Black Sabbath's 4th album is my fave...."Black Sabbath Vol. 4"
Released on september 25th 1972.
Rolling Stone magazine did a strange humorous review of it...praising it and poking fun
at it...at the same time.
It was recorded in May 1972 ...almost exactly 50 years ago
at the Record Plant in Los Angeles.
Up until then Black Sabbath only recorded in England ....this time they decided to rent a mansion
in Bel Air and produce the album themselves (actually mostly Tony Iommi).
Copious amounts of drugs influenced the sessions...particularly cocaine...
the album liner notes even thanks the great "coke-cola" company of Los Angeles.
Every song is good ....very good ...except for "FX"....that one gets boring
Songs are....
Wheels of Confusion
...my fave song ...actually 2 songs ...the last half is an instrumental "The Straightener"
Tomorrow's Dream
...another winning tune!
Changes
...a slow keyboard song!...well sung by Ozzy
FX
...less said about it the better
Supernaut
...wow...check out the water buffalo bass ...insane percussion....huge wah riff
Snowblind
...a classic...has everything ...great lyrics...guitar solo...
Cornacopia
....Bill ward had a tough time getting the drums right...thought he was going to be sacked
but in the end pulled it off....
Laguna Sunrise
...Iommi playing some very unSabbath-like tastey acoustic guitar
St Vitus Dance
....a bouncy catchy tune ...I like it
Under the Sun
...very heavy ....should come with a warning....
Black Sabbath had a blast making the album....they decided to return to Los Angeles
...rent the same Bel Air mansion ....they flew into Los Angeles a year later but this time
no sparkle..the magic was gone....sessions went nowhere ...had a hard time coming up with good songs...
flew back to London ...took a break and ended up recording another almost as good album...
"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" ...for me their 3rd best album...I prefer their 1970 album "Paranoid"
a bit more ...actually their first five albums are all really good...
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