Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

 

Black Sabbath's fifth album was this one. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, named after the lead song of the album. This album is the one that had been released at the time I had just become aware of the band. As a side note, it was the tour of this album which was my first Black Sabbath concert. I had just bought all of their albums and then found out they were performing in San Francisco. I went with the only friend of mine that also liked Black Sabbath, along with my girlfriend at the time, and my sister, who liked to go to rock concerts. My friend and I forced our way through the crowd to the front row, which at the time did not have that buffer zone in front of the stage. It was one of the best days of my life.

SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH

As for the cover design... Well, it's pretty cool artwork, no doubt about that. However, the scene in which we see some bedridden individual surrounded by what seems to be hallucinatory images of demons, suggesting he is being possessed or tormented by demonic forces lends itself to the false perception that the Sabbath members were some kind of devil worshippers or something. Even then I knew that was not the case. The band members were certainly NOT anything of the sort. I had noted on the song After Forever the lyrics made that clear. But a cover design like this certainly did not help to dismiss that narrative. In fact, Ozzy's father had forged four metal crosses to reinforce the opposite.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

So the lead off song is the same name as the album. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath has a cool heavy metal opening riff, and  is a solid song throughout. But for the first time, the band incorporated an acoustic segment not once but twice during this song. I thought at the time that the acoustic segment did not fit the song. It was a heavy metal song, and a good one, but with an acoustic segment in there? It didn't ruin the song, or make it any less good, but I just wasn't too sure about it. As time passed, I think it works fine. I was thinking at the time that they might have given in to critics who were saying their music was too heavy. But no. I think that they were just being creative. It's a great song and has a great ending riff that gets even heavier. So yes, it's a ten out of ten.

A National Acrobat

This second song is a winner. I had mentioned that the second song on their albums was always a real good one. And this one sure is. It starts with a great riff, and then Ozzy sings. Ozzy dubs another vocal track over his first one for a harmonic effect. Since they had no backup singers, Ozzy's voice is the only one and he has a double vocal track sounding throughout much of this song. The song breaks into a secondary riff at which point, the lead cuts in and then it concludes with a melancholy riff that breaks again into a heavy riff, and concludes with dazzling guitar work. A ten out of ten.

Fluff

Well, what can you say about a song called Fluff? Is it merely fluff? By that I mean is it a song put in there just to take up space? The title certainly suggests that. It's a nice acoustic guitar song. With several guitar overdubs to fill it out and even some piano. There are no vocals or drums. I'm not even sure there's a bass. It could be only Tony and no one else. If that's the case, it's a well done composition by Iommi, and a sure break from the heavy metal sound. Do I like it? Not necessarily. That doesn't mean it's not a good song. You have to be in the mood for a song like this. If you're in the mood for a heavy song, this ain't it. So my OPINION, is a five out of ten.

Sabbra Cadabra

This starts out with a great riff. It's distant at first, and then kicks in full throttle. It has a great beat, and Ozzy's singing sounds great. The lyrics are about having a great woman in your life, and that's okay with me. But I do have a problem with this song, because at 2:03 into the song, the great riffs stop and Ozzy sings the same thing over and over. To me, it was a super start, but the ending adds a synthesizer and some piano by Rick Wakeman. I don't know why they recruited him for this song. It was on track to be a ten out of ten, but to me it ends up being an eight out of ten.

Killing Yourself to Live

This is the lead off song for side two, and a side note is that it's the first-ever song I heard them play live. I had pointed out that this album's tour was my first Sabbath concert. My friend predicted that they would lead off their performance with this song and he was right. What makes it an interesting composition to me is that it has three movements like an abbreviated opera. It's a ten out of ten.

Who Are You?

I read somewhere this is a song written by Ozzy, and it's Ozzy playing a synthesizer, with a few dubbed-over tracks, with Bill on the drums, and I think Geezer is playing the bass. To my knowledge it's the first time Tony doesn't have an input on a song. I don't have a problem with that, but even so, I never really liked this song too much. That doesn't mean it's not a good song. I just don't hold it in such a high regard as I do most of their other songs. So for me, it's a five out of ten.

