please, allow me to be a little more specific here.
there are 4 zep albums on this list. there are ZERO BLACK SABBATH ALBUMS. the image in the background on this posting is for the 'houses of the holy' album. i actually like this album a lot, i think its zep's best, and contains what i think is one of the best songs of this decade. i cant wait until we review that one. but zepIII was #27 on the list of top 100 albums of the 70s. there's absolutely no way it belongs that high. and the sarge and i dont even feel like it belongs on this list at all. so, in the spirit of RE-WRITING HISTORY, an executive decision has been ordered to replace zepIII with a more deserving album, black sabbath's 'paranoid.'
sabbath's first album, aptly titled 'black sabbath,' was a good album, with a couple of classic tracks, most notably the first track, also aptly titled 'black sabbath.' but the other tracks just sounded way too much like cream. which isnt really a bad thing, but 'paranoid,' their second album, is just all sabbath. so heavy. so slow. so amazing.
yes, zep had a lot of influence on future bands...but like, on 80s CRAP metal. and cock rock. sabbath influenced ALL THINGS METAL. even black flag cites them as an influence. the melvins sound remarkably like sabbath, and they had a huge influence on nirvana and the whole grunge sound. infact, its hard to listen to anything thats 'heavy and slow' and not see some sabbath influence.
on the surface, ozzy and plant sound similar. high-pitched, screaming, intense. but i think when you scratch below the surface, some major differences appear. i think plant sounds very forced and self-conscious, while ozzy just sounds so natural. Plantulese the Vocal sounds like he descended from mount olympus for the sole purpose of entertaining us lowly mortals. but in the back of his mind, he'd much rather be back up on the mountain, chasing tail and avoiding zeus's lighting bolts with the rest of the gods. Ozzifer, on the other hand, sounds like he's screaming at us from some fiery pit in hell. but instead of thinking how he's better than us and would rather get away from us, he wants us to join him down there and have a grand ol time along with him. ozzy is more personal, plant is more distant.
Paranoid opens with the track 'war pigs.' obviously, its about war, specifically the vietnam war. did zep ever have the ballz to write a song about war? 'battle of evermore' and 'immigrant song' are about wars, but they actually glorify the "mythical tale" aspect of it. and i find zep's lyrics on the whole to be really vague, merely touching upon subject matter that only dabbled in what they considered vogue at the time...hell, as i think has been pointed out, the even took lyrics from a lot of blues sources. sabbath, on the other hand, write songs about darker subject matter [devil worship, paranoia, war, sci-fi] - and they dont hide it, they let you know. if 'iron man' sounds vague, its due more to ozzy's lack of talent writing lyrics and lack of grasp on the subject matter, than to an attempt to sound vague and distant on purpose. ofcourse, some songs on here were meant to be a little vague, like 'electric funeral,' which just kind of portrays images of the aftermath of some kind of armageddon [i think]. but even after listening to that song, those images are more vivid than anything zep ever leaves you with.
'war pigs' is such a tour de force track full of tension and release. the song is well arranged, and you can tell they spent a lot of time getting this one just right. and that part at around 5:50 just feels soooo gooood. excellent build up. 'paranoid' is a great track, fast and to the point. zep would never in a million years write a song about a mental problem. god doesnt have mental problems, remember? but ozzy does, and he has a lot of them and he isnt afraid to let you know. ok, ok, so zep rehashes older songs about the blues. i guess god maybe has some women troubles. but nothing ever even comes close to the insanity and emotional intensity portrayed in this poor paranoid character. 'planet caravan' is just gorgeous. compare it to 'hats off to roy harper,' zep's track off zepIII where the vocals are also heavily processed with studio effects. for hats off, a pretty standard blues, it seems like the vocals were processed for the sake of being different or trying to sound cool. blues arent usually sung all filtered like that. here on planet caravan, i think it adds a lot to the mellow, spacey mood. it also makes a very nice contrast to ozzys singing on the rest of the album where he's screaming away. and the song really pulls you in. the solo could last another 5 minutes and i still think i'd be into it. 'iron man' is one of their sci-fi songs, about some kind of evil time traveler who turns to steel. the lyrics are a bit simplified and vague as far as telling iron man's story goes, but i'm just glad they were delving into this subject matter. the band is really really good at writing parts that just make you throw your fist in the air and say 'fuck yeah! this feels good!' like at that tempo change around 3:13. the rest of the album is not as epic or played out on the radio, but i think its still fine. i'm not a huge fan of fairies wear boots, especially as a closer, but its about drugs, so its passable in my book, hehe.
