#300 - Black Sabbath - Master of Reality (1971)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
BACKGROUND – BLACK SABBATH
The godfathers of heavy metal officially formed in 1968 in Birmingham, but didn't take the name Black Sabbath until 1969. They were previously called the "Polka Tulk Blues Band" and "Earth" prior to that. Guitarist Tony Iommi and dummer Bill Ward were in a band called Mythology before everyone met, and connected with vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler, who were also looking for a band after they departed their group "Rare Breed". While they were still known as Earth, Iommi had a brief fling with the band Jethro Tull, but came back to the band within a month. They discovered another band had this name and were sometimes being mistaken for them, so they needed a change. A cinema across from where the band was practicing was showing the 1963 horror movie "Black Sabbath", which inspired the song they wrote of that name. At that point, the band decided that was the sound and direction they wanted to go in, and it became the band name.
Sabbath released their first single in November 1969, "Evil Woman" (a cover by a band called "Crow"). While it didn't chart, that and their performance on a national television show led them to 2 days of studio time, in which they recorded their self-titled debut album. It was released in February 1970, and peaked at #8 in the UK and #23 in the US, and spent over a year on both charts. Three months later they went back into the studio to record their 2nd album "Paranoid". The title track of the album was released as a single in September, and the album came out in October 1970 in the UK, and January 1971 in the US (they delayed the release due to the first album still charting well). After the release of the album, the band had their first proper tour. The band was riding a sizzling hot streak from the release of their two prior albums, so the anticipation for today's album was quite high.
Their fourth album, Vol 4 (1972, saw the band continue to go in an experimental direction, using strings, piano, and orchestration in some tracks. The Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973), Sabotage (1975) albums were also hits, but around the mid-late 1970s was when the band began to unravel. 1976's "Technical Ecstasy" was the beginning of the downfall, and after Ozzy left the band for a bit (including a stint in an asylum after the album was completed), he came back for one more album, Never Say Die!, and the band officially fizzled in a haze of drugs and booze, with Ozzy being at another level. Ronnie James Dio replaced Ozzy for two albums before the band went through multiple singers in the 1980s and 1990s. Sabbath would reunite to tour on the annual summer festival "Ozzfest" occasionally in the late 1990s and 2000s before the original four got together in 2010, but a fallout with Bill Ward in 2012 led to a 75% version of the band and released the album "13" in 2013. Black Sabbath (sans Ward) wrapped up their final "Farewell" tour in 2016.
The frantic pace of recording albums and touring, along with escalating drug and alcohol abuse was what broke the band up in the 70s, but the seeds were always there between Iommi and Ozzy from the beginning. When responding to a 1969 flyer reading "Ozzy Zig Needs Gig- has own PA" posted in a record store, Iommi and Ward arrived at the listed address to speak with Ozzy Zig. When Iommi saw Osbourne emerge from another room of the house, he left upon discovering it was the same "pest" he knew from growing up, as he knew of and disliked Osbourne from back in their school days. Iommi had reportedly "punched out" Osbourne numerous times over the years when the singer's drunken antics had become too much to take.
Black Sabbath has sold over 70 million records worldwide, including 15 million in the U.S., and 8 million in the 1970s alone. They were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. They have also won two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance, and in 2019 the band were presented a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
ALBUM BACKGROUND – MASTER OF REALITY
This is the third studio album by English heavy metal band, released in July 1971, just 6 months after the iconic Paranoid was released. This album is regarded by some critics as the foundation of doom metal, stoner rock, and sludge metal. Negatively received by critics on release ( In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called it "a dim-witted, amoral exploitation."),, the album is now considered one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time.
Following the chart success of Paranoid, the band were afforded more studio time, and completed the album in about 2 months. Along with more time was a "briefcase full of cash" to buy drugs. "We were getting into coke, big time", Bill Ward explained. "Uppers, downers, Quaaludes, whatever you like. It got to the stage where you come up with ideas and forget them, because you were just so out of it."
Bill also said that Master of Reality was "an exploratory album" in a 2016 interview. "On the first album, we had two days to do everything, and not much more time for Paranoid. But now we could take our time, and try out different things. We all embraced the opportunity: Tony threw in classical guitar parts, Geezer’s bass was virtually doubled in power, I went for bigger bass drums, also experimenting with overdubs. And Ozzy was so much better. But this was the first time when we didn't have gigs booked in, and could just focus on making the album a landmark."