"When we hit America we were the wild bunch. We bought dope and
fucked anything that moved" ...Ozzy While waiting to go into a rehearsal
one day, they noticed a Boris Karloff movie playing named "Black
Sabbath" (1935). Geezer mentioned it was strange that people would go to a
movie to scare themselves silly. Until this time they had only played other
artist's material. They decided to use the name of the movie as the name for
their first original song. One day the band showed up to do a gig at Henry's.
There, someone mentioned they liked the bands single. The only problem was the
foursome hadn't ever released a single! They then realized that there were two
bands by the same name. The audience were of upper class and expecting a totally
different type of music. Unable to back out of the show, the scruffy four played
blues and rock to the audience. It was a disaster! The band however did have
some fun in watching the crowd try to dance to their type of music. As a result,
Geezer came up with the idea to change their name to that of the Karloff movie,
'BLACK SABBATH' to avoid being confused with the other band named Earth. They
now had a song and a band name taken from the movie's title. This would also
reflect the groups interest in the occult. It has also been said that the name
Black Sabbath came from Geezer's interest in occult writer Denis Wheatley. Not
having any money, the band relied on Tony's mother who owned a chocolate shop,
for the use of a van, food and cigarettes. Sometimes the group would get gigs on
their own, other times they would show up at a place where another band was to
be playing. In the event that the scheduled band failed to show up, the Sabs
would take their place. They played the Star Club in Hamburg in Jan. 1969, a
place the Beatles had made famous. They were so popular that they were booked to
come back for 5 more shows. They would play 7 shows a day, and write new
material as they went along. This would also explain why their early songs had
different lyrics than the final album versions. As Black Sabbath made news, a
group of Satanists asked them to play at their "night of Satan" at
Stonehenge. They refused. The head witch of England, Alec Sanders who was a
regular fan of Sabbaths, informed them that these Satanists had placed a hex on
the band members. Ozzy asked his father to make aluminum crosses, which he did,
and then had them blessed. They wore these crosses 24 hours a day for
protection. The cross remains a well known Black Sabbath symbol even to this
day. You see, Black Sabbath as Satanic and dark as the name sounded, had nothing
to do with the devil when they chose their name. An independent producer named
Tony Hall paid for the band to record some demo songs at the Regent Sound studio
on Tottenham Court Rd. These were produced by Roger Bayed, whose name appears on
many of their albums. One demo cut, a single called "Evil Woman", was
released on the Fontana record label in Jan. 1970. This was a cover song from a
Minnesota band named Crow, which did quite well unbeknownst to the band. One
demo was called "The Rebel" and is played as a 10 second sample in
"The Black Sabbath Story - I" video. The song, about a reclusive
voyeur, is one of the rarest Sabbath songs in that it did not make it to the
final album. Their first completed album was released on Friday, Feb. 13th,
1970. It took them only eight hours to record and cost a mere 800 British pounds
(approx. $1200 US). The album was recorded in four tracks on an 8 track machine.
The band was not that popular at this time, they simply wanted to do what they
liked best... sing about the darker, more depressing things that surrounded
them. It was not likely they ever intended to make the big time, in fact Ozzy
has said he was just happy to show his mother that his voice was recorded on a
piece of vinyl. It was not as easy as it sounds though, it took them 14 tries
before Jim Simpson found a record company (Vertigo) that would carry the album.
The record company chose to put an upside down cross on the gatefold of the
album and thus people readily associated the band with Satanism. The band knew
nothing about this and did not want the upside down cross, however they backed
down from the record company's "wiser and higher" marketing methods.
