Nobody could focus on their own moves
January 20, 2016 8:16 PM   Subscribe

 
A fine reminiscence, my good fellow
You take romance, I'll take jello
posted by unliteral at 9:05 PM on January 20, 2016




The first time I heard this song, it was a cover — my friend John Andrews had just gotten the WaxTrax! Black Box, the one that was a metal tin stuffed with tape outtakes, and the Trent Reznor/1000 Homo DJs version kicked off one of the discs. We were sitting in his kitchen, where the only reliable CD player in his parents' house was, and watching one of our other friends, Matt Brown, dressed in trenchcoat, combat boots, black jeans and black shirt, do what might be called "freestyle bokken" moves out in the backyard.

I had the cassette version of Paranoid, but I think I didn't get into any of the other Sabbath until I had started doing drugs — I remember wandering across the diag with "Fairies Wear Boots" blaring in a walkman thinking that it was the platonically perfect riff. And I only heard Technical Ecstasy for the first time this summer.
posted by klangklangston at 9:44 PM on January 20, 2016 [9 favorites]


1000 Homo DJs! Oh shit. Thanks for the memory! The first time I heard that was on WSGR 91.3 from Port Huron, MI. The song was built for that kind of cover.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:53 PM on January 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


The 1000 Homo DJs version of this song is one of my top favorite songs of all time!
posted by rednikki at 10:01 PM on January 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


The first time I heard this song was maybe 1972, lying in bed, thirteen years old, unable to sleep for reasons of existential magnitude, so I had the radio on to keep me company, tuned to FM, of course, because I was at least that cool. Anyway, this song came on, heavy and wild, the singer howling about how he wants to reach out and touch the sky. But I didn't catch who it was. Heavy like Led Zeppelin, but definitely a different singer. Next day at school, I was quizzing everybody, but nobody knew what I was talking about, and anyway, they were mostly into Elton John.

Long story short. It would be well over a decade before I had my answer, care of a marijuana dealer I knew at the time who played bass in various hard rock outfits, knew his heavy history. I mentioned the "I want to reach out" part and he instantly said, "Black Sabbath Supernaut." He dug out a battle worn copy of Volume IV, put it on and my life suddenly felt a tiny bit more meaningful, complete. But then he got paranoid, peered out a slit in the curtains, told me I had to leave through the back door. Fast.

The 1000 Homo DJs version of this song is one of my top favorite songs of all time!

Credited to 1000 Homo DJs but basically Ministry. The song responsible for perhaps the greatest moshpit I've ever been near. Lollapalooza, Thunderbird Stadium, 1992, in heavy Vancouver rain. The stars of the day were supposed to be Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but Ministry destroyed everyone and everything, and beautifully so. Drugs in question: acid and rain.
posted by philip-random at 10:14 PM on January 20, 2016 [8 favorites]




Way to ruin it.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:48 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


The 1000 Homo DJs version is the only one I've heard. Even then I think there's two versions, a Jorgensen one and a Reznor one. Or am I misremembering that?
posted by shelleycat at 11:23 PM on January 20, 2016


Google says that I'm correct and that I can't spell Jourgensen.
posted by shelleycat at 11:26 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh also, when I followed the link I just ended up the youtube video page along with all 600 comments. Where you aiming at one in particular?
posted by shelleycat at 11:28 PM on January 20, 2016


first one, I'm pretty sure -- given the post's title
posted by philip-random at 11:33 PM on January 20, 2016


that's assuming you've got it set for TOP COMMENTS at the top
posted by philip-random at 11:35 PM on January 20, 2016


On the strength of “Supernaut,” Zappa invited Black Sabbath to dinner, a Rashomon-like encounter that Ozzy and Tony Iommi recall differently in their memoirs. Everyone seems to agree that there was a party in an American city around 1974.

While this is lost to the sands of time (and/or the vagaries of Iommi's and Ozzy's memories), if I had three wishes, world peace and an end to hunger would be the first two. The third might be a video recording of this dinner.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:37 PM on January 20, 2016 [4 favorites]


Can wish Vol. 4 (heh) be an explanation for just what the hell Symptom of the Universe is about?
posted by namewithoutwords at 12:05 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's about the love that never dies, of course.

Or just a symptom of being gakked out on way too many drugs.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:17 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am sad that there was never a Pantera cover of this, but then I remembered that Pantera's entire sound exists because of this song and I'm happy again.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:17 AM on January 21, 2016 [5 favorites]


The first footage of Ozzy-era Sabbath I ever saw (after having listened to them for a couple years) was from this show when they were touring Never Say Die. It was in the music section at the local video rental place. Not exactly at the top of their game, really. In my later years, I've seen lots of concert footage of the earlier days, so yeah. Everyone has their ups, downs, and moments of befuddling incomprehensibility.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:30 AM on January 21, 2016


Where you aiming at one in particular?

The one at the top that's tagged "LINKED COMMENT", most likely.
posted by effbot at 1:30 AM on January 21, 2016


WHAT the gibbering FUCK is this thread about?!?
posted by sidereal at 3:56 AM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


On my iPhone, a link to a YouTube comment seems to just take you to the video.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:00 AM on January 21, 2016


Time: Winter 1974.
Place: An echo chamber known as the Cincinnati Gardens.
Event: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour.

