congrats to tony iommi

[steve56]

yeah,always recall hearing friday kind of monday towards the end of 1967/68 it was never a hit though.

[IdolDroog]

Yeh I agree with you Rude Boy...to be honest Ozzy gets far more credit for the songwriting in sabbath than he deserves because he never wrote any of the songs really...it was geezer butler who wrote Iron Man and like 50% of the writing and 80% of the lyrics (as i understand) and Tony Iommi did the rest....together they were superb.

What interests me is how Ozzy is a professional singer - I mean on their tv show he cant hold any form of note at all yet somehow he managed to be original and influencial on records in the 70s(and late 60s) ....strange but true. I wouldve liked to have seen Ozzy before he was all slow and stuttery...made me laugh the other day because with all the ice about everyone was walking like Ozzy hehe......but once again the subject of tony iommi has been changed to Ozzy so im gonna end on a tony note......erm.................................... Eb (well it is his favourite)

[Ace]

Its well known that Iommi lost his fingertips on his right hand when working at a factory before he started Sabbath. He had them re-sewn on and had plastic surgery, and you HAVE to admire that.
Heaven & Hell is an excellent album, and I think Dio was their best singer live.
I saw Ozzy several times including the first solo tour (Blizzard of Ozz- Coventry 1980) and a then unknown guitarist, Randy Rhoads, absolutely made mincemeat of Iommi's established riffs. Seen Brad Gillis and Jake E Lee play with him as well, and whilst they were fast and flash, they weren't a patch on Iommi, and didn't hold a candle to Rhoads. I've seen some brilliant guitarists in my time, Rhoads was the best and that includes Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton

[IdolDroog]

I dont really know much about Randy Rhoads so I wont comment in detail but I havent heard any kind of monumental riffs from his direction which is what I look for in a guitarist - not if they can play 10 notes per second or any of that stuff ive always said im obsessed with proper riffs and Iommi and co were the prototypes for a little chap called Cobain (along with everyone else) who apparently did a couple of nice riffs....

Again to go back to the fingertips incident - he replaced the tops of his fingers with fairy liquid bottle tops didnt he....jeez imagine that when you are like 17 years old and think your only way out of a hard factory life is the guitar...

[Ace]

You might not have ID as RR died in 1982, years before reaching his full potential, his output with Ozzy was 2 studio albums and a posthumous live one.
Email me if you want any

[Deuce Bigolo]

I can remember reading about his death

One hell of a prank that went wrong...buszzing the touring bus in a plane
while all on board were asleeep and eventually on the 3rd run clipping the bus...bizarre

Can't say I've ever seen him live but have read many who claimed he was brilliant and Unique in many reagrds

Heard the same about Michael Schenker from The Scorpions

Only the music live can determine wether one is Great or just Average
when it comes to the guitar

cheers
B....OZ

[Rude Boy]

"I wouldve liked to have seen Ozzy before he was all slow and stuttery."

December 1997, Birmingham NEC...the first proper reunion of Black Sabbath featuring Osbourne, Iommi, Butler AND Bill Ward on drums. Two monumental shows with Ozzy on top form and sheer class playing from Iommi and Butler. What I'm sure was the revelation for most people at those gigs was Bill Ward kicking ass on drums like a man possessed after years of semi-retirement. Every time he kicked the bass drum it was like Tyson punching you in the chest and the pain was delicious!!

[Rude Boy]

"Again to go back to the fingertips incident - he replaced the tops of his fingers with fairy liquid bottle tops didnt he....jeez imagine that when you are like 17 years old and think your only way out of a hard factory life is the guitar..."

Sorry to bang on but I am THE Sabbath anorak and this is way more interesting than anything else I've got to do today!

Tony is a left-handed player and lost the fingertips on his right hand which is his fretboard hand, a total disaster. After hearing that another guitarist had continued to play and record having actually lost complete fingers (!) Tony felt inspired to carry on and did indeed create artificial fingertips from a melted Fairy Liquid bottle with strips of leather glued on for gripping the strings.

Because he had to re-learn to play in this new way and had to experiment with different guages of strings and different tunings in order to "Feel" the strings beneath his artificial fingertips this led to the unique, oddball Sabbath sound where nothing was standard.

So..there you go. If you need to know what colour socks he was wearing when he wrote a particular song...I'm your man! I'm off to zip up my anorak!

[Ace]

ah, but did you know Iommi's first name IS really FRANK?

[Ace]

That was Rudolph Schenker, Michaels big brother. Mike did play briefly for Da Scorps, but joined UFO before setting up MSG.

As regards Randy Rhoads, it was an accident that is contributed to a suicide by the pilot who wanted to take out Ozzy as well. Tests on the pilot showed he was coked to the eyeballs and financially ruined after a messy divorce