Black Sabbath and Age

You have a point but the criticism of Zeppelin does come out easily in certain contexts. Usually it's criticism of the plagiarism variety but also of the Plant variety (a lot of people here will tell you he's a crap singer) and the Page variety (he stinks as a guitarist now and never was that good to begin with). For my part I love Zeppelin but they do cast a kind of weird spell. I remember during the decade of the 90's when I basically stopped listening to rock music, I happened to listen to "How Many More Times" and I was dumbfounded at how laughably bad it seemed. It seemed stupid-simplistic, sickeningly pompous, and even sloppily performed. Then a few years later I ended the rock embargo and I came to love it again. How does this happen? I really can't explain it.

 

I am the baby on the 'Born Again" cover, and that's my mom is in the casket in "We Sold Our Souls".

 

15 when I first heard them. 57 now. I loved them to death until Ozzy left. I didn't want to give Dio a chance. Then I got bored of the "core albums" and I tried to give them away and couldn't find takers. So I kept them but after another 10 years I put one on for the hell of it and remembered why I liked them in the first place. At that time Dehumanizer came out and I realized the talent of Dio. They've stayed on my "rotation" ever since.

One of my life's highlights happened because I was playing "Live Evil" in the car when my son was about 7. He started bopping to it and started to ask me to play it every day. I got curious and looked up the band only to discover we had just missed them performing in NYC (the live H&H album). H&H came to Long Island the following summer and I took my son. Walking around before the show, this big biker type in black leather sees us and starts walking towards us. He looks at me and then bends down to my son and says "Your Dad is cool!" We still laugh about that.

 

I was 11, which is "late" for me. I grew up around my uncle's record collection, and would always hear about the many records that were stolen from him, including every Sabbath he had.
In 1990, he got "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" on CD, and that was my introduction.
And yes, I still listen to them.

That first post reminds me of the scene in "Juno", "grow up!" because the guy is wearing a Soundgarden tee. It totally clicked with me, and I hate this. I still love bands from my youth and I don't see how ageing can be a factor. Sabbath is a good substantial band.

 

Similar experience, after cocooning myself with my old rock as the New Wave rage was pummeling me everywhere I was. I just got sick n' tired of it as there was sooooooo much new music coming out everywhere that sounded better more advanced ( I'm talking about the path into all things Metal here) that I saw my "school days" as (dare I say it?) well,..old & boring? I'm 55 so , for almost 10-15 years I took a sabbatical from "Classic Rock" and around 15 years ago found a nice price Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush Live CD at my local record shop .Bought out of,"Wow, I remember this & I haven't heard this in decades wonder if it still sounds like I recall?" Went home with it and was pleasantly blown away (that CD was ground zero for my pathway back into all that I loved as a kid & teenager) LOL I'm back in my cocoon as crap music of today is pummeling me everywhere I go (deja vu?)

 

I heard plenty of Sabbath as a little kid but it was Heaven and Hell and the Mob Rules which really did it for me and I still listen to them today.

 

regarding your wife giving you that "look",

quote frome initial post,
"I was listening to Volume 4 tonight and my wife gave me that look. You know that, "how old are you" look. You're 57 for Pete sakes. I just re-read Godshifters excellent ABA on Sabbath for the third time, it got me to thinking."

Next time she gives you that look you should crank the volume to "11", so she could hear it better!!
I'm glad my wife is more understanding when it comes to my music, maybe, because I am also tolerant with her music.

Ayways to answer your question, I was late in the game due to my age with Sabbath, I started with Heavan and Hell and Mob Rules then worked backwards to the Ozzy years.

 

Likely '73 or '74, so I would have been 10 or 11 years old

We had an older kid on the school bus who was always home-brewing portable tape players and playing tunes on the long bus rides. I know he played Paranoid. A lot.

 

I'm 61 and Sabbath is always on my turntable (Sabotage, Vol 4 and Technical Ecstasy and Side 2 of Master Of Reality are favorites). Got turned on to the Sabs in '71 when someone brought Paranoid into school. I was into heavy sounds and they were heavier than anything else I heard at the time. I was hooked immediately. Their music has not aged one bit in 45+ years. It's still a thrill to listen to. The production and arrangements are awesome and Ozzy is the best metal singer on the planet. IMO they are the standard by which I judge all other metal bands.

 

I heard The Wizard at school on album day, a teacher brought it in to play. After that I had to buy my own copy.

 

Thanks for all the replies everyone I appreciate all the responses, looks like I'm not the only old man still cranking Sabbath. I tried listening to Technical Ecstasy last night and my opinion has not changed over the years, meh.

 

Those were the days!

That's funny because after having discovered and being so impressed by this song on the radio, the next thing I knew is there was some sort of a record show in one of the community halls of my high school (I was in grade 9 then). There were album covers all over the walls of that room, including the first Black Sabbath one, which I was coming upon for the first time. This song was so amazing to me, now it had to be packaged with such awesome, darn scary artwork... I was hooked for life!