Looking for Today

This is a good rock song, but to me, it is not as good as their other songs. It's still a good song with good lyrics and a good beat. It's not a bad song by any means, it's just not one of my favorites. And once again, the band breaks into an acoustic segment, twice, like they did in the song Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I never really liked that they did that. It doesn't ruin the songs. But I don't think it made them better, either. Still, it's an eight out of ten.

Spiral Architect

This is the concluding song of the album. and as such, it was important to the band to end the album with another great song. And they sure succeeded. This starts with an acoustic intro, but turns into yet another great Sabbath song. Yes, again, it has acoustic segments, like the other two songs, but this time with violins. Another important element of this song is the lyrics. Geezer Butler, who is the lyricist of the band, came up with some great lines. It's a great song. I don't think they needed the canned applause at the end, but whatever. It's a ten out of ten.

So in conclusion, another winner by Black Sabbath. I know my ratings make it seem like it's rated lower, if one were to average the ratings of all the songs. And one might conclude that it's not as good an album as their first three or four albums. It's all about opinion really. I have a sentimental attachment to this album, as I said, it's the album the band was touring when I saw them live for the fist time. So, I do like the album, and there is no doubting the quality of this album. It may not be as heavy as their prior albums. But it's still a Black Sabbath album, and heavy enough for Sab fans.

Black Sabbath - Vol 4

The next Black Sabbath album was called Vol 4. But I read somewhere that the name of the album was supposed to be Snowblind, which is the lead-off song on side 2. According to what I read, studio executives nixed that album title, believing it was too much in reference to the drug, cocaine. And since the title and lyrics do reference cocaine, and Ozzy does spew the word cocaine in the song, it was just too obvious the song was about cocaine. Another band had made a song about cocaine which had become a hit on the radio, and it got a lot of air time. So I guess Sabbath figured they could do a song about it too. But naming the album after the drug was going too far. (Or so believed the executives.)

VOL 4

I always give an opinion of the cover design, so my opinion of this cover design is that it's just okay. Since this was the second time a Sabbath album got renamed, I'm not sure if this cover design is the same as it was going to be with the original name. It seems to me to be a basically simple design. An all-black cover, with a yellow image of Ozzy performing at a concert. But nothing else is evident. Not the other band members, not a stage, and no audience. Just an overexposed all-yellow image of Ozzy raising his hands giving the peace sign. (Maybe it's just me, but to me that doesn't even look like Ozzy.) I have no doubt that it is, however, and I suppose it's a good enough design. Too bad they couldn't just call the album Snowblind as they originally intended. But so what.

Wheels of Confusion

When I first heard this song, (as a back album, as I've already explained) I loved it. It begins with a great guitar intro, and then settles into a single cord verse and Ozzy starts singing. It sounds great. The heavy metal sound is still going strong in this album. It breaks into a middle segment of great musical compositions by Iommi and then goes back to the single cord verse, and then ends with another great, and long guitar segment featuring Iommi greatness. This is yet another ten out of ten song, and yet another great lead off song to another great album.

Tomorrow's Dream

This is a very nice follow up to the lead off song. Not as great of a follow up as they had on their first three albums, but hey, that's a high bar right there. As it is, it's good enough, but the high bar the band had set for song number two in the first three albums does come into play here. And for that reason, and only for that reason, I will give this one an eight out of ten. (You'll recall this is an honest review.)

 Changes

I never really liked this song. But that doesn't mean it's not a good song. It's a love song, or really it's a love-sick song. And that doesn't sit well with me. I read somewhere that one of the band members was going through a divorce at this point in time, so the lyrics and the song were inspired by that circumstance. But I really do not like love-sick songs. That's more what you're going to hear from country western music. Not my cup of tea. An interesting thing about this song is there's no guitar on it. It's all piano. I don't even know who's playing the piano as I don't recall anyone being credited for it. But besides the fact that Ozzy sounds love sick, he really does sing the song well. I guess he's supposed to sound love sick on a love sick song. I remember reading that Bill Ward said Ozzy had the perfect voice for a song like this. I think Bill Ward was right. But that doesn't mean I'm going to like it. So the bottom line is this is the first Black Sabbath song I didn't like. Other people probably love this song as another one of Sabbath's great slow songs. I don't. So I'll give it a five out of ten.

