Black Sabbath, the unsung prog trailblazers

I've been listening to Black Sabbath a lot recently and they're often credited for being the first real metal band and I cant argue with that. But I feel that the material on their early albums is extremely progressive. The songs generally have several distinct sections with some really interesting unconventional non-straightforward uses of their instruments. I believe what they were doing was really unlike most music at the time. What they did was the definition of progressive.

I've said it often enough, and it bears repeating: in the late 60s through about the mid-70s, bands with any ability did whatever the hell they wanted, whenever they wanted, because the record industry lost a lot of control during that time period. They could not effectively pigeonhole bands and place them in slots if the said bands had any success or autonomy or balls. Frank Zappa once stated quite clearly that the old-school record marketing execs clearly didn't know what they had, didn't understand the music, and just pushed out product (and Frank mentioned that didn't change until younger execs took over in the mid-70s and started placing every performer in specific slots and regurgitated it throughout the air-waves). 

Edited by The Dark Elf - February 16 2020 at 17:20

verslibre wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: I've said it often enough, and it bears repeating: in the late 60s through about the mid-70s, bands with any ability did whatever the hell they wanted, whenever they wanted, because the record industry lost a lot of control during that time period. They could not effectively pigeonhole bands and place them in slots if the said bands had any success or autonomy or balls. Frank Zappa once stated quite clearly that the old-school record marketing execs clearly didn't know what they had, didn't understand the music, and just pushed out product (and Frank mentioned that didn't change until younger execs took over in the mid-70s and started placing every performer in specific slots and regurgitated it throughout the air-waves).   Ain't that the truth! Were it not the case, no Tangerine Dream, no Mike Oldfield, and no Vangelis.

They were a major contributor to early heavy metal but there were other bands around the same time who were leaning in that direction(Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and lesser known bands like High Tide, Lucifer's Friend, Bloodrock, Sir Lord Baltimore and even Blue Cheer). 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 16 2020 at 20:30

I think Sabbath is the first band I´ve heard, at least the first I remember. My brother got somewhere "Master Of Reality" & "Vol 4" as a cassette when I was 3-4 old and I remember to listen those (my brother hasn´t got even stereos that time). Ozzy period is just great, never cared much all the other singers periods. I have always thought Sabbath got prog elements from the beginning (listen for example Behind the Wall Of Sleep from the first album). I am glad I saw Sabbath in original line-up 2004 or 2005, it was one of the greatest gigs I have seen!

I like the early Sabbath lp's.......never thought of them as 'prog trail blazers' at all...many bands around in the 68-70 period that were doing interesting things. From day one I thought of them as 'underground' hard rock...I always put them in the same box as Zep and similar bands. 

Sabbath isn't capital -P-  prog, no...

It’s a little funny. What used to be metal nowadays is refered to as hard-rock. I had a friend over a few weeks back. He’s 21 and very handy around electronics, wires and a soldering iron. In short he was manhandling a headphone of mine and we were casually talking music.

He: ‘Metallica? Mjeah I’ve never really thought of them as metal...hard rock perhaps’
Me: ‘ New Wave Of British METAL doesn’t ring a bell?’
He: ‘Are Metallica British?’
Me: ‘Touché’

Still Black Sabbath seems to be one of the rare exceptions where youngins still seem to both appreciate the music as well as understanding the legacy behind.
BUT as Dark Elf previously alluded to: nothing exists in a vacuum..and while Tony did achieve a wholly unique and dark sound by way of ingenuity (and loss of fingertips), there were still bands out there around the same time with an equally proto-metal sound to them. Mountain fx. Leslie’s guitarwork was freaking heavy for the time! So was Paul Kossoff’s for Free...and then you got bands like Blue Cheer, MC5 and The Stooges.
Black Sabbath though had one thing distinguishing them from the rest of the pack: danger and mystique by way of the dark one.
That image is perhaps one of THE most replicated ones inside the metal world...possibly also why we all throw up the devil’s horns at seemingly cookie-cutter gigs nowadays. Justin Bieber gigs see this too!

Edited by Guldbamsen - February 18 2020 at 02:48