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[Nabubrush]

I've...never...really, y'know....liked Volume 4.  You could lose half of that album and be better off.

[/sacrilege]

Vol. 4 is my least favorite Original Sabbath Album.

~Paul

I'll admit I'm probably a little overenthusiastic about Black Sabbath, what with the boxed set and the videos and the alternate label albums and shit, but remember, when you are bagging on Vol. 4, that this was the same lineup that A: allowed Geezer to basically write a full album-worth of misogynistic rants directed at his ex-wife (Technical Ecstasy) and B: begged Ozzy to rejoin the band to record another album (Never say Die) that should probably have been called something like Why Won't You Fuckers Let This Band Die. Both Heaven and Hell and The Mob Rules are light-years better than those two, and Born Again is at least as good - and it's fucking awful.

Now obviously, "Changes" is horsehit. "FX" is basically a throwaway space-filler. "Laguna Sunrise" is atmospheric claptrap. But "Supernaut" may be Sabbath at their most metal, and "Snowblind" is a much stronger and more mature song than "Sweet Leaf" - indeed, it's sort of surprising that it's such an indictement of drugs, given the latter's idyllic description of drugs and Ozzy's eventual self-destruction.

To be fair, Sabbath always had a habit of putting one or two songs on each album that just don't make any sense, and are pretty much instant skips. On the first album, the whole "Bit of Finger" suite is tough to take, and the cover of "Evil Woman" is pretty weak. Paranoid's "Planet Caravan" is nice - after about 15 bong hits. Seriously,the jazz-noodling mixed with Ozzy's effect-laden vocals make for an interminable 4 1/2 minutes. On Master of Reality, there's "Sweet Leaf". It's a gimmick, and doesn't stand up well. "Embryo" and "Orchid" are Tony perhaps indulging himself overmuch. "Solitude" is every bit as bad as "Changes".

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath introduced the band's first foray into synthesizers. This album boasts "Fluff" - Black Sabbath's (perhaps ironically named) worst song. The last three songs on the album all have their moments, but the fucking keyboards just overwhelm anything enjoyable about them. And then there's the final valid Ozzy album - Sabotage. "Don't Start (Too Late)", is often recorded by other bands, but titled "Intro". If the other bands are really nice, they just make it part of the other, better song. Hmm, "Supertzar". It's another intro, or "Unititled", if you're Oasis - only this time it's nearly four minutes long. I know that Sabbath didn't anticipate the invention of random, but it's no kind of deal when you sit through "Don't Start (Too Late)" and you don't then get to listen to "Symptom of the Universe". At least "Supertzar" is followed up by the wretched "Am I Going Insane (Radio)", which we weren't going to listen to anyway. Hey guys? The laughing thing seemed cool when you recorded it, I'm sure, but it's the kind of thing that's only interesting the first time through.

I think the main problem with Vol. 4, if it has one, is that it's so unrelentingly bleak. The songs are about the assured destruction of everything from individuals to society to the planet itself. And the music, from Tony's downright evil riffs to the crunching, juggernaut of Sabbath's rhythm section, simply reinforces the "negative vibe". Though the album wraps up with Ozzy stating "just believe in yourself . . . live your life and leave them all behind" it's not enough to make up for lines like "try your hardest, you'll still be a loser", "take a life it's going cheap, kill someone no one will weep, freedom's yours just pay your dues, we just want your soul to use", "I don't even believe in peace", and "let them have their little toys, matchbox cars and mortgaged joys".

Well, I'm sorry we all had to go through that. It didn't start out all that bloated, but it sort of got away from me. I would like to point out that another reason we all have 10 hours of AC/DC and only 45 minutes of Frizzle Ferdinizzle is because that's all there is of either band. Plus, AC/DC is quite frankly more fun. I also though of another band that sort of records the same songs over and over, and oddly enough it's another FF band: Foo Fighters. I like 'em, but it all seems to run together.

[Limmo]

I agree with almost all of your Volume 4 points, but I have no use for "St. Vitus Dance" or "Under the Sun" either.  Which makes it a short album for me.

I'd agree with your assessments of Paranoid and Master of Reality if you weren't so totally wrong.

SBS is my favorite Sabbath album.  Even though "Who Are You" would have been better with guitars instead of synths, and they should have repeated the chorus of "Looking For Today" earlier and way more often. 

I agree with your take on the rest of the catalog, with the exception of Mob Rules.  I think that album is as good anything the original line-up ever did. Live Evil is pretty nifty if you overlook the muddy sound and occasional instance of Dio mistaking the lyrics for the end of Richard III.

