The Tapes Archive

After the band’s massive success with 1970’s Paranoid, which had reached #1 in the UK, Black Sabbath had been put on a rigorous touring schedule to support the album, playing a stint in Australia, two tours of the US, as well as all of Europe, which left the group exhausted. Yet, their label Vertigo, wanting a quick follow-up to take advantage of the sales and buzz from Paranoid, put the tired, overworked band back into the studio in the first part of 1971 to record what would be, arguably, their heaviest album ever, Master of Reality.

It’s July 17th, 1970, and Black Sabbath has just released their single “Paranoid,” the title track from their upcoming album. The song Paranoid is the band’s second single after “Evil Woman” off their self-titled album, and not a song the band really cared about. For one, it wasn’t even their own. “Evil Woman” was instead a top 20 song by the obscure American group Crow, and Sabbath felt like they had been forced to release the throwaway cover by management, and all for naught since it resulted in zero success on the charts. Ironically, “Paranoid” was considered a throwaway song as well . Bassist Geezer Butler explained, “The song ‘Paranoid’ was written as an afterthought. We basically needed a 3-minute filler for the album, and Tony came up with the riff. I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy was reading them as he was singing. It took 20, 25 minutes from top to bottom.” But this time, unlike “Evil Woman,” “Paranoid” would become a smash hit and generate good and bad things for the band.

Behind the scenes, the band had been lured into believing that Don Arden’s former right-hand man, Patrick Meehan, and his henchman Wilf Pine, would elevate them to worldwide success while their local promoter and current manager, Jim Simpson, did not have what it took. Of course, “Paranoid” had already made Black Sabbath a worldwide sensation. Still, the band struggled with self-doubt, and the perception that a hungry London-based management would take them into the big leagues was too good a temptation to pass up. Black Sabbath would get what they wanted, but it would come at a cost that they would pay for the next decade and beyond. 

On September 4, 1970, just 14 days before the Paranoid album would be released, Jim Simpson was served papers stating his services were no longer needed, and the band was now managed by Meehan and his company World Wide Artists. Although this came as a huge blow to the kind-hearted Simpson, he would later take it in stride after winning his case 5 ½ years later, stating, “I was with Sabbath for their best two records.” 

After the September 18th, UK release of Paranoid — and only six months after their debut album released in February 1970 — Meehan wasted no time pushing them into the limelight by getting them a spot on the popular mainstream British music TV show, Top of the Pops. On Thursday, September 24th, 1970, Black Sabbath pantomimed “Paranoid” into millions of homes across the UK. The appearance not only helped the song move up the UK charts to the #4 position, but it also helped the band take over the #1 spot on the UK album chart, dethroning Simon and Garfunkel’s popular album Bridge over Troubled Water.

In October of 1970, Mark Plummer wrote in Melody Maker about Sabbath becoming a “victim of fan worship” 

Sudden mainstream popularity proved a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it was gratifying to reap the fruits of all their hard work, but on the other hand, pop fans were turning up at their shows, which made it seem like Sabbath was selling out. Although the group initially welcomed the attention, it ultimately made them uncomfortable. 

Guitarist Tony Iommi recalled “Top of the Pops attracted a lot of younger screaming kids,” “We weren’t that type of band. It felt wrong to us.” 

Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne said, “The kids who came out were okay, but it wasn’t what we were trying to achieve. Bubblegum bands come and go… We were attracting people who were just fans for the minute, mostly women. And then, of course, they eventually disappeared. We didn’t want to attract that type of fan base. We wanted fans who were genuine.”

Even one of their early supporters came out against the Sabb Four once they were famous: John Peel was a DJ on BBC radio station Radio 1, where he hosted a show called Top Gear. In one of his regular segments on that show, known as the “Peel sessions,” he would have an artist come into the BBC’s studio and record up to four songs live. This was a powerful way to promote a band and often the first major national coverage many performers achieved. As early as 1969 and long before today’s social media celebrities, John Peel was known as an “influencer.” 

Peel first tried to sign Sabbath to his small record label after seeing them play on September 4th, 1969, but the band turned him down. Then on November 11, Peel gave Sabbath their first opportunity to be on the radio. They recorded four songs: “Black Sabbath,” “Walpurgis (“War Pigs” with alternate lyrics), “Fairies Wear Boots,” and “Devil’s Island” (later renamed “Sleeping Village/A Bit of Finger”). The recording was broadcasted on November 29th, 1969. (No copies of the recording are publically available or have been proven to still exist.) 

But in 1971, after Sabbath saw tremendous success, Peel said, “Black Sabbath will sell because it sounds like something else. You get a process where each band that is successful is a watered-down version of something else.” In another statement referring to bands like Sabbath, Deep Purple and Emerson Lake and Palmer, Peel said, “those bands have lost the spark somewhere down the line and are basically going through a routine.”  

In response Iommi said:

“That’s one we really can’t understand,” “We got on really well with John, to begin with, but something seems to have upset him. We were really pleased about getting on TV.” 

According to Tony, the band had had no say in choosing their first single: “The single was just one track taken from the album by the recording company because they thought it would sell and was representative of something we did. We don’t specifically record singles, and the decision to release them rests with the record company. But now we have got hassles with people saying we have sold out for getting into the top ten. It’s something of an achievement, and it’s okay, but there won’t be a follow-up single.”

