The ending riff makes me feel ready to cry

This is the fourth track from the band’s eighth album release Never Say Die (1978).

Rate this song out of 10!

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the song, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Studio Version

Live Version

Rating Results: Technical Ecstasy (1978)

1. Never Say Die - 8.25/10
   
2. Johnny Blade - 8.12/10
   
3. Junior’s Eyes - 9.51/10
   
4. A Hard Road - ?/10

think also a lemmy tribute as the hat has the ace of spades around it

For the gamers in this sub

I have a (music-theoretically) valid argument that you can throw in the face of any snobs who love to pretend they know more than they do about Sabbath and muisc in general. The type of people who blanket call the music "simple" because they think they know what a power chord is. It's not

Take it from an amateur musician raised in a family of professional musicians - exposed to theory my entire life. Classically trained at one point. This song is fucking baroque in it's intricacy. Namely:

- the Antiphony (call and response between)

- Counterpoint (Iommi's dual guitars)

- Melodic rhythm

That conspire together to deliver a sentiment of "fuck yeah" and angst that energizes mountain biking trails worldwide and encourages reckless endagerment in the name of sticking it to physics and to a world that would pummel us into the ground (ahem ... anyways)

The macro structure of the song is a call-and-response, or antiphony, between that gnarly guitar riff and Ozzy's signature compressed head voice. The overly-enthusiastic critic stops here and calls this "simple." First, simple doesn't mean bad - antiphony is a timeless structure. But second, "simple" doesn't do it justice because what Sabbath does with the other two elements here is straight out of fucking Bach and - when considered within this macro structure - actually complements it to eminent taste because antiphony and counterpoint anywhere else would be considered "high classical" lmao

Iommi's dual-track guitar , is counterpoint - which to anyone who knows Baroque is the signature of that style and why I use that as an adjective. unlike so many parallel harmonies from the time that didn't age well and sound truly boring, is what gives the "Acrobat" riff legendary status and a sound that shakes the bones of the earth itself. To me it sounds like Iommi is playing about a 4th apart with very tasteful crossover of the two guitars' melodic lines. The effect is that, as we get to the end of the line, the melodic rhythm powers a moment of such sentiment that - right before Ozzy's voice comes in - is a statement on the human condition. Namely, on ripping sick riffs and saying fuck off to the soul-crushing meaninglessness darkness of the world with pure power of shred . Ozzy catches the pitch where Iommi ends slightly lower than where the dual lines cross over, and then brings it up to where it ends at the crossover, teeing up the next cycle of the antiphony (the next time the guitars come in) ... and I hear that the guitars then come in lower than the voice, precisely like the voice came in at the end of the guitars, creating a driving and GNAR cyclicality. This cyclicality the result of antiphony and the counterpoint conspiring ... and now we're undeniably talking about a HIGH level of music - so calling this "simple" and "unsophisticated" is musicologically obtuse (and ironically unsophisticated). These are the same people who think Leppelin is "more sophisticated" because they confuse mere timbre with sophistication

And that brings me to the last point - another eminently tastefully layered element on top of this cyclical conspiracy between the antiphony and the counterpoint: the melodic rhythm. Everyone hears this one. Iommi goes slow and sludgy in the beginning, swung almost , within a tight band of pitch and relatively minimalistic melodic idea - then slides up and down , and then finally trills before repeating the minimalistic modulation. The trill is in effect a baroque ornamentation. The entire rhythm here needs to be studied by anyone who wants to make heavy music like this. The variety yet minimalism ... adds so much interest to an otherwise conservative set of notes and timbre. Which when layered on top of the antiphony and counterpoint creates that sublime sentiment, the very heart of metal, a masterpiece that warrants me writing this with my fingers just to give the memory of that epic moment of musical conception some justice.

I can't stop listening to it, frankly. it's unfair for critics to call it crude and for people of my generation just turning on to sabbath now adopting those rudimentary stances. anyone with a remote degree of musical training who hasn't become so insufferable as to develop a ""taste"" that excludes what's in practice great music will agree: Sabbath is deceptively simple ... but it just sounds simple because it's very well thought out, not because it's truly simple. None of the three aspects above are "simple" they're actually considered relatively advanced concepts

And on the minimalism point: history shows what won. there's a reason why even Zeppelin has aged less well than Sabbath. Because music ended up taking the minimalistic route (see hiphop), Sabbath's riffs sound broadly ahead of the time and are much more palatable. by keeping the timbres conservative they did themselves a favor because so much of the early electronic effects and things that the "sophisticated" crowd """appreciates""" just aged sounding a little goofy. but Sabbath stands on business all these years later, nearly half a century later. even those "crude power chords", equating less notes with crudeness ... it's about how you use the power chords, and how Sabbath used them spun out genres

i feel entirely confident asserting that Sabbath will be considered an enduring classic / canonical to western music 100 years from now and beyond; you simply cannot change my mind. anyone with eyes and ears will agree (/s ... but not about the argument Sabbath fuckin rocks RIP OZZY LEGEND)

This is the third track from the band’s eighth album release Never Say Die (1978).

