You see them walking down the street, hanging out at the 7-11 parking lot, waiting for a bus, and even at your local record store flipping through the copies of old Voivod albums. They are usually wearing all black, with much more hair than you falling on shoulders draped with a faded t-shirt bearing a violent cartoonish graphic on the front. They usually have a scowl on their face, or at least a look designed to keep all grannies and members of the clergy at arms length, and an attitude that could only be described as “Very Metal”.
These are the legion of true rockers who worship the ‘gods of thunder’, the heavy bands that melt brains and shatter skulls with their tumultuous feedback and galloping beat, bands that all owe a great debt to the originators of all music that is “heavy” and “evil”: a band whose coming is sounded by a holy chant that can be heard echoing off the mountainside in the distance… “Sabbath… Sabbath… Sabbath!”
How will they feel when they find out that their beloved Black Sabbath, yes “Ozzy’s old band”, are responsible for bands like Petra and D.C. Talk?
Now this may be a bold statement, and I may get death threats from metal heads around the world, but I’m going to go off a very short and not-so-high-off-the-ground limb and state that Black Sabbath were the first Christian rock band. “Whoa there, little buddy,” you may say to me, “Aren’t Sabbath known as one the most evil and crazy devil worshipping rock and roll combos that has ever laid a black boot upon sacred earth?” The answer is “NO.” That distinction goes to many a Norwegian Black Metal band who has ever been involved in murder and cannibalism in addition to their devil worship. Ozzy just bit the head off a bat, and that was in his later, hideously drunken, solo years.
The truth is that Sabbath perpetuated an evil image that was false, wearing black clothes and crosses and writing many a song about the horned beast Beelzebub. If you take a look at their lyrics, and I only speak of the early albums with Ozzy (because that’s all I can bring myself to even listen to), all of those supposedly evil songs about licking the firey scrotum of Ol’ Scratch or whatever, are actually about begging for God to deliver them from that great evil. Take the lyrics of the opening title track from their first album, 1970’s “Black Sabbath”:
What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black that points at me
Turn round quick and start to run
Find out you’re the chosen one.
Oh No!!!Big black shape and eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan standing there he’s smiling
Watch those flames get higher and higher
Ok, evil, right? This is clearly talking about the Prince of Darkness and how much of a bad mofo he is. But wait, Ozzy follows this with a tortured plead of “Oh No! No! Please God help me!” Clearly Ozzy doesn’t like Satan pointing at him and telling him he’s the chosen one. The chosen one for what? TO DIE!!!! Ozzy’s running, for Christ’s sake! These are not the words of a Satan-worshipping, blood-drinking, virgin-sacrificing heavy metal hellion. Of course you could say that these are the words of a man who is scared of evil and death, which many of us can relate to, but a Christian rock band does this not make. Alright, Doubting Thomases, what about the lyrics for “War Pigs”?
“War Pigs,” one of the most famous of the early Sabbath songs, deals with politicians and world leaders and how they are destroying the world with wars and what our president now would call “terra”. In the first part, Ozzy paints a picture of these leaders as being the true evils of this world, referring to them as “Sorcerers of death’s construction” and comparing them to “witches at black masses”. It is in the second part of the song that he admonishes them, telling them to “wait ‘till their judgment day comes, yeah!” Finally, in the last verse Ozzy gets religious:
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgment, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
So the bad guys lose and get to spend an eternity in Hell with Satan, whom the Sabbath guys doesn’t seem to be worshipping in this one. See? Christian rock.
More examples abound. Again from the self-titled album, “Wicked World” is a rather hippyish anti-war song about all the childrens of the world getting together in peace and harmony. From the Paranoid album, “Electric Funeral” warns of an evil futuristic atomic age where bombs melt houses and evil robot slaves turn the Earth into a wasteland of biblical proportions. There’s even a little section where Ozzy talks about “Heaven’s golden chorus” and warns of how “Evil souls fall to Hell, ever trapped in burning cells.” From the same album, “Fairies Wear Boots,” although lyrically confusing and fairly ridiculous, is ultimately an anti-drug song. After seeing fairies and dwarves on a deranged drug trip, a doctor tells Ozzy at the end that he’s “gone too far / ‘cos smokin’ and trippin’ is all that you do.” How evil is not doing drugs?
