What more can be said about one of the most legendary rock bands of all time? The fathers of heavy metal? Members of both the U.S. and U.K. Rock and Roll Halls of Fame? (Do many other countries have them?) Their truly unique brand of gritty, over-blasted, blues-based, anthemic rock set a powerful benchmark few groups have come close to matching.
The original foursome came together in 1968 as "Earth," but a year later made the change to their current moniker after discovering someone else already had the name. Led Zeppelin came from the same vintage; it was a good age for music in the U.K. The years between have been fraught with reunion runs for the two iconic ensembles, but the Led has called it quits for good. The fact that you can see Sabbath this summer – ALIVE – is pretty special.
If Sabbath reuniting with Ozzy – who was fired from being their lead vocalist in 1979 after picking up a bad drug habit – and playing festivals with the original lineup for the first time since 1997 sounds like just a lazy, money-grabbing scheme, take heart: Last fall, the aging rockers announced they were recording a new album. The group hasn’t released new music with that combination of personnel since Never Say Die in 1978.
Whether you can still create great rock music and be a card-carrying AARP member, remains to be seen. But at least they’re giving it a go. And hopefully there’s some genuine creative energy juicing these guys up for their Lolla performance.
Though it should be a kickass set, doubtless it would take more than a healthy dose of Viagra and a ventilator to get a performance like today's jam, recorded in Paris in 1970. Watching/listening to it, you realize you've forgotten just how powerful (and genuinely haunting) Ozzy’s voice was, and also what a scintillating guitarist Geezer was. I'm sure these facts were not lost on the astonishingly small crowd of Parisians, who witnessed the band in their infancy, as their first two album releases came that year (Black Sabbath and Paranoid). Can you imagine seeing the Prince of Darkness and his minions of rock on such a small stage?
What I love most are the brief moments when you see Ozzy glimpsing back, hesitantly, at his band mates, showing their relative inexperience. It’s the unsure, unhinged exuberance of a kid lighting a massive firework: You know what you’ve got is gonna be big, you just haven’t figured out how exactly to control it after the spark.
More than 40 years later, let’s hope there are a few more "booms" left in their sticks.
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