Good Ol' Classic Blues Songs

Dave W · February 16, 2014, 08:51:59 PM

Not the blues but here's the earlier, original hit by local boys Crow in 1971 (same band who did Evil Woman Don't Play Your Games With Me).

"you can't come across the Atsville bridge
Until you pay the toll"

nofi · February 17, 2014, 07:49:03 AM

i had no idea. what a great song!

uwe · February 17, 2014, 07:54:43 AM

Dave knows Black Sabbath songs?

Nothing is sacred anymore!

gweimer · February 17, 2014, 08:39:25 AM

Quote from: uwe on February 17, 2014, 07:54:43 AM
Dave knows Black Sabbath songs?

Nothing is sacred anymore!

I resisted the temptation on this one. Glad you got my back.

uwe · February 17, 2014, 09:19:28 AM

Dave is now gonna say something anticlimatic like "Black who?" or "I wasn't aware they had covered this song" or "My dad was a Methodist preacher, I wasn't allowed to listen to Black Sabbath at home" or something similar, watch this space.

Actually, those early Sabbath albums had quite a bit of blooze content. You could hear where they came from. I always thought that early Sabbath owed their share to Cream and Mountain, they sounded a bit like those two bands on a heavy dose of Quaaludes ...

4stringer77 · February 17, 2014, 10:08:06 AM

Ozzy was wise to listen when Felix spoke.

uwe · February 17, 2014, 10:12:26 AM

Ah, Felix in true rock star attire!!!

Dave W · February 17, 2014, 10:38:18 AM

Quote from: uwe on February 17, 2014, 09:19:28 AM
Dave is now gonna say something anticlimatic like "Black who?" or "I wasn't aware they had covered this song" or "My dad was a Methodist preacher, I wasn't allowed to listen to Black Sabbath at home" or something similar, watch this space.

Actually, those early Sabbath albums had quite a bit of blooze content. You could hear where they came from. I always thought that early Sabbath owed their share to Cream and Mountain, they sounded a bit like those two bands on a heavy dose of Quaaludes ...

We went over this with Evil Woman a few years ago, and no, I wasn't aware of it at the time.

Crow still plays a few shows a year, with the original lead singer and bassist and IIRC sometimes the original keyboardist. They some sort of benefit show early this month with Joey Molland's Badfinger. I haven't seen them since the early 90s.

uwe · February 17, 2014, 11:06:03 AM

When I heard the Sabbath debut for the first time I thought that was the only good song on it! It had more harmonies than the rest of the album combined.

It took me a while to get to like Sabbath, they were initially too doomy-gloomy monolithic for me. The first album of theirs I really liked was essentially their Sgt Pepper: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which to most Sabbathos is already too sophisticated and over-arranged. I learned to like their older stuff from there, but SBS is still my favorite.

gweimer · February 17, 2014, 11:17:20 AM

Quote from: uwe on February 17, 2014, 11:06:03 AM
When I heard the Sabbath debut for the first time I thought that was the only good song on it! It had more harmonies than the rest of the album combined. It took me a while to get to like Sabbath, they were initially too doomy-gloomy monolithic for me. The first album of theirs I really liked was essentially their Sgt Pepper: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which to most Sabbathos is already too sophisticated and over-arranged. I learned to like their older stuff from there, but SBS is still my favorite.

My favorite album is still Paranoid. Those blues roots do come out with the harp on "The Wizard", another favorite. Outside of that song, the first album plodded a little too much for my liking. They picked up the pace a little and I think that's what carried them over. The title track for SBS is reminiscent of this...

And I agree that SBS was probably their best album. Those of us old enough to have been there when it came out remember that.

The only time I saw Badfinger, Jerry Shirley was the drummer.

uwe · February 17, 2014, 11:37:18 AM

"The title track for SBS is reminiscent of this ..."

Oh, wow, I think Tony Iommi heard that album a little too often then!

4stringer77 · February 17, 2014, 11:54:20 AM

What rock band didn't start with the blues?

uwe · February 17, 2014, 12:09:08 PM

True, but Sabbath retained a certain bluesish feel more than most. It transcends 12 bar. Has something to do with how organic those early albums were me thinks.

nofi · February 23, 2014, 08:59:04 AM

i know conventional wisdom says sabbath was blues influenced. i've heard that for years but don't see it, feel it or hear it. any brit band from that era always state they listened to american blues when starting out. unlike obvious theives like led zep, i don't find it in sabbath's music.

Psycho Bass Guy · February 23, 2014, 02:04:19 PM

Sabbath was a straight blues band before they got signed. Tony's accident that cut off his fingertips led to them detuning and Ozzy's laziness made sure they stayed there. There are very clear blue roots under their music, but circumstance and their individual personalities changed it into something much more more than simply the sum of its parts. Those dirty Birmingham boys were the antithesis of hippie musing which grew into to prog overindulgence. Sabbath's extended jams always resolved rather than evolved, and once that tritone deal with the devil was struck, there was no going back. They literally laid down the framework that every angry metaller has since followed, myself included.