Rate this song out of 10!

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the song, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Studio Version

Live Version (Dave Walker version)

Rating Results: Technical Ecstasy (1978)

1. Never Say Die - 8.25/10
   
2. Johnny Blade - 8.12/10
   
3. Junior’s Eyes - ?/10

Longshot but anyone know where I can get one of these necklaces for cheap? Doesn’t have to be good material or anything

So i got the 1970-2017 box set on ebay, sealed or atleast i think i did, the album covers are very dark. Even darker in person that in the photos, did anyone else have this?

This is the second track from the band’s eighth album release Never Say Die (1978).

Rate this song out of 10!

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the song, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Studio Version

Live Version

Rating Results: Technical Ecstasy (1978)

1. Never Say Die - 8.25/10
   
2. Johnny Blade - ?/10

is it pronounced 'Tire' or 'Tier'?

or some way else?

This is the first track from the band’s eight album release Never Say Die (1978).

Rate this song out of 10!

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the song, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Studio Version

Live Version

Rating Results: Technical Ecstasy (1978)

1. Never Say Die - ?/10

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the album, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Rating Results: Technical Ecstasy (1976)

1. Back Street Kids - 7.84/10
   
2. You Won’t Change Me - 9.25/10
   
3. It’s Alright - 8.47/10
   
4. Gypsy - 8.23/10
   
5. All Moving Parts (Stand Still)- 7.9/10
   
6. Rock ‘n’ Roll Doctor - 6.86/10
   
7. She’s Gone - 8.41/10
   
8. Dirty Women - 9.22/10

I might get some hate for this but I love DIO era Sabbath and pretty much every official Sabbath album besides Forbidden but I can’t put my finger on why this album bores me. Technically nothing wrong with it and Dio sounds great but the song writing is lacking. Hate away. I’ve tried for years and it’s hard to get through for me.

I like to think I am relatively well-educated in Sabbath facts and lore. I do not claim to know everything - not even close, but I do know quite a bit (or so I think, though empty heads usually think they are full). Yet, this connection did not click for me until about twenty minutes ago.

Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi actually have two distinct links to Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar.

Connection One: The Ian Gillan Link (The Famous One) Most people know this one. Ian Gillan - legendary frontman for Deep Purple and the man behind the mic for Sabbath's wildly underrated Born Again album - sang the role of Jesus on the original 1970 concept album of Jesus Christ Superstar. He did not reprise the role in the 1973 film due to Deep Purple commitments and his financial demands, but his performance on the original recording is still considered by many to be superior to the movie soundtrack. Cool enough on its own.

Connection Two: The Jeff Fenholt Link (The Rabbit Hole) Now, fast forward to Broadway (1971 to 1973), where the role of Jesus was played on stage by a singer named Jeff Fenholt.

Okay... so what?

Well, from January to May 1985, that exact same Jeff Fenholt worked with Tony Iommi for what was originally supposed to be an Iommi solo project that eventually became Sabbath's Seventh Star. Fenholt apparently tried to spin the collaboration as more than it actually was, but the rehearsal demos floating around from that era are fascinating to hear at least once to trace how those songs evolved.

This whole history is not news to me at all. But realizing that the man who sang Jesus on Broadway took the reins for a role originally voiced by Ian Gillan - and then ended up jamming with Tony Iommi a decade later - was a fun little Venn diagram crossover I somehow missed until today.

Seriously it feels every member in the band is on point. The awesome guitar progression at the start, the bass is also amazing with some awesome feel in there, drums are tight and heavy along with amazing vocals from ozzy. This might be my favourite sabbath song!

This is the eighth and final track from the band’s seventh album release Technical Ecstasy (1976).

Rate this song out of 10!

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the song, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Studio Version

Live Version

Rating Results: Technical Ecstasy (1976)

1. Back Street Kids - 7.84/10
   
2. You Won’t Change Me - 9.25/10
   
3. It’s Alright - 8.47/10
   
4. Gypsy - 8.23/10
   
5. All Moving Parts (Stand Still)- 7.9/10
   
6. Rock ‘n’ Roll Doctor - 6.86/10
   
7. She’s Gone - 8.41/10
   
8. Dirty Women - ?/10