Perhaps the most religious oriented album from the early period is “Master of Reality,” from 1971. Sure the first song, “Sweet Leaf” is about pot, but it is the second song, “After Forever,” which is the real kicker and the biggest proof that Sabbath were indeed the first Christian rock band:
Have you ever thought about your soul – can it be saved?
Or perhaps you think that when you’re dead you just stay in your grave.
Is God just a thought within your head or is He a part of you?
Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were at school?When you think about death do you lose your breath or do you keep your cool?
Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope – do you think he’s a fool?
Well, I have seen the truth. Yes I have seen the light and I’ve changed my ways.
And I’ll be prepared when you’re lonely and scared at the end of your days.Could it be you’re afraid of what your friends might say
If they knew you believe in God above
They should realize before they criticize
That God is the only way to love.Is your mind so small that you have to fall
In with the pack wherever they run
Will you still sneer when death is near
And say they may as well worship the sun.I think it was true it was people like you that crucified Christ
I think it is sad the opinion you had was the only one voiced
Will you be sure when your day is near say you don’t believe?
You had the chance but you turned it down now you can’t retrieve.Perhaps you’ll think before you say that God is dead and gone
Open your eyes, just realize that He is the one,
The only one who can save you now from all this sin and hate.
Or will you still jeer at all you hear? Yes – I think it’s too late!
Now I may be wrong, but that’s about as overt a Christian statement that has ever been found on a major label rock album, especially by a band that is supposedly so “Satanic.”
There are many other lyrical examples in those early albums, but I think you get the point. Black Sabbath is Christian rock. And it doesn’t suck! So there you have it. It’s proof that you can Rock for Jesus and still be cool. Well, as cool as Black Sabbath is. Now hopefully I won’t get jacked by a gang of metal-heads wearing shirts designed by Pushead. May the Lord be with you all!
I never really considered Ozzy satanic OR Christian.. just very confused. I point to any episode of the Osbournes as my evidence.
You have convinced me, though, that he’s more Christian than Satanic. Nice write-up.
How would they feel?
They wouldn’t listen.
I thought it was pretty well known the Ozzy is quite religious. Hmmmm must not have seen the Iron Maiden interviews
i have to admit you make several good points, but some of the lyrics you quoted come from other sources,
like the song black sabbath lyrics, came from a dream tommi iommi once had, about a dark figure and he couldn’t move in his bed.
dio also contributed to some of the lyrics, with some occult stories
im not saying he is not spiritual, but i think he has his own vision of god rather than the christian, like most people do.
As a christian and a huge black sabbath fan, Ozzy and the band is far from christian. However, they are not “satanic” and never were. Some of the band members indulged in satanic readings, manuscripts and rituals as a fact. Geezer butler (bassist) confirms that him and ozzy came up with the lyrics for “black sabbath” after an ancient witchraft book dissapeared in a house they were occupying at the time. Throughout their career they have been accused of being satanists because of the material they talk about, not because of what they did in their private lives. You have to remember, 1970 was a time when this sort of material was very controversial and it boosted their fan base. However, the band is not self-proclaimed christian . Much like the lyrics versing on satanism and the jesus christ rape (sabbath bloody sabbath), they merely talked about christianity in a few songs. They never were nor at the time of this writing are they christian. From my point of view, they were at the time of the lyrical writings… looking for their path in life. Bottom line is, alot of what they talk about can be considered influential to satanists or christians, it all depends on your faith. Although again, as a christian myself i’ve never found anything they sing about very influential religiously. Personal opinions aside. Black sabbath rules. Now thats a fact.
UM……
Didn’t Ozzy go to Catholic school? Probably a some of the rest of the band did as well.
Ozzt described Black Sabbath as a hippy band in a recent interview. They really never had any leanings to god or satan.
However, you do make a great point in that Black Sabbath could have influenced many Christian rock bands, positively or negatively.
Cool thing to bring up and get the mind rolling about.
How the hell did I miss this article!?
Ummm, because it’s almost 2 years old?
OH yeah! I am too (mentally).