The backlash from fairweather fans for “selling out” was one thing. Far more concerning was public perception that the members of Black Sabbath were actually Satanists and practitioners of black magic. This PR nightmare had been brewing ever since the band changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath. And even though the song “Black Sabbath” was written as an anti-black magic/Satan song, the band could not shake being tagged as dark and mystical occultists. In countless interviews, the band members explicitly stated that they did not practice black magic or worship the devil. Yet they continued to receive negative press and attention from self-professed Satan worshippers asking them to perform at black masses. While the mystique brought them attention from those on the fringe, it also kept them from the kind of success enjoyed by Led Zeppelin.

Clear from interviews in early 1970, the band had grown irritated with questions about the occult, as it was overshadowing their music. In March 1970, Ozzy Osbourne made those feelings clear by saying: ‘“You’re going to ask about black magic,” he said, anticipating the line of questioning. “It’s rubbish. Geezer wrote a song called ‘Black Sabbath,’ and at the time, we were called Earth but were constantly being confused with another group with a similar name, and so we changed to Black Sabbath.”

Sabbath was about to embark on their first US tour — the holy grail for any up-and-coming European band at the time — but instead of excited anticipation, the band was more afraid that the unwanted Satanic image they’d gained in the UK would follow them over to the States, uncomfortably aware of how badly that could hurt them in Easy Rider country. They had good reason for concern. The trial of Charles Manson and his followers after the brutal slaying of Sharon Tate and six others was in the news almost daily. Geezer said, “We just hope we don’t get all this black magic confusion over there. We are frightened by the thought of the extremists. We don’t want anything to do with the Charles Manson thing. We will just be going over there as a British hard rock band.” 

Tony added, “We might change some of the words of the songs so that we don’t have any trouble… We were never into black magic. The lyrics were chosen to go with the heavy music. The kids always try and interpret lyrics, and they often create things that aren’t there. The music of Black Sabbath is simple, basic stuff. The lyrics are plain, laid on with a plate. Everybody thinks we’re a black magic group, but we just picked the name because we like it. I agree some of the numbers on the LP are about supernatural things, but that’s as far as it goes.”

But it wasn’t just their name and misunderstood lyrics that pushed critics to cry “Satanist!” Black Sabbath was often confused with another British band named Black Widow — a band who leaned hard into the satanic and black magic imagery and wanted the notoriety of being the band for devil worshippers. During one of their tours, Black Widow had secured the services of Maxine, wife of England’s chief witch Alex Sanders, to appear in their stage show as Lady Astaroth, a tormented girl from the 18th century who was driven insane and jumped to her death. Maxine would end up naked at the show’s end and simulate sex with the band’s lead vocalist. Ironically, their biggest song was called “Come to the Sabbat.” But there was another more direct connection between the two bands: Black Sabbath’s new manager, Meehan, had previously managed Black Widow and produced their last album, Sacrifice.

Ozzy said, “A lot of people have a grudge against us because of this black magic thing, but it has got out of all proportion. At one time, we got so confused with Black Widow, it was unbelievable. We’re two completely different bands in music and everything.” 

Black Sabbath’s confusion with Black Widow got so bad that the band actually considered changing their name again. But the Meehans had convinced Sabbath that Black Widow would be changing their image. Ironically, when Black Widow did back down on the occult imagery, their notoriety faded. 

Being associated with the devil never went away for Black Sabbath or even Ozzy as a solo artist. But to be fair, Sabbath and Ozzy both used this imagery to their advantage as the years rolled on. And it’s also fair to say the British record label Vertigo and manager Jim Simpson knew the occult was seen as a powerful marketing strategy to tap into or create the next big thing in the youth market. Long hair no longer shocked, bright and patterned clothes no longer shocked, drug use no longer shocked, so the occult, perhaps the last great taboo along with sexuality, was willingly deployed. Simpson admitted later that he did make up stories for shock value. Including this one that he told the press. Sabbath had been invited to appear on a German television show, and the promoter had sent their plane tickets to Simpson. There were five return tickets for the band and their manager and a single ticket for the sacrifice victim — the one that they would supposedly bring along to dispose of during the set. Vertigo didn’t help things by releasing their debut album on Friday the 13th or having an inverted cross on the inside of the album. 

Although the second album saw a shift from the perceived satanic preoccupations of the debut release, Paranoid was still an album shot through with dark themes. In the process of backpedaling away from the supernatural, the band refused to celebrate the Witches Sabbath at Stonehenge. This rejection allegedly caused Alex Sanders, head witch in England, to cast a spell on Sabbath. This story, which would be denied and affirmed over the coming years, would become part of Sabbath mythology in a way that illustrates the awkward push-pull that existed between the band and their co-opting of horror imagery.

Uncertain what to expect in the US, the band decided to test the waters across the Atlantic with a small exploratory tour in the fall of 1970. 

Sabbath had looked at coming over earlier in the year, but the reasons why they didn’t are cloudy. Some statements indicate it was because of the unrest with college students protesting the Vietnam War. Part of this theory came from a rumor that Black Sabbath had canceled the U.S. tour before it even started after the Fillmore East and West shut down for the summer of 1970 due to the possibilities of violence. In reality, neither Fillmore club ever closed during this time. Another theory was that early in 1970, Sabbath was in talks with Patrick Meehan, Jr. about hiring him as manager. Still, since they hadn’t officially signed with him yet, they needed first to ditch Jim Simpson, and then they could resume pushing the band to the land of the Yanks. The final theory, as Butler mentioned earlier, was that at the same time in July as Sabbath was planning to play in San Francisco, the Charles Manson trial began, and worried about Sabbath’s supposed controversial lyrics and how audiences might respond, the record company, Warner Brothers, may have squashed the whole outing. 

