Deeper than the Rainbows

Deeper than the Rainbows
Beyond the Mountains
Of silver and shining gold
There lie a river and a fountain

Where they speak of old woes
That made the departing
Easier to mold
For the ones pure in the heart, kings

I hope you feel well my friend
For all the love you gave to me
I will cherish your ways as it was meant
You’ll be always my Ronnie

Absolutely Freaks

My only worthy foil in my heart for Black Sabbath is Frank Zappa. Frank was a genre bending genius of an idiot whose tremendous musical skills were undermined/heightened by his zany and satiric humour. You will learn more if you follow my blog.

Our first chapter is the album that opened my eyes toward the Zappaic universe, Absolutely Free from 1967.

The first tune is “Plastic people”, which starts by Frank's introduction of the President of the US, and after that "El Presidente" jangles "fellow Americans", it goes to a stuttering scat du-du against the guitar. We got the refrain and than various interesting interjection. It ranges from society observations, fiction, comment on hippies. The piece was a commentary of how the San Franciscan police handled hippies. (see Nazis) Of course, the hippies got their stuff to the face as well. They are the plastic people. Also we get the “Prune is a vegetable” cue of the album. (see: flower power, deduct mockery, salute FZ ) The whole tune got an amazing ride of style all in cosy 3:30 minutes.

“The Duke of Prunes” ridicules sappy love songs, with a nice bouncy melody that is characteristically disturbing a bit. Pseudo-operatic vocals and doo-wop harmonisations are in abound; the later is usual FZ. “Amnesia Vivace” has some nice reeds, and then we got the Duke theme reprised and twisted and amplified into an explosion.

"Cheesy, Cheesy”, announces “Call Any Vegetable”, which opened my eyes. It has a darn tricky time signatures palette, based on eights, extremely bouncy. Look out for the most out of the tune yodel ever and various vocal and lyrical hilarities. The middle part of the suite is a nice instrumental that you can dance to! After we conclude the vegetable story with advices how to deal with our Veggie friends.

“Big leg Emma” is a blues-ish jazzy shuffle about, wooh, Big leg Emma. Reeds are carrying the theme, a nice breather. “Why don’tcha do” me right is a menacing piece with a lingering sexual undercurrent. Frank let it rips showing his solo prowess. There is no one like him with his feedback soaked idiosyncrasy.

Because I feel you could get the hang of Frank now, I am just mentioning the plastic people type of opera roller coaster “Brown shoes don’t make it” and the bar salute mocker “America drinks & go home”.

Frank always loaded his album with messages and a rich musical tapestry that is always worthy looking at more deeply. (And you got to love how the maestro himself laughs at the idiocy sometimes.)

What is this that stands before me?

As a starter, no better place to go then the very root of dark hard rock…

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)

Black Sabbath started out as a blues jazz band back in the day, playing as Earth. From this primordial brace, they started to embrace darker music.

The album stars out with rain falling, a bell tolling, and thunder roaring. Then dark riffing and moody drum bass combo spook the hell out of the listener. The eerie voice of Mr Osbourne is perfect for this mood as his dispirited, lonely cries wail in the dark pocket. The song crawls as a dead animal toward a bleak future. At 4:40, it picks up speed and moves to a crescendo of hellish sounds. A Black Sabbath – Tony Iommi trademark. Black Sabbath, the song is a strong culmination of the original group talent and musical direction.

The second song is less iconic, but much loved in the community. ’The Wizard’ starts with the harmonica of Ozzy, harmonizing with a stop start Iommi riff. This gives the song a weird up-mid feel. Thanks to the re-master, you can hear the utter genius of Bill Ward as he filling the background with his jazzy rhythms. The Next, ’Wall of Sleep’ is built on strong blues riff and guitar drum interplay. I say it here but Geezer Butler is an incredible foil for Iommi as he moves with the Riff master with ease. After a seedier interlude and a brief drum solo we get Geezer soloing Bassically then the monstrous NIB comes. Iommi serves as a mammoth riff again, propulsive drums, mid tempo singing, a great, great track. The forth offering after the longish third is Wicked World. Jazzy, frightening but quickie, this number used to be the Iommi solo spot with a middle section designed to noodle. A forgotten gem of heavy jazz.

’Bit of Finger’ serves as a memento for Tony’s lost fingers. Sleeping Village is an excellent work out, showing how tight the group are; yet wandering a bit more than in the future. Warning is a cover track. This lost love song is a great fit for this Birmingham quartet. This song includes a longish jazz jam. ‘Evil Woman’ is another cover. Rather good but I in retrospect, not the best single here.

Black Sabbath was an immensely powerful album. I can understand the critics’ hatred. It is dark, evil, and a bit satanic. Ozzy was strong back then and the group had a vision about their music.