I love the song “After Forever” and it is one ( if not THE!) fist song in about Christ and God that wsa written in a heavy metal style ( albeit…one of the FOUNDING songs of many future metal songs).
This song is HEEEAAVY! And the lyrics are sooo true.
Black Sabbath…are the devil worshippers?? No way….maybe heathens of a sort…but as Paul said in the New Testament….if one speaks evil of Christ, then I rejoice”…..Sabbath never spoke evil of Christ, they just wrote about the good and the bad that people invoke in this world.
The Mind Garage was the first Christian Rock band.
Black Sabbath is not even close, off by about 4 years. The alpha, very first Christian Rock band, meaning the one that took the amps and electric guitars into church and blew the plaster off the walls with bar room rock and roll with religious words to glorify God was the Mind Garage. They paved the way for all the others who came after. The Mind Garage is documented creating Christian Rock in local and national papers, magazines and TV from 1967 to 1970 years before Larry Norman’s first Christian Rock song in 1970( sometimes called the Father of Christian Rock) years before Black Sabbath’s After Forever,†in 1971. Most people have forgotten about them because it WAS so long before everyone else. Check it out on the Mind Garage website.
I think your exactly right there not at all satanic just back then everyone one was quick to judge and they took the lyrics to sabbath to personal and nevr realized the real message they were tryin to get through. Thats the genious of old rock n roll song lyrics can have up to 10 meanings and thats just the lyric part of it. But anyway i like what your saying and if they were satanic dont you think they would admit it. Would you ever hide your religion from god…..i dont think so and the satanic bands i have herd of seem to be proud of it and admit it freely like anybody would with there religion they would not hide it and sabbath never said they were satanists. It just goes to show people should not judge so fast and give others the chance they deserve instead of giving them a bad rep.
black sabbath wasnt christian rock but they DEFINITELY werent satanic…i cant even believe i found an article like this i got in an argument over some forum about black sabbath not being devil worshippers and i used the same example of the song “after forever” which is also a great song :p well im gonna say sabbath isnt satanic or christian rock but christianity definitely influences their music and most of the band was catholic i think. the only real devil worshipping bands are hte norwegian black metal bands that were burning churches in the 90s. sabbath used the image of satanism because it was new and it looked cool and stuff like that and it drew fans pretty much :p but yea sabbath rocks
oh yea…im a metalhead and im not gonna beat you up
im pretty sure metalheads dont care if its christian or not as long as its heavy and if they really think sabbath are devil worshippers they probably wont bother arguing that much abotu it.
excellent article. what with judas priest coming out of the closet and now this!! one’s mind does start to speculate on a few of the others. the hairspray metal for example.
This is so true, i became christian when i listened to Sabbath. Happy to meet others who found out of Black Sabbath!!!:-)
ha who you ever made this website is an idoit and you know what it’s not anything interesting or any facts it’s just the opions of the guy who made this website that’s taking up space wtf are you guys talking about black sabbath christian are you guys on crack seriously maybe you guys got the wrong black sabbath all you fags can do it label!
i meant opinions
Ozzy didn’t write many of the lyrics for Sabbath. It was mostly Geezer until RJD joined the band.
“Sabbath even did a blatantly pro-God, Christian hymn type of song, ‘After Forever’, and people still took it the wrong way.” – Geezer Butler
“Lord of this World” is another one of Sabbath’s Christian leaning song.
You’re searching for your mind don’t know where to start
can’t find the key to fit the lock on your heart
you think you know but you are never quite sure
your soul is ill but you will not find a cure.
Your world was made for you by someone above
but you chose evil ways instead of love.
You made me master of the world where you exist
the soul I took from you was not even missed.
Lord of this world
Evil possessor
Lord of this world
He’s your confessor now!
obviously if you listen to some of the metal and black metal and death metal you will find that most are christian
Black sabboth are quite light compared to some
Though I agree with 99% of what you say, I believe “fairies wear boots” is about homosexuality not drugs.
Fairiers Wear Boots is about drugs, not homosexuality.
Black Sabbath are not Christian rock nor are they devil worshippers.