Now with the Meehan family, Jr. and Sr., firmly in place as their managers, and Paranoid tearing up the charts in the UK, it was time to go to spread the sound of Sabbath. Patrick Meehan Sr. stayed in the office and mainly served as an overseer, while Patrick Meehan Jr.’s role was more hands-on. 

The band touched down at JFK airport on Wednesday, October 28th, 1970. It was the first time that any of them had set foot on American soil, and they didn’t care that it was a low-budget tour since they were playing some of the most prestigious small gigs on the east and west coasts. 

According to Iommi, one of the “stupidest” things they did was haul their entire PA system instead of renting one in the US. Not realizing the US had a different electrical system, Sabbath promptly blew out the power in the first place they played. 

With a ticket price of $1.50-$2.50, the band played their first gig at Glassboro State College on Friday, October 30th. This contradicts Ozzy’s and Tony’s autobiographies, where they state the first US gig was at Ungano’s in New York. But the proof of this newspaper ad shows they did not play Ungano’s until three days after the Glassboro gig. Their tour promotor, Rick Green, confirmed that Glassboro was, in fact, their first gig in the US, “The group didn’t arrive at the college until 11:30 p.m. for an 8 p.m. concert and didn’t take the stage until 1 a.m. A minute into the first song, they blew out the power to their enormous sound system, but about 10 minutes later, all of it was back to normal. They started playing again. but this time, they blew out not only the power in the gym but the campus and most of the power in the neighborhood.” You can also see the promotional flyer Green’s little sister created for the show. This flyer would later be sold at Christie’s Auction in 2007. The last bit of proof is on Ozzy’s own website showing Glassboro as the first Sabbath concert on US soil.

Sabbath would play in ten cities with over 18 shows for the next five weeks. According to one music critic, they blew headliner Rod Stewart and The Faces off the Fillmore East stage. According to Tony, “when we went on, the crowd went absolutely mental! Then Rod Stewart came on, and they began throwing things at him. It was just incredible. And from then on, we became like the underground band in America.”

Originally they were supposed to open for Alice Cooper at the infamous Whiskey A Go-Go club in West Hollywood. But when Cooper canceled, Sabbath went from opener to headliner for their five dates with two shows a night. 

At the Fillmore West, they shared a four-night stand with future Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh and his band The James Gang. Iommi said, “We did the Fillmore West in San Francisco with them, and Joe Walsh was smoking this bloody angel dust. Right before the gig, Geezer said, ‘I’ll just have a puff of that.’ Ozzy joined him. They thought they were just smoking a joint. 

But maybe the most significant name they played with was still relatively unknown at the time. That came on their last date before heading back to England when they played in Asbury, New Jersey. Their opening act was the Steel Mill band featuring a young Bruce Springsteen. 

Overall, the exploratory tour was a huge success. Tony described it as “a high-pressure promotional tour.” Just as America loved Sabbath, so Sabbath loved America. 

Ozzy said “It’s every British band’s dream to play the States,” “Coming from Birmingham, where the fuckin’ sun never shines, it was magic to us.” 

Before we move on, I’d like to call out one Black Sabbath rumor that is not entirely true, and even Tony Iommi got it wrong in his autobiography. Anton LaVey, the very real founder of the Church of Satan, never held a parade in honor of Black Sabbath. What did happen was there was a parade in San Francisco where the record company had a float promoting Black Sabbath. A man resembling Anton LaVey rode the float, but was it him? If you look at the video, it sure looks like LaVey, but there is no further evidence to back this up. LaVey doesn’t mention it in his authorized biography and has been outspoken in his dislike of heavy rock music. All the video shows is a parade that included a single Black Sabbath float paid for presumably by Warner Brothers.

At the end of November 1970, the band returned to England and immediately started a mini-tour of Europe from December 5 in Liverpool, England, to December 19 in Paris at the L’Olympia (The Olympia Theater). They would have 12 days to rest before recording their heaviest album. 

1970 was a whirlwind of a year for Black Sabbath. They started the year as virtual unknowns, and by the end, they had released two iconic albums hated by critics but loved by fans. From this point forward, Sabbath would be known rightly as the fathers of Heavy Metal, even though they were all under 23 years old. 

Five decades later, it’s challenging to take in just how frantic the pace was for the most successful bands of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Whereas acts these days record an album every three or four years, Sabbath was peaking at a time when turning out two albums every 12 months or so was the norm. As a result, they were already thinking about their next record when their first US tour ended.  As the band struggled to work around their frantic touring schedule 

Master of Reality would be the first Sabbath LP that was recorded piecemeal in a desultory fashion rather than in a concentrated burst of activity.

On the very first day of 1971, Black Sabbath entered the studio to start work on what would be one of the most influential heavy records of all time. The band went to Island Studios, {where post-production was carried out for Paranoid,} and worked with for the last time the same duo who pushed the sliders on their first two records producer Rodger Bain and engineer Tom Allom (future Judas Priest producer)

In addition to having a bit more time in the studio, they also went from having a paltry eight tracks to record on to a true multi 16 tracks. Which meant they could do more overdubs and experiment with their sound.

Amongst the handful of tracks recorded at this stage were “After Forever” and “Into the

Void,” although the latter was still known at this point by its working title, “Spanish Sid.” Both songs were played during the band’s brief UK tour in January and during their subsequent American jaunt, although “Spanish Sid/Into the Void” was still being lyrically refined.

Arguably, the most bizarre recording to be taped during that session at Island on that first day of the year was something the band called “Weevil Woman ’71” — presumably a mocking reference to “Evil Woman,” the song they’d been forced to cover as their debut single. 