 

I knew of Sabbath in high school but never listened until junior year in college. I remember vegging out in the dorm one rainy Sunday and hearing the whole Paranoid album for the first time. Awsome!

47 years old now and still listen to them.

 

I'm 55 and heard it on my clock radio (very earl '70s) and was "Whoa..." 11 or 12? Those were the days of"Great Music " Radio as you almost didn't need to buy an LP of anyone as you heard it all on your radio! Ok I know, as we all were buying the LPs cause we wanted more than what the radio gave us.But, still the best of the best of everyone from back then before they were over-played-to- death .It was All fresh! What a time !

As to age, The guys across the ally from us are bikers ( early 20's) and always out back working on their choppers in the garage that faces us blasting ,you guessed it old Black Sabbath. We hear it and when I tell my wife "Well, it could be worst. They could be blasting music we don't like!" My wife agrees being a big Ozzy & Black Sabbath fan ( Sorry to all the guys with wives that think the the other wise on this thread ) so, we "put up with it " with a smile. life's rough ain't it

 

I was about 13 when I heard Sabbath for the first time in the early 80s. They'd just released Born Again with Ian Gillan on vox and the local rock station played "Zero the Hero" quite a bit.
Born Again may not have aged particularly well but I've always dug it.

 

Im 30 and would never have heard of Black Sabbath were it not for The Osbournes TV series. You have to hand it to Sharon, her morals are questionable but her business sense and hard nosed attitude are great for marketing!

 

I'm sure you're not alone. Sharon's a shrewd businesswoman, one step ahead of the game.

 

The whole idea that as you age you're supposed to give it all up, put on pair of khaki cargo shorts and call it life is ridiculous. You can be a responsible adult and listen to whatever you want. These expectations that somehow you're supposed to mutate into some other person when you hit 50 or whatever is BS.

FWIW, I first heard Sabbath probably in 1980 when I was 12 or so. I saw them on the Mob Rules tour, which was my first concert. They've been one of my favorite bands but I admittedly took a break for a long long time (on metal as a whole really), although I'm back.

 

What got me into Sabbath was hearing Crazy Train for the first time when I was in 5th grade, roughly when it first came out, being so enamored with that song, I went back looking for early Ozzy and got a couple old Sabbath cassette tapes.

 

I've told this story before a few times here...

I was given Paranoid as a birthday present when I was 11 or 12 (can't remember which now) by an Aunt. I have never heard, nor even heard of, Black Sabbath before. She told me she was in the record store and some older teenagers told her to get me Paranoid instead of the KISS album I had asked for, so she did. I played it the next day, kind of curiously.....and thought it was pretty cool and different...certainly more 'adult' and heavy than anything I had listened to so far. It was not until the 90s or so that I listened to any other of the 'classic' Sabbath albums. I never cared much for Ozzy solo or the Dio-era of Sabbath.

 

I got into Sabbath Around 2,3 or 4 Yep not joking. I instantly loved both Sabbath & Ozzy and it was all thanks to these albums.

 

I was 10 years old in 1970 out lizard hunting one day in sunny 29 Palms California, stopped into a golf course snack bar for a cold soda pop where they had a jukebox.
Just as I was walking past it: thump thump thump I AM IRON MAN Dreeyyryyearrrearrrr!
I froze dead in my tracks. What the heck is this? I was transfixed, hypnotized. My life was changed forever.
That weekend I had my mom take me to the little 5 & dime and picked up the Iron Man b/w Electric Funeral Single with my allowance money.
The beginning of my life long love of music.

 

It was 1971 or 72, me 11 or 12. My older brother borrowed Paranoid from one of his buddies, and he had to keep it hidden from the folks. My dad was a small town preacher, worse yet, mom was a small town preachers wife. Very strict. Brother played it on my dad's big stereo before they got in from work. I'll never forget listening to Paranoid with my older brother. I'm almost 57 & I've been a fan of Black Sabbath ever since I first heard them. I think I keep an admiration for them as musicians that I've maybe lost for other bands that I also grew up with. Heck, I still listen to Zeppelin occasionally, many other bands, but Sabbath is the King. That for me will never change.

 

Late 1970 I was 16 and I’m 63 now. loved them immediately and still do.

 

I'm 52, and I first became "aware" of music in 1976, when my dad brought me to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert.

He got me We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll for Christmas that year, and I was off and running.

Still listen to them regularly, and they are in my top 10 if not top 5. I'm also a big Humble Pie fan, but much more so when Peter Frampton was still with them (I think the s/t album is criminally underrated). But also still listen to Led Zeppelin, the Who, BOC, etc. But I can throw Sonic Youth, the Smiths, Yo La Tengo, and a crap load of others in there too. (Drive Like Jehu, anyone? Polvo, Unwound, Barkmarket, Cheer Accident, etc, etc, etc)