AC/DC underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, High Voltage, in 1975. Membership remained stable until bassist Cliff Williams replaced Mark Evans in 1977. In 1979, the band recorded their highly successful album Highway to Hell. Lead singer and co-songwriter Bon Scott died on February 19, 1980, after a night of heavy alcohol consumption. The group briefly considered disbanding, but soon ex-Geordie singer Brian Johnson was selected as Scott’s replacement. Later that year, the band released their best selling album, Back in Black.

The band’s next album, For Those About to Rock (We Salute You), was also highly successful and was their first album to reach number one in the United States. AC/DC declined in popularity soon after the departure of drummer Phil Rudd in 1983. Poor record sales continued until the release of The Razors Edge in 1990. Phil Rudd returned in 1994 and contributed to the band’s 1995 album Ballbreaker. Stiff Upper Lip was released in 2000 and was well received by critics. The band’s new album Black Ice was announced in 2004 and is set for release on October 20, 2008.[4]

AC/DC have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide,[5] including 69 million albums in the US.[6] Back in Black has sold an estimated 42 million units worldwide[7] and 22 million in the US alone,[8] making it the fifth highest-selling album ever in the US. AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1′s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock”[9] and the seventh “Greatest Heavy Metal Band Of All Time” by MTV.[10] In 2004, the band was ranked number 73 in the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968.^[4] Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock,^[5] although the members of the band have always refused to label themselves as heavy metal^[6]. The band has also incorporated pop and progressive rock elements ^[5]. It was once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s loudest band,^[5][7][8] and it has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.^{[9][10][11][12]} Deep Purple was ranked #22 on VH1‘s Greatest Artists of Hard Rock program.^[13]

The band has gone through many line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus. The 1968-76 line-ups are commonly labelled Mark I, II, III and IV. ^[14][15] Their second and most commercially successful line-up featured: Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards), Roger Glover (bass guitar) and Ian Paice (drums).^[8] This line-up was revived from 1984-89 and again in 1993 before the rift between Blackmore and other members became unbridgeable. The current line-up including guitarist Steve Morse has been much more stable, though Lord’s retirement in 2002 has left Paice as the only original member.^[16]

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[edit] History

[edit] (1964–1968) Pre-Deep Purple years

In 1967, former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis contacted London businessman Tony Edwards in the hope that he would manage a new group he was putting together, to be called Roundabout: so-called because the members would get on and off the band, like a musical roundabout. Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to finance the venture with two business partners: John Coletta and Ron Hire (Hire-Edwards-Coletta – HEC Enterprises).

The first recruit was the classically-trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord, who had most notably played with The Artwoods (led by Art Wood, brother of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, and featuring Keef Hartley). He was followed by session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore who was persuaded to return from Hamburg to audition for the new group. Curtis soon dropped out, but HEC Enterprises, as well as Lord and Blackmore, were keen to carry on.

For the bass guitar, Lord suggested his old friend Nick Simper, with whom he had played in a band called The Flower Pot Men and their Garden (formerly known as The Ivy League) back in 1967. Simper’s claims to fame (apart from Purple) were that he had been in Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and had been in the car crash that killed Kidd. He was also in Screaming Lord Sutch‘s The Savages, where he played with Blackmore.

The line-up was completed by singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice from The Maze. After a brief tour of Denmark in the spring of 1968, Blackmore suggested a new name: Deep Purple, which was his grandmother’s favourite song.

[edit] (1968–1970) Breakthrough

In October 1968, the group had success with a cover of Joe South‘s “Hush“, which reached #4 on the US Billboard chart. The song was taken from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, and they were booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour.

The band’s second album, The Book of Taliesyn (including a cover of Neil Diamond‘s “Kentucky Woman”), was released in the United States to coincide with this tour, reaching #38 on the billboard chart, although it would not be released in their home country until the following year. 1969 saw the release of their third album, Deep Purple, which contained strings and woodwind on one track (“April”). Several influences were in evidence, notably Vanilla Fudge and Lord’s classical antecedents such as Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov.

After these three albums and extensive touring in the States, their American record company, Tetragrammaton, went out of business, leaving the band with no money and an uncertain future. (Tetragrammaton’s assets were assumed by Warner Bros. Records, who would release Deep Purple’s records in the U.S. throughout the 1970s.) Returning to England in early 1969, they recorded a single called “Emmaretta”, named for a cast member of the musical Hair, whom Rod Evans was trying to seduce, before Evans and Simper were fired.

The band hunted down singer Ian Gillan from Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without achieving their big break for commercial success. Six’s drummer Mick Underwood – an old comrade of Blackmore’s from his Savages days – made the introductions, and bassist Roger Glover tagged along for the initial sessions. Purple persuaded Glover to join full-time; an act that effectively killed Episode Six and gave Underwood a guilt complex that lasted nearly a decade – until Gillan recruited him for his new post-Purple band in the late 1970s.

