Black Sabbath in 1970 (from left): Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne.
Recently, in a small part of England, the world turned away from its troubles and the forces of heaviness were brought into the light, and formally acknowledged. And it was a good thing.
Black Sabbath were officially recognised for their work. Birmingham City Council voted to accept a recommendation that the band’s four founding members vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward, be awarded the title of City Freeman. The title recognises the contributions that the lads have made to the city.
The council’s deputy leader, Councillor Sharon Thompson, said before the vote: “Birmingham has a fantastic musical culture and Black Sabbath are a major part of that history, a pioneering band that still influences today’s musicians. They have become synonymous with the city and have been true ambassadors throughout their phenomenal careers.
“Conferring these honors on these Birmingham legends would be the perfect way of saying thank you for all that they have done for the city.”
Councillor John Cotton, in putting the motion, said it was ‘‘in deep appreciation and recognition of their unique and distinguished contribution to the field of music and their service to the city, the City Council confers upon the members of Black Sabbath the Freedom of the City.’’
More than 50 years ago, if you had told the four one day Birmingham is going to endow you all with the freedom of the city, they would have turned the amps up to 12 and shredded the claims.
The once Prince of Darkness, aka Osbourne, is now ‘‘honoured and, at the same time, shocked that I would have ever been considered for this very special commendation. I’m a proud Brummie from Aston (suburb of Birmingham) through and through. I’m still amazed to this day that no one outside of Birmingham can understand a word I say, but that’s always made me laugh.
“I started with nothing but a dream, which I shared with Tony, Geezer and Bill. We never gave up on that dream. My only regret is that my Mum and Dad are not here to see what I became. Birmingham Forever!”
Iommi added: “I’m over the moon! What a great honour to be a City Freeman. I’m aware that very few are given out. It ties us to the rich history of our hometown Birmingham, and that’s fantastic. I’m deeply grateful for the recognition.”
(Melbourne, with other cities, have recognised musicians,too. For instance, we have AC/DC Lane, and Amphlett Lane.)
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Black Sabbath formed in Aston in 1968. They are at the vanguard of heavy metal. Guitarist Iommi is regarded by many as one of the great rock guitarists, and a genius of heavy metal riffs. His style, having to switch to becoming left-handed after a machinery accident severed a couple of the fingers on his right hand, is both fluid and staccato, apocalyptic and threatening. And melodic enough to bang your head in sync with.
The latest award follows recognition in 2019 when Birmingham named a bench and a bridge after the band. The pub where they played their first gig , the Crown, has Grade II listing by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.
How could Black Sabbath not be acknowledged? This is the band that delivered to the world “Paranoid”, “War Pigs” and “Iron Man”. It showed that music can be not only sweetness and light, but dread and darkness. Indeed, it can be anything it wants to be. Sabbath even showed it can be a parody of its own pretension and invention with the monumental screw up involving a mockup of Stonehenge for the stage, that somehow was translated into the wrong dimensions and became monumentally too big for its own use, which then was parodied in “This is Spinal Tap”, but in reverse.
And. of course, there is the infamous bat incident of 1982. It didn’t involve the band, just Ozzy.
Osbourne was performing in Des Moines, Iowa, when he thought a fan had thrown a rubber bat onto the stage. He bit its head off. Turned out it was alive, for awhile. Osbourne had to have rabies shots for about three weeks.
Heavy metal over the decades has splintered into sub metal genres. There’s death metal (morbid and gloomstruck), thrash metal (morbid, gloomstruck and very fast), industrial metal (morbid, gloomstruck and techno) and gothic metal (morbid, gloomstruck and mascared) to name a few.
But Black Sabbath was the beginning of the spawning.
CODA: The first album a young McFadyen bought, off the back of a review in a newspaper, was Black Sabbath Vol. 4. He was struck by the reviewer’s description of the excellent guitar work. The reviewer was right. It was heavy.
STOP PRESS! The original four, Ozzy Osbourne, 76, Bill Ward, 76, Tony Iommi, 76, and Geezer Butler, 75, are reuniting for their final show together, ever. They’ll hit the stage, or maybe shuffle on stage, in Birmingham on July 5. They’ll be joined during the day by Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Anthrax and of course, in the way of these things there will be a super-heavy group including Billy Corgan, Fred Durst, Slash, Sammy Hagar, Wolfgang Van Haen and Tom Morello.