At the same time the band was going into the studio, their album Paranoid came out in the United States. When Paranoid was released in the UK on September 18th, 1970, their debut album was selling so well in the US — half a million copies in the first month — Warner Brothers decided to delay the release of their second album. Paranoid would reach #12 on the US charts and quickly go platinum.

Sabbath’s first recording session for Master of Reality only lasted a day or two before they were scheduled to go back on the road. Most of January was spent playing shows around England. 

Then on January 27th, they flew over 42 hours with multiple stops to arrive in Adelaide, Australia to headline at the Myponga Festival on January 31st. This would be the first time they played down under and the first time they would headline a multi-day music festival.  

Next, they had intended to play some dates in Japan but were denied entry due to their spotty criminal records. (Ozzy for burglary and Tony and Bill for marijuana.) It was rumored they ran into the same problem again in April ’72 when they attempted to revisit Japan. As it would turn out, Black Sabbath did not perform in Japan until November 1980, while Ronnie James Dio was in the band.

With Japan out of the picture, they had a few extra days of r&r in Australia before another 40-hour trip to the Netherlands, where they played two dates on February 6th and 7th.

At the time, Sabbath was still the Four Musketeers, ordinary lads from Aston who were all for one and one for all, and the band was the number-one priority. Despite their jetlag and without stopping to catch their breath, they flew from Amsterdam to England and traveled straight to the studios in London to resume work on the next album.

But time in the studio would again be cut short. It was time to fly back to the US and officially tour for the Paranoid album. Unlike the US tour just two months ago, this time, they would headline most dates (the exception being Grand Funk Railroad and Mountain gigs). Now they would be playing in front of 1,000-15,000 Black Sabbath fans nightly. (Sometimes playing two shows a night.) On this North American trip, they would also cross the border twice for the first time to play in Canada. Future mega bands like Fleetwood Mac and the J. Geils Band opened. Only the year before, they were making 50 pounds for playing the Banklands Youth Club, and only six months before that, at the same club, they announced their name change from Earth to Black Sabbath. 

On the second night of their tour, February 18th, they played an uncommon stop for most rock bands. Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. The student body contacted the band’s booking agent, asking if Sabbath would play at their school. Tired of the usual dull bake sales and dances, the students of Union Catholic endeavored upon a novel approach to fundraising. It first started with The Who concert at the school in 1967, followed by other notable bands such as Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Cream. Black Sabbath would be the last. 

One first-hand account said: “As the concert started, Ozzy came out with his band from our left. Then FROZE midstage. Facing him right up front were rows of seated priests and nuns in the audience. I still remember the puzzled look on his face. He then shrugged his shoulders and began.” Apparently, the nuns and priests had commandeered the first two rows. 

The Marist brother, who was assigned to the student council, took one look at Ozzy, wearing a big cross and chain around his neck, and turned a member of the student body and said, “Finally. (YOU booked) A Christian band!”

The sold-out concert, with an estimated 2,200 attending, would gross $8,803.50, over $60k in 2022 dollars. Black Sabbath would go down as the biggest revenue generator in all of Union Catholic High School’s concert history.  

Sabbath’s generosity to help raise money for charity was not a one-off. On the same tour a few weeks later, they would play another benefit show in Paramus, New Jersey. The St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church Coffee House sponsored Sabbath on March 9th. Profits for the two shows went to work-projects and inner-city missions. And local bands got to audition to open for the Brits. This is just one of the reasons Sabbath is considered a band for the people. 

The US tour lasted from February 17th until April 4th, 1971, and when they returned to England around April 6th, the boys headed back into the studio for a quick couple of days before heading out on April 14th for a ten-date Scandinavian tour. Then on April 26th, they ended the Paranoid tour triumphantly at the Royal Albert Hall (where just four months earlier, the Hall had refused to let them play in fear of fan violence). At this show, they were awarded their gold records for Paranoid.

Around this time, 21-year-old Ozzy found out that his then-girlfriend was pregnant with their first child. Ozzy had met Thelma Riley, also known as Thelma Mayfair, at the Rum Runner bar in Birmingham several months prior, where Thelma worked part-time as a waitress when she wasn’t teaching. After living together for a few months, Ozzy decided the proper thing to do was marry Thelma before the baby arrived, so in July 1971, Ozzy and Thelma got married quietly at the registry office. (Some said they were married on April 1st, but that could not have happened since Sabbath played a gig in Rochester, New York that day.) Months later, Ozzy would adopt Thelma’s five-year-old son, Elliot Kingsley, from a previous marriage. Among Thelma’s various talents, she was a gifted seamstress and designed all of the stage outfits Ozzy wore on tour throughout the ‘70s.

The following year on January 20th, 1972, they would welcome Jessica Starshine Osbourne to the family. In 1975, Ozzy’s second child, Louis, was born. 

Ozzy would later admit to being a horrible father and husband to his first family. Adultery, spousal abuse, animal cruelty, and child neglect, Ozzy said years later, “Thelma really suffered with me, and I really regret that. If there’s one thing I wish for in my life, it’s that I could take it all back. But of course, you can never take violence back — of any kind — and I’ll take it to the grave with me.” Ozzy and Thelma divorced in 1982, and in the same year, he married his manager Sharon Arden with whom he’d been having an affair. 

There are various accounts on when Black Sabbath finished recording Master of Reality, but most reports point to the last week of May. As the band prepared for the studio, Ozzy warned the press that the new record was going to rock, telling one reporter that the third album was going to be “the heaviest we’ve done. It’s going to be heavier than before because that’s what people want. I don’t know whether Led Zeppelin made a big mistake or not with their third album, but personally, I think a lot of people were disillusioned. If we ever decide to go acoustic with the band, we would do it gradually. But at the moment, people want heavy music; the heavier, the better.”