This created the quintessential Deep Purple “Mark II” lineup, whose first, inauspicious release was a Greenaway-Cook tune titled “Hallelujah,” which flopped.

The band gained some much-needed publicity with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Together with Five Bridges by The Nice, it was one of the first collaborations between a rock band and an orchestra, although at the time, certain members of Purple (Blackmore and Gillan especially) were less than happy at the group being tagged as “a group who played with orchestras” when actually what they had in mind was to develop the band into a much tighter, hard-rocking style. Despite this, Lord wrote and the band recorded the Gemini Suite, another orchestra/group collaboration in the same vein, in late 1970.

[edit] (1970–1976) Popularity and breakup

cover for Deep Purple’s classic album In Rock, 1970

Shortly after the orchestral release, the band began a hectic touring and recording schedule that was to see little respite for the next three years. Their first studio album of this period, released in mid-1970, was In Rock (a name deliberately chosen to distance the rock album from the concerto) and contained the then-concert staples “Speed King,” “Into The Fire,” and “Child in Time.” The band also issued the UK Top Ten single “Black Night.” The interplay between Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s distorted organ, coupled with Ian Gillan’s howling vocals and the rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now started to take on a unique identity and become instantly recognisable to rock fans throughout Europe.

A second album, the more mellow and creatively progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan but not of the rest of the band), was issued in the summer of 1971. The title track “Fireball” was released as a single, as was “Strange Kind of Woman” – not from the album but recorded during the same sessions (although it was included on the US version of the album in lieu of the UK version’s song “Demon’s Eye.”)

Within weeks of Fireball’s release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which later became “Highway Star“) was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus to a show in Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist’s question: “How do you go about writing songs?” Three months later, in December 1971, the band traveled to Switzerland to record Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at a casino in Montreux, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention gig burned down the casino. The album was actually recorded at the nearby empty Grand Hotel. This incident famously inspired the song “Smoke on the Water.” Gillan believes that he witnessed a man fire a flare gun into the ceiling during the concert, prompting Mark Volman of the Mothers to comment: “Arthur Brown in person!”

Continuing from where both previous albums left off, Machine Head has since become one of the band’s most famous albums, including tracks that became live classics such as “Highway Star,” “Space Truckin’,” “Lazy,” and “Smoke on the Water.” Deep Purple continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on: when Machine Head was recorded, the group had only been together three and a half years, yet it was their seventh LP. Meanwhile the band undertook four US tours in 1972 and the August tour of Japan that led to a double-vinyl live release, Made in Japan. Originally intended as a Japan-only record, its world-wide release saw the double LP become an instant hit. It remains one of rock music’s most popular and highest selling live-concert recordings (although at the time it was perhaps seen as less important, as only Glover and Paice turned up to mix it).

cover for Deep Purple’s most successful album Machine Head, 1972

The classic Purple Mk. II line-up continued to work and released the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), featuring the hit single “Woman from Tokyo,” but internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. The bad feelings culminated in Ian Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, and Roger Glover being pushed out with him. Their replacements were an unknown singer from Saltburn in Northeast England, David Coverdale, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze. According to the liner notes for the 30th anniversary edition of Burn, after first acquiring Glenn Hughes, they debated continuing as a four piece with Hughes as both bassist and vocalist. This new line-up continued into 1974 with the heavier blues-rock album Burn, another highly successful release and world tour. Hughes and Coverdale added both vocal harmonies and a more funky element to the band’s music, a sound that was even more apparent on the late 1974 release Stormbringer. Besides the title track, the album had a number of songs that received much radio play, such as “Lady Double Dealer,” “The Gypsy,” and “Soldier Of Fortune.” Yet Blackmore voiced unhappiness with the album and the direction Deep Purple had taken. As a result, he left the band in the spring of 1975 to form his own band with Ronnie James Dio of Elf, called Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, later shortened after one album to Rainbow.

With Blackmore’s departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest bandmember vacancies in rock music. In spite of this, the rest of the band refused to stop, and to the surprise of many long-time fans, actually announced a replacement for the “irreplaceable” Man in Black; American Tommy Bolin.

There are at least two versions about the recruitment of Bolin: according to the liner notes in the Deep Purple 4-CD boxed set it was Coverdale who had suggested auditioning Bolin. “He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow, and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four Marshall 100-watt stacks and…the job was his.” But in an interview originally published by Melody Maker in June 1975 and available at the Deep Purple Appreciation Society’s (DPAS) website, Bolin himself claimed that he came to the audition following a recommendation from Ritchie Blackmore [1]. Bolin had been a member of many now-forgotten mid-60s bands – Denny & The Triumphs, American Standard, and Zephyr, which released three albums from ’69-72. Before Purple, Bolin’s best-known recordings were made as a session musician on Billy Cobham‘s 1973 jazz fusion album, Spectrum, and on The James Gang‘s Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). He had also jammed with such luminaries as Dr. John, Albert King, The Good Rats and Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo album, Teaser when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple.