FX

I do not consider this a song. It's nothing more than what the title says it is. Just some "effects" which do not translate into a song. I suppose they intended it to be an intro to Supernaut, like they did on some of their earlier albums. But it doesn't work for me, and I won't rate it, as it's not a song.

Supernaut

This is a really good song. I've read it's a favorite song for many Sabbath fans. I think it even got radio time in the UK, but I never heard it once on the radio here in America. But I had already pointed out how Sabbath was far from popular on American radio. But it's a good song. It begins with a great into guitar riff by Iommi. And it has a great beat and Ozzy sounds great. However, the drum solo on this song is not really a drum solo. Bill Ward had already recorded a great drum solo on Rat Salad on the Paranoid album. This one is nothing more than a sustained beat which sounds great unto itself, but then someone starts playing a fish or whatever that thing is called, and for me, that is not Sabbath. But when Iommi kicks back in, the song is saved. So, yeah, it's a ten out of ten.

Snowblind

This is the song I was talking about. It was supposed to be the name of the album. But whatever. When I heard this song, I loved it. And I still do. Not because I like cocaine, I don't. I don't like smoking dope either, but that didn't prevent me from loving the Sweet Leaf song. And I love this song too. It's a great work of heavy metal music from the inventors of the heavy metal sound. A ten out of ten.

Cornucopia

This is another great heavy metal song. It begins with slow plodding heavy metal riff, and then speeds up with singing from Ozzy. I must say that Ozzy does some of his best singing on this album and it's evident on this song. It's a little shorter than some of the other songs, but it holds it's own. And I will rate it a ten out of ten.

Laguna Sunrise

Okay, this song is another break from the heavy metal blasting. It's a soft acoustic guitar instrumental from Iommi. He displays the talent on the guitar that goes far beyond blasting heavy metal cords and mind-blowing hard rock electric guitar solos. Aside from no singing, there are no drums and there's no bass, either, but is it does have some background violins or synthesized violins. Do I like it? Yes. It's a musician's song. And I happen to be a musician, as you may know. It's a ten out of ten. But don't listen to it if you're expecting a typical Black Sabbath heavy metal song. 

St. Vitus Dance

This is a short heavy song, with a fast beat. It's a good song, but not one of my favorites. It seems that the lyrics are about another romantic relationship gone bad. Another song influenced by that divorce, perhaps? I'm not sure, but whatever. It's short and sweet, with some solid riffs. After all this time, I still don't know why they named the song St. Vitus Dance. But whatever. It's not a ten out of ten. I'll give it an eight out of ten, like Tomorrow's Dream.

Under the Sun

I had said before that Sabbath makes it a habit to conclude their albums with a great song. And so they did with this album. Under the Sun begins with a slow plodding heavy metal riff, and then speeds up, and has segmented riffs that blow you away. It has great lyrics, too. I'm sure glad they didn't end this album with a song about another love story gone awry. Nope. This song has some more of that great Iommi guitar compositions, and great Geezer lyrics. Yes, it's a ten out of ten.

So in conclusion, Vol 4 holds up the Sabbath mystique. It is a solid contribution to the Sabbath catalog of albums. But I will admit it does fall, ever so slightly, in its overall rating. And because of that, it is not as good as their first three albums. Does that matter? No, it does not. It's a great album unto itself, and absolutely worthy to stand alongside the first three albums.

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Okay. This is the album. Meaning, this is the first Black Sabbath album I heard. And it was this album that blew me away. I rate this album as one of, if not THE greatest album of all time. No, that doesn't mean I rate it above their debut album which I already said will have no album ever rated higher. But THIS album....  How about if I say that this album is my personal favorite album of all time, and being that, it's my personal favorite Black Sabbath album. I mean, sheesh, an album can't get any better. It has a shorter running time than normal. One more song would have fixed that. But, hey. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. It's the best.