there are some great lyrical themes running throughout this album and sabbath's career. there isnt as much occult/devil stuff on here as there is on other albums. but paranoid is full of themes about dark sci-fi, mental illness, drug use, and i would even say it touches upon some simplified Dostoevskian themes, most notably the evil genius. or maybe ol' fyodor shows up on other albums and i'm just projecting it onto this one...but either way, the music and lyrical themes on this album are all DARK. i love it.
i just meant the image as a middle finger to led zeppelin. i've changed it to better reflect the revisionism inherent in your edict. led zeppelin III and its protracted commentary NEVER HAPPENED.
i kinda wish dainty hadn't analyzed EVERY SECOND of the ENTIRE ALBUM so that the rest of us would have something to say ;)
but yeah, you'll get no arguments from me here. this is a spectacular album, as stupid and funny as it is overwhelming and genius. you hit it on the head that ozzie is not a very adept songwriter or lyricist. he is, however, AWESOME, and makes up for any technical deficiencies with his sheer AWESOMENESS. and i don't mean that as rhetoric, either. it's the uniqueness of his voice, the fact that he's just another one of us losers plagued by paranoid thoughts and shitty comic books and substance abuse that carries EVERYTHING about sabbath. i mean, sure, the music is fanfuckingtastic. slow, heavy, tempo shifts galore. but rocking out to iron man or paranoid is so great because of the crazy man leading the band. i mean, the riffs are so good, but nothing iommi did after this ever really grabbed me (or millions of other sabbath fans) the same way.
overall, very deserving to replace zep III on this list. very good album, and i'd never really listened to the whole thing all the way through.
i love this shit so much it is PLAIN DOPEY. it's so ridiculously minimalist ... it's just single-note riffs, to hell with harmony. to hell with harmony!! "let those CHORDCORE kids strum their own SCROTUMS while the real men simply wail out awesome guitar notes while singing about craziness."
i'm not sure iron man isn't one of the absolute greatest songs ever. of the songs i've ever heard, it's very definitely right up there. it is just uncut sonic semen gooping your ears full of POWER.
in 1994 i had just gotten my korg. i wanted to see how good i could get the shitty synthesized guitars to sound so i immediately attempted a cover of planet caravan. it was 1994, don't laugh!
you know, kids these days are making plenty of slow and heavy music. but the new kind of heavy involves more layers, better production, all kinds of maximizing effects and widening and bass enhancements and dual bass pedals and professionally-trained screaming.
sabbath was heavy using only the most minimal tools. just a stark, powerful guitar line and ozzy warbling some crazy shite like he meant it proper. i find that really impressive.
yeah, i wanted to post earlier that, "this album could still come out today and sound fresh, and that is a big arbiter of what i consider to be a classic album...not just that it was revolutionary when it came out, but that it stands the test of time. a lot of the albums we've listened to sound dated, but paranoid would still melt faces if released today."
but then i realized that this album would NEVER BE RELEASED TODAY. there's too much SILENCE. producers would fill those spaces in between guitar riffs with production noise and layered guitar fills and they'd be like "music in a song? nononono cut that shit out. ozzy get to the chorus as soon as you're done with the verse."
pitchfork's top 100 of the 70's + top 100 of the 80's, considered, scrutinized, explored, assailed, defended, appreciated and deprecated, fussed over, held up high, kicked to the curb and held back up again. education by fire and a middle finger to disdain. tea, anyone?
he spoke up and i agreed. it's enough already with the zeppelin.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/yh3qsqf for the material.
please, allow me to be a little more specific here.
