Blue suede sabbath.

[nofi]

1969.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-nzB7zbPxU&NR=1&feature=endscreen

[uwe]

That must have been shortly after they switched their name from Earth to Black Sabbath.

I always thought that young John Michael had a bit of Lord Sutch in him - you hear it well in that track. As Glenn Hughes once said: "It's easy to laugh about Ozzy's vocal style because it is so limited and sung with the same emphasis on every word, but it's the hardest thing on earth to emulate."

[Dave W]

A interesting influence. And a semi-coherent Ozzy.

Not so surprising, though. These guys didn't come out of nowhere. They probably listened to a lot of early rockabilly rock 'n' roll.

[uwe]

Almost all early seventies hard rockers were firmly rock'n'roll entrenched, Purple (Gillan was an Elvis and Little Richard nut -  and you can hear it too), Uriah Heep, Sabbath, UFO etc. Zep was the one exception with their Blues focus. Blues might have been the grandfather of hard rock, but rock'n'roll was its daddy. That is a small wonder given that both types of music addressed the same ethnic age and gender group: adolescent male whites with aggression to burn (and no girlfriends yet!).

[Chris P.]

Anybody saw the Eurovision song contest? There was a very bad ballad from some country, written by one T. Iommi...

[Chris P.]

[uwe]

I don't think it's horrible even though the accent of the singer had me smiling a bit, this would have sounded way better in Armenian. Tony Iommi (together with Ian Gillan who fell in love with the country when he toured it on one of his solo tours) has engaged himself for Armenia ever since the earthquake in the eighties, several benefit releases:

[FrankieTbird]

Almost all early seventies hard rockers were firmly rock'n'roll entrenched, Purple (Gillan was an Elvis and Little Richard nut -  and you can hear it too), Uriah Heep, Sabbath, UFO etc. Zep was the one exception with their Blues focus.

Led Zep was no exception.  Page is a Scotty Moore disciple, I believe he was also a big Rock & Roll Trio fan, along with Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, etc.  You can hear lots of Fifties influence in their early work, especially the live Whole Lotta Love medley.

[Highlander]

Anybody saw the Eurovision song contest? There was a very bad ballad from some country, written by one T. Iommi...

Essential viewing here (SWMBO - "do we have to...?" )

Frankie... wasn't one of Page's early influences also James Burton...?

[FrankieTbird]

Frankie... wasn't one of Page's early influences also James Burton...?

I'm not sure.  I know Burton played with Elvis on the RCA stuff after they sent Scotty and Bill home, I'm not familiar with his work before Elvis.  I'm sure Page must have heard Burton's work w/Elvis, but he's mentioned in many interviews that Scotty Moore was one of his earliest & biggest guitar influences.

[Hörnisse]

I misread the title of this thread and thought it was about a heavy metal version of these guys.

[Dave W]

I'm not sure.  I know Burton played with Elvis on the RCA stuff after they sent Scotty and Bill home, I'm not familiar with his work before Elvis.  I'm sure Page must have heard Burton's work w/Elvis, but he's mentioned in many interviews that Scotty Moore was one of his earliest & biggest guitar influences.

No idea if James Burton influenced Page, but he became famous in the late '50s as Ricky Nelson's guitarist and backing vocalist, you can see him on YT in the clips with Ricky from Ozzie and Harriet. He also did a lot of studio work back then and became house band guitarist on the Shindig! TV show. Come to think of it, I just saw a clip of Howlin' Wolf on Shindig from about '65 and you can see him in the background.

[Dave W]

Another US '50s influence on a Brit.

When Lemmy did his album with Slim Jim Phantom and Danny B. Harvey, he said that Johnny Cash's Big River was the first record he ever bought.

[gweimer]

As I recall, Bon Scott and Brian Johnson both have been quoted as huge Little Richard fans.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

That must have been shortly after they switched their name from Earth to Black Sabbath.

It was later than that. Tony already has his thimbles and they're wearing the crosses that Ozzy's dad made. I suspect that they just felt like dusting off one of their old covers from the Earth days.