I think it's largely a pile of feces, and it seems most band members agree (though right on to those who dig it, to each his/her/their? own)... I still spin it once or twice a year, my favorites are "Junior's Eyes" and "Air Dance," but man, those last three are tough to grind through...
The album that got me into Sabbath, especially side two - Break Out/Swinging The Chain = fantastic. Summer of ‘85. Still in my top three Sabbath records, and when I was going to interview Bill Ward, that was the record I took to have him sign. I learned quickly all those years ago, there was an orthodoxy around Sabbath (like The Who, ELP, Genesis, The Guess Who, etc) where a lot of older fans aggressively dismissed certain records. I found, and still find it, baffling.
It’s flawed that’s for sure. You can almost literally hear the wheels come off on the second half of side 2 as Ozzy stops showing up and they have to figure out a way to make a full-length record out of the mess. The lows are a bad as anything they’ve ever released, but fortunately so also are the highs. Johnny Blade and Junior’s Eyes are absolutely top-shelf. Over to You as mentioned above is one of Ozzy’s greatest. Air Dance is spectacular. The title track and A Hard Road are filler and what an album it would be if these were the worst songs on it instead of average. If any album of the first eight is screaming for a proper producer it’s this one. Think of how Martin Birch polished them up and eliminated their worst tendencies to meander about on Heaven and Hell. Nowhere is this more evident than Shock Wave: there enough riffs on that one song to fill a whole album’s worth of tunes. A producer could have helped them flesh them all out and develop them all properly instead of essentially wasting them all on one mediocre track. And then we wouldn’t have to deal with the rubbish that is Break Out and Swinging the Chain. All this to say, I love it. At least 2/3 of it anyway.
One of my top 5 favorite Black Sabbath Mk 1 albums. 1) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 2) Sabotage 3) Vol.4 4) self titled debut 5) Never Say Die! 6) Master Of Reality 7) Paranoid 8) Technical Ecstasy
I remember playing Never Say Die on my boombox while doing yard work for a neighbor house I was watching for the summer. Not sure why I have this memory, aside from the fact I was playing this album really loud and pulling weeds. So I have a soft spot for it though I don’t have the cassette anymore….
I like it but it falls off a cliff towards the end. I like Technical Ecstasy better, a more coherent album, and one I've always rated. As someone stated earlier, each of the Ozzy albums has its own unique sonic texture which is entirely in keeping with the feel of the album; I think Iommi in particular had a latent gift--underrated--for creating sonic landscapes that echoed the album in hand, an intuitive vision. To be fair, the whole band were incredibly intuitive. I like the "garage" sound of Never Say Die, though it's not completely consistent--Hard Road and the final track sound muddy. I rate the first side and Air Dance pretty highly.
NSD is only on 8th place of my Sabbath ranking (Ozzy years), but the songs are much better as the Tony Martin years, Dehumizer, 13.
There’s plenty to enjoy on Never Say Die! and I do, but on the whole there’s no getting away from it being bottom tier 70s Sabbath.
My personal poll: 1. Paranoid 2. Vol. 4 3. Never Say Die! 4. Master of Reality 5. Black Sabbath 6. Technical Ecstasy 7. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 8. Sabotage
It's nice to see NSD get some love here. It really is a solid effort from the band, despite all of the internal turmoil, though it sort of drops off at the end. Have you ever noticed that it's more interesting to talk about these kinds of albums with a dubious reputation, where you get a wide range of different reactions? Everyone can pretty much agree on Master of Reality, so there's not as much to debate.
My 70's Sab rankings, based on what I own on vinyl: 1. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 2. Volume 4 3. Self Titled debut 4. Master Of Reality 5. Paranoid 6. Sabotage I've listened a bit to TE and NSD on You Tube, but never owned it on Physical media. Even back in the day when I owned their cassettes, I never delved any further than the first 6 albums. Based on my samples on You Tube, Technical Ecstasy would likely be my next choice in the catalog. FWIW, I own Heaven and Hell as well.
Thanks to this thread, I'm listening to Never Say Die! right now, and very enjoyable it has been, too. I'm on the last two tracks now, mind you... They definitely detract.
Weak album. Recorded on lots of chemicals. Ozzy was right on his opinion. I saw Van Halen blow them off the stage in '78 opening for them.
I'm surprised to read so many prefer this album to Technical Ecstasy. IMO, both albums are flawed and pale in comparison to their predecessors, and both very much sound like they were created during tumultuous times, but to my ears, Technical Ecstasy is far superior. I like them both, though. Never Say Die sounds unfinished and unfocused. I think "Hard Road" and "Never Say Die" are really great (not "classics" on par with their best material -- but still great). The rest of the album is...decent, all things considered. Nothing on there I really dislike, but there's also nothing that's any kind of grand statement like we're used to with those guys up to that point. Technical Ecstasy still feels like they were reaching for something big, while Never Say Die sounds like a band rather tentatively running through some middle-tier songs.
Agreed. And though I love all of side two, I’ll single out one of the greatest closing tracks of all time: The day “The Writ” is a “tossed off” song is the day rock music genius is officially unrecognizable and we should all give up on music. Maybe take up golf or something?
Right???? The music on Sabotage is, to my ears, the most highly crafted, brilliantly labored over material in their catalog. Nothing "tossed off" about it.
