Do you prefer original Black Sabbath with Ozzy or Black Sabbath with Dio?

Cruel, but fair, as well as funny.
Well played, DK....

 

Maybe not.

Actually, no wait, it is a shame for you... if Ozzy did write lyrics and they sucked ass (EVEN WORSE THAN DIO'S ) that would work out great for your Narrative.

 

And.... there's the chorus!

 

Ozzy's written plenty of lyrics. The Writ for example...all Ozzy. One of Black Sabbaths greatest compositions.

 

If you are going to pollute the thread with facts, I might as well go back to work.

 

To me Black Sabbath consists of only the original four members. As much as I love the lineup with Dio, they probably should've taken on a new name from the get-go like they did years later when they took to calling themselves Heaven & Hell. Either way the music is still awesome.

 

First I'm hearing about Ozzy writing a lyric...they always say "well, Ozzy came up with the melody"

 

I guess I can see that.

I like Iommi's guitar tone much better than Blackmore's, though. Heaven and Hell and especially Mob Rules really rock. With Blackmore, there isn't any album that has the kind of balls heavy production that the Black Rainbow (my new name for them -- I've always jokingly called them that) had. Maybe it's Blackmore's Stratocaster and his amp set up? It's not Martin Birch as he produced Rainbow, too, so I think it just boils down to Iommi vs Blackmore. Blackmore always favored using a keyboard player (Sabbath did too with Geoff Nicholls but his stuff is more background/mood setting stuff) as an additional melodic instrument, so there's maybe that, too. But, yeah the two bands are not that dissimilar with Dio at the helm.

I totally agree with our comments on Bonnet as I said almost the same thing about him the hard rock/heavy metal thread I created awhile back. Turner is a smooth vocalist ala guys like Gramm, but onstage he was a total priss.

 

"The Writ" is the most used example of Ozzy writing lyrics. It's his Mount Olympus or whatever. It's a great piece of work, but from what I know, it's one of his few contributions in terms of writing. He is responsible for a lot of vocal melodies and came up with the melody itself of "Who Are You" from SBS, but, by and large, Butler, Daisley, or other outside writers have done the lion share of lyric writing for him whether it be BS or his solo stuff. He's said that writing lyrics doesn't come easy to him. I'm not sure how much he did for 13 but I'd wager most of that is Butler, too.

 

I think things like Looking For Today are Ozzy as well. I have some old mags with interviews with him at the time SBS came out where he's talking about where his lyrics came from....and that he was blown away with Geezer's lyrics for Spiral.

 

Spiral Architect is a top 3 Sabbath song for me. Unreal. Ozzy's delivery is amazing. THIS is a unique band of four players. SBS and Sabotage are a band really peaking, taking all the lessons learned and still pushing the envelope while just getting ready to fall off from a height they'll never reach again!

 

As long as Tony Iommi is playing guitar, who freakin' cares who is holding the microphone? I mean really.

 

Agreed completely.

 

I thought this was interesting...here is a breakdown by vocalist of my Sabbath playlist:

Ozzy - 13
Dio - 28
Gillan - 3
Hughes - 8*
Gillen - 3
Martin - 19

*includes 3 songs from Fused

 

early Black Sabbath with Ozzy were innovators, from technical ecstacy onwards with or without him they were parodying themselves

 

reinventing themselves, evolving, is what I would say

 

Certainly Tony's playing just got better and better...

 

Although I of course get the massive importance and significance of the Ozzy-era Sabbath albums, I just personally can't stand Ozzy's voice. It took forever for it to grow on me.

I initially thought I'd never be able to get into Sabbath - then I learned there were more albums made without Ozzy than with him!!!

I got into Sabbath thanks completely to the Dio, Gillan and Martin era albums and then backtracked.

 

Well, I guess Transformers is better than Casablanca then as well!

 

Pretty much my story too...

 

Both are great in their own way...

 

It's actually kinda funny, because Sabbath was one of the very first bands I ever actively tried getting into when I was 9 or 10. My friend's dad had a copy of "We Sold Out Soul For Rock and Roll" that we'd play whenever I was over.

I literally had no idea there were albums after Never Say Die until a few years ago when I matured to the age of 15, haha.

Heaven and Hell and The Mob Rules and Born Again just blew my mind and from there I "grew into" the earlier stuff. I now love it all equally, but yea, I just do not care for Ozzy's voice, lol.

 

Three really great albums!

 

People complain about the mix of Born Again.

I honestly do not hear any problems with the mix.

The problem is the production, as far as my ears can tell, but everyone says it's the mix.

 

Born Again - sh1t heavy rhythm and bass with ear piercing singing and lead playing.

Perfect.