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The progression of Sabbath

G

GL797

Dec 3, 2010
109
5
www.youtube.com
#1
I know a lot of people have a tendecy to think of Iron Man and Paranoid when they hear the name Black Sabbath. For many people that is all they know of them.

I think of all of the big time bands Sabbath changed the most with each new album. This continued with Ronnie james Dio r.i.p.

Their last album with Ozzy "Never Say Die" is my favorite from them, they were heading into something completely different. Jazz...ish, keyboards, etc..

I recorded this bass play along video (not perfect by any stretch) of a song that I think most bassists could appreciate.
To me Geezer was the reason I loved music to begin with. This is not your "typical" Sabbath but imho it is their best.

 
#3
I agree, they have alot more depth then most folks know, because they were early enough to be at the infancy of the metal genre.

There is alot of alot of solid blues based playing hidden under all that distortion. Consider that the bass intro to NIB is a blues pentatonic solo in the Key of E (or at least that is what it looks like to me).

They had a blank page to experiment and literally create new stuff that bands later on would use. And there is alot of jazzy stuff in the later albums, moving away from the "trance" style of the earlier stuff.

I have read people bashing Geezer saying he was lazy and just copying the lead guitar parts, but from what I have read, Geezer is the one that came up with most of the main riffs for the songs, i.e. the underlying rythym, and Iommi built his lead part based on that, hence, it is really Iommi copying the bass line, and on purpose, it gave the thick powerful sound across the sonic spectrum from bass to treble, hence the foundation of "heavy" metal. Later bands like Judas Priest would do that same by using both Tipton's and Downing's guitars to play the same lead line, giving the full powerful sound which was their signature.

Geezer was not lazy.....read the sheet music, not the simplified tabs most people use to "fake" his lines.....the basslines are not simplistic, he uses multiple positions on the fretboard often, this ain't no I-IV-V pumping eigths stuff.

Geezer is why I play bass, and after playing for about a year and a half, I struggle to get through his stuff (and Leon Wilkeson's).
 
#4
Though I'm not a metal guy (anymore, and Sabbath were so much more than metal in the classic Ozzy era), Geezer is still my main influence. You could really hear the bass clearly on the Sabbath records, even on my Western Auto stereo back in 1978, and the parts were not so difficult (yet very cool) that a teenager, beginner bassist could successfully learn a lot of it by ear.

I love it all, but my favorites are Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage. To me that's when they really got experimental, and did some of their best studio work.
 
#5
big_z_in_miami said:
I have read people bashing Geezer saying he was lazy and just copying the lead guitar parts, but from what I have read, Geezer is the one that came up with most of the main riffs for the songs, i.e. the underlying rythym, and Iommi built his lead part based on that, hence, it is really Iommi copying the bass line, and on purpose, it gave the thick powerful sound across the sonic spectrum from bass to treble, hence the foundation of "heavy" metal.
Click to expand...

Read nothing! Just listen to any song and you'll hear Geezer is doing his own thing while Iommi is doing his thing.

Later bands like Judas Priest would do that same by using both Tipton's and Downing's guitars to play the same lead line, giving the full powerful sound which was their signature.
Click to expand...

I love JP, but their bass player should have been shot. He didn't do anything for the band.

Geezer was not lazy.....read the sheet music, not the simplified tabs most people use to "fake" his lines.....the basslines are not simplistic, he uses multiple positions on the fretboard often, this ain't no I-IV-V pumping eigths stuff.
Click to expand...

Where can I get the sheet music? A lot of the times the published stuff is just some guy transcribing by themselves and getting the rights to publish the stuff. If I knew it was accurate, I'd buy it immediately, though.

Geezer is why I play bass,
Click to expand...

Same. Whenever I feel down, either because I'm feeling like there's no direction in bass or because people look down on pick players, I listen to Geezer and feel better.
 
#6
Just picked up a re-issued new vinyl copy of Vol 4 (only $12 too which is amazing considering the jacked-up prices on new vinyl these days) and am convinced it is underrated. Some of their best stuff and a real turning point musically I think.
 
#7
I can appreciate just about every era of Sabbath. The last two Ozzy LPs are sadly over loooked. I mean they're mixed in an angry cocaine haze, but there is some great material on there, some of it a real departure from the classic first five LPs.

On NSD Juniors Eyes, Air Dance & Swinging The Chain stand out for me. (Bill Ward sings on Swinging The Chain!)

Also Technical Ecstasy is filled with some lost gems...Back Street Kids, All Moving Parts (Stand Still), Dirty Women.

I love the Dio stuff too.

But jeez dude, I even like Born Again and Seventh Star...and Eternal Idol.

And Geezer is/was an ENORMOUS influence on me.
 
#9
I always loved the first 6 Sabb albums. "Sabotage" was huge for me back then.
Geezer was a big influence. The progression from record to record was tangible.
The leap from "Master of Reality" to "VOL 4" was incredible.
 
#10
The Sabbath albums with Ozzy are all classic. The progression shows them maturing as musicians very well. When Dio hopped on board, Heaven and Hell (the album) was amazing. After that, they kind of lost me until Dehumanizer. Heaven and Hell (the band) was an excellent progression of Sabbath with Dio, and it is sad thinking about where they could have headed with H&H.
 
#11
Hey GL797, any chance you can tab some of that out? I have found only one tab for Junior's Eyes and it is only the main riff, but the chorus eludes me.

Also, I like how you let it flow more and relax some of the fast parts, so it is a little unique each time, I think that adds depth to it. The use of slide too....I never thought of that to manage the fretboard better in this song.
 
#12
big_z_in_miami said:
Hey GL797, any chance you can tab some of that out? I have found only one tab for Junior's Eyes and it is only the main riff,
Click to expand...

I wish I could but I never made a tab before, I wouldn't even know how to begin. If I may give some advice, for the chorus just play the main note that would follow the guitar power chord (7th fret A string slide down to 3rd fret A). Don't worry about the Geezer type fills until you get these down. The guitar solo part in the middle I figured out the same way but it's more involved than the chorus because it changes a few times. Once you do get them down add the fills.

*YouTube removed the audio from first post, gee Thanks WMG. so the only way they would allow it is if I slightly raised the pitch of the whole video. You'd be much better off playing along to the original song to learn it.
Good luck, I hope you can use my vid to help you out, it's such a great song. I still need to learn it better myself.

I think I'll try "Air Dance" next but I have a loooong way to go on that one.
 
#14
Black Sabbath, second best band ever!

I'm gonna make some big calls and swim against the tidehere, but best album is Master of Reality, best riff is Sabbra Cadabbra and best song is Spiral Architect.

And Geezer is just some form of a god. That tone, those fills! And if you want to hear what a metal bassline should sound like then look no further than Symptom of the Universe. Pure skull crushing goodness.
 

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