Four incredibly stoned teenagers sit, glued to their seats for twenty minutes after the lights come on. Someone, I don't remember who, said: "I guess we have to leave now."

But we didn't really want to.
posted by CincyBlues at 4:21 AM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


1989, Davos, Switzerland
In the Gibbering Fuchę backbooth, Ballmer, Trump, Iacocca and me doing blow off a nude Bulgarian house diva, when the Praga Khan remix comes on--we lose our minds and start hurling bottles of Brut at each other. One knocks over a torch onto Don's head and well--you know the rest. What a night.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:22 AM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


"I propose 5:10 as the universal time you stop smoking pot and do a little bit of homework"

- H. Jon Benjamin
posted by sidereal at 5:40 AM on January 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


WHAT the gibbering FUCK is this thread about?!?

Hang tight. We're working on that.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:24 AM on January 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


1000 homo dj's version (equally great)

1000 homo dj's version reznor vocals (equally great)

The top google hits for Reznor right now are about scientology. WTF is up with that?
posted by bukvich at 6:25 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


(reloaded the google page and scientology fell way way down--sorry it must have been a crack in the google planes)
posted by bukvich at 6:29 AM on January 21, 2016


For definitive Sabbath performances, this may be the best on video. For audio, just seek out a good torrent of the 1975 show at Asbury Park. Sadly, Supernaut only makes a brief appearance at the end of a drum solo.
posted by Ber at 7:05 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Apologies for the mysteriousness. For obvious reasons I don't link to YouTube comments very often and wasn't aware that it wouldn't take you right to it. Here it is:

Summer of '79 in an auditorium 30 minutes, or so, north of Detroit we were attending a major martial arts tournament. Freestyle weapons kata with music was not even a thing yet. The guys running the tournament announced that something special was going to happen in the center "ring". I knew it must be big because all the senior black belts were moving up to get a spot. This blonde girl of about 16 or 17 with an Okatana in each hand glided into the ring just as this song started. To this day I am blown away by her moves in total deadly harmony with this music. As the song ended she walked directly out the side door and was gone. The tournament was ruined! Nobody could focus on their own moves. One of the great moments in my life. I can see her now in my mind as I listen.

If that scene played out in a Wes Anderson movie I'd probably groan but as an apparently real story I thought it was exceptionally well told and sweet. The tournament was ruined!
posted by otio at 7:42 AM on January 21, 2016 [4 favorites]


See also, Sean Bean reminiscing about Nic Cage (Reddit AMA):

Do you have anecdotes about your time filming National Treasure?
There was one where I went back to Nic Cage's house, and we'd had a few drinks, we were playing pool and he accidentally knocked over his prehistoric cave bear skull and smashed it. And he was really upset about it, and the next day went and buried it in a field.

posted by duffell at 7:51 AM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


Man, memories of Ottawa's Zaphod Beeblebrox in the early 90's. No swords though.
posted by GuyZero at 8:02 AM on January 21, 2016


Spring of '88 at Cedar Point, on a peninsula, north of Sandusky Ohio, I had a friend who worked at the theme park and he invited us to come in the back and try out all the coasters that weren't ready for the public yet. Inverted roller coasters weren't even a thing back then. My friend's brother (they were Swiss) said to me if I wanted to see something "cool" and I said "yes". I figured it had to be great because my friend's brother set the record for consecutive Demon Drop rides and was hard to impress. So we went off to one side and there's what looked like a coaster, only instead of sitting IN it you got in this harness and hanged FROM it. So we did a ride, and just as we were going up the first hill, (from BENEATH!), "Nite Flights" by The Walker Brothers starts up. All the thrills and chills of the ride were timed to this song with pin point-precision. I slipped out of the harness during a brake run and compound broke my tibia, but, it was still the best coaster I've ever known, and I think of it every time I hear Walker Bros.
posted by Iridic at 8:07 AM on January 21, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm beginning to think that this thread is exactly how Ozzy Osbourne sees the world.
posted by philip-random at 10:20 AM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


If MetaFilter still had images I'd have dropped this one mid-thread and walked away.

Just look at those jean shorts on Trent.
posted by togdon at 11:19 AM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


Is Rezon like 16 in that photo?
posted by GuyZero at 11:31 AM on January 21, 2016


Trent, jorts, smoking, and self-importance...it's like my whole 20s, in one photo!
posted by mittens at 11:38 AM on January 21, 2016 [4 favorites]


Can wish Vol. 4 (heh) be an explanation for just what the hell Symptom of the Universe is about?

It's about the love that never dies, of course.

It's about when Ozzy hits the "love that" note and you get chills.
posted by atoxyl at 11:41 AM on January 21, 2016


All the thrills and chills of the ride were timed to this song with pin point-precision. I slipped out of the harness during a brake run and compound broke my tibia, but, it was still the best coaster I've ever known, and I think of it every time I hear Walker Bros.

wait

pin point-precision. I slipped out of the harness during a brake run and compound broke my tibia, but,

but? slipped out of the harness during a brake run and compound broke my tibia… and then 'but?'