Master of Reality Deep Dive:

Tony Iommi said that “musically, Master of Reality was a continuation of Paranoid.” I think all would agree that with the exception of how they tuned their instruments, his statement is accurate. There are three songs on Master of Reality where they all tune their instruments down three semitones. (These are “Children of the Grave,” “Lord of This World,” and “Into the Void.”) Without getting too deep into musical jargon, this means they tuned their bass and guitars lower than most, if not all, musicians at the time. This created a uniquely rich, dark, and sonorous baritone that no one else had. 

In another interview, Tony stated: “It was part of an experiment: tuning down together for a bigger, heavier sound. Back then, all the other bands had rhythm guitarists or keyboards, but we made do with guitar, bass guitar, and drums, so we tried to make them sound as fat as possible. Tuning down just seemed to give more depth to it. I think I was the first one to do that.”

As far as we can tell, Tony is right. Not only was he the first one in popular music to tune down, but he also started a way of playing heavy music that continues to this very day. This tuning down approach helped create many music subgenres, including the Grunge sound of the ‘90s, Djent (Djent is a subgenre of heavy metal characterized by low guitar tunings), Stoner Rock, Doom Metal, and many more. So not only was Master of Reality a classic hard rock album, it was an album that influenced thousands of bands.

The album title Master of Reality came from Geezer Butler, who said: “When you do an album, you’ve got the master tapes. So it was the master of the album, and all the lyrics were about reality.” So at the time, it made sense for the band to write a song about the reality of their love for the Devil’s Lettuce–marijuana.

Sweet Leaf:

“Sweet Leaf” begins with a cough that moves from the left to the right channel as it becomes more distorted and ends in a loop. The cough comes from Tony, having just taken a toke on a joint given to him by Ozzy. When handed the joint, Tony was working on a separate acoustic track, but its inclusion for the beginning of “Sweet Leaf” makes sense, as the lyrics are essentially a love letter to cannabis. The cough sets up not only the lyrical theme of the song but also the tempo.

This love song for bud was almost a love song for someone else. An earlier version of lyrics was not drug-related at all and included lines such as “I want you, baby, to be my wife, to love and cherish for the rest of my life.” The love-song tone remained, but instead of the subject being a person it became about the jazz cabbage after Geezer returned from Ireland. 

Geezer said: “I’d just come back from Dublin, and they’d had these cigarettes called Sweet Afton, which you could get only in Ireland,” and we were going, ‘What could we write about?’ I took out this cigarette packet, and as you open it, it’s got on the lid, ‘The Sweetest Leaf You Can Buy!’ And I was like, ‘Ah, Sweet Leaf!'”

We hate to contradict Geezer’s memory, but our research shows that packages of Sweet Aftons actually said, “The best that money can buy” not ‘The Sweetest Leaf You Can Buy!’. There was no mention of “Sweet Leaf.” But, there was another brand of cigarettes, Ogden, that was manufactured out of Liverpool and had the exact tagline of “Sweet Leaf”. Perhaps Geezer’s mind conflated the two. If you think we got it wrong, let us know in the comments below.”

Some have insinuated that the “Sweet Leaf” guitar riff was taken from Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s “Hungry Freaks, Daddy.” Although Geezer was a big fan of Zappa, I think it’s a mere coincidence of notes. What isn’t a coincidence of notes is the use of the riff in the Beastie Boys’ song “Rhymin & Stealin.” In that song, the main guitar riff is paired with a loop of a drum sample from Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks.”

The biggest song to ever give a tip of the hat to “Sweet Leaf” was the ending music passage of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ hit song “Give it Away.” Chilli Peppers’ guitarist, John Frusciante, is a known Sabbath fan and intentionally wanted to emulate the sounds of Master of Reality. He said: “The template for Stadium Arcadium was to have an album like Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality where the guitars are in stereo, hard left, hard right, and it’s just the simple power chord and sounds as thick as you’d ever want it to sound.”

After Forever:
If you have early copies of the North American version of the first four albums, you have probably noticed extra song titles but no actual additional songs. Those are “ghost” titles. Warner Bros. bands who played longer songs needed to give the appearance of more songs due to their publishing agreement, so for Black Sabbath to feature a minimum of 10 song titles, those additional titles were added afterward to various sections of songs, which was common practice amongst prog-rock bands of the era. “After Forever”’s floating instrumental intro was given one of these ghost titles: “The Elegy.” 

Where “Sweet Leaf” was light in topic, “After Forever” is like a fist hammering on the pulpit. An avowed Catholic who once considered becoming a priest, Geezer Butler wrote the words to this track partly to refute the band’s satanic image. Yet, as explicitly pro-Christian as the lyrics are, this fact eluded those who refused to believe it or look beyond the dark-sounding music. Ironically, despite the song’s unequivocally pious message, the band still managed to get into trouble, with complaints being directed at the line: “Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope?” taken, of course, out of context by its detractors.

Geezer said: “That song just says that once you get to the end, are you going to be prepared for what you find? Have you lived a good life?” Geezer also once put it this way. “We were getting accused of all sorts of things, the whole Satan thing, and everything. And ‘After Forever’ is just about all these people that were following us around that were into the occult, and all the so-called Jesus freaks. So as a response to them, I wrote ‘After Forever.’ It raises the question: When you’re on your deathbed, who ya gonna call, God or the Devil?” 

“After Forever” may be the first Christian metal song ever written. It would be covered years later by the all-Christian metal band Stryper with all the original lyrics intact. More influentially, it would establish a through-line in the Heavy Metal genre of songs centered on biblical themes that carried over the decades with countless bands, but comes directly from Black Sabbath, as this was not a topic Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, or even the acid-rock bands were writing about.

