How could a ‘clown’ like Ozzy Osbourne influence so many bands?

How could a silly like Ozzy Osbourne – who sniffed red ants like all the drugs – had such a huge influence on rock history? Why would his band Black Sabbath grow into the founder of just about all genres with screaming crack guitars: from punk and grunge to all possible species (speed, thrash, doom, stoner, sludge, etc.)-metal?

You will not find the very best answer to that question in the countless biographies, reference works and documentaries, but in a diary of a psychiatric patient.

In the famous book series 33 1/3 Music experts usually analyze the complexity and history of one masterpiece from rock history. But the episode about the third Black Sabbath album Master of Reality is a hilarious short story about a confused adolescent who has to keep a diary about his feelings from his therapist, but out of revenge for the fact that his Walkman has been taken exclusively his favorite Black Sabbath plate.

No matter how “super simple” the guitar riffs of Tony Iommi are, they sound “as if they come from a volcano under the ocean,” the adolescent jubilates. “But sometimes the most difficult things in the world are also very simple. That is why Black Sabbath is my favorite band. They put all their energy in one riff. Dunn-Dunn, Duh-duh-Dunn Dunn, Dunn Dunn-Dunn. ” Of that simplicity, Osbourne is the ideal personalization: “He is not a Mr. Rock Star. Ozzy always sounds, always as if they have just picked him from the street and have put it in front of a microphone. He sounds like he loves to listen to the band and just tries to belong.”

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Basic effectiveness

Here is the secret: it is the basic effectiveness that Black Sabbath made so enormously influential, not technical perfection or virtuoso perfection. Because yes, the competition was much more skilled: finger -fast guitar gods and nuts such as Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple) and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) forced respect with their outrageous racing parties, but they were also megalomaniac patsers.

The same applied to their singers Ian Gillan and Robert Plant. They both had a much larger reach than Osbourne and could make their throats vibrate in all possible keys as accomplished tenors. But it was precisely that ultimate class that made them unreachable gods. Every fan knew: I can never do this.

Black Sabbath himself was the foot people, but managed to create the greatest possible expressiveness despite all their limitations. Iommi tinkered prostheses himself after he had shattered the upper legs of his ring and middle finger in an accident in the Birmingham steel factory. Compared to the inimitable arts of the other guitar gorillas on the monkey rock, his adornless riffs loom and rude, but they bite harder and deeper. That also applied to Ozzy’s nasal voice: it sometimes seemed to come from a phone, but was overflowing with genuine anger, fear and oppression.

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Meaningful: the biggest hit Iommi flared out in a few minutes when an extra number suddenly had to come in the studio. Bassist Geezer Butler scribbled some rules about his depression on paper that Osbourne managed to interpret in a chilling way, without knowing what the title ‘Paranoid’ actually meant.

That accessibility turned out to be the asset. Because now everyone knew: if even a disabled guitarist and a singing half sole can do it, then we should also succeed.

That made Black Sabbath to the ultimate pioneers of Punkers (Black Flag), Grungers (Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins), Stoners (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age) and Metalheads (Metallica, Slayer) – all of them from the countercultuur. For all underdogs, misfits and outsiders that wanted nothing more than to depart against the mainstream, there was no better figurehead than that Joker from Birmingham. In this way Ozzy was able to grow into a clown that was a genius at the same time.

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