Obviously, completely gutted that we lost Ozzy this week. Ironically…. I’d only posted my favourite Black Sabbath Ozzy albums a week or so ago before he died.
I’ve put all the first 7 Sabbath albums (Ozzy) through their paces this week.
As mentioned elsewhere, my favourite is Volume 4 – the very first Sabs album I bought back in 1984.
For a lot of folks, Sabbath are all about the first 3 albums – and for obvious reasons too, you’ve got all the big hitters: Black Sabbath, NIB, Paranoid, War Pigs, Iron Man, Sweet Leaf, Children of the Grave (plus many more classics) but there’s something about Volume 4. Tomorrow’s Dream, Changes (which has brought a tear to my eye this week, I can tell you!), Snowblind, Supernaut….. cracking! RIP Ozzy.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage are my next favourite albums, a huge advancement in their songwriting abilities and instrumentation. What’s been really amazing this week is I’ve just remembered the influence that Sabbath had on my guitar-playing years. In fact, I played guitar in a band called Sweet Leaf (me, Alan Carson, John McMullen, Simon Davis), and also Spiral Architect (taken from the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album) with Alan Carson and Dave Ware. Happy, noisy, boozy days indeed!
Also listened to one of my 90s favourites “Ten Summoners Tales” by Sting. Such an amazing album, the bass work on Saint Augustine in Hell reminds me of just how good this guy is on the bass! Other standout tracks for me are “Seven Days” and “Something the Boy Said”. The other album I love of his is Brand New Day. Again, wicked bass line at the end of “Fill Her Up”. Mad.
I’ve never been much of a David Bowie fan (love the hits, as most people do), but after he died I immediately purchased Blackstar. Wow. Blows me away every time. Bowie was physically in pain doing this album and it’s lyrically and musically just so interesting. The title track is just proper left-field. That and Dollar Days are my favourites on this very listenable, very poignant swan song from Bowie.
What to listen to next, i wonder….?