Unfortunately, even positive words can have a negative effect on someone mentally unstable. Apparently, serial killer David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam, would use Sabbath lyrics in his rambling writings. He favored two songs off of Master of Reality, “After Forever” and “Children of the Grave.” 

Ozzy said: “You remember that guy from New York, Son of Sam, who was killing all the chicks? When they got into his apartment, he supposedly had the lyrics to ‘After Forever’ written on his wall. I thought, ‘Fuck me, are we going too far?’”

The way people misinterpret lyrics would continue to be an issue for Ozzy for years to come.

Embryo:

“Embryo” is a twenty-eight-second track for solo guitar that gives birth to “Children of the Grave.” This two-stringed medieval jaunt is Tony letting you catch your breath before he and the rest of the band propel you on a galloping ride with the horsemen of the apocalypse. 

Tony said: “I liked to come up with some instrumental guitar tracks, like ‘Embryo.’ It’s a little classical thing to give it all a little space and create some light and shade. If you listen to an album or even a song from start to finish and it’s all pounding away, you don’t notice the heaviness of it because there is no light in between it. And that’s why, sometimes in the middle of songs as well, I put a light part in to make the riff sound heavy when it comes back in.” 

Children of the Grave:

“Children of the Grave,” with the working title of “Live in the Graveyard,” illustrates the continuing Sabbath knack of making a song title sound as if it is something from a horror film when in fact, the lyric deals with a different topic entirely; far from being about any kind of undead or similar theme, the track is another of Butler’s anti-war messages, coupled with his belief in nonviolent revolution. In fact, the titular “Children” are marching to take over the world in the name of peace and love, being doomed only to become Children of the Grave if they fail in this noble undertaking. 

Ozzy calls it the “most kick-ass song we’d ever recorded.”

With its galloping syncopated rhythm, like the four horsemen of the apocalypse on their way to the end of the world party, it’s the precursor to many metal tunes (Iron Maiden owes homage, especially). It’s as if all the turmoil in the inner city of Birmingham was converted into strident, musical notes. 

The benefit of a 16-track studio over an eight-track one gave “Children of the Grave” a notable extra layer of percussion, with Bill Ward’s overdubbed timbales providing an unsettling tribal-like beat over the main riff.

“Children of the Grave” may also be a nod to one of Tony and Geezer’s favorite classical composers Gustav Holst. They are on record saying that Holst’s “Mars, The Bringer of War” (from The Planets suite) directly influenced their song “Black Sabbath.” But melodically, you can also hear “Mars, The Bringer of War” on “Children of the Grave.” If you are getting a Star Wars vibe, too, you’re not wrong. John Williams, who did the score for Star Wars, used Holst’s “Mars” as an inspiration.

The song simply has the rolling power of an unstoppable juggernaut and has been a fixture in the band’s set lists (and Ozzy’s solo set as well) ever since it first appeared. Indeed, as the years have progressed, the song gradually took over the everpresent

encore of “Paranoid” as the set-closer that the diehards wanted. 

The track ends with some eerie-sounding, echoing music with a repeated whispered voice intoning “Children of the Grave … Children of the Grave,” which would loop endlessly in the run-off groove on the original vinyl. The closing sounds you hear is from a calliope (heard more fully on the instrumental version released on the Deluxe edition). This outro section was credited on the initial US pressing as “The Haunting,” but the extra title was removed for future pressings. 

Although there is no factual evidence for it, I’d like to believe the ch ch ch, ah ah ah in the Friday the 13th movies was in some way influenced by the outro to “Children of the Grave.”

If you enjoy cover songs of Sabbath, you might check out White Zombies’ creditable cover of “Children of the Grave.” If you want to hear a more Doom Metal version, check out Amon Amarth’s version. 

Orchid:

Where “Embryo” is medieval, this interlude is somewhat more Renaissance. This one-and-a-half-minute Iommi solo acoustic piece is far more than another “Embryo.” Despite its brief duration, this is a supremely delicate and beautifully composed piece, with a couple of brilliantly evocative chord progressions thrown almost casually into the middle. The short length of the track may be indicative of Iommi’s lack of confidence in including such a piece on a Black Sabbath album; and it wouldn’t be until the following years that he’d add longer and more developed works in the shape of ‘Laguna Sunrise,’ ‘Fluff,’ and the intro to ‘Spiral Architect’ which were longer and more fully developed. It may also have been abbreviated by producer Roger Bain who was notorious for cutting things like this. 

“Orchid” is a nice acoustic piece with some deft fingerpicking from Iommi that serves as the light contrast before being blasted into hell by the cloven-hoofed “Lord of This World.” Iommi gives you something beautiful before supplanting it.

Lord of This World:

Many Sabbath fans claim “Lord of This World” to be the heaviest tune that Sabbath has ever recorded. Surprisingly, this most explicit reference to Satan is the most thoroughly Christian song on the album. The message is simple: God and the Devil both exist, and if you don’t willfully choose to follow God, you get the Devil by default. The reference to Satan as “Lord of This World” is straight out of the New Testament (John 12:31, among others). The ultra-heavy groove is surprisingly dynamic and rich.

Geezer said: “‘Lord of This World’ was about Satan. Because it wasn’t God’s world, it was Satan’s world. The devil’s more in control now and happier than ever before. People can’t come together; there’s no equality. The higher you climb, the more people you have to cut down. You feel you’re better than other people, that they’re inferior to you, and it’s a sin to put yourself above other people, and yet that’s what people do.”