MASTER OF REALITY

I start by discussing the cover design. But for this album, it's more like what cover design? If there were to be any criticism of this album, it might be the cover design. When I heard my first Black Sabbath song, and rushed to the store to buy the album, I found this album and all it said was Black Sabbath as it's pictured above in purple letters. The album title, Master of Reality was NOT colored in gray as it appears here. It was pressed with raised letters, and was all black like the background. You could make it out, though, and it was pretty cool. I suppose pictures of this album or images like this one must use a color to enable the title of the album to be viewed. On a side note, this album came with a poster of the band included. Fortunately, I was not so removed from the release date of this album and a poster was still in there when I bought it as a back album. I had that poster on my wall for years. But that was years ago, and I have no clue what ever happened to it at this point in time.

Sweet Leaf

This is it. This great song was the first ever Black Sabbath song I had ever heard. The story goes like this: I was 17 years old. A friend of mine and I were parked in his car at some fast food place to get something to eat and he put on a cassette tape that he had made. It was a mix of several different songs by several different bands. So I was listening to the songs, as I liked the rock songs he had put on there; the usual rock songs of the time, as in Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, Deep Purple, Allman Bros, Santana, Jethro Tull, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. But then - when one of those songs had finished, the sound of someone coughing followed, and it increased in volume until it became distorted. Then a heavy metal riff exploded and it was fantastic! It's important to note this was the first time I had ever heard the heavy metal sound, and I was blown away. It was like: Wow, what an incredibly great sound, and what an incredibly great song! Ozzy started singing, and I was sold. I told my friend, that this was fantastic..I asked who were these guys? He told me they were Black Sabbath and that he didn't even like them. I was like, you gotta be kidding! This is the greatest music I had ever heard. If I could give this song a higher rating, I would. So, yes, it's a ten out of ten and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

After Forever

When the Sweet Leaf song was over, I was still recovering from being blown away, when THIS song began. It started with a sound that was like a cross between an organ and a synthesizer, and it sounded GREAT. And  once again, the heavy metal power chords blasted away, and I was blown away all over again. Another ten out of ten. I told my friend that he must be crazy not to like these guys. I asked why did he put these two songs on his mix if he didn't like them? He said just to "mix it up" as it was a mix after all. These two songs were the only Black Sabbath songs he had on the tape, but they were hands down my favorite songs on the tape and Black Sabbath instantly became my favorite band.

Embryo

This is a short guitar intro to Children of the Grave. It really shouldn't be rated as it is not on the same level as the other full length songs. But the consensus is that the great song that follows would not be the same without this intro. Tony Iommi once said  that this song was influenced by some kind of English folk tune he had heard and played. So, okay, it's from his personal past, and he incorporated it as an intro. Kind of like when Geezer did that all-bass intro to NIB. I didn't rate that one. But I will rate this one. As an intro. And as an intro, it gets a ten out of ten. If any Geezer supporters have an issue, then, okay, Geezer's bass intro to NIB is also a ten out of ten. But this is not the only time Tony Iommi plays an all-guitar intro to a song. He does it again on side two of his album, and he does it again on a later album which I will discuss when we get to it.

Children of the Grave

Once the all-guitar intro fades out, the heavy metal sound begins. But it sounds like it being played from a distance. Then it gets louder and louder and faster and faster. Then it arrives and pounds away. A great iconic Black Sabbath song. A sure-fire ten out of ten. I think Sabbath has performed this song at every Black Sabbath concert I've been to. And I'm glad for that.

Orchid

This song has been described as a break from the heavy metal blasting. It's an all acoustic guitar song showing the world that Tony Iommi is not just a heavy metal guitarist. It's a great song unto itself, but it can also be described as another intro song. Even more interesting is that it's the lead off song for Side Two of the vinyl album. But, again, since these are CDs, there's no side 1 or side 2. It's now a soft break from the hard rock Heavy Metal. So as a break type of song, it's a ten out of ten.

