Worst rhyme until the Beasties rhymed "commercial" with itself two decades later...
posted by gern at 10:02 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Echoing all the Bill Ward love. I knew he was good, but... I really had no idea HOW good. The drums just make that song. I love how midway through Ozzy slows down his delivery and Ward reins it back in, turning what was becoming a furious gallop back into pummeling sludge.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:07 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Geezers lyrics made me think "that's how I want to write my words" He can rhyme whatever he wants as long as it's not another god fucking damned love song. I always thought his songs were about the opposite of evil. Maybe a warning of the price you pay for evil
posted by Redhush at 10:19 PM on May 27, 2011

thanks for this.... so very good. Bill Ward's playing is just amazing.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 10:29 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wall of hair.
posted by Sailormom at 10:32 PM on May 27, 2011

Agreed. I always thought the best metal had a fairly big groove to it. Listen to Pantera, even some of the early Metallica records; they all owe a lot to funk in a weird kind of way.

Not a huge metal fan, so was surprised how funky Anthrax were when I saw them at a festival.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:45 PM on May 27, 2011

Decani: Ah, sweet. This reminds me why I was a Sabbath freak when I was thirteen years old. They really were that fucking good, weren't they?

My thoughts exactly. I moved on to listening to other things and had recently fallen into the habit of thinking that it was all a bit of a wasted period of music listening. But they really were that good, and I am glad to have been reminded of it.
posted by marmaduke_yaverland at 10:50 PM on May 27, 2011

"The more you listen to the Paranoid album, the more music comes out of it."
posted by bonefish at 11:00 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

One year earlier...

http://youtu.be/J-nzB7zbPxU
posted by Exchequer at 11:06 PM on May 27, 2011

WUMPT WUMPT WUUH-WUH WOWERNNTTT....
posted by clavdivs at 11:33 PM on May 27, 2011

My first concert was Petra ... Stryper ... Journey

Oh yeah? My first concert was Janis fucking Ian ("I learned the truth at 17... that love was meant for beauty queens...). And I went with my MOM.

Follow that, motherfuckers!
posted by msalt at 12:45 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

YouTube is a wonderful thing sometimes. Here is (I think) that entire concert from Paris, 1970:

Introduction/goofing around
war pigs
iron man
paranoid
faeries wear boots
N.I.B.
Black Sabbath
Rat Salad
Behind the wall of sleep
Hand of Doom

posted by msalt at 12:49 AM on May 28, 2011 [10 favorites]

My first concert was Petra ... Stryper ... Journey

Oh yeah? My first concert was Janis fucking Ian ("I learned the truth at 17... that love was meant for beauty queens...). And I went with my MOM.

Follow that, motherfuckers!

My first concert was the Rolling Stones in 1965. I was 12, went with my brother. Saw Sabbath in 1971. By myself.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:31 AM on May 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

The "masses"/"masses" thing always drove me nuts. Lazy, lazy writing. Worst rhyme until the Beasties rhymed "commercial" with itself two decades later...

See also Lou Reed's "...head"/"...head" in Walk On The Wild Side. Always grates, that one.
posted by anagrama at 2:47 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is music. No costumes, no dancing, no light show or fireworks, no auto-tune. Just play the fucking instruments and sing!

Watching this, I realized my favorite performances (regardless of genre) are the ones that come closest to this ideal.
posted by FishBike at 6:18 AM on May 28, 2011

I don't mind double rhymes as long as the sense of the word changes. "Generals gathered in their MASSES" (large groupings of people), "Just like witches at black masses" (religious ceremonies). Kinda clever, no? Lou Reed also used two meanings for the word HEAD in that couplet from 'Walk On The Wild Side', though I will leave the difference as an assignment to the individual reader.
posted by spoobnooble at 6:23 AM on May 28, 2011

Hell again. Listen to how f'n clean it is. We need more of that.

