Black Sabbath: Sabotage

Black Sabbath: Sabotage

1975

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc & Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Hole in the Sky  2. Don't Start (Too Late)  3. Symptom of the Universe  4. Megalomania  5. The Thrill of It All  6. Supertzar  7. Am I Going Insane (Radio)  8. The Writ  9.Sweet Leaf (Live)


Okay,  we're going to get the obligatory mocking of the front cover out of the way up front...  

 

Ha ha ha! Lookit the mustache guy in the white pants on the far left! He has a boner! Ha! Ha! Doesn't he know it's after Labor Day?  Lookit Ozzy's dress Ho! Ho! And Bill Ward has a leather jacket and see through red tights combo! Lookit the back cover!!!

You can see his checkerboard underwear through his red tights! Ho ho diddley  ho ho!

Alright, let's cut the shit...After "Vol. 4" this is my favorite Black Sabbath album, although it's not usually acknowledged as being one of their great albums...Is it pure, blind  nostalgia on my part? Or attributable to my bad taste? I don't know...but I love this album...Always have always will...

I can still recall the first time I got it... I went to the Mall in Saginaw with my folks circa 1991 and was able to pick out a cassette tape and a video game, so I came home with "Decap Attack" for the Sega Genesis...



...and the "Sabotage" tape...

Yea! It looked just like that...With the pink border on the top and bottom...And the  blurb boasting that this album featured "Sweet Leaf"! (Which it kinda did, I guess...There was a live version tacked on at the end...)

So I can clearly recall sitting in the back seat of the car, (it was about an hour and a half drive from Saginaw to Hale...) and listening to this cassette over and over on my walkman for the ride home...

It's such a vivid moment of time for me, and whenever I put on this record I'm instantly transported back to that day...Music can do that sometimes...Just preserve a perfect day for us, somehow...No one knows when or how this will happen...There's a lot of albums I own that I can't quite pinpoint the exact circumstances of when i first heard it (time, place etc) but this one I could...I hear the opening riff to "Hole in the Sky" and BAM! I'm riding in the back of a 1991 Ford Tempo!

Anyway, I promised a couple days ago to reveal what my other favorite Black Sabbath song was (besides "Snowblind") and we had one correct answer from a Ms. Gwendolyn Adcock from
Montpelier, Vermont...So she wins the dream date with Jamin 80...We'll be having dinner at Sarducci's Italian Restaurant located on the intersection of Main and Berlin...Just don't stand me up this time, okay? Oh, and you pay for the drinks and the restraining order...

Okay, here's the big reveal...

(Click on the video below for the suspense-building drum roll...Remember...this is a big deal...)

My favorite (or perhaps second favorite...I dunno...It's too close to call...) Black Sabbath track is ...

...Symptom of the Universe!

Yea, I just love "Symptom of the Universe." It's so damn heavy...That chugging riff cements its place as the first speed-metal song...And they also prove they're just too damn weird to settle for merely inventing speed-metal...They also toss in an oddball acoustic section in the song that represents some genre that hasn't been properly established yet...I don't really know how to explain the acoustic section...It has a slight Latin tinge mixed with some hippie grooviness...Who knows, you'll be so crushed by the main metal part that you won't even notice...

And I loooove all the long, multi-part epics on this record...I'm calling "Megalomania" my third favorite Black Sabbath song...That's right...All nine minutes and 46 seconds of it...I love the hazy first part with the "obsess...obsess...obsess..." echo vocals...Love the big Beatlesy melody that comes in during the "Why don't you just get out of my life?" section...Love the part where it sounds like Ozzy's singing "Feel it slipping away! Rubber Ducks of Sorrow!" Loveity love love love!



Hell, I even love the much-maligned "Am I Going Insane (Radio)." I especially love the keyboards that everybody else seems to hate, and I think the pop aspect of it suits them just fine. A lot of folks think this song was some desperate grab for a hit, often citing the "(Radio)" section of the title as proof, but in reality that's not what it's referring to...Apparently it comes from some saying "radio-rental" which is rhyming slang for "mental," so really it's just a humorous way to say "insane." So nyahhh haters...

The only track I don't care for is "Supertzar" which is just the band playing along to some Russian-sounding choir...



I don't think it's awful or anything...It's just the obvious weak point and sometimes gives me the urge to cut the record short, despite "The Writ" coming on next (an Arena-Doom song I immensely enjoy...)

I'll wrap this up so you can go on with your day..."Sabotage" is a great album and it tends to get overlooked, so if you haven't heard it in awhile or remember it as being a minor entry in their catalog, I say check it out one more time...The band kind of loses the plot after this record, but I think they're still in control here...So set aside 10 minutes and let's check out "Megalomania" by Black Sabbath...