Lord of This World

Once the acoustic sound of Orchid fades out, the blasting chords of Lord of This World begin, easy at first, and then they explode! And for a long time this song was my favorite Black Sabbath song. That's how great this song is. But now I don't know which one is my favorite, I love so many. Oh yeah, it's a ten out of ten. No doubt about that.

Solitude

This is a complete song unto itself, and it is indeed a soft song, a melancholy type of song, with Tony Iommi playing an acoustic guitar and a flute as well. I don't think there's even a drum track on this song. But it doesn't need one. It's a great song, like Planet Caravan was on the Paranoid alum and I might even say it's my favorite of the "soft" songs on the Sabbath albums. So, yeah, it's a ten out of ten.

Into the Void

Another fantastic song. When Solitude fades out, in comes the blasting sound of Into the Void. It has a great intro riff, and evolves into the main riff, and then the drums sound and then Ozzy starts singing. It's a great example of how these four guys came together in a perfect way to make musical history, and wraps up an incredibly great, and all time great heavy metal album. Ten out of ten.

So yes. That was a wrap. The song line up is tops. Too bad the debut album got "sullied" with that "top forty" type song, which wasn't even included at first. But whatever. This album, Master of Reality really does rank as one of the all time great albums in history. What an achievement. Black Sabbath explodes into the world with three all time great albums. That hasn't happened too often.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

I will continue my honest review of every song on every studio album put out by my favorite band, Black Sabbath. Their second album release was the mega-hit album called Paranoid, named after what studio executives believed, (correctly,) would be the album's hit single. Again, this album was not the first or second album I had listened to. I had bought the back albums once I became aware of the band. Strangely, at the time, no one I knew liked Black Sabbath. Even the rock radio stations didn't like them and rarely, if ever, gave them air time. But to me, Black Sabbath was the best, and although somewhat bewildered as to why no one else but one friend of mine liked them, I was undeterred in my interest and desire to buy all their albums.

PARANOID

Like I did with their debut album, I will start with the cover. It's not as good of a cover design as their first album. But it does have some interesting backstory. I read somewhere that the original title of the album was going to be War Pigs, named after the first song on the album. Thus, the image of a warrior. But studio executives intervened, as I explained above, and renamed the album without bothering to redesign the cover. So the warrior image remained.

 War Pigs

Like I said, the lead off song of the album is War Pigs, and yes, it's a ten out of ten. It begins with a sound that residents of the UK had been all too familiar with not too many years before. Air raid sirens. Then a heavy metal power chord interrupts the sirens, and plods its way to the eventual voice of Ozzy singing about the pigs of war. Meaning those politicians who have no qualms about sending other people to die in a war. It's a long song, but a great one, and it never gets old. Black Sabbath's live performances often featured this song as the lead off song to their performance.

Paranoid

So the executives got their wish when they required Sabbath to come up with one more song, and it was this one. Iommi put a riff together which became this song. Geezer was the lyricist, and they had their biggest hit. To this day, Paranoid is the one song most people will recognize as the band's biggest hit. I like the song, to be sure, but I like other songs better. Nevertheless, it's a ten out of ten.

Planet Caravan

This is a song removed from the heavy metal sound. But it works for me. It's a soft song, and the vocals are sung through some kind of electronic device. But the distorted vocals work for this song, and I like it a lot. It is a ten out of ten. This is proof to anyone out there, that not all of their songs have to be heavy metal power chords to rate a ten.

Iron Man

A fan-favorite, and it was already recognized as a great song before the Marvel Comics movie came out featuring the song. It's a great riff, and a great song, and a ten out of ten.

Electric Funeral

A great song. It's a slower song, and it's a ten out of ten. I was glad Sabbath included it in their final tour. Ozzy can sing it just as well now as he did 50 years ago.