Sometimes I tell the kids, this is how guitar solos all sounded before 1990. Then I start sounding like Homer Simpson ... "and then it's no, no, No! Don't stop a rockin'."
posted by bystander at 6:30 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Before you hire your next drummer, review this video.
posted by jet_manifesto at 6:48 AM on May 28, 2011

All this talk about Bill Ward made me go back and watch some these again...damn! The man is a beast. When it comes to the musicianship of Sabbath the focus has always been on Tony Iommi's guitar sound but I think I now have a new appreciation of Bill Ward (and Geezer Butler as well). Thanks!
posted by MikeMc at 7:16 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've had this bootleg forever, but watching it is even better than I had ever imagined.
posted by horsemuth at 7:26 AM on May 28, 2011

Oh, yeah and... Bill Fucking Ward!!!!!
posted by horsemuth at 7:28 AM on May 28, 2011

I'm going to download all these Paris vids and hook them up into a playlist. For those seeking further enlightenment look for the '75 Asbury Park soundboard. Between than and Led Zep at Earl's Court in the same year you should be able to ground all air travel at your local airport.
posted by Ber at 7:30 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

For those seeking further enlightenment look for the '75 Asbury Park soundboard.

I don't say this to strange men often, but I love you.
posted by nevercalm at 7:39 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

In the 70's, everything was at least a little funky. Pop, Rock, Metal, whatever.
posted by benito.strauss at 7:54 AM on May 28, 2011

My first concert was the Rolling Stones in 1965. I was 12, went with my brother. Saw Sabbath in 1971. By myself.

Ur doing it rong! This is the first concert victim olympics/humiliating admission game.
posted by msalt at 10:17 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

First concert: Debbie Gibson, Madison Square Garden, 1986.

What is my prize?
posted by Renoroc at 10:36 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ok. I've watched this a few times now. I get why people are raving about Bill Ward's drumming. It's very entertaining to watch and I'm always amazed that anyone can get both hands and both feet moving entirely independently like that.

He's obviously very enthusiastic (to say the least) about this performance, but how is it technically? To me it sounds like, despite going at it with the same intensity I use to demolish stuff with a sledgehammer, he's playing some very fast and complicated rhythms pretty much perfectly.

But I admit to not knowing a whole lot about music in general or drumming in particular. I know there are a bunch of MeFites do, though, so I ask you: is this as dead on in a technical sense as I think it is?
posted by FishBike at 10:46 AM on May 28, 2011

Punk-Rock had evolved into Hardcore, and Metal had evolved into Speed-Metal...But in that dark distant time, the one thing that most kids could agree on was that The Sab was really out of fashion....meanwhile, in the middle 1980s a bunch of kids were rediscovering their appreciation of "The Sab" and started a band called Soundgarden. Progress ensued.

Seems like rock has three main threads, that combine in various ways -- the speedy/flashy/peacock branch (Stones => Aerosmith => glam => Jane's Addiction), the sludgy nihilist branch (Vanilla Fudge => Sabbath => Soundgarden), and the bluesy branch (Muddy Waters/Howling Wolf => Led Zeppelin => White Stripes).

I always thought of grunge as the resurgence of the sludge-rockers, with the Melvins as their prototype. Hendrix is the ur-rocker because he contains all 3. (eg Midnight for his sludge.)
posted by msalt at 12:25 PM on May 28, 2011

FishBike: Yes, it's pretty much flawless. I played drums in a death metal band for a couple years, and I got pretty good at the double-bass and blast-beats thing, but Bill Ward's playing is years beyond my capabilities. Ferocious, hammering, yet extremely musical and tasteful....and technically dead-on. However, watching him hunch his shoulders makes me cringe a little bit. You could really develop back problems.
posted by Existential Dread at 12:28 PM on May 28, 2011

Watch this if you want to see a drummer take jazz training and combine it with hardcore and just light it all on fire. Unbelievable.
posted by Existential Dread at 12:33 PM on May 28, 2011

Confession time
I swiped the 8 track tape of Paranoid from a supermarket in Estevan, Saskatchewan back in 1971.
I was 15 at the time.
The music (and the pot that I was smoking) knocked my socks off.
It made a juvenile delinquent of me.
If I go to Hell for this, Black Sabbath will be the soundtrack.
posted by dougzilla at 2:48 PM on May 28, 2011

The heaviness comes from the sparse arrangement more than anything. It helps to have some talent, of course.

