Black Sabbath Vol. 4 Song by Song Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Zoot Marimba, Mar 12, 2018.

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  1. yarbles

    yarbles Too sick to pray

    Despite owning it since 1975, I can never remember how it goes...when I try to think, all I get is Fluff, or Tequila Sunrise :biglaugh:. That's how good it is :laugh:
     
  2. zen

    zen Senior Member

    [​IMG]
     
  3. tinnox

    tinnox Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Great follow up to the opening track and the band is in fine form, Iommi is the riff master and the best is yet to come on this great LP, I wish they would release an expanded version of this and the albums that follow there has to be material left in the can the band were in the middle of a great period of their recording career
     
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  4. Hermes

    Hermes Past Master

    Location:
    Denmark
    Maybe off topic but: Could be the thing that really seperates "Heaven and Hell" from "Mob Rules". Heaven and Hell is still Sabbath, but Mob Rules is not really Sabbath anymore - just a Dio project.

    (Don't get me wrong - I really like Dio.)
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  5. Hermes

    Hermes Past Master

    Location:
    Denmark
    Btw: I dont have the albums yet. I recently bought a compilation of the Ozzy Years for a very good price, but WoC is not on it. Sooner or later I will have to get the full album :)
     
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  6. tinnox

    tinnox Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Make it sooner the first six Ozzy era are a must IMO
     
  7. tinnox

    tinnox Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Negative
     
  8. Zoot Marimba

    Zoot Marimba And I’m The Critic Of The Group Thread Starter

    Location:
    Savannah, Georgia
    Well truth be told, Bill Ward doesn’t really sound like Bill Ward on HAH, he’s much more straightforward on there. He did a solid job, but it’s not Sabotage Bill Ward.
     
  9. The Slug Man

    The Slug Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    I love Volume 4. Sometimes I think it might be my favorite Sabbath album with Ozzy, though it faces strong competition from the debut and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
    (My favorite non-Ozzy Sabbath album would be Born Again, followed closely by Heaven and Hell).

    "Wheels of Confusion"
    One of their all-time best tunes. The first time I heard it I was just blown away. Possibly a strange way to start an album, but it's like an epic journey. The main riff (just a D chord, I think) is sheer brilliance that works thanks to the ensemble playing by all. I love when it speeds up on a "boogie" type lick, but the only part I'm not crazy about is the "chorus" of (I'm paraphrasing) "Lost in the wheels of confusion/running through valleys of tears/eyes full of angry illusions/hiding in everyday fears," but it doesn't outstay its welcome, as we go back to the circling triplet riff that leads us back to the final verse.

    BTW I always heard the line "Try your hardest, you'll still be a loser" as "Try your hardest, just to be a loser." Means basically the same thing but to me the second line seems more cynical and world-weary. Still, has their ever been a more depressing (but true) line than, "The world will still be turning when you're gone..."?*

    Just when it couldn't get any cooler, we get "The Straightener." Sheer brilliance how Iommi starts the melody playing the notes down low, then goes up an octave with each repeat, when by the last time it morphs into a screaming solo. This is one of his best "two similar but slightly different leads overdubbed" efforts which he seems to have abandoned after this album, and it's too bad. It always lent a trippy effect.

    "Tomorrow's Dream"
    Slightly surprised to see the near-effusive praise for this one. It's a good song but I don't feel I'm the presence of genius the way I do with "Wheels." This is one of those "nominal hits." They released it as a single, but it didn't do that great. Still, they played it live regularly in this period and it has also made a lot of the "greatest hits" compilations.

    "Tomorrow's Dream" makes a decent enough concert opener on Live At Last, even though I think they play it way too quickly. The main rhythm (underneath the verse) is played in an interesting style, which I can tell really inspired Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus. The "bridge" (the closest thing to a chorus) is kind of cool. As for the solo, it was one of the first Iommi solos I did a reasonably good job of learning to play.

    All in all, though, it's never been my favorite track, and when it ends I'm always kind of like, "Yeah, whatever. Next!" :hide:

    _______
    *This album will have several instances of misheard lyrics, which I'll bring up when we get to the particular song. The funniest mis-transcribed lyric I've ever seen for Sabbath, though, actually comes from "Sweet Leaf." I used to have a songbook that said, "I love you sweet leaf, though you got ill."
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  10. The Slug Man

    The Slug Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Something I rarely see mentioned is the fact that once Iommi started going low (down to C# on Master of Reality), this is when Ozzy started singing really high-pitched. The first two albums are basically in standard (and the debut almost qualifies as "early installment weirdness" because of how low Ozzy often sings). Paranoid he sings a bit higher (sounding much more like the Ozzy we know), but Master/Vol 4/Sabbath Bloody Sabbath/Sabotage (a run of mostly "C#" albums) find him really going for it. I think that when Iommi tuned lower (for whatever reason), Ozzy was basically forced to go almost an octave higher than otherwise. In any event, by accident or design this helped established the "metal" sound from a vocal standpoint.
     