Sabbath scared the hell out of me when I was a kid in the early 70s. I just couldn’t turn away from them, they were so brutal. I’ve heard and read many interviews from the band members that stated that they were more interested in turning people on to the reality of evil in this world. It’s hard not to believe in God when you see satan all around you. I’m a Sabbath fan and a devoted Christian. Oxy-moron? Maybe, but I doubt it.
listen to “lord of this world” you stupid fucktards… then you should realize that all of you who call black sabbath a christian rock band deserve to die like pigs
One day people will discover that this was written mostly in jest.
Nono, I don’t think that’s true.
…meaning I don’t think they’ll ever discover that.
…also, while I’m already double-posting to clear up the ambiguity of what I just wrote, I’ll also point out that I’m pretty intrigued by how many people must be googling “Black Sabbath” and winding up here, cuz this post just won’t die.
Black Sabbath is not a Christian rock band, saying so is just stupid, Ozzy Osbourne openly criticizes Christianity, and always makes comments about satanic things. Plus he often wears a pentacle around his neck. Calling Black Sabbath a christian rock band is an insult, because as a general rule, christian rock really sucks. Finally, did you not notice the name Black Sabbath?
Also as a reply to something i saw earlier, lots of people went to Catholic schools at that time, I know many an atheist who went to a religious school, and many who do.
I can’t decide which is funnier, the fact that Sabbath fans get so upset over this, or the fact that no one thinks it might be written tongue-in-cheek.
Can we just replace the article image with a big red stamp that says “THIS IS A JOKE”?
No, I think its funnier this way. Unbridled anger over something so unimportant makes me smile….
i dont think the name black sabbath is intended to be “evil”. these guys werent evil. they were just putting out the facts. it just so happens that its a lot easier to see the evil in the world than the good. as for there name……… they were just being critical of modern religion. we all should be. they saw all the problems with modern day christianity and they exploited it. as for them being the first christian rock band………. i would have to say no. as for what they actually believe…… who knows…… can we really know? its not our place. people too often judge a book by its cover. i am in a metal band and people often take the music that i write as being evil, cause they dont actually understand what im talkin about. just cause i say the word satan, or hell or anything of that sort. they think i worship satan. but i dont. i worship jesus…. something to think about.
this is a good topic to write about and secondly you have persuaded me and to the third point black sabbath actually got the name from an old movie. and that leads me to the 4th point thank you for writing this because i am a black sabbath fan however im pretty religous and it just kinda “freaks” me out that there was a rumor around that they weere a satin worshipping band
I can understand them worshipping satin.
it’s so.. smooth and touchable.
Go on….let yourself go! It’s real velour!
“Well I don’t want no jesus freak to tell me what it’s all about
No black magician telling me to cut my soul out”
-Black Sabbath, “Under The Sun”
I wouldn’t hold my breath for Christian metal bands to have lyrics resembling that.
Actually, as interesting as The Mind Garage is (I’ll have to look them up), they’re not the first. They may be the first truly heavy/hard band (at least by the fuzz guitar standards of the mid-late 60′s), there were Christian rock bands springing up in the UK before that, most emulating the Mersey beat sound of The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and their ilk. You don’t have to look far into Jesus Music history to see that there were other examples prior to that time. A perfect example would be the UK band The Envoys with their 1965 single “Nobody Like”. An even earlier example would be The Pilgrims from London, who got their start in 1962, just as the “beat” sound was taking shape, before The Beatles had really gone anywhere.
In any event, there were other Christian rock bands that were out at the same time as Black Sabbath as well. The psychadelic/fuzz band Azitis (1971), Out of Darkness (1970, much like Jimi Hendrix), Earthen Vessel (1970, early hard rock), The Exkursions (1970, blues rock/fuzz sound), along w/ Larry Norman’s own “Upon This Rock” album (1969).