*doffs hat*
posted by From Bklyn at 12:15 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Trent, jorts, smoking, and self-importance

What, no wallet chain?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:17 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


The cover photo for Sabotage featured some, uh, curious wardrobe choices.

It lacked the balls-out Satanism of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath's cover art.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:19 PM on January 21, 2016


The 1000 Homo DJs version is the only one I've heard. Even then I think there's two versions, a Jorgensen one and a Reznor one. Or am I misremembering that?

If you listen to both versions (a lot easier now than it was 20 years ago when I was first wondering about this!), it's pretty plainly Reznor in both. The story goes that TVT Records wanted Reznor off the record (because they basically Owned Him at that point and didn't want WaxTrax banking on their rock star*), so Al Jourgenson, being Al Jourgenson, just went and doctored the vocal track so it didn't sound quite so much like Trent.

* this was 1990, a few years before TVT bought WaxTrax! Records outright after their bankruptcy; see NIN's Broken for Trent's feelings about his contract with TVT.
posted by neckro23 at 12:20 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


see NIN's Broken for Trent's feelings about his contract with TVT

(see pigface's credits list for 'suck' on truth will out for the REAL story)
posted by mittens at 12:24 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


1983, man. Saw Sabbath (right after Dio quit) at the Worcester Centrum. Driving out on Route 9 hotboxing and tripping, in a monkey-shit brown 1974 Olds Cutlass 440 with my friends. We passed a freaking dump truck full of guys in leather and chains partying in the back. Settled in behind a septic tank cleaning truck. Taking hits, driving the speed limit, all cool, Supernaut blasting on the tape deck.

The fucking septic tank truck blew a valve and started spraying shit-water all over the highway, just spackling the windshields of the cars (and the dump truck, those guys were unprotected in the back) with foul smelling brown liquid.

My friend who was actually from Worcester and the most metal-headed one of the group didn't miss a beat as we tried to pull off the road in a cloud of stink with a windshield completely covered in shit, as he said:
Welcome to wormtown. This happens every day.

I barely remember the show .
posted by spitbull at 12:27 PM on January 21, 2016 [12 favorites]


(oh, not to totally derail into covers now, but here's the first version of paranoid i ever heard, by clay people.)
posted by mittens at 12:28 PM on January 21, 2016


"Spring of '88 at Cedar Point, on a peninsula, north of Sandusky Ohio, I had a friend who worked at the theme park and he invited us to come in the back and try out all the coasters that weren't ready for the public yet. Inverted roller coasters weren't even a thing back then. My friend's brother (they were Swiss) said to me if I wanted to see something "cool" and I said "yes"."

Is this the Iron Dragon? That opened in '87; the first inverted roller coaster at Cedar Point was the Raptor, in '94. In '89, Magnum-XL 200 opened — still very cool, but wouldn't have had test rides in '88. And them being Swiss makes sense — almost all the best rides are Swiss-designed.

(Sorry, Cedar Point was an annual pilgrimage for our family, and our school would usually take one trip a year too. My best time there was probably when I went with my brother and my cousin and took mushrooms without either of them knowing. Pro-tip: Take your shoes off for the Power Tower.)
posted by klangklangston at 12:30 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


"but? slipped out of the harness during a brake run and compound broke my tibia… and then 'but?'"

I mean, it certainly beats my story about having the harness release on the Blue Streak during the negative-g portion — I got off my seat, but no injuries.
posted by klangklangston at 12:32 PM on January 21, 2016


Guys, I have to come clean: certain elements of my comment were lightly fictionalized. I was three years old in 1988; Cedar Point does not, to my knowledge, have a back area where they hide their coolest coasters; and the Swiss brothers were composites of several people, none of whom exist.

The "Nite Flights" ride does exist in a parallel universe where coaster engineering is slightly more advanced. It operated at Alternate Universe Cedar Point between '89 and '08, when it was moved to Alternate Universe Six Flags Magic Mountain and re-themed as "The Huey Lewis Experience."
posted by Iridic at 1:34 PM on January 21, 2016 [8 favorites]


Nice try, Iridic, nice try. Three year old on a coaster? Seriously bad-ass.

*doffs hat second time*
posted by From Bklyn at 11:37 PM on January 21, 2016


The cover photo for Sabotage featured some, uh, curious wardrobe choices.

Jealousy is so unattractive.
posted by bongo_x at 3:00 PM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


First. I remember being 11 years old at Disneyland with my family, and there's this grizzly metal dude in line next to us. He's wearing a black t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. The front of the shirt says Black Sabbath. My dad can barely contain his disgust. He tells me that this is a Satanic Band and I should never listen to it. I don't.

I grow up, avoiding Black Sabbath (I was a dutiful child). Then, in my 20s I go to a Bad Plus concert and they play their cover of Iron Man. I love it, I see all the metal heads in the crowd softly banging their heads to the sweet jazz cover of a Sabbath tune. I am intrigued.

I go home and torrent a bunch of Black Sabbath.

MIND = BLOWN

I'm years late to this party but still glad I arrived.
posted by Doleful Creature at 7:24 AM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]


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