  11. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident

    Late to the great COKE-cola party! Great to hear all the love for Volume 4--it may not be quite perfect but it is special. It had (and, now that I have dusted it off again because of this thread, it still has) the ability to take me to another space, where the lesser material and the expanded fade outs worked together as part of whole, weird experience. It is a peculiarly icy album.

    "Wheel's of Confusion"--the fade out (I never used to know it as "The Straightener") is possibly my favourite slab of Sabbath--as someone else put it earlier, it contains both propulsion and pathos. A heady mix.

    "Tomorrow's Dream" has always been just goodish for me--is it an attempt to recreate "Paranoid?"
     
  12. Greenalishi

    Greenalishi Birds Aren’t Real

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Love Tomorrows Dream. The lyrics are so cool. Love the ploding riff. Wheels and Tomorrow kind seem to fit together, similar songs, to me. Great song. Love the drumming and rhythm.
     
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  13. Paulette

    Paulette Forum Resident

    Oh my, it looks like Ozz is touching himself.
     
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  14. Paulette

    Paulette Forum Resident

    This is interesting. I have wondered why Ozz would write his music so that many of the notes were veryhigh. Obviously he can do it, but it seems like he is often stretching to make these high notes live.
    This just made me laugh really hard.
     
  15. Greenalishi

    Greenalishi Birds Aren’t Real

    Location:
    San Francisco
    The cover of that Tomorrows Dream 45 is cool. I have a Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 45 i got in the 80s, love that cover.
     
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  16. Rick Robson

    Rick Robson

    Location:
    ️️
    Yeah I also really enjoyed hearing so much love for such an iconic album. Vol.4 indeed engages just any music lover with such a variety of riffs, tones and overtones, superb swings and grooves, and dark and powerful melodies interweaving through such a freakin' changing emotional states... And as a bonus some uniquely tripping atmospheric passages, especially when speaking of a classic metal band. Easily one of my fave Sabbath records ever. And, in my book, this album features one of the best Ward's drummings to boot.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  17. Rick Robson

    Rick Robson

    Location:
    ️️
    Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener
    A no-brainer example of the band's trademark ability to pack more music and varied riffs into a couple songs (if we consider The Straightener as the second track) than most bands do an entire album!
    And this great opener is one more track (besides a bunch of previous ones of theirs) that shows how genius they were in stacking and arranging all that music in one only harmonic framework - just no parallel found in the Heavy Metal scene!

    Once read somewhere that Iommi has admitted in recent times that Classical music was very influential on how he wanted to apply dynamics to his own music.
    And yes, obviously Jazz was also (and almost always) very influential, perhaps even more so on their previous albums, you know ... Bill Ward drumming sounds and lines are the clearest examples of that... groove then swing then groove...and somehow also knowing when to lay back... What a majestic class of him on how to bring out the best in music!
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  18. Tim1954

    Tim1954 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, OH
    This album is probably reason number one why I have a Sabs avatar. Every time I listen to this band in their prime I see no reason to change it. :)

    The ensemble playing by this point was just on a different level from everything in rock and I think over the years this has only become more apparent. I'm not sure there has ever been a band that more thoroughly proved that many music critics were talking out of their backsides when it came to anything resembling informed musical analysis.

    I could listen to "Wheels Of Confusion" a million times and never tire of it. The arrangements are absolutely stunning in how they are executed, IMO. The tempo changes for which they had already shown such a unique flair are here but somehow everything is just taken to "next level" experimental. And yet it's melodic as can be!

    The outro "The Straightener" is some of my favorite guitar soloing. Each channel swings, glides, locks and then unlocks. And it features musicians capable of playing their behinds off for the previous five minutes who then know how to get out of the way. Ward and Butler fall into a sort of backdrop groove while Iommi explores the cosmic sky with an array of brilliantly phrased licks spinning through time and space.

    The drumming on this entire album leaves my jaw on the floor every time. "Wheels" is godlike drumming, IMO. And the double bass work on "Tomorrow's Dream" is just SO different than what others were doing and did with double bass. It is subtle and designed to swing with the music instead of lead it. On headphones it's almost unreal how tight the band is yet it doesn't ever feel clinical.

    This was a special time for music.