The best modern example of extreme heaviness coming from sparseness that I know of (Khanate's "Too Close Enough to Touch").
posted by kenko at 4:43 PM on May 28, 2011

I've have the audio from this in my iPod rotation, harvested from YouTube. I'm a guitar player, and Tony get's the meanest, most beautifully pure distortion I've ever heard on this recording. One of those tones that goes to your bones and just can't be recreated... I get goosebumps every time I hear it.
posted by mandro at 7:43 PM on May 28, 2011

See also Lou Reed's "...head"/"...head" in Walk On The Wild Side. Always grates, that one.

anagrama, in Reed's case, the obnoxious self-"rhyme" is intentional, and meant to be picked out of the flow of words. IOW, it's meant to shake your attention up.

Chaucer would do the same, by breaking the meter of lines. Shakespeare would do it by breaking rhymes.

At least, that's my take.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:54 PM on May 28, 2011

Msalt, I recall Soundgarden as being described as Black Sabbath with Led Zeppelin's brains. In other words heavy but idiosyncratic.
posted by Ber at 8:53 PM on May 28, 2011

msalt: The Rolling Stones go on the "blues" branch, along with The Animals and a passel of other (mostly English) bands, as nearly direct descendants of Muddy Waters and Bo Diddly....
posted by FlyingMonkey at 9:20 PM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

horsemuth: "Oh, yeah and... Bill Fucking Ward!!!!!"

Eat your heart out Mr Bonham!
posted by hardcode at 6:25 AM on May 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

So bad ass. I had a late night, and woke up too goddamn early for a Sunday, and had cobwebs and wooziness until I listened to this.

Thank you, googly, and thank you, Ozzy & Co.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:16 AM on May 29, 2011

Ok the 2 year old's taking a nap and I finally got around to seeing this. Wow. It really is all that. No monitors, small stage, no fancy lights. Ozzy shaking it like we haven't seen in 30 years. How did metal get so far away from this in just 10 years? I too never noticed the drummer.

When I see and hear this footage it makes me think of the big-budget, major-label audio engineering techniques of the 1970s, and just how effective they were at squashing and eliminating all of the energy and talent out of the performances they recorded.

Totally. I have always liked the Faith No More version better because it sounds so alive and the original studio cut is so flat. This right here is the true original.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 3:46 PM on May 29, 2011

flyingmonkey: The Rolling Stones go on the "blues" branch, along with The Animals and a passel of other (mostly English) bands, as nearly direct descendants of Muddy Waters and Bo Diddly....

Hmmm, at times certainly (Exile). The Animals, totally. But Street Fighting Man? Miss You? Like most bands, they're a bit of a mix. White Stripes are more purely blues, in attitude as well as music.
posted by msalt at 5:53 PM on May 29, 2011

My first intro to Sabbath was on a school bus in Italy in 1980. The sounds came from the back of the bus along with some whiffs of hash smoke. It was fall. The view from the bus window was nothing but mist, rain and medieval buildings. It was kind of scary and depressing, but I had arrived and it was powerful!
posted by snsranch at 6:27 PM on May 29, 2011

Ozzy had just turned 22 that month.

Worth thinking about technology: the Beatles had stopped playing live in '66, partly because they couldn't replicate their studio experiements on stage, but partly because the amps and PA systems weren't sufficient to get above the audience noise. At the same time, Townshend and Entwhistle were working with Jim Marshall to build the first amp stacks, first with Marshall, then Hiwatt. Iommi used Laney and Orange, following that example, and the PA systems got exponentially better to accommodate the sound and crowds.

I'm going to throw in my own clip from 1970, more from the blues tradition, but a real snapshot of where rock stood at the time: Free's Fire and Water, with Paul Rodgers and Paul Kossoff, both aged 20. Electric blues was morphing in all directions, led by lads from industrial towns in front of 100W cabs.
posted by holgate at 11:47 AM on May 31, 2011

i have this clip on a vhs i bought back in the mid 90s...it's now available on dvd...
the black sabbath story, vol 1
it also has cool interviews with tony and geezer.

....bonham was friends with bill ward, from before they were famous...bonzo loved to rock out on bill's set, because bill had two bass drums and the guys in zep wouldn't let him do that...
posted by g.i.r. at 6:20 PM on May 31, 2011

killer version by crash kings
version by cake
posted by g.i.r. at 6:56 PM on May 31, 2011