The resulting album, Come Taste the Band, was released in October 1975. Despite mixed reviews, the collection revitalised the band once again, bringing a new, extreme funk edge to their hard rock sound. Bolin’s influence was crucial, and with encouragement from Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the material. Later, Bolin’s personal problems with drugs began to manifest themselves, and after cancelled shows and below-par concert performances, the band was in danger.

[edit] (1976–1984) Band split, side projects

The end came on tour in Britain in March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. David Coverdale reportedly walked off in tears and handed in his resignation, to which he was allegedly told there was no band left to quit. The decision to disband Purple had been made some time before the last show by Lord and Paice (the last remaining original members), who hadn’t told anyone else. The break-up was finally made public in July 1976.

Later, Bolin had just finished recording his second solo album, Private Eyes, when, on December 4, 1976, tragedy struck. In Miami, during a tour supporting Jeff Beck, Bolin was found unconscious by his girlfriend. Unable to wake him, she hurriedly called paramedics, but it was too late. The official cause of death: multiple-drug intoxication. He was 25 years old.

After the break-up most of the past and present members of Deep Purple went on to have considerable success in a number of other bands, including Rainbow, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Gillan. There were, however, a number of promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform, especially with the revival of the hard rock market in the late 70s/early 80s. By 1980, an unauthorised version of the band surfaced with Rod Evans as the only member who had ever been in Deep Purple, eventually ending in successful legal action from the legitimate Deep Purple camp over unauthorised use of the name. Evans was ordered to pay damages of $672,000 for using the band name without permission.^[17]

[edit] (1984–1994) Reunions and breakups

In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place with the “classic” early 70s line-up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice. The album Perfect Strangers was released in October 1984. A solid release, it sold extremely well and included the singles and concert staples “Knockin’ At Your Back Door” and “Perfect Strangers.” The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and wending its way across the world to the USA, then into Europe by the following summer. Financially, the tour was also a tremendous success. The UK homecoming proved limited, as they elected to play just a single festival show at Knebworth (with main support from the Scorpions). The weather was bad, but 80,000 turned up anyway.

The line-up then released The House of Blue Light in 1987, which was followed by a world tour (interrupted after Blackmore broke a finger on stage) and another live album Nobody’s Perfect (1988) which was culled from several shows on this tour, but still largely based around the by-now familiar Made in Japan set-list. In the UK a new version of “Hush” was released to mark 20 years of the band. In 1989, Ian Gillan was fired as his relations with Blackmore had again soured and their musical differences had widened too far. His replacement was former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. This line-up recorded just one album, Slaves & Masters (1990) and toured in support. It is one of Blackmore’s favourite Purple albums, though some fans derided it as little more than a so-called “Deep Rainbow” album.

With the tour done, Turner was forced out, as Lord, Paice and Glover (and the record company) wanted Gillan back in the fold for the 25th anniversary. Blackmore grudgingly relented and the classic line-up recorded The Battle Rages On, but tensions between Gillan and Blackmore came to a head yet again during an otherwise stunningly successful European tour. Blackmore walked out in November 1993, never to return. Joe Satriani was drafted in to complete the Japanese dates in December and stayed on for a European Summer tour in 1994. He was asked to join permanently, but his record contract commitments prevented this. The band unanimously chose Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse to become Blackmore’s permanent successor.

[edit] (1994–present) Revival with Steve Morse

Roger Glover and Steve Morse jamming during the intro to “Highway Star“

Steve Morse’s arrival revitalised the band creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles. With a revamped set list to tour, Deep Purple enjoyed success throughout the rest of the 1990s, releasing the harder-sounding Abandon in 1998, and touring with renewed enthusiasm. In 1999, Jon Lord, with the help of a fan who was also a musicologist and composer, painstakingly recreated the Concerto for Group and Orchestra; the original score having been lost. It was once again performed at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1999, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. The concert also featured songs from each member’s solo careers, as well as a short Deep Purple set, and the occasion was commemorated on the 2000 album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. In early 2001, two similar concerts were performed in Tokyo and released as part of the box set The Soundboard Series.

Much of the next few years was spent on the road touring. The group continued forward until 2002, when founding member Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced his amicable retirement from the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work). Rock keyboard veteran Don Airey (Rainbow/Ozzy Osbourne), who had helped Deep Purple out when Lord’s knee was injured in 2001, joined the band. In 2003, Deep Purple released their first studio album in five years, working with new producer Michael Bradford, the highly praised (but controversially titled) Bananas, and began touring in support of the album immediately. In July 2005, the band played at the Live 8 concert in Park Place (Barrie, Ontario) and, in October of the same year, released their next album Rapture of the Deep. It was followed by the Rapture of the Deep tour.