Inside the inverted cross was a poem. The poem seemed to correspond with the
album's cover showing a woman standing in a countryside, apparently in a gothic
setting. The poem is called "Still Falls the Rain". Due to requests by
fans, it is shown below: *** STILL FALLS THE RAIN *** "Still falls the
rain, the veils of darkness shroud the blackened trees, which, contorted by some
unseen violence, shed their tired leaves, and bend their boughs toward a gray
earth of severed bird wings. Among the grasses, poppies bleed before a
gesticulating death, and young rabbits, born dead in traps, stand motionless, as
though guarding the silence that surrounds and threatens to engulf all those
that would listen. Mute birds, tired of repeating yesterdays terrors, huddle
together in the recesses of dark corners, heads turned from the dead, black swan
that floats upturned in a small pool in the hollow. There emerges from this pool
a faint, sensual mist, that traces its way upwards to caress the feet of the
headless martyr's statue whose only achievement was to die too soon, and who
couldn't wait to loose. The cataract of darkness forms fully, the long black
night begins, yet still by the lake a young girl waits. Unseeing she believes
herself unseen, she smiles faintly at the distant tolling bell, and the still
falling rain." The first album contained the following songs: 1) Black
Sabbath (a dark doom sounding song) 2) The Wizard (a song about a wizard who
walks through towns cheering people up through the use of magic) 3) Wasp/Behind
The Wall of Sleep 4) Bassically/N.I.B. (a song about the devil falling in love
with a mortal woman and changing to a good person) 5) Wicked World (society, and
our struggle to survive) (Euro versions had 'Evil Woman' instead, another great
single) 6) Sleeping Village/Warning (a very blues influenced song that is an
easy listener, about found/lost love) This was definitely NOT a satanic album!
Today there are still people who hear the words "Black Sabbath" and
think hard rock devil music. This is plain ignorance. Remember the band was
originally a blues band, and there is a definite blues sound in their debut
album. Ozzy brought the album home to proudly show his parents. The Osbourne's
were the type of people who would sit around the phonogram with a beer and
merrily sing alone to the records. This was not to be though. When Mr. Osbourne
heard the album he asked John, "Are you sure you were just drinking
alcohol?, this isn't music, this is weird." The first song began with a
church bell tolling and the sound of rain falling in the background, and was
eerie to say the least. Ozzy too had not heard the final product until now. It
would reach #8 in the UK charts and #23 in the United States. The four unknowns
were now finally making a name for themselves with the release of an album. It
is of interest to note that their album followed the release of Led Zeppelin's
first album. Both bands knew one another personally since they both played in
the same club and the music scene was a close knit group. It came in the form of
a surprise to the Sabs when someone put on a brand new album from Led Zeppelin.
Bill Ward was close to Zeppelin's drummer, John Bonham. He talks about the
relationship between the two bands in the book, "The Story of Black
Sabbath". It is of interest to point out that in February of 1970, the same
month their debut album came out, they broke the attendance record at Simpson's
club which had remained untouched for over a year by Jethro Tull. Tony had made
the right choice in returning to Sabbath it would seem. With an album comes
touring, and with touring comes America. America would have a great impact on
them as well. Ozzy has said that people would go around saying, "if you go
to San Francisco be sure to wear a flower in your hair". This mystified him
because he did not know what or where San Francisco was. When the band
eventually did tour America, it took them by storm. They had never seen anything
like it. They had their share of groupies and took in the marvelous sights of
America. They played one of their first shows at the Fillmore East. Some old 8mm
footage of their first trip overseas can be seen on the commercial video,
"The Black Sabbath Story - Volume 1". It must be said, that on this
particular videotape, Bill Ward the drummer relates an interesting story: While
playing in New York, the audience was still at the stage where they would simply
sit there and listen to the music. The band wanted a stronger reaction from the
audience since they were putting 150% effort into their songs. Ozzy would often
yell at the audience to get up and go crazy (as many bootlegs can attest to). At
one particular show they were growing fed up with the audience just sitting
there and Bill picked up his drum set and threw it at the audience. Bill says
that as a result, that night they did SEVEN encores. Can you think of any band
in today's scene which does seven encores? By the time they reached Los Angeles,
people had already heard about this "Black Sabbath".
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