Black Sabbath Vol. 4 Song by Song Thread

I can get close to how it sounds on record. The E harmonic at the 12th fret is easy. The rest is hard to tell but it sounds like something metallic striking muted strings around the treble pickup. I can close to it using a metal pen striking the strings. Just my guess.

 

Iommi mentions it in his book (pg 110)

If Changes was unusual, FX certainly was way out there.
We were mostly naked at the time when we recorded it. When your in the studio for hours on end smoking dope, you go a bit mad.
We started playing and were dancing around half naked, just being stupid. I hit my guitar with my cross, it went "boing", and we went "oooh!"
Everybody then danced past the guitar, hitting it. We werent thinking of using this as a track, but they recorded it with delay, and we thought, umm ok, and we put it on the record.

I always put so much work in every song, putting all the different changes in and everything, and here we had a track that came about accidentally because a couple stoned people were hitting my guitar. A total joke! If only we had videos of it, it would have been amazing.


So yeah, they recorded FX with delay, so they HAD to put it on the album.
Sabbath is a legendary band, but some of the decision making wasnt exactly clear headed to say the least!

 

Supernaut
My response might be a bit less receptive than others on this one. It's a great song, no doubt about it, but I just prefer some other songs more. For some weird reason it seems to stand on it's own a bit; because of the weird, messy production the sonics seem to be louder. The highlight for me is the jumpy riff that leads the verses. Pretty gutsy to come up with something like that! I can see where Bonzo's appreciation might come from; that Calypso section is not too dissimilar to what he did later on on Fool In The Rain.
I'm pretty positive he had this in mind.

 

I forgot to mention that Supernaut is also recorded with Tony's guitar tuned down a whole and another half step. It really gave the sound a dark tone when I first heard it and was somewhat startling.

 

Whatever the circumstances, I cannot begin to imagine how the running order would sound with Supernaut following on the heels of Changes. FX really serves a purpose at that point.

 

Yeah, it's a really deep sound.

 

Yeah almost like the deeper notes on a Sax. It has that kind of timbre to it. I never heard anything like it until this album. I remember scratching my head when I first tried to play some of the songs and it took me a while to figure out the down tuning.

 

I'm not sure I can add much to the Supernaut discussion. It's probably my favorite BS riff. The nursery rhyme lyric, the sick solo. The whole Carribiean flavor tossed in the middle. It no doubt influenced thrash/speed metal, as did Symptom. The lyrics are rather carefree. So high you can touch the sky...looking for the dish that ran away with the spoon. The spoon of course is a bit of another coke reference. The whole track has this initial, bright and happy feeling.

If you picture F/X as the sound of chopping up some breakfast on a mirror, with Supernaught being the blast off of of that initial rush, leaving a lasting effect, causing you to desire more. It leads onto the ultimate One For The Nose song, Snowblind-(more on that when we get there.) You have to look at those three tracks as a trilogy of sorts.

In closing, here is the ultimate cover. The original had Trent Reznor, but the version with Uncle Al is so much better.

 

That is a good cover. I have that on vinyl.

I saw Ministry cover "Supernaut" at a Lollapalooza and Jourgensen brought out about nine different guitarists to play on it. Kirk Hammett, who was in town for a Metallica gig, came out as one of them. It was pretty awesome.

 

The good luck usually gets along with the real winners

 

I remember going to a party in 1973 and a bunch of jazz musicians were there playing Weather Report and stuff like that. They were really stuffy when it came to music and they were ultra opinionated. Great players though. I got tipsy and asked one of the guitar players if I could try his guitar. I played Wheels of Confusion and remember getting booed out of the room. They would not even play along with me. They thought Sabbath stunk and told me it was junk music. I told a few of them they were crazy thinking jazz was that much better.

 

This is so fab.

 

I did not know TI played both ways.

 

I would have bought you a drink for sure, Frankie.

 

Thanks. Those jazz snobs treated me pretty bad. Some of them just thumbed their noses at me. They were all college students studying music and jazz was their thing.

 

Hey, I'm from the birthplace of jazz, and I'm much, much more inclined to put Black Sabbath on, no doubt about that.

 

Supernaut

Excellent tune and my favorite off the album. I always seem to connect to a song when it opens with a hi-hat. Especially if Bill Ward is behind it. Monster riff from Tony! To my ears this sounds like it would've fit nicely on a Hendrix album. 5/5

 

We'll go with it being on Axis. Cool?

 

FX

Uhh...

I like the idea of a short interlude between a ballad and a hard rocker, but this is just noise. Blech.

Supernaut

Once @Rose River Bear has broken down a song, there's not much left to say. Excellent analysis. I'll just add a few thoughts...

First off the song just has a cool name.

As everyone else has said, killer riff by Iommi. Ozzy's vocals are a bit back in the mix, but it fits this song - it's almost an instrumental.

Geezer lays down a nice thick groove. And The Warden shows off his whole repertoire. We open with some sweet hi hat (which shows up throughout the song), and then he comes pounding in. I didn't know Bonzo was a fan of this, but he immediately sprang to mind with the way Ward punishes his drums. Then we get his jazzy side in the interlude.

My only complaint is the song is too short...I want more! Outstanding track.

 

Before I go further, should I combine Laguna and St Vito’s into one day?

 

Supernaut is textbook classic Sabbath.

My first exposure to this song was when the band morphed into it during the Wicked World jam on Live at Last. At the time, I was well steeped in Zep’s The Song Remains the Same album that also contained a few medleys and jams.

I didn’t realize that Supernaut was its own song and I remember marveling how Sabbath came up with so many great riffs (just like Zeppelin).

I have to admit that I like the live version better, however. All the layering and percussion makes it feel less heavy to me... and I like Sabbath best when they sound like they’re in the blacksmith shop hammering out metal and sparks.

 

For years, the only songs I knew from the Ozzy-fronted Sabbath were the usual suspects: Black Sabbath, NIB, War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Children Of The Grave and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
Then, in 1994, came that Nativity In Black Tribute album that I just bought spontaneously. It was quite an eye-opener that Sabbath had much more to offer than what I knew.
I just HAD to hear the original "Symptom Of The Universe", "Supernaut" "Lord Of This World" or "The Wizard"!
Very soon after, I stocked myself up on their 70ties catalogue, blamed myself for not haven got into it much sooner - and the rest is history.
I just wanted to thank you, Ministry.

 

Man, I can't believe how good this is. That change to three-four time rhythm and the addition of the horns gives the cover such an authentic feeling, it's unbelievable!
It makes you feel like it should be the original and the Sabbath-version the cover!!

 

The best pressing is still the Castle Communications pressing from 1986.

 

Agreed......I only decided to give a listen after reading your comment....Soulful version kills, and that guy is a great singer IMO.... Not my usual MO to click on a cover version of changes..