In February 2007, Ian Gillan asked fans not to buy a live album being released by Sony BMG. This was a recording of their 1993 appearance at the NEC in Birmingham. Recordings of this show have previously been released without resistance from Gillan or any other members of the band, but he said: “It was one of the lowest points of my life – all of our lives, actually.”^[18]

[edit] Tours

Deep Purple during Rapture of the Deep Tour 2007

Deep Purple are considered to be one of the hardest touring bands in the world.^{[19] [20] [21]} From 1968 until today they continue to tour around the world on all 6 continents. In 2007 they received special award for selling more than 150 000 tickets in France with 40 dates in the country in 2007 alone.^[22] In 2007, Purple’s Rapture of the Deep Tour was voted #6 concert tour of the year (in all music genres) by Planet Rock listeners.^[23]. Rolling Stones‘s A Bigger Bang Tour was voted #5 and beat Purple’s tour with only 1%. Deep Purple is due to release new live compilation DVD box, Around the World Live, in May 2008. In February of 2008, the band made their first ever appearance in Moscow Kremlin ^[24]at the personal request of Dmitry Medvedev who at the time was considered a shoo-in for the seat of the Presidency of Russia.

• Deep Purple Debut Tour, 1968
• Shades of Deep Purple Tour, 1968
• The Book of Taliesyn Tour, 1968
• Deep Purple UK Tour 1969, 1969
• Deep Purple North American Tour 1969, 1969
• Deep Purple UK Tour 1969 #2, 1969
• In Rock Tour, 1970-1971
• Fireball Tour, 1971-1972
• Machine Head Tour, 1972-1973
• Deep Purple European Tour 1974
• Burn Tour, 1974
• Stormbringer Tour, 1974
• Come Taste The Band Tour, 1975-1976
• Perfect Strangers Tour, 1984-1985
• The House of Blue Light Tour, 1987-1988
• Slaves and Masters Tour, 1991
• Deep Purple 25 Years Anniversary Tour, also called as The Battle Rages on Tour, 1993
• Deep Purple and Joe Satriani Tour, 1993-1994
• Deep Purple North American Tour 1994, 1994-1995
• Deep Purple Korean, South African and Indian Tour, 1995
• Purpendicular Tour, 1996-1997
• A Band on Tour, 1998-1999
• Concerto Tour, 2000-2001
• Deep Purple World Tour, 2001-2003
• Bananas Tour, 2003-2005
• Rapture of the Deep Tour, 2006-2008
• Deep Purple 40 Years Anniversary Tour, 2008

[edit] Discography and personnel

Main article: Personnel and discography of Deep Purple

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

• 1968 Shades of Deep Purple
• 1968 The Book of Taliesyn
• 1969 Deep Purple
• 1970 In Rock
• 1971 Fireball
• 1972 Machine Head
• 1973 Who Do We Think We Are
• 1974 Burn
• 1974 Stormbringer
• 1975 Come Taste the Band
• 1984 Perfect Strangers
• 1987 The House of Blue Light
• 1990 Slaves & Masters
• 1993 The Battle Rages On
• 1996 Purpendicular
• 1998 Abandon
• 2003 Bananas
• 2005 Rapture of the Deep

[edit] Notable live albums

• 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra
• 1972 Made in Japan
• 1974 California Jam
• 1976 Made in Europe
• 1980 Deep Purple in Concert
• 1988 Nobody’s Perfect
• 2007 They All Came Down to Montreux

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Current members

• Ian Gillan – vocals, harmonica, congas (1969-1973, 1984-1989, 1992-present)
• Steve Morse – guitar (1994-present)
• Roger Glover – bass guitar, synthesizer (1969-1973, 1984-present)
• Don Airey – keyboards (2002-present)
• Ian Paice – drums, percussion (1968-1976, 1984-present)

[edit] Former members

• Ritchie Blackmore – guitar (1968-1975, 1984-1993)
• Jon Lord – keyboards, backing vocals (1968-1976, 1984-2002)
• Rod Evans – lead vocals (1968-1969)
• Nick Simper – bass guitar, backing vocals (1968-1969)
• David Coverdale – lead vocals (1973-1976)
• Glenn Hughes – bass guitar, vocals (1973-1976)
• Tommy Bolin – guitar, vocals, piano (1975-1976)
• Joe Lynn Turner – vocals (1990-1992)
• Joe Satriani – guitar (1993-1994)

