Used CD in EXCELLENT playing condition!!!
No Skips, No Freeze ups!!!
No Scratches, No Scuff Marks!!!
CD and all artwork included.
CD and Inserts are in Excellent
and in Like New condition.
Jewel Case has normal wear.
This version includes
the very hard to find track, Evil Woman.
This album is nothing short of an absolute triumph because it is a
"crystal ball view" of what was to come in the genre of heavy music.
Blues based with an apocalyptic vision, Black Sabbath's first album is a
roller coaster of premium jams that barely let up through it's
runtime.
The remastering of the UK imported Castle recording is far
superior than the domestic Warner Brother's version. Audiophiles will
be pleased with the bass extension combined with Ozzy's vocals
sweetened in the mid-range. Make no mistake about it, the blazing highs
of Iommi's solos are still there but now they are sweeter as well. In
short, there is more space around the instruments. The mix is far less
cluttered than the original version and gives full gusto without
fatigue to the listener.
Buy this disk now... you will never
regret your choice.
Track
listing
1. Black Sabbath
2. Wizard,
The
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep
4. N.I.B.
5. Evil Woman
6. Sleeping Village
7. Warning
8. Wicked World
Product Details
- Audio CD (September 22, 1998)
- Original Release Date: May 1970
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Label: Castle Music UK
Black Sabbath Biography
Black Sabbath has been so influential in the development of heavy
metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. The group took
the blues-rock sound of late '60s acts like Cream, Blue Cheer, and
Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating
the bass, and emphasizing screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full
of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their
predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition, Black
Sabbath took that tradition in a new direction, and in so doing helped
give birth to a musical style that continued to attract millions of fans
decades later.
The group was formed by four teenage friends from
Aston, near Birmingham, England: Anthony "Tony" Iommi (b. Feb 19, 1948),
guitar; William "Bill" Ward (b. May 5, 1948), drums; John "Ozzy"
Osbourne (b. Dec 3, 1948), vocals; and Terence "Geezer" Butler (b. Jul
17, 1949), bass. They originally called their jazz-blues band Polka
Tulk, later renaming themselves Earth, and they played extensively in
Europe. In early 1969, they decided to change their name again when they
found that they were being mistaken for another group called Earth.
Butler had written a song that took its title from a novel by occult
writer Dennis Wheatley, Black Sabbath, and the group adopted it as their
name as well. As they attracted attention for their live performances,
record labels showed interest, and they were signed to Phillips Records
in 1969. In January 1970, the Phillips subsidiary Fontana released their
debut single, "Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games With Me)," a cover of a
song that had just become a U.S. hit for Crow; it did not chart. The
following month, a different Phillips subsidiary, Vertigo, released
Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album, which reached the U.K. Top Ten.
Though it was a less immediate success in the U.S. -- where the band's
recordings were licensed to Warner Bros. Records and appeared in May
1970 -- the LP broke into the American charts in August, reaching the
Top 40, remaining in the charts over a year, and selling a million
copies.
Appearing at the start of the '70s, Black Sabbath embodied
the Balkanization of popular music that followed the relatively
homogenous second half of the 1960s. As exemplified by its most popular
act, the Beatles, the 1960s suggested that many different aspects of
popular music could be integrated into an eclectic style with a broad
appeal. The Beatles were as likely to perform an acoustic ballad as a
hard
rocker or R&B-influenced tune. At the start of the 1970s,
however, those styles began to become more discrete for new artists,
with soft rockers like James Taylor and the Carpenters emerging to play
only ballad material, and hard rockers like Led Zeppelin and Grand Funk
Railroad taking a radically different course, while R&B music turned
increasingly militant. The first wave of rock critics, which had come
into existence with the Beatles, was dismayed with this development, and
the new acts tended to be poorly reviewed despite their popularity.
Black Sabbath, which took an even more extreme tack than the still
blues- and folk-based Led Zeppelin, was lambasted by critics (and though
they eventually made their peace with Zeppelin, they never did with
Sabbath). But the band had discovered a new audience eager for its
uncompromising approach.