I think we’re all missing something here. The album “Vol. 4″ was just as un-Christian as some of the songs on “Masters of Reality”. It was released after “Paranoid” and the last song on the album has some lyrics that seem to go against their Christian leanings:
“Under the Sun/Every Day Comes & Goes”
“Well I don’t want no Jesus freak to tell me what it’s all about
No black magician telling me to cast my soul out
Don’t believe in violence, I don’t even believe in peace
I’ve opened the door now my mind has been released
Well I don’t want no preacher
telling me about the god in the sky
No I don’t want no one to tell me
Where I’m gonna go when I die
I wanna live my life, I don’t want people telling me what to do
I just believe in myself, ’cause no one else is true
Every day just comes and goes
Life is one long overdose
People try to rule the nation
I just see through their frustration
People riding their real face
Keep on running their rat race
Behind each flower grows a weed
In their world of make-believe
So believe what I tell you, it’s the only way you’ll find in the end
Just believe in yourself – you know you really shouldn’t have to pretend
Don’t let those empty people try to interfere with your mind
Just live your life and leave them all behind”
Oh, here’s another one from Vol. 4:
Cornucopia
“Too much near the truth they say
Keep it ’til another day
Let them have their little game
Delusion helps to keep them sane
Let them have their little toys
Matchbox cars and mortgaged joys
Exciting in their plastic ways
Frozen food in a concrete maze
You’re gonna go insane
I’m trying to save your brain
All right
I don’t know what’s happening
My head’s all torn inside
People say I’m heavy
They don’t know what I hide
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
You’re gonna go insane
I’m trying to save your brain”
Alright, one more from “Vol. 4″ to prove my point, which is that this band is pretty confused about where it stands on religion…
Supernaut
“I want to reach out and touch the sky
I want to touch the sun
But I don’t need to fly
I’m gonna climb up
Every mountain of the moon
And find the dish that ran
Away with the spoon
I’ve crossed the ocean, turned every bend
I found the plastic and the gold at rainbow’s end
I’ve seen through magic and through life’s reality
I’ve lived a thousand years and never found the key
Got no religion
Don’t need no friends
Got all I want
And I don’t need to pretend
Don’t try to reach me
‘Cause I’ll tear up your mind
I’ve seen the future
And I’ve left it behind”
Hmm, Vol. 4 tells me that the Oz is an atheist! Somebody grab him before he eats babies!
Supernaut is a GREAT song. That riff is monstrous. The thing about the lyrics is that it’s more of a fantasy/sci-fi story than a viewpoint.
oh for the love of god somebody lock the damn thread!
Naw, I’m gunning for a record here.
it’s an interesting study in how few people actually read all of the thread they’re about to post in.
I agree with everything said here…and would even go further by saying that Alice Cooper provides some pretty awesome Christian Rock! Sabbath and Cooper go hand in hand for anyone who appreciates serious Rock with (mostly) good messages to the listener.
Well, I actually read it all.
I’m not exactly christian, and got to this page after a evangelizing play full of prejudice against Black Sabbath and rock listeners, showing them as those who need salvation together with prostitutes, drug addicted people and fathers of bastards sons. Got to show this page for them.
In fact, they took the black metal stereotype and attributed to all those who listen to rock, which are minority around here.
It’s in some way good to me to know musicians I listen to aren’t satan worshipers. Besides, those “bad guys”, the “metallers” can’t even write an entire paragraph around here. But if they were, I won’t give it any importance.
I’m from Brazil, so forgive any english barbarism, it’s not my mother tongue.
Just to clear up a few points. Firstly, Geezer Butler wrote the overwhelming majority of the lyrics for the band across their first 6 – 7 albums. Secondly, that period of time (late 60s / early 70s ) was a time when many different religious and spiritual themes were being explored in rock and pop so Christian themes that most of that generation had been brought up with (and rejected) made for good subject matter, whether pro, anti or neutral. As did the new eastern religious ideas. As a sidenote, Bob Dylan’s mid 60s stuff is shot through with ideas that came from his Jewish upbringing even though he wasn’t practicing Judaism at the time.
One of the good things about pop/rock from the mid 60s onwards was that literally anything made for good subject matter to write about and guys like Geezer Butler did.
For those that like a good read, check out the website “Only Solitaire”. It’s a record review site and it used to be interactive. At the end of each album review is a readers’ comments section and in the Black Sabbath section, I’ve written some extensive thoughts on the band, as have others. They’re well worth having a look at but only if you like reading !