Hand of Doom

Another great song. It has a slow beginning with a bass guitar and quickens with a rock-hard, heavy metal segment and ends with the bass guitar. It seemed as though Sabbath could do no wrong. Every song was a great song from the start of their first album to this one. A ten out of ten.

Rat Salad

This song has some controversy. Some people don't like it. I love it. And I give it a ten out of ten. Why don't some other people? Well, it's an instrumental. No lyrics. And it features a drum solo by Bill Ward. So why is it controversial? Because Led Zeppelin included an instrumental featuring a drum solo on their second album So what, I say. Both songs are great.  

Fairies Wear Boots

Black Sabbath achieved absolute greatness with this song. In my opinion they had already achieved greatness, but this song is a masterpiece. And I don't label a song a masterpiece very often. Only two times had I called a rock song a masterpiece. And this song is one of the two. Sure there are other songs that qualify. And other songs I may concede are also masterpieces. But this song could well be the best song Sabbath ever wrote and performed. And I am very glad they performed it often during their tours. They knew what they had in this song. The song Paranoid may be their greatest hit single, but this song is their greatest song. If I could give it a higher rating I would. But alas, it's a ten out of ten.

So there you go. Every song is a great song and rates a ten out of ten. Does that mean it's a better album than their debut? No. I rate no album a higher rating than their debut album, nor will I call any album a greater album than their debut album. Don't forget, until someone decided to put that one song on their debut album that wasn't originally there, every song on that one was great also. But this review is about Paranoid, and the highest rating for Paranoid is deserved.

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

 

Since I'm finished posting my own music for now, I had said I wanted to post an honest review of every song from every studio album recorded by my favorite band, Black Sabbath. (Ozzy era, to be specific.) I had been a fan of this group since the first moment I heard their music. I was enthralled by the new "heavy metal" sound, as it came to be known. I had never heard that sound before. And I loved it. Keep in mind that before I heard my first Sabbath song, my favorite band was Led Zeppelin. And I had heard the argument that Led Zeppelin was the first heavy metal band. No. They weren't. But no need to further that argument, as, by now, the argument is settled. Black Sabbath invented the heavy metal sound, period. Not Led Zeppelin. And not anyone else. And certainly not The Beatles. Case closed.

So Black Sabbath reigns, unarguably, as the originator of the Heavy Metal sound, and they are my favorite band. But that doesn't mean I liked every Sabbath song. And it doesn't mean they could do anything with my stamp of approval. (Besides the point that they don't need it, they can't.)

So I will talk briefly about each and every song they wrote and recorded, one album at a time, in chronological order, excluding the live and greatest hits albums. So here we go:

BLACK SABBATH - Let's start with their debut album cover. I've heard it said in rock magazines and other related articles that this album cover is one of the best, if not THE best, album cover of all time. I agree. The lone figure of a woman in the woods with a mysterious house in the background is genius. And I must say it fits the name of the band perfectly. It's never been bettered.

Black Sabbath

Aside from the name of the first album being the name of the band, (a lot of bands did that,) Black Sabbath went one step further. They named the first song on their first album Black Sabbath, as well. And it's a great song. It starts with a rainfall, some thunder and a church bell. Then the first-ever heavy metal power chords explode and history is made. (As in heavy metal has arrived!) Then a softening of the chords allow Ozzy to sing the perfect lyrics to this perfect debut song. Then it has a great ending which features guitarist Tony Iommi showing the world he has arrived as one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time. (And the greatest heavy metal guitarist of all time.) The song rates 10 out of 10.

The Wizard

Song 2 on this album is another winner. It begins with Ozzy playing the harmonica. And then joined by the heavy metal power chords which together sounds magnificent. You might not have thought it would, but it does. The lyrics, again are perfect for this song, and it's another 10 out of 10.

Behind the Wall of Sleep

I love this song. And I loved it the first moment I heard it. It's simply another 10 out of 10 song. Side note: this debut album wasn't the first Black Sabbath album I had heard. I was a late-comer to the Black Sabbath experience. But once I had heard them, I was so into the music I went back and bought all the back albums. And this album exceeded all of my expectations.