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in 1968 by Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass guitar, keyboards) and John Bonham (drums). With their heavy, guitar-driven sound, Led Zeppelin are regarded as one of the first heavy metal bands.^[1][2] However, the band’s individualistic style draws from many sources and transcends any one genre.^[3] Their rock-infused interpretation of the blues and folk genres^[4] also incorporated rockabilly,^[5] reggae,^[6] soul,^[7] funk,^[8] classical, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, pop, Latin and country. The band did not release the popular songs from their albums as singles in the UK, as they preferred to develop the concept of album-oriented rock.^[9]

Close to 30 years after disbanding following Bonham’s death in 1980, the band continues to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success and broad influence. The band have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide,^{[10][11][12][13][14]} including 111.5 million sales in the United States^[15] and they have had all of their original studio albums reach the U.S. Billboard Top 10,^[16] with six reaching the number one spot. Led Zeppelin are ranked No. 1 on VH1‘s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.^[17] Rolling Stone magazine has described Led Zeppelin as “the heaviest band of all time” and “the biggest band of the 70s”.^[18]

On 10 December 2007 the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited (along with deceased drummer John Bonham’s son Jason) for the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert at The O₂ in London.

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The New Yardbirds (1966-1968)

The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced back to the English blues-influenced rock band The Yardbirds.^[19] Jimmy Page joined The Yardbirds in 1966 to play bass guitar after the original bassist, Paul Samwell-Smith, left the group. Shortly after, Page switched from bass to lead guitar, creating a dual-lead guitar line up with Jeff Beck. Following the departure of Beck from the group in October 1966, The Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, were beginning to wind down. Page wanted to form a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitars, and The Who‘s rhythm section—drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle. Vocalists Donovan, Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project.^[20] The group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, “Beck’s Bolero“, which is featured on Beck’s 1968 album, Truth. The recording session also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects.^[21]

The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968. However, they were still committed to performing several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorised Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use the Yardbirds name to fulfil the band’s obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page’s first choice for lead singer, Terry Reid, declined the offer, but suggested Robert Plant, a West Bromwich singer he knew.^[22] Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending a drummer, John Bonham from nearby Redditch.^[23] When Dreja opted out of the project to become a photographer—he would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of Led Zeppelin’s debut album—John Paul Jones, at the suggestion of his wife, contacted Page about the vacant position. Being familiar with Jones’ credentials, Page agreed to bring in Jones as the final piece.

The group came together for the first time in a room below a record store on Gerrard Street in London.^[24] Page suggested that they try playing “Train Kept A-Rollin’“, a rockabilly song popularised by Johnny Burnette that had been given new life by the Yardbirds. “As soon as I heard John Bonham play,” stated Jones, “I knew this was going to be great… We locked together as a team immediately.”^[25] Shortly afterwards, the group played together on the final day of sessions for the P. J. Proby album, Three Week Hero. Proby recalled, “Come the last day we found we had some studio time, so I just asked the band to play while I just came up with the words. … They weren’t Led Zeppelin at the time, they were the New Yardbirds and they were going to be my band.”^[26]

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as The New Yardbirds. One account of the band’s naming, which has become almost legendary, has it that Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a possible supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a lead zeppelin, a term Entwistle used to describe a bad gig.^[27] The group deliberately dropped the ‘a’ in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent “thick Americans”^[21] from pronouncing it as “leed“.^[28]

Grant also secured an advance deal of $200,000 from Atlantic Records in November 1968, then the biggest deal of its kind for a new band.^[26] Atlantic was a label known for its catalogue of blues, soul and jazz artists, but in the late-1960s it began to take an interest in progressive British rock acts, and signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of singer Dusty Springfield.^[29] Under the terms of the contract secured by Grant, the band alone would decide when they would release albums and tour, and had final say over the contents and design of each album. They also would decide how to promote each release and which (if any) tracks to select as singles,^[25] and formed their own company, Superhype, to handle all publishing rights.^[30]

[edit] Early days (1968–1971)

With their first album not yet released, Led Zeppelin made their live debut at the University of Surrey, Guildford on 25 October 1968. This was followed by a US concert debut on 26 December 1968 (when promoter Barry Fey added them to a bill in Denver, Colorado^[31]) before moving on to the west coast for dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities.^[32] Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut album was released on 12 January 1969, during their first US tour. The album’s blend of blues, folk and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music. However, Plant has commented that it is unfair for people to typecast the band as heavy metal, since about a third of their music was acoustic.^[33]

Live in Montreux, 1970

In an interview for the Led Zeppelin Profiled radio promo CD (1990) Page said that the album took about 35 hours of studio time to create (including mixing), and stated that he knows this because of the amount charged on the studio bill. Peter Grant claimed the album cost £1,750 to produce (including artwork).^[21] By 1975, the album had grossed $7,000,000.^[34] Led Zeppelin’s album cover met an interesting protest when, at a 28 February 1970 gig in Copenhagen, the band were billed as “The Nobs” as the result of a threat of legal action from aristocrat Eva von Zeppelin (a relative of the creator of the Zeppelin aircraft), who, upon seeing the logo of the Hindenburg crashing in flames, threatened to have the show pulled off the air.^[35]