As a christian who has been into the heavy stuff since the late 70s, my opinion is that Sabbath (so named partly because some of the band liked the vowel sounds when all put together) were not a christian, satanic or an anything rock band. Like alot of groups in those years, they covered alot of lyrical ground coz the old order was breaking down and young people from the early 60s for the first time had a voice that counted and they spouted out their thoughts and feelings. When you’re young, your feelings and opinions can change rapidly even though it doesn’tfeel like they ever will and we oldies have been there with passionately felt thoughts (some of which never change though they may modify). That accounts for why the songs seem confused and also, it’s daft to hold people to what they were saying 35 years ago – unless they overtly state that that is where they still are at.
Black Sabbath were just a very good heavy rock band that made some superb music. And heavy rock, like ‘christian’ rock, was an evolution, rather than an invention in which someone was the originator…..
I think I’ll call ol’ ZolarCzakl today to let him know that his bastard child of a post is still lurching about like a rock n’ roll Frankenstein.
Hi guys, I was a Black Sabbath fan a long time ago, when I was about 12 years old, til I was about 18. They got me close to grass. They got me close to God. Why? Because I had the predispositions for that. First: Grass because it symbolized rebelliousness, doing things the parents knew less than nothing about and for the dreamy discovery of a different perception of reality, for better and for worse. Second: God, because to me he symbolizes the answers to all existential questions and love and peace and all good things. In those days I was caught in a black hole (that’s exactly how it was) of rejection and no family love and psychological abuse, like loads of other guys and girls and I so appreciated the consequences. So the lyrics “my name it means nothing, my fortune is less. My future is shrouded in dark wilderness…†from the Masters of Reality album has had much influence on me for the simple reason Toni sung the feelings I could not express. So I took to weed first, a year later I started messing around with Jesus the Messiah. And did both at the same time which wasn’t very compatible. And everything was gone. My soul fizzled out slowly, for not being able to see God as a true and loving father. At last He took me out of this confusing maze by the collar (this took a few years).
I believe that, as a whole, rock and roll is nothing more than a modern artistic expression of the silent cry inhabiting the souls of most of us fans, whether it be a cry of pain or confusion or hate or abandonment or passionate love or lust, or whatever. Black Sabbath is just one of them. Others will turn you on politically, philosophically, esoterically, druggily, or religiously or just to partying. And I wish to insist on the fact that the so-called Christian bands can be idolized and won’t necessarily attract people to a closer relationship with God. That’s the modern world. Black Sabbath has followed the world’s evolution in a time of much confusion and quest for new or/and more convincing answers. They are artists of high sensitiveness and that’s what true artists are meant to be. I can believe that a lot of things said about them can be total bullshit. But how can one say anything about anybody without deeply and personally knowing him? Why should Ozzie and buddies open up on their private life, if they’ve got nothing good to say ? So many frustrated and limited judges in this world… Believers and non-believers alike. There’s a call echoeing all around this confused and hateful world and, summarized, it is this : get your hands out of your pockets and get yourselves to knowing God, I mean the creator of bumblebees and spiders and women and flowers, mountains and rivers, galaxie’s clockwork wonders and the like, etc. He’s trying mightily to make us turn but we’re so rusty and deaf. God bless ya all and the metalheads of all denominations too and any otherheads and the outcasts and the misfits and all those who one way or another are creeping in the dirt under the devil’s thumb.
alphamonkey and Bob,
On what basis do you state this article is a joke?
How do you explain the fact that many people have similar assumptions when reading BS lyrics and this text just confirms them?
My basis would be that I remember the drunken conversation with ZolarCzakl from whence this post originated.
The first question i should be asking is “What is your definition who a Christian is”?
“You shall know them by their fruit”. None of the Black Sabbath members have lived nor are they living a life. that is anything near what Christ asks us to live.
I concur with Just Plain Bob, this article is a joke
Have you seen the album covers of Black Sabbath or any of the other band that the respondents claim to be Christian. What aspect of Christianity do they show.
Are any of their lyrics absolutely clear about Jesus being lord and the only way to salvation. How do their lyrics or their life on and off stage give any semblance of Christianity
Satan is described in the bible a “The Lord of this World” just to be clear on that. By the way Black Sabbath fans, has any of you actually read the Bible? Just asking.