NIB

Another 10 out of 10. This song probably got the most radio time, and it's understandable. It's another great song. It allows Iommi to really show his guitar greatness. And he does. Side note: I know I left out Basically. It's a short intro to NIB, featuring a bass guitar solo by Geezer Butler. But I don't really think it's a complete song unto itself. It is, like I said, a short intro to NIB.

Evil Woman

This song was not on the original release of this album. It's on later releases of the CD version of this album. I read somewhere it was on the original UK release. I hadn't heard it until I had switched my collection from vinyl records to CDs. And when you hear it, you can understand why it wasn't on the original release, (at least in America.) It's not a song that sounds like a Black Sabbath song. Yeah, that's Ozzy singing, and yeah that is Iommi on the guitar. But it sounds like a song written by a top 40 band that Sabbath just happens to be playing. I might have agreed at the time not to include it for that very reason. But listening to the song now? It's like: Why not? It's still Ozzy, Iommi, Butler and Ward. But I'm not giving it a ten out of ten just because it's Ozzy, Iommi, Geezer, and Ward. I said this was going to be an honest review. So, as for this song? I think a 6 out of 10 is about right.

A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning

This is two, perhaps three, songs mixed into one long song, kind of like a jam, and I love it. Tony Iommi really shines here, and the band is on a roll. This absolutely rates a 10 out of 10. And that rating goes for the two (or three) songs that make up this "jam." I love listening to this. It starts out with Sleeping Village, a softer sound, considering the heavy metal sound they had established on side 1. Then it goes into a great jam with Iommi not holding back. And it evolves into Warning. which again features Iommi greatness. I presume A Bit of Finger references the guitar solos that are featured throughout this jam rather than an individual song unto itself. In fact, the CD version of this album doesn't even list it. On the CD, Sleeping Village and Warning are listed separately.

Wicked World

This was the song that was originally the lead off song for side 2 of this album. (With Warning being the concluding song.) Other releases of this album have Evil Woman inserted as the lead song of side 2. But since these are CDs now, there really isn't a lead song for a side 2 since there is no longer sides 1 and 2. So on the CDs, Wicked World is now the concluding song of the album. Sabbath typically concludes their albums with a great song. And this qualifies. Warning qualified, too, but whatever. It's a great song and I rate it a 10 out of 10. 

So there you go. I would say this is one of the greatest debut albums of all time. Which is saying a lot. Until they put Evil Woman in there, every song was a great song. So maybe it's too bad they put it in there. Doesn't matter. It was a great debut album by a new band that invented a new sound. A subgenre of rock: Heavy Metal had arrived.

Volume 1 - Rockin' the First Steps

Finally, the long awaited release of Volume 1 - Rockin' the First Steps is now on Sound Cloud. I had written these songs long before I had written any of the songs on Volumes 2 - 13. (That might be obvious, considering it's Volume 1.) But I decided to release Volumes 2 - 13 first because I believed they were better songs.

After all, the songs on Volume 1 were my "first steps" in writing songs. So I thought they might not be as good. But they are. They're different, to be sure. Whereas Volumes 2 - 13 are Rock songs for the most part, the Volume 1 songs are more like ballads. That's not to say they are love ballads, (well, three or four of them are.)

But seeing as how I'm a rocker at heart, I didn't think I would ever put these songs on a CD, but here they are. Fifteen songs in all. I began writing these songs when I was just 14 or 15. I remembered them from playing them once in a while on the piano. I had written songs before that, but I forget those, since I had no means of recording at that point in time. But these are the ones I remembered.

The song list is as follows:

01 - Tell Me When

02 - First Love

03 - Deja Vu

04 - It Was a Weight

05 - Lies Don't Last

06 - Two Hearts

07 - I'm Laughing

08 - Tale of Sorrow

09 - The Moment

10 - It's a Win

11 - One Day

12 - Good Times

13 - Cherub

14 - A New Deal

15 - Theme Song

Yes, I did rename most of these songs. When I wrote them as a teenager, I didn't really write the lyrics to the songs. I might have to a limited degree, but not entirely and not for all. So when I went back and rearranged the songs, like I did for Volumes 2 -13, I also rewrote the lyrics. Except for Theme Song, which has no lyrics, and thus, no real title. I was writing a story back then and so I came up with an instrumental "theme song" for it. As for the lyrics for the rest of the songs, they turned out pretty well. Click on the album cover in the right margin and have a listen. 