    And Geezer is there in the mix. This album will actually give your speakers a real bass workout. It's just more felt than heard. A different approach than the previous albums which kind of had both. Still, I don't know if I'd change anything on this album. Well, maybe I'd delete "FX" but then were aren't there yet so I have time to think about it.

    Great article by Sean Murphy on PopMatters names the 15 Most Essential Sabbath tracks and has a great read on "Wheels Of Confusion" (at #1).

    1. “Wheels of Confusion”
    Vol. 4 (1972)


    Not one of this group’s most cherished songs (though it should be), not from its most-beloved album (though it could be) -- why would “Wheels of Confusion” top any list of all-time Sabbath tracks? Simply put, this is an electric guitar symphony in less than eight minutes. This is the wall of sound (or, for hardcore Sabbath fans, the wall of sleep of sound), plugged in and performed by one man: Tony Iommi. It got different (for the band, for us) but it never got any better than this. “Wheels of Confusion” is at once totally of the earth; the sparks flying from the gray factories in Birmingham, and otherworldly; a comet stalking the darkest part of the sky. Every member contributes their finest work, from Ward’s frenetic but totally in control drumming, to Butler’s vertiginous bass assault, to Osbourne’s most assured and top-of-the-mountain hollering. But once again, as always, Iommi is propelling this track into another dimension. Can you even keep count of how many guitars are multi-tracked? Who cares? Literally from the opening second to the slowly-retreating fade-out, Iommi owns his playing has seldom—if ever—sounded this accomplished, and committed.

    The song flies through the first four minutes and change, taking stock of our existence with Ozzy’s wizened, clear-eyed assessment ("So I found that life is just a game / But you know there’s never been a winner / Try your hardest you’ll still be a loser / The world will still be turning when you’ve gone"). It doesn’t rhyme and it doesn’t need to. In fact, it probably looks unimpressive on paper, and that’s okay. Hearing Ozzy bellow this somber statement of purpose, followed by his reiteration of the last lines “Yeah when you’ve gone!”, it becomes clear this is not a capitulation to life’s cruel fate; it’s a battle cry from the trenches. Leave the conformity and quiet desperation to the clock-punchers and sell-outs; get in the game and do something (anything) before it’s too late. And if this warning is falling on deaf ears, condolences: it’s already too late. The song concludes with three minutes of shredding (“The Straightener”) that outdoes anything Iommi had done or would do, and it’s one to savor for the ages: he states a theme (5:34), repeats it (5:48), doubles down (6:00), triples down (6:14), layering in a flurry of licks and riffs interlocking until they finally break free and blast into infinity. This is Sabbath’s ultimate dose of black magic.

    https://www.popmatters.com/151385-b...k-sabbath-songs-2495917564.html?rebelltpage=1
     
  19. Rick Robson

    Rick Robson

    Location:
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    Spot on! One more of Sabbath's mind-blowing trademarks: "make the simple complex and the complex simple."

    Couldn't agree more on this.
     
  20. Mark J

    Mark J Senior Member

    Location:
    Boca Raton, FL USA
    I never noticed that Wheels of Confusion included "the Straightener" until this thread. The Straightener isn't listed on the LP sleeve, but is listed on the label as "includes the straightener". Also never heard that fade out, fade back in at the end until this youtube clip. My US WB LP from the early 1980s doesn't fade back up, it just fades out.
     
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  21. Rick Robson

    Rick Robson

    Location:
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    Wise words man :righton:
     
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  22. BDC

    BDC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tacoma
    Tomorrow's dream is a great song IMO. A good stomper with the band playing in its element and to its strengths. A logical extension of the bands work on the previous two albums. Tony's detuned guitar is great on TD. Downer lyrics...
     
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  23. Rick Robson

    Rick Robson

    Location:
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    TD is a decent tune, and of course also characteristical in the sense that it keeps a bit of a swinging approach, good in its own way.
     
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  24. Tomorrow’s Dream is another superb Sabbath deep cut.
    Those rubbery bends from Iommi are great!
    My favorite version is from the Live at Last lp. There’s something about the way Ozzy enunciates and projects the lyrics that gives the tune some extra weight.
    This track also moves well and has a cool pulse that gives the listener a more ‘up’ feel.

    A prime cut!

    The excellent Detroit rockers The Muggs covered this in their most recent album. A cool blues rock take on the song. I like it a lot, but Ozzy is untouchable when it comes to the Sabbath repertoire.

     
  25. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    I love how "Tomorrow's Dream" kicks in without warning. I can see why Sabbath used it as a set opener for the next couple of years.
     
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