My Secret Affair With Black Sabbath

Yeah, you're dealing with one of the biggest Black Sabbath fans ever.  Now keep in mind, even as a 51 year old, Black Sabbath was ahead of my time.  Their  first TWO albums (they did things differently those days) came out when I was 8 years old.

I guess I was about 12 or 13 when my cousin dropped a copy of "Paranoid" on my ass. Oh, this wasn't any cousin, he had a room about the garage that was full of black light posters and there was always a very funny smelling smoke coming out of there.  Putting on the album it already sounded "old". It didn't even have the production standards of the stuff I was listening to on the radio at the time.  But this wasn't an ordinary "old", it was more like an "ancient old", like opening up the book of the dead and having instant knowledge of the secrets of druids or something.  This may seem like a bit much to you, but being 13 and hearing "War Pigs" for the first time really was amazing.

I never really progressed passed "Paranoid" until 1978.  '78 through '80 were GIANT Black Sabbath years for me.  First, Sabbath released "Technical Ecstasy" (their last album with Ozzy at the time). It was a sleeker, more modern Sabbath and I loved it.  This was when I was being uprooted and moving to Texas.  When I got to Texas I found my home, the weight room at Brownfield High School.  The weight room had a tiny eight track player and it seemed the only tape anyone had was Black Sabbath's 1971 release "Master Of Reality".  There was just something about the metal sludge of "Sweet Leaf" and "Children Of The Grave" that kept us pumping iron.

Jump ahead to 1981 and I'm a newbie d.j. at FMX.  Now, we had a LOT more with the music on Tuesdays than you might think (We still do).  Among the tracks that were "cool to play" from Sabbath was my now favorite Sabbath song, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath".  Personally I believe this song is  Sabbath's "Stairway to Heaven".  After the heaviness of the first part, the middle part is absolutely beautiful, then right when you're feeling good it goes full on horrorcore all over again and then they ratchet it up even more near the end. Also along the way I learned to love "Snowblind", "N.I.B." , "The Wizard" and more.

Imagine how excited I was in 1979 when Black Sabbath booked a tour through Lubbock. I was especially pumped that my new favorite band "Van Halen" would be opening.  Sadly, this was in a day and age when A LOT of Lubbock concerts cancelled so it never happened.

I eventually saw Sabbath in Lubbock with Ian Gillian (from Deep Purple) on vocals and again with Dio (THE MOB RULES BABY).  I was cool with that, because I was also seeing Ozzy do his thing with Randy Rhodes so I felt like I was getting a two for one.

I personally don't believe in "classic rock".  Most of it is nostalgia crap that isn't worth your time.  Black Sabbath has made timeless music that really should be revisited. It was awesome when I was 8 and it's awesome now.

I triple dog dare you to hit play, close your eyes and drift with this song.  When it's over, you won't be the same.