(Warning: As I did for the other albums, I will advise you to remember that I do not consider myself a singer. I only sang these songs because I didn't know anyone else who could.)

Resident Alien Gets a Passing Grade

So the first season of Resident Alien has concluded, and I had agreed to watch at least this first season to give it a fair chance to convince me it was worthwhile. I had said it started slowly for me, and by midseason, I was still on the fence. It had a lot going for it. But there was enough there to criticize as well. For one thing, I just couldn't get over the alien's idiocy. For another, I didn't like that he wanted to kill the little boy who knew his true nature.

But that got settled. Like I hoped it would. First, about the alien's idiocy. To be an advocate for the show, I might say, what do you expect? This is an ALIEN. Not a secret agent from Russia! or China! This is an ALIEN. Not a human. Not a creature from this planet. Can you get that through your head? It's an alien sent to this planet, not to intermingle with humanity. Not to pretend it's one of us. It had a simple mission. Drop the "extinction device" and go home. That's it. It wasn't supposed to land or get out of its spaceship or anything like that. 

But, of course, when the U.S. fired a missile at it, the spaceship was damaged before it could launch its weapon. That kind of makes you glad that the U.S. had a "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude. I would think that in real life we don't have that attitude. But in this fictitious farce, it does. Hey. It's a TV show, not a documentary about how earth should respond to unannounced alien visitors.

So the alien ship crash-lands, semi-incapacitated, and with its "extinction device" broken. The alien, like Jeff Bridges in Starman, can take human form. Almost just like in Starman actually. Although we don't see him go through the infantile stage like Jeff Bridges did. Whatever. And after a length of time residing in a loner's cabin after killing him, the alien learns, to some degree, how to speak and act like a human by watching television shows for some months.

So there you go. It leaned the language and learned about human behavior from TV shows, and the internet, which it quickly learns to master. And because the loner in the cabin was a doctor, it becomes that doctor, and thus recruited by a nearby town to take over for another doctor who had been recently murdered. By the way, killing the first person the alien confronted was a hard one to swallow until you learn that it came to earth in the first place to kill everyone. So it became believable.

But wanting to kill the kid was not believable. It should have known (even from TV) that killing a kid was going to bring too much attention to its situation, and now that the kid and the alien have become "allies" so to speak, I like it much better. The kid is a great actor, and a great character. So is the Muslim girl who becomes his partner in the quest to learn more about the alien. Both kid actors play their roles well, and more importantly, their roles are written well.

I'm not so sure I can say the same for Linda Hamilton's part. She had seen a UFO when she was a child, and ever since, she's on a quest to capture it. This is another one hard to swallow because she gives orders to her female agent to kill anyone who might compromise the mission, including innocent citizens and her male partner. Yeah, she's acting as a rogue, but ordering one agent to kill another for no reason? I don't buy it.

But the two female supporting characters are great. Asta and D'Arcy are both well written characters  and both have fun parts to play in the show. D'Arcy is especially likeable, as the more comedic of the two. Once Asta learns the alien's true nature, the show gets better. But that didn't happen until near the end of the first season. And after the final episode, when the alien decides not to kill everyone, you have a good feeling.

I love it when a show makes you feel good at its conclusion. But this show is not concluded. Even the final episode of Season One had a type of cliffhanger ending, so you need to see the second season to see what happens next. For now, the alien is off the earth, and after having repaired the extinction device, it destroys it, and now it just wants to go home. (For clarification, the alien is not a he or she. It had made clear that its species does not have male and female.) So what about its mission? We'll have to see the second season for that question to be answered. I'll be waiting. And I'll watch it.