Black Sabbath quickly followed its debut
album with a second album, Paranoid, in September 1970. The title track,
released as a single in advance of the LP, hit the Top Five in the
U.K., and the album went to number one there. In the U.S., where the
first album had just begun to sell, Paranoid was held up for release
until January 1971, again preceded by the title track, which made the
singles charts in November; the album broke into the Top Ten in March
1971 and remained in the charts over a year, eventually selling over
four million copies, by far the band's best-selling effort. (Its sales
were stimulated by the belated release of one of its tracks, "Iron Man,"
as a U.S. single in early 1972; the 45 got almost halfway up the
charts, the band's best showing for an American single.)
Master of
Reality, the third album, followed in August 1971, reaching the Top Ten
on both sides of the Atlantic and selling over a million copies. Black
Sabbath, Vol. 4 (September 1972) was another Top Ten million-seller. For
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (November 1973), the band brought in Yes
keyboard player Rick Wakeman on one track, signaling a slight change in
musical direction; it was Black Sabbath's fifth straight Top Ten hit and
million-seller. In 1974, the group went through managerial disputes
that idled them for an extended period. When they returned to action in
July 1975 with their sixth album, Sabotage, they were welcomed back at
home, but in the U.S. the musical climate had changed, making things
more difficult for an album-oriented band with a heavy style, and though
the LP reached the Top 20, it did not match previous sales levels.
Black Sabbath's record labels quickly responded with a million-selling
double-LP compilation, We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll (December
1975), and the band contemplated a more pronounced change of musical
style. This brought about disagreement, with guitarist Iommi wanting to
add elements to the sound, including horns, and singer Osbourne
resisting any variation in the formula. Technical Ecstasy (October
1976), which adopted some of Iommi's innovations, was another good --
but not great -- seller, and Osbourne's frustration eventually led to
his quitting the band in November 1977. He was replaced for some live
dates by former Savoy Brown singer Dave Walker, then returned in January
1978. Black Sabbath recorded its eighth album, Never Say Die!
(September 1978), the title track becoming a U.K. Top 40 hit before the
LP's release and "Hard Road" making the Top 40 afterwards. But the
singles did not improve the album's commercial success, which was again
modest, and Osbourne left Black Sabbath for a solo career, replaced in
June 1979 by former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio (b. June 10, 1949).
(Also during this period, keyboardist Geoff Nichols became a regular
part of the band's performing and recording efforts, though he was not
officially considered a band member until later.)
The new lineup
took its time getting into the recording studio, not releasing its first
effort until April 1980 with Heaven and Hell. The result was a
commercial resurgence. In the U.S., the album was a million-seller; in
Britain, it was a Top Ten hit that threw off two chart singles, "Neon
Knights" and "Die Young." (At the same time, the band's former British
record label issued a five-year old concert album, Black Sabbath Live at
Last, that was quickly withdrawn, though not before making the U.K. Top
Five, and reissued "Paranoid" as a single, getting it into the Top 20.)
Meanwhile, drummer Bill Ward left Black Sabbath due to ill health and
was replaced by Vinnie Appice. The lineup of Iommi, Butler, Dio, and
Appice then recorded Mob Rules (November 1981), which was almost as
successful as its predecessor: In the U.S., it went gold, and in the
U.K. it reached the Top 20 and spawned two chart singles, the title
track and "Turn up the Night." Next on the schedule was a concert album,
but Iommi and Dio clashed over the mixing of it, and by the time Live
Evil appeared in January 1983, Dio had left Black Sabbath, taking Appice
with him.
The group reorganized by persuading original drummer
Bill Ward to return and, in a move that surprised heavy metal fans,
recruiting Ian Gillan (b. Aug. 19, 1945), former lead singer of Black
Sabbath rivals Deep Purple. This lineup -- Iommi, Butler, Ward, and
Gillan -- recorded Born Again, released in September 1983. Black Sabbath
hit the road prior to the album's release, with drummer Bev Bevan (b.