By the way ,isn’t Ozzy known as “The Prince of Darkness” an allusion to Satan himself.
“Not everyone that says Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of God”
Either yall need to pray for deliverance from such bondage of DELUSION. Or you need to stop calling yourself a christian till you get better clarity on who a Christian is.
I think this thread is humorous… and serious. If it was dreamed up by someone in a drunken stupor, hmm… still like it.
I grew up listening to Black Sabbath. “Paranoid” was the first rock LP I owned, and I played it so many times it literally ceased being a stereo album. (One time my older brother threatened to snap it in half if I played it for the 37th time that day!)
I became a Christian at 16. My Sabbath stuff went on a long Sabbatical… for years. But recently I got it all back out again, and must say I concur in part with the idea of Sabbath reflecting (inconsistently, however) a Christian sensibility. I don’t think they ever reflected a Satan-worshipping one.
I interviewed Ozzy back in the 1980s… and he told me he’d come up w/ the idea of Black Sabbath after watching “The Exorcist” and thinking how great a theatrical heavy-metal band with vague occult themes would be. He was, of course, right on the money.
A few Jesus rock bands that are astonishingly heavy — and remain almost unheard of — predate Sabbath. Out of Darkness (1969 or so) is incredibly heavy, esp. after getting a Hendrix-like vocalist in 1972. Two LPs exist, both great but the later one (re-released on Plankton records) is better.
Two more bear mention — though neither’s LP had over 100 or so copies pressed. Azitis’ self-titled LP was psych-rock with authority (and lame lyrics, but hey!). Then there’s the truly intriguing Fraction and their LP “Moon Blood.” Released around 1970, that LP has a Doors-like vibe and is one I enjoy listening to still.
Again, thanks for this humorous post that… hey, has some truth to it despite the slightly surreal concept it suggests.
Just a quickie on a couple of points…….
Jon Trott’s interview with Ozzy “in the 80s” kind of highlights for me how mythology becomes fact if repeated often enough – even though the facts can’t possibly concur. As an example, it is often stated that Charles Manson was turned down for the role of one of the Monkees……even though he was in jail at the time of the auditions. It is a matter of public record that from 1961 to March 1967 he was in jail. But the myth persists and makes good copy. And so it is with the Sabs. Ozzy says he was influenced by a watching of the Exorcist which gave him the idea for a theactrical band with occult themes – yet this can’t possibly be true. The Exorcist is a 70s movie – it was released on boxing day 1973, by which time Black Sabbath had been in existence for at least 5 years and had released 5 albums !! Influenced by “The exorcist” ? I don’t think so !! Besides, it is arguable that the Rolling Stones had long beaten them to it as some of them dabbled for a short while. Lots of bands and band members looked into the occult in the late 60s and it reflected in many songs and album art.
As a point of record “Fairies wear boots” is neither about homosexuality or drugs. It’s a rather clever dig at skinheads. In England in the late 60s/early 70s, the skinheads used to terrorize all kinds of groups, especially longhairs and once, some of the band were beaten up by skinheads. “Fairies wear boots” was Sabbaths revenge in song. Couched in terms of drug misuse, it’s actually having a pop at the skins, saying “you’re a bunch of poofs!” – very English.
Finally, there were, both before and during the Sabs, christian rock bands. Some like Fraction, Earthen Vessel, Out of Darkness, Agape and even the Exkursions and Azitis could be dizzyingly heavy. Others threw in the odd heavy song from time to time. I hate those “who was first” debates because history is rarely that cut and dry and often you’ll see that there were parallel developments happening at various points in history, like with TV or human flight.
Facts are much, much more interesting than mythology……
I’m banging my head against a wall.
This is a GREAT thread…have loved every word. May it live forever!
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/23/garden/at-tea-with-ozzy-osbourne-family-man-fights-fat-is-good-with-kids.html?pagewanted=all
“Devil-worshipers may be chagrined to learn that Ozzy, a member of the Church of England, kneels and prays backstage just before going on; he makes the sign of the cross, too. (Maybe as a hedge against the dozen or so fans who storm the stage at each concert. One fan last year broke three of Ozzy’s ribs.)”