Yay Sabbath!

ETA: Boy, this post just takes it right back to Pat, doesn't it? 

[Nabubrush]

A: I'm Pat,
B: I have lots more of this,
C: I like Mob Rules and Heaven and Hell just fine - I think maybe that wasn't clear from my post.

My favorite is probably Master of Reality - but I think they're all pretty good. It's just disheartening to be listening away and have "Fluff" or "Changes" show up. Funny, though - what started with a discussion of bands recording the same songs over and over again ends up with me calling out Sabbath for recording these two songs that are so completely out of place.

[hungoverdrawn]

Plus, AC/DC is quite frankly more fun.

Well, this is it. If Alex Kapranos sang about having big balls, sinking the pink and putting his love into Eleanor Friedberger (who, judging by my quick Google search is a kind of an indie-rock Frances McDormand) then they'd be a different proposition altogether.

As for Sabbath, sacrilege I know but the two-disc retrospective is plenty enough for me. Two Scottish post-rock covers of songs you didn't like in their original incarnation - Arab Strap's take on 'Changes' and Mogwai's of 'Sweet Leaf' - are well worth checking out. On the former in particular Aidan Moffat's vocal delivery strips away any trace of saccharine.

[pmcd9]

And I'm totally not buying there only being a gradual change in the music of say, The Beatles or The Beach Boys, that's total hossshit. The difference between Yesterday and Helter Skelter is not gradual, it is radical. The difference between singing about surfing over Chuck Berry riffs and making music that was at the vanguard of American psychedelia at the time is not gradual. I get the point you're trying to make, but those aren't good examples.

In the case of the Beatles, they could shift from mind bending psychodical, breezy pop, folk, and rockabilly over the course of an album side.

~Paul

[side_show]

So, uh, back on topic...

Human Pat just came to my office.

For those who do not know, I work at the largest children's theatre in Canada.  Which means we have casting agents coming to us all the time.  In response to this we have created what we call our "Secret Agency" - meaning, with parental consent, we collect casting information on all of our students and offer it to accredited casting agents in exchange for a donation to the school.  Casting children normally costs an agency loads of money, so we are making thier lives very, very easy.

In comes this guy to the front desk, which is within ear shot of my office.  He asks if the school director is here.  The answer is no.  He sounds very agitate and upset because he says he has made an apointment to see the theatre school director.  I get up from my desk at this point because I know for a fact that the theatre school director teaches evenings on Mondays and is never in in the morning, and would therefore never make and apointment for today.

Me: You have an apointment to meet with the theatre school director?
Pat: Yes, I emailed him an hour ago that I would be coming in to look through your casting books.
Me: Well, he doesn't come in until 1:00.
Pat: Yes, but I made and apointment with him.
Me:  Did you speak to him, or are you talking about the email you sent? (he just looks at me)
Pat: (turns to teenage box office attendant and starts to describe the type of child he is looking for) I'm looking for a young Asian girl between nine and twelve and I need her right away...

I go back to my desk.

From my office, I hear him repeating the description to the box office girl and again asking if she's sure he can't look at the books.  She apologizes to him and suggests that he come back when the theatre school directo is in.  He continues to be quite agitated and restates that he needs the girl today, and that the theatre school director told him he could look through the books.  She again tells him to come back later, and he says "I may come back later, but maybe not.  I may not come back."  His tone sounds like a threat, which is odd, because really, it would be ideal if he didn't come back.   

I can't help but assume that he could be a peodophile.  Our casting books have our student's names and phone numbers in them, so a stranger off the street can't walk in and just help him self to what he needs, but he is cleary very displeased.  He again stammers that he "may not be back," and leaves.

[Nabubrush]

I feel sick. I can't imagine - actually, that's not true. I can perfectly imagine what I would have done in this situation, and that is fly off the handle on the basis of limited information and do somethin that would have resulted in me getting fired. But jeez, that just doesn't sound right at all.

[pmcd9]

My first thought wasn't 'pedophile.'  My assumption is he is a casting director (or lackey) who overlooked the casting of a 12 year old asian child and presumed that his emergency was your problem.

Totally Pat

~Paul

[V-Adore]

Good God. That's classic.

What is up with these honky-tonk blowjobs and always threatening not to come back or "shop there again?" Do they not understand the basic human-social-interaction idea that if people hate you or are obviously pained by your presence, your leaving and not returning is a consummation devoutly to be wished? Do they really believe that their five bucks will break a business? (Especially if they're shoplifters. Hint to morons: stores are very, very happy when shoplifters don't come back.)