Lyrically, this is another piece that follows the “After Forever” model, being a Christian message couched in black imagery, a scathing rebuke against those who pursue materialistic, self-absorbed lives unaware that this is the path to Satan, as summed up in the couplet, “You turn to me in all your worldly greed and pride/But will you turn to me when it’s your turn to die?” 

In retrospect, it was an incredible tightrope act that the band managed to pull off. While most bands would have been ridiculed for their Christian ideals, Black Sabbath’s name, spooky imagery, and uber-heavy music carried them forward. In effect, they managed to use the “cool” trappings of the dark side common to occult bands like Black Widow and Coven, while escaping their gimmicky natures due to their greater musical and lyrical depth, all the while making anti-satanic ideas fascinating.

The grinding riff, which forms the thirty-second introductory passage to this track, was originally given the separate title “Step Up” on that notorious first US pressing.

A fascinating alternate version of “Lord of This World” includes a prominently doubled Ozzy vocal, piano, and amusing slide guitar licks from Tony. All but Bill’s cowbell were stripped from the final version.

Three killer covers of this song have been done by Clutch, Helmet, and Corrosion of Conformity.

Solitude:

Sometime when the group was still called Earth, before rechristening themselves as Black Sabbath, Osbourne and Butler had collaborated on the lyrics to a song called “Changing Phases,” which turned into “Solitude.”

“Solitude” is a wonderfully weird tune for Black Sabbath, and there are many who think it can’t be Ozzy singing it and assume it’s Bill Ward. “Solitude” is kind of the brother of “Planet Caravan” with fewer psychedelic effects and more of a proggy, folk-rock vibe, akin to King Crimson’s “Moonchild” or The Moody Blues’ “Visions of Paradise.” Ozzy’s voice here is masterful and shows just how well he could sing at this time — something he is often not credited with.

Ozzy’s voice aside, this is really a Tony Iommi piece. In addition to multi-tracked acoustic and electric guitar parts, he also contributes some excellent flute playing (a legacy of an interest gained during his brief run with Jethro Tull). Yep, Iommi was a temporary member of Jethro Tull. 

Iommi said: “I’m playing the flute on that song as well. I tried all sorts of things in the course of doing albums, even though I couldn’t play them, and after being with Jethro Tull for that short stint, I thought I might try the flute. I did it only to a very amateurish extent, I must admit.” If you listen to Tony’s playing on “A Song for Jim” — a tribute to their first manager Jim Simpson — you will hear that, amateur or not, he was quite proficient on the flute.

Here is a brief overview for those who may not know the tale of Iommi being in Jethro Tull.

Tull’s guitarist Mick Abrahams left the band on Nov 30, 1968. Ian Anderson had seen Earth and Iommi when they opened for them a week earlier at the Mother’s Club in Erdington, and offered him the job. Iommi thought it was an excellent opportunity for himself but did not want to leave his bandmates hanging, but after the rest of the band showed their support by telling Iommi to go for it, he did. But he quickly learned that Jethro Tull was more like a job than a band. He was there to support Ian Anderson’s vision of Jethro Tull, not a collective group vision. That didn’t sit right for Tony, so he put in his notice to leave. Ian was calm about it but asked, “We’re in trouble now because we’re doing this film, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, and we don’t have a guitar player. Would you do that at least?” Iommi agreed and played with them on December 11-12. Iommi had also come up with the riff in the Tull song, “Nothing Is Easy,” from their sophomore album, Stand Up (and rumors persist that “To Cry You a Song” on the follow-up Benefit album is an obvious Iommi riff).  

Iommi has consistently spoken of the “light and the shade” dynamics of Black Sabbath to provide different timbres for the listener. Master of Reality‘s “Solitude” provides this contrast as much as “Planet Caravan” did for Paranoid. With its acoustic guitar, flute, and light arrangements, “Solitude” is both a gorgeous ode to proggy-psychedelia and a palette cleanser for the heavy, ambitious cruncher that is “Into the Void,” much like “Planet Caravan” was for “Iron Man.”

Into the Void:

The final tune, “Into the Void”, is a massive dinosaur stomper that, in my

opinion, rivals “War Pigs” in terms of its changes and structure. The gruesomely heavy riff that opens the song was another ghost title named “Deathmask.”

Originally named “Spanish Sid,” this song is a sequel to “Children of the Grave,” where, as the closing of that song indicated, Utopia didn’t come about. The Earth is consumed by the destructive power of sin and the fires of judgment, and the only place to go is away. The “sons of freedom,” represent a remnant of humanity who make their way beyond the sun to a new world. This is also an apt metaphor for the Last Judgment as depicted in the book of Revelation, where the damned are condemned to the lake of fire, and the righteous are transported to a new heaven and new earth in which they find everlasting life, peace, and happiness. 

An absolutely monstrous and challenging track to make, Iommi has said that both Ward and Osbourne had trouble nailing this one. It was time, effort, and frustration well spent. 

Tony stated: “For Ozzy, getting Geezer’s lyrics right wouldn’t always be easy,”. “He certainly struggled on ‘Into The Void.’ It has this slow bit, but then the riff where Ozzy comes in is very fast. Ozzy had to sing really rapidly: ‘Rocket engines burning fuel so fast, up into the night sky they blast,’ quick words like that. Geezer had written all the words out for him. ‘Rocket wuhtuputtipuh, what the fuck, I can’t sing this!’ Seeing him try, it was hilarious.”

Bill Ward said: “That was Black Sabbath at its absolute height when it was absolutely coming alive. At that point, Geezer was writing really strongly. And the band at that point was unbelievably tight. We were really becoming confident due to all the touring we’d done.”

