It is almost impossible to put into words how vitally important Ozzy Osbourne — who died today at 76 — and Black Sabbath, the band that he helped loft to fame, were to the history of heavy music. The only suitable analogy is to compare them and him (in context of hard rock, of course) to the Beatles and his idol, Paul McCartney, whom he only recently met — and, in a showing of his modesty, was endearingly nervous about it.
He wasn’t a great conventional singer, but his voice could convey menace, excitement and fear, essential qualities for Sabbath’s legendarily dark sounds and lyrics, which took musical portents of doom to levels only previously reached by classical music. His and the band’s songs and imagery guaranteed that Sabbath —Osbourne and guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — would be hounded by genuine Satanists and practitioners of black magic for the rest of their lives.
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There were many different iterations of Sabbath over the years, often with Iommi as the only founding member, but the original lineup was the most essential. Thousands of bands can play heavy music effectively, but what made Sabbath different was the fact that as crushing as Iommi’s power chords were, the rhythm section could swing, and that groove is not only the element that most of the untold thousands of bands influenced by them failed to understand, it’s also what set them apart.
Ozzy’s solo career started off with a bang: His first two solo albums, “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman,” featured the brilliant guitar work of the young Californian Randy Rhoads, who revolutionized heavy rock guitar in just those two albums, before he was tragically killed in a plane crash while the band was on tour. Ozzy carried on for decades more, with a number of great musicians (particularly guitarist Zakk Wylde), but there’s no question that his classic solo work is on those first two albums.
It is both fitting and deeply bittersweet that Osbourne held on for long enough to perform with Sabbath one last time, in Birmingham — the industrial English city that spawned him and them — just two weeks ago.
It is impossible to list all of the essential songs from his and the band’s catalog, but here’s a strong starting point.
“Black Sabbath” (1970) The first song on the band’s first album is a statement of intent if ever there was one: The doomiest guitar riff ever recorded, over a funereally slow drumbeat and Osbourne’s ominous voice — “What is this that stands before me?,” he begins. “Figure in black that points at me” — before it becomes terrified and then doomed: “Oh no, God help me!”
Black Sabbath had been a blues band called Earth before writing that song. According to Osbourne, it stopped all conversation in the pub when they first played it. “Fucking hell, we have to write more like that!” he remembered the band saying.
“N.I.B.” (1970) Perusing the Sabbath catalog, it’s hard to believe how many classic riffs the band created in just a few years. This is one of their all-time greatest, so strong that the song’s vocal melody follows Iommi’s crushing riff almost note-for-note. It also continues the Satanic themes that would follow the bandmembers for the rest of their lives: “My name is Lucifer, please take my hand.”
“Paranoid” (1970) The title track for the band’s second album was famously written in about half an hour, when they realized they didn’t have enough songs — it went on to become a Top 5 single in the U.K., broke the band in the United States, and became one of the most-covered rock songs of all time, especially due to its driving rhythm and basic but indelible riff.
“War Pigs” (1970) Arguably the definitive Sabbath song, its unconventional structure somehow combines a slow, doom-laden intro, a stop-start rhythm on the verses, and a classic riff on the instrumental passages that lead into the chorus, and even a coda with a different instrumental section. The song, a seething cry against the barbarity of mechanized war and warlords, was the original title track of the album, but the record label grew uneasy about the ramifications and changed it to “Paranoid” (without telling the band). Regardless, the second those chords crush in, you’ll see heads bobbing and fists pumping. The studio version is the classic, but a live 1973 rendition begins with piercing feedback and Ozzy yelling “GET UP!” before the band crashes in — pure metal nirvana.
“Iron Man” (1970) Another classic from the “Paranoid” album, this almost comical tale of, yes, a man made of iron and a stomping, mechanical riff that accompanies Ozzy’s lyrics about Iron Man’s alienation from the world and empathy for him.
“Into the Void” (1971) One could include nearly every track from the “Master of Reality” album on this list — song for song, it’s arguably their best album — but the closer will suffice: Its intro features one of Iommi’s most complex, crushing and difficult-to-play riffs before shifting into a driving rhythm that powers Ozzy’s ominous vocal. Interestingly, two decades later Soundgarden would cover the song, replacing the lyrics with an ecology-themed prayer from Sealth, the legendary Native American chief for whom Seattle was named.
“Snowblind” / “Supernaut” (1972) A one-two punch from the band’s fourth album — the first to be recorded in Los Angeles, and, as the first track suggests, under the strong influence of the white powder that would cast a long shadow over the band’s following years. Both songs have classic Sabbath riffs, but especially “Supernaut,” which finds them dialing back the complexity and kicking out the jams.
“A National Acrobat” (1973) While not the most obvious song to pick from the band’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” album, this one finds the band branching out musically, with a slower, smoother tempo and most notable harmony tracks on both Ozzy’s vocal and Iommi’s melodic guitar work, which loft over the riff like barbed wire.
“Hole in the Sky” (1975) The leadoff track from “Sabotage,” which many feel is the last great Sabbath album, this one is notable not just for the piledriving riff and rhythm, but also because it is almost definitely the highest-pitched Ozzy vocal on record.
“Symptom of the Universe” (1975) Sabbath’s influence on hard rock and heavy metal bands was by this point well-established, but this song in particular contained the DNA that would evolve into thrash metal within the next six or seven years: Echoes of its driving riff, fast tempo, gothic instrumental section and, most of all, Ozzy’s vein-bulging vocal can be heard in countless songs and bands from that genre.
“Crazy Train” (1980) The prospects for an Ozzy Osbourne solo career were not great at the time he left Black Sabbath (twice) in the late ‘70s. But, thanks in no small part to his fiery wife and manager Sharon (who would soon herself become a celebrity), he regrouped with the young, wildly innovative guitarist Randy Rhoads and fired off a pair of albums that reinvented his career and established Rhoads as one of the most important hard rock musicians of his generation, although he was to die tragically in a plane crash at the age of just 24. This first single from the first solo album was a mission statement of sorts, bringing in a more melodic Ozzy and the driving form of heavy metal that would tower over the decade. The song has been used in so many advertisements and other synchs that it’s well-known to millions of people who have little to know idea who Ozzy or Rhoads were.
“Mr. Crowley” (1980) Another defining track from the first album that continues the Satanic themes of Sabbath, but with Ozzy as an observer this time, questioning who Aleister Crowley was and what he might have seen — it all quickly became cliché, but it wasn’t at the time. Just as significantly, it’s the most Sabbath-y riff in the Rhoads canon.
“Diary of a Madman” (1981) While the single “Flying High Again” was the single from Osbourne’s second and final studio album with Rhoads, this song is much more innovative, a near-ballad with haunting arpeggiated riff and a spacy middle section that leads into an over-the-top, Satanic-mass finale.
“Mama, I’m Coming Home” (1991) This song from Ozzy’s “No More Tears” album was written with guitarist Zakk Wylde and another legendary hard rock musician, Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead. A ballad that is drastically uncharacteristic of all three musicians, the song starts off with lush 12-string acoustic guitars underpinning Ozzy’s strong melody, which bursts open into power-ballad terrain on the chorus. And although it was one of five solo songs that Ozzy performed at “Back to the Beginning” — which will be released as a film in the coming months — there’s no question it will be the most remembered: a frail but determined and joyful Ozzy, seated on a giant throne because he could no longer walk, singing “Mama, I’m Coming Home” to bandmates, friends, musicians he influenced and nearly 50,000 adoring fans, in his hometown, one last time.
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The post Ozzy Osbourne’s 15 Most Essential Songs, From ‘Black Sabbath’ to ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ appeared first on Variety.