ReplyDeletethere are 4 zep albums on this list. there are ZERO BLACK SABBATH ALBUMS.
the image in the background on this posting is for the 'houses of the holy' album. i actually like this album a lot, i think its zep's best, and contains what i think is one of the best songs of this decade. i cant wait until we review that one.
but zepIII was #27 on the list of top 100 albums of the 70s. there's absolutely no way it belongs that high. and the sarge and i dont even feel like it belongs on this list at all. so, in the spirit of RE-WRITING HISTORY, an executive decision has been ordered to replace zepIII with a more deserving album, black sabbath's 'paranoid.'
sabbath's first album, aptly titled 'black sabbath,' was a good album, with a couple of classic tracks, most notably the first track, also aptly titled 'black sabbath.' but the other tracks just sounded way too much like cream. which isnt really a bad thing, but 'paranoid,' their second album, is just all sabbath. so heavy. so slow. so amazing.
ReplyDeleteyes, zep had a lot of influence on future bands...but like, on 80s CRAP metal. and cock rock. sabbath influenced ALL THINGS METAL. even black flag cites them as an influence. the melvins sound remarkably like sabbath, and they had a huge influence on nirvana and the whole grunge sound. infact, its hard to listen to anything thats 'heavy and slow' and not see some sabbath influence.
on the surface, ozzy and plant sound similar. high-pitched, screaming, intense. but i think when you scratch below the surface, some major differences appear. i think plant sounds very forced and self-conscious, while ozzy just sounds so natural. Plantulese the Vocal sounds like he descended from mount olympus for the sole purpose of entertaining us lowly mortals. but in the back of his mind, he'd much rather be back up on the mountain, chasing tail and avoiding zeus's lighting bolts with the rest of the gods. Ozzifer, on the other hand, sounds like he's screaming at us from some fiery pit in hell. but instead of thinking how he's better than us and would rather get away from us, he wants us to join him down there and have a grand ol time along with him. ozzy is more personal, plant is more distant.
Paranoid opens with the track 'war pigs.' obviously, its about war, specifically the vietnam war. did zep ever have the ballz to write a song about war? 'battle of evermore' and 'immigrant song' are about wars, but they actually glorify the "mythical tale" aspect of it. and i find zep's lyrics on the whole to be really vague, merely touching upon subject matter that only dabbled in what they considered vogue at the time...hell, as i think has been pointed out, the even took lyrics from a lot of blues sources. sabbath, on the other hand, write songs about darker subject matter [devil worship, paranoia, war, sci-fi] - and they dont hide it, they let you know. if 'iron man' sounds vague, its due more to ozzy's lack of talent writing lyrics and lack of grasp on the subject matter, than to an attempt to sound vague and distant on purpose. ofcourse, some songs on here were meant to be a little vague, like 'electric funeral,' which just kind of portrays images of the aftermath of some kind of armageddon [i think]. but even after listening to that song, those images are more vivid than anything zep ever leaves you with.
ReplyDelete'war pigs' is such a tour de force track full of tension and release. the song is well arranged, and you can tell they spent a lot of time getting this one just right. and that part at around 5:50 just feels soooo gooood. excellent build up.
'paranoid' is a great track, fast and to the point. zep would never in a million years write a song about a mental problem. god doesnt have mental problems, remember? but ozzy does, and he has a lot of them and he isnt afraid to let you know. ok, ok, so zep rehashes older songs about the blues. i guess god maybe has some women troubles. but nothing ever even comes close to the insanity and emotional intensity portrayed in this poor paranoid character.
'planet caravan' is just gorgeous. compare it to 'hats off to roy harper,' zep's track off zepIII where the vocals are also heavily processed with studio effects. for hats off, a pretty standard blues, it seems like the vocals were processed for the sake of being different or trying to sound cool. blues arent usually sung all filtered like that. here on planet caravan, i think it adds a lot to the mellow, spacey mood. it also makes a very nice contrast to ozzys singing on the rest of the album where he's screaming away. and the song really pulls you in. the solo could last another 5 minutes and i still think i'd be into it.