Soundgarden recorded this for the 1992 re-release of their Badmotorfinger album. Their version substituted lyrics taken from a speech given by Chief Sealth, a native American leader in what is now Washington State. Sealth, who lived 1786-1866, was also known as Chief Seattle, for which the city (where Soundgarden formed) is named. Soundgarden was nominated for a Best Metal Performance Grammy for the song.

“Into the Void” was also covered by Stoner rock band Kyuss. 

Album cover:

Before we talk about the album cover we all know, did you know another image was first in line for Sabbath’s next album? In December 1970, Black Sabbath bought a black and white drawing from German artist Peter Reuter. The plan was for him to come to London in January of 1971 and create a color version for Sabbath’s next album. Why it didn’t become the cover for Master of Reality is a mystery, though given that the band and label were trying to move away from overtly spooky imagery, this may be the reason why. 

Featuring a pitch-black cover with the band name eerily painted in funeral purple, the title of the record was embossed with bubbly lettering for the U.K. and North American release so that you could feel it with your fingers. Master of Reality looked as ominous as it sounded. Later editions lacked the embossed printing and instead rendered the album title in grey. In his autobiography, Iommi describes the cover as “Slightly Spinal Tap-ish, only well before Spinal Tap.” 

Black and purple were chosen as the theme to represent mourning colors. Many variants occurred around the world, with the majority intending to make the band’s name more readable beyond the straight embossing. Post the initial pressings, there have been several variants worldwide of the color scheme, with red, orange, and all purple lettering occasionally being used, but always with the same basic design. According to Discogs.com, over 200 variants exist of the Master of Reality album cover. 

Bill Ward said: “I know that when we saw the album cover, we just loved it. We thought it was great, purple and black. Everybody loves fucking black in our band. We saw it, and we thought, yeah, that’s great.”

The original UK issues of the album had the sleeve constructed as a thin box, opening with a flap at the top (like an envelope). A large six-panel fold-out poster was housed inside, featuring a sinister shot of the band standing under a tree. This photo was taken by Keith Macmillan, aka Keef who was responsible for the cover artwork of Black Sabbath and Paranoid. The location was Black Park, a country park in Wexham, Buckinghamshire, England. The Bloomsbury Group, who designed the cover and Macmillan would team up again for Sabbath’s next album, Vol. 4.

This was also the first Black Sabbath record on which the lyrics were reproduced on the back of the sleeve, which should have clarified what the band was about once and for all. 

Early US pressings bore the hallmark of injudicious planning when the title appeared in the plural as Masters of Reality on the vinyl label.

Master of Reality was the first Black Sabbath album (other than cover songs) that didn’t include full band credits for each song. “Orchid,” “Embryo,” and oddly enough, “After Forever” were mistakenly credited only to Iommi initially. This was changed when the Black Box was released, and the tunes (even “Orchid” and “Embryo”) were credited to the entire band. 

The album would be released in the UK in July and in the US in August 1971.

One of the unique promotions they had for the album was lifted from a blockbuster at the time: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Sabbath randomly inserted 500 “golden tickets” into copies of Master of Reality.

The “ticket” stated, “In 10 words or less, explain why you love Black Sabbath’s music.” The winner would get to hang out with Sabbath for the day. The winner ended up being writer Metal Mike Saunders. And the ten words or less that won it for him was simply “Black Sabbath have discovered the secret of sound.” In the description, I will link his article about his experience named “A Dorito and 7-Up Picnic with Black Sabbath.”

Master of Reality was a commercial hit, a Top 5 album in the UK, and a Top 10 success in America. It’s the distinct point where Sabbath proved they were here to stay and far from a current fad of 1970. They were able to capitalize on the brilliant music they had created the year before and enhance it a stage further, all while selling a ton of records and concert tickets, not to mention kickstarting new genres and inspiring musicians who were at the time either toddlers or not even born yet. 1971 was a great year for Black Sabbath and marked the turning point for them as they became a massive act stateside and worldwide. Yet critics still didn’t get it. 

Nobody But The Public Digs Sabbath:

Sabbath was still written about as uncouth hoodlums making simple music for grubby people. Even though the album shipped gold, went double platinum in the US, and sold nearly 5 million copies worldwide, there were still a few critics that hated Black Sabbath for purportedly killing the hippy dream.

“’Into the Void’ is over-long and a bit tedious.” Richard Green, New Musical Express

“It’s naive, simplistic, repetitive.” Lester Bangs RS.

Writing for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called it “a dim-witted, amoral exploitation.”

Bill Ward said: “When we did, Master, I thought my God, surely this has got to get some credibility. Because I love Master of Reality, it’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.”

And if we look at it through the lens of time, it’s an iconic piece of music. 

Billy Corgan, leader of The Smashing Pumpkins, considers Master of Reality the album that “spawned grunge.”

Rolling Stone ranked the album in their list of the 500 albums of all time.

Bill Ward said: “When we completed that album, we were, as far as I’m concerned, truly veterans. I always look at the first three albums as part of the same time period for us. But for me, it was Master of Reality that defined how good we’d become. The band had sort of reached a pinnacle with it. While I like all of those records, this is the one where I believe we found ourselves. This is really the first proper studio album. It also marked a point at which we began to develop into something else.”

Master of Reality was a beginning and an ending. Money, tours, adulation, and success had come their way; it is a marvel that Black Sabbath did survive, albeit somewhat for the worst. The band would go on to do their usual routine of tour, record, repeat. 

The Master of Reality tour is where they’d find their love for cocaine, feel the wrong side of success, and start to lose their innocence.