Nov 25, 1946) substituting for Ward, who would return to the band in the
spring of 1984. The album was a Top Five hit in the U.K. but only made
the Top 40 in the U.S. Gillan remained with Black Sabbath until March
1984, when he joined a Deep Purple reunion and was replaced by singer
Dave Donato, who was in the band until October without being featured on
any of its recordings.
Black Sabbath reunited with Ozzy Osbourne
for its set at the Live Aid concert on July 13, 1985, but soon after the
performance, bassist Geezer Butler left the band, and with that the
group became guitarist Tony Iommi's vehicle, a fact emphasized by the
next album, Seventh Star, released in January 1986 and credited to
"Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi." On this release, the lineup was
Iommi (guitar); another former Deep Purple singer, Glenn Hughes (b. Aug
21, 1952) (vocals); Dave Spitz (bass); Geoff Nichols (keyboards); and
Eric Singer (drums). The album was a modest commercial success, but the
new band began to fragment immediately, with Hughes replaced by singer
Ray Gillen for the promotional tour in March 1986.
With Black
Sabbath now consisting of Iommi and his employees, personnel changes
were rapid. The Eternal Idol (November 1987), which failed to crack the
U.K. Top 50 or the U.S. Top 100, featured a returning Bev Bevan, bassist
Bob Daisley, and singer Tony Martin. Bevan and Daisley didn't stay
long, and there were several replacements in the bass and drum positions
over the next couple of years. Headless Cross (April 1989), the band's
first album for I.R.S. Records, found veteran drummer Cozy Powell (b.
Dec 29, 1947, d. Apr 5, 1998) and bassist Laurence Cottle joining Iommi
and Martin. It marked a slight uptick in Black Sabbath's fortunes at
home, with the title song managing a week in the singles charts. Shortly
after its release, Cottle was replaced by bassist Neil Murray. With
Geoff Nichols back on keyboards, this lineup made Tyr (August 1990),
which charted in the Top 40 in the U.K. but became Black Sabbath's first
regular album to miss the U.S. charts.
Iommi was able to reunite
the 1979-1983 lineup of the band -- himself, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James
Dio, and Vinnie Appice -- for Dehumanizer (June 1992), which brought
Black Sabbath back into the American Top 50 for the first time in nine
years, while in the U.K. the album spawned "TV Crimes," their first Top
40 hit in a decade. And on November 15, 1992, Iommi, Butler, and Appice
backed Ozzy Osbourne as part of what was billed as the singer's final
live appearance. Shortly after, it was announced that Osbourne would be
rejoining Black Sabbath.
That didn't happen -- yet. Instead, Dio
and Appice left again, and Iommi replaced them by bringing back Tony
Martin and adding drummer Bob Rondinelli. Cross Purposes (February 1994)
was a modest seller, and, with Iommi apparently maintaining a Rolodex
of all former members from which to pick and choose, the next album,
Forbidden (June 1995), featured returning musicians Cozy Powell, Geoff
Nichols, and Neil Murray, along with Iommi and Martin. The disc spent
only one week in the British charts, suggesting that Black Sabbath
finally had exhausted its commercial appeal, at least as a record
seller. With that, the group followed the lead of the Eagles and
Fleetwood Mac, putting the most popular lineup of the band back together
for a live album with a couple of new studio tracks on it. Recorded in
the band's hometown of Birmingham, England, in December 1997, the two-CD
set Reunion -- featuring all four of Black Sabbath's original members,
Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, and Ward -- was released in October 1998. It
charted only briefly in the U.K., but in the U.S. it just missed
reaching the Top Ten and went platinum. The track "Iron Man" won Black
Sabbath its first Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The band
toured through the end of 1999, concluding their reunion tour on
December 22, 1999, back in Birmingham. In February 2001, Black Sabbath
announced that it would reunite once again to headline the sixth edition
of Ozzfest, Osbourne's summer concert festival, playing 29 cities in
the U.S. beginning in June. More surprisingly, the group also announced
its intention to record a studio album of all-new material, the original
lineup's first since 1978. By the end of the year, a failed recording
session with producer Rick Rubin proved what an unreasonable idea this
was, and the band laid dormant while Osbourne enjoyed scoring a hit TV
series the following spring.
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