'iron man' is one of their sci-fi songs, about some kind of evil time traveler who turns to steel. the lyrics are a bit simplified and vague as far as telling iron man's story goes, but i'm just glad they were delving into this subject matter. the band is really really good at writing parts that just make you throw your fist in the air and say 'fuck yeah! this feels good!' like at that tempo change around 3:13.
the rest of the album is not as epic or played out on the radio, but i think its still fine. i'm not a huge fan of fairies wear boots, especially as a closer, but its about drugs, so its passable in my book, hehe.
there are some great lyrical themes running throughout this album and sabbath's career. there isnt as much occult/devil stuff on here as there is on other albums. but paranoid is full of themes about dark sci-fi, mental illness, drug use, and i would even say it touches upon some simplified Dostoevskian themes, most notably the evil genius. or maybe ol' fyodor shows up on other albums and i'm just projecting it onto this one...but either way, the music and lyrical themes on this album are all DARK. i love it.
i just meant the image as a middle finger to led zeppelin. i've changed it to better reflect the revisionism inherent in your edict. led zeppelin III and its protracted commentary NEVER HAPPENED.
ReplyDelete/red pill
nice! thanks man. i'm gonna go to some drugs. later.
ReplyDelete/plaid pill
i kinda wish dainty hadn't analyzed EVERY SECOND of the ENTIRE ALBUM so that the rest of us would have something to say ;)
ReplyDeletebut yeah, you'll get no arguments from me here. this is a spectacular album, as stupid and funny as it is overwhelming and genius. you hit it on the head that ozzie is not a very adept songwriter or lyricist. he is, however, AWESOME, and makes up for any technical deficiencies with his sheer AWESOMENESS. and i don't mean that as rhetoric, either. it's the uniqueness of his voice, the fact that he's just another one of us losers plagued by paranoid thoughts and shitty comic books and substance abuse that carries EVERYTHING about sabbath. i mean, sure, the music is fanfuckingtastic. slow, heavy, tempo shifts galore. but rocking out to iron man or paranoid is so great because of the crazy man leading the band. i mean, the riffs are so good, but nothing iommi did after this ever really grabbed me (or millions of other sabbath fans) the same way.
overall, very deserving to replace zep III on this list. very good album, and i'd never really listened to the whole thing all the way through.
also note that iommi has FAKE FINGERS on his playing hand. guy does all this shit missing part of his hand.
ReplyDeletei love this shit so much it is PLAIN DOPEY. it's so ridiculously minimalist ... it's just single-note riffs, to hell with harmony. to hell with harmony!! "let those CHORDCORE kids strum their own SCROTUMS while the real men simply wail out awesome guitar notes while singing about craziness."
ReplyDeletei'm not sure iron man isn't one of the absolute greatest songs ever. of the songs i've ever heard, it's very definitely right up there. it is just uncut sonic semen gooping your ears full of POWER.
in 1994 i had just gotten my korg. i wanted to see how good i could get the shitty synthesized guitars to sound so i immediately attempted a cover of planet caravan. it was 1994, don't laugh!
ReplyDeletehttp://cuby.us/misc/caravan.mp3
you know, kids these days are making plenty of slow and heavy music. but the new kind of heavy involves more layers, better production, all kinds of maximizing effects and widening and bass enhancements and dual bass pedals and professionally-trained screaming.
ReplyDeletesabbath was heavy using only the most minimal tools. just a stark, powerful guitar line and ozzy warbling some crazy shite like he meant it proper. i find that really impressive.
yeah, i wanted to post earlier that, "this album could still come out today and sound fresh, and that is a big arbiter of what i consider to be a classic album...not just that it was revolutionary when it came out, but that it stands the test of time. a lot of the albums we've listened to sound dated, but paranoid would still melt faces if released today."
ReplyDeletebut then i realized that this album would NEVER BE RELEASED TODAY. there's too much SILENCE. producers would fill those spaces in between guitar riffs with production noise and layered guitar fills and they'd be like "music in a song? nononono cut that shit out. ozzy get to the chorus as soon as you're done with the verse."