In their first year, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, and release their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II.^[26] Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American recording studios, the second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK.^[36] Here the band further developed ideas established on their debut album, creating a work which became even more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential.^[37] It has been suggested that Led Zeppelin II largely wrote the blueprint for 1970s hard rock.^[37]

Following the album’s release, Led Zeppelin completed several more tours of the United States. They played often, initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire.^[38] Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings. For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound (and a song, “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp”, misspelt as “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” on the album cover), which was strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, and revealed the band’s versatility.

The album’s rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics and fans surprised at the turn taken by the band away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. Over time, however, its reputation has recovered and Led Zeppelin III is now generally praised.^[39][40] It has a unique album cover featuring a wheel which, when rotated, displayed various images through cut outs in the main jacket sleeve. The album’s opening track, “Immigrant Song“, was released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records as a single against the band’s wishes (Atlantic had earlier released an edited version of “Whole Lotta Love” which cut the 5:34 song to 3:10, removing the abstract middle section). It included their only non-album b-side, “Hey Hey What Can I Do“. Even though the band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiences—and their manager, Peter Grant, maintained an aggressive pro-album stance—some singles were released without their consent. The group also increasingly resisted television appearances, enforcing their preference that their fans hear and see them in live concerts.

[edit] “The Biggest Band in the World” (1971–1975)

The success of Led Zeppelin’s early years was dwarfed by this five-year period in which the band released their best selling albums and ascended to the pinnacle of musical success in the 1970s. The band’s image also changed as members began to wear elaborate, flamboyant clothing and they developed a reputation for off-stage excess. Led Zeppelin began travelling in a private jet airliner (nicknamed The Starship^[41]), rented out entire sections of hotels (most notably the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles, known colloquially as the “Riot House”), and became the subject of many of rock’s most famous stories of debauchery. One escapade involved John Bonham riding a motorcycle through a rented floor of the Riot House. The band were known for trashing their hotel suites, and throwing television sets out of the windows. Another example of Led Zeppelin excess was the infamous shark episode, or red snapper incident, which took place at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, Washington, on July 28, 1969.^[21]

The four symbols on Led Zeppelin IV‘s cover, representing Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Robert Plant (from left to right) respectively. The symbols have origins in mysticism.

Led Zeppelin’s fourth album was released on 8 November 1971 with several songs referencing elements of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Lord of the Rings, which was popular at the time. There was no indication of a title or band name on the original cover, but on the LP label four symbols were printed—. The band was motivated to undertake this initiative by their disdain for the media, which labelled them as hyped and overrated. In response, they released the album with no indication of who they were in order to prove that the music could sell itself. The album is variously referred to as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album (both titles were used in the Atlantic Records catalogue), and also IV, Untitled, Zoso, Runes, Sticks, Man With Sticks, and Four. It is still officially untitled and most commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2005, Plant said that it is simply called The Fourth Album.^[42]

further refined the band’s unique formula of combining earthy, acoustic elements with heavy metal and blues emphases. The album included examples of hard rock, such as “Black Dog” and an acoustic track, “Going to California” (a tribute to Joni Mitchell).^[43] “Rock and Roll” is a tribute to the early rock music of the 1950s. Recently (as of 2006) and until mid-2007, the song has been used prominently in Cadillac automobile commercials—one of the few instances of Led Zeppelin’s surviving members licensing songs.^[44]

The track “Stairway to Heaven” (sample (info)), although never released as a single, is sometimes quoted as being the most requested album-oriented rock FM radio song and there are unsubstantiated but repeated claims of “satanic” back masked messages within the song.^[45] In 2005, the magazine Guitar World held a poll of readers in which “Stairway to Heaven” was voted as having the greatest guitar solo of all time.^[46] As of 31 July 2006, the album has sold 23 million copies in the U.S.

Led Zeppelin’s next album, Houses of the Holy, was released in 1973. It featured further experimentation, with longer tracks and expanded use of synthesisers and mellotron orchestration. The song “Houses of the Holy” does not appear on its namesake album, even though it was recorded at the same time as other songs on the album; it eventually made its way onto the 1975 album Physical Graffiti.^[21] The orange album cover of Houses of the Holy depicts images of nude children^[47] climbing up the Giant’s Causeway (in County Antrim, Northern Ireland). Although the children are not depicted from the front, this was controversial at the time of the album’s release, and in some areas, such as the “Bible Belt” and Spain, the record was banned.^[48][49]The album topped the charts, and Led Zeppelin’s subsequent concert tour of the United States in 1973 broke records for attendance, as they consistently filled large auditoriums and stadiums. At Tampa Stadium, Florida, they played to 56,800 fans (breaking the record set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965), and grossed $309,000.^[21] Three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York were filmed for a motion picture, but the theatrical release of this project (The Song Remains the Same) would be delayed until 1976.

Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975.

In 1974, Led Zeppelin took a break from touring and launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after one of only five Led Zeppelin songs which the band never released commercially (Page later re-worked the song with his band, The Firm, and it appears as “Midnight Moonlight” on their first album). The record label’s logo, based on a drawing called Evening: Fall of Day (1869) by William Rimmer, features a picture of Apollo.^[50] The logo can be found on much Led Zeppelin memorabilia, especially t-shirts. In addition to using Swan Song as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label’s roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Café and Wildlife.^[51] The label would be successful while Led Zeppelin existed, but folded less than three years after they disbanded.^[21]

24 February 1975 saw the release of Led Zeppelin’s first double album, Physical Graffiti, which was their first release on the Swan Song Records label. It consisted of fifteen songs, eight of which were recorded at Headley Grange in 1974, and the remainder being tracks previously recorded but not released on earlier albums. A review in Rolling Stone magazine referred to Physical Graffiti as Led Zeppelin’s “bid for artistic respectability,” adding that the only competition the band had for the title of ‘World’s Best Rock Band’ were The Rolling Stones and The Who.^[52] The album was a massive fiscal and critical success. Shortly after the release of Physical Graffiti, all previous Led Zeppelin albums simultaneously re-entered the top-200 album chart,^[21] and the band embarked on another U.S. tour, again playing to record-breaking crowds. In May 1975, Led Zeppelin played five highly successful, sold-out nights at the Earls Court Arena in London, footage of which was released in 2003, on the Led Zeppelin DVD.

[edit] Nearing the end, Bonham’s death and break-up (1975–1980)

By 1976, Led Zeppelin were becoming increasingly popular worldwide, having outsold most bands of the time, including the Rolling Stones.^[21] Their live shows increased in theatricality, featuring larger stage areas and complex light shows. However, while there were still massive musical and commercial successes for the band during this period, problems such as the death of Robert Plant’s son in 1977, Jimmy Page’s heroin use,^[53] changing musical tastes, and ultimately John Bonham’s death in 1980 finally brought an end to Led Zeppelin.

Following their triumphant Earls Court appearances in 1975, Led Zeppelin took an unplanned break from touring. In August 1975, Robert Plant and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious car crash while on holiday in Rhodes, Greece. Robert suffered a broken ankle and Maureen was badly injured; a blood transfusion saved her life.^[21] Unable to tour, Plant headed to the channel island of Jersey to spend August and September recuperating, with Bonham and Page in tow. The band then reconvened in Malibu, California. It was during this forced hiatus that much of the material for their next album, Presence, was written.

Released in March 1976, the album marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams, departing from the acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements featured on their previous albums. Though it was a platinum seller, Presence received mixed responses from critics and fans. While many appreciated the looser style, others dismissed it as “sloppy”, and some critics speculated that the band members’ legendary excesses might have finally caught up with them, resulting in a sub-standard album release.^[54] The recording of Presence coincided with the beginning of Page’s heroin use, which may have interfered with Led Zeppelin’s later live shows and studio recordings, although Page has denied this.^[55] Despite the original criticisms, Jimmy Page has called Presence his favourite album, and its opening track “Achilles Last Stand” (sample (info)) his favourite Led Zeppelin song. In an interview with a Swedish TV program, Plant stated that Presence is the album that sounds the most “Led Zeppelin” of all their LPs.^[56]

Poster for Led Zeppelin’s twin concerts at Oakland, July 1977

Robert Plant’s injuries prevented Led Zeppelin from touring in 1976. Instead, the band finally completed the concert film The Song Remains The Same, and the soundtrack album of the film. It would be the only official live document of the group available until the release of the BBC Sessions in 1997. The recording had taken place during three nights of concerts at Madison Square Garden in July 1973, during the band’s concert tour of the United States. The film premièred in New York on October 20, 1976, but was given a lukewarm reception by critics and fans. The film was particularly unsuccessful in the UK, where, after being unwilling to tour since 1975 due to a taxation exile, Led Zeppelin were facing an uphill battle to recapture the public spotlight at home.^[57]

In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another major concert tour of North America. Though profitable financially, the tour was beset with off-stage problems. On 3 June, after a concert at Tampa Stadium was cut short because of a severe thunderstorm, a riot broke out amongst the audience, resulting in several arrests and injuries.^[58] Led Zeppelin set another attendance record with 76,229 people attending their Pontiac Silverdome concert on 30 April.^[59] It was, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest attendance to date for a single act show.^[60]

After a 23 July show^[61] at the “Days on the Green” festival at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California, John Bonham and members of the band’s support staff (including manager Peter Grant and security coordinator John Bindon) were arrested after a member of promoter Bill Graham‘s staff was badly beaten during the performance. A member of the staff had allegedly slapped Grant’s son when he was taking down a dressing room sign. This was seen by John Bonham, who came over and kicked the man. Then, when Grant heard about this, he went into the trailer, along with Bindon and savagely assaulted the man while Richard Cole stood outside and guarded the trailer.^[21][62] The following day’s second Oakland concert^[63] would prove to be the band’s final live appearance in the United States. Two days later, as the band checked in at a French Quarter hotel for their 30 July performance at the Louisiana Superdome, news came that Plant’s five year old son, Karac, had died from a stomach virus. The rest of the tour was immediately cancelled.^[21]

December 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The resultant album was In Through the Out Door, which exhibited a degree of sonic experimentation that again drew mixed reactions from critics. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the UK and the U.S. in just its second week on the Billboard album chart. As a result of this album’s release, Led Zeppelin’s entire catalogue made the Billboard Top 200 between the weeks of 27 October and 3 November 1979.^[60]

In August 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Denmark, Led Zeppelin headlined two concerts at the Knebworth music festival, where crowds of close to 120,000 witnessed the return of the band. However, Robert Plant was not eager to tour full-time again, and even considered leaving Led Zeppelin. He was persuaded to stay by Peter Grant. A brief, low-key European tour was undertaken in June and July 1980, featuring a stripped-down set without the usual lengthy jams and solos. At one show on June 27, in Nuremberg, Germany, the concert came to an abrupt end in the middle of the third song when John Bonham collapsed on stage and was rushed to a hospital.^[64] Press speculation arose that Bonham’s problem was caused by an excess of alcohol and drugs, but the band claimed that he had simply overeaten, and they completed the European tour on 7 July, at Berlin.^[65][21]

On 24 September 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band’s first since 1977. During the journey Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he downed four quadruple vodkas (sixteen shots – or roughly 400ml – of vodka), with a ham roll. After taking a bite of the ham roll he said to his assistant, “Breakfast”. He continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the studio. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Page’s house — The Old Mill House in Clewer, Windsor. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre (who had replaced Richard Cole as Led Zeppelin’s tour manager) and John Paul Jones found him dead the next morning. Bonham was 32 years old.^[66] The cause of death was asphyxiation from vomit. A subsequent and thorough autopsy found no other drugs in Bonham’s body.^[67] The alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band ultimately led to his death. Bonham was cremated on 10 October 1980, at Rushock parish church in Droitwich, Worcestershire, England.

Despite rumours that Cozy Powell, Carmine Appice, Barriemore Barlow, Simon Kirke or Bev Bevan would join the group as his replacement, the remaining members decided to disband after Bonham’s death. They issued a press statement on 4 December 1980 confirming that the band would not continue without Bonham. “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”^[68]

[edit] Post-Led Zeppelin (1980–present)

In 1982, the surviving members of the group released a collection of out-takes from various sessions during Led Zeppelin’s career, entitled Coda. It included two tracks taken from the band’s performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970, one each from the Led Zeppelin III and Houses of the Holy sessions, and three from the In Through the Out Door sessions. It also featured a 1976 John Bonham drum instrumental with electronic effects added by Jimmy Page, called “Bonzo’s Montreux“.

On 13 July 1985, Page, Plant and Jones reunited for the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, for a short set featuring drummers Tony Thompson and Phil Collins and bassist Paul Martinez. Collins had played on Plant’s first two solo albums. However, the performance was marred by the lack of rehearsal with the two drummers and Page’s out-of-tune Les Paul (and heavy intoxication). Page himself had described the performance as “pretty shambolic.”^[69] When Live Aid footage was released on a four-DVD set in late 2004, the group unanimously agreed not to allow footage from their performance to be used, agreeing that it was not up to their standard.^[70] However, to show their ongoing support Page and Plant pledged proceeds from their forthcoming Page and Plant DVD release to the campaign and John Paul Jones pledged the proceeds of his then-current U.S. tour with Mutual Admiration Society to the project. The three members reunited again in May of 1988, for Atlantic Records’ 40th Anniversary concert, with Bonham’s son, Jason Bonham, on drums. However, the performance was widely criticized for being “flat” and for Page’s poor guitar playing.^{[citation needed]} Also, an article in Rolling Stone magazine talked about how the keyboard sound never made it to tape during the performance of “Kashmir,” which Page reportedly found unforgivable.

23 October 1990 saw the release of the first Led Zeppelin box set, featuring tracks remastered under the personal supervision of Jimmy Page. This set also included four previously unreleased tracks, including the Robert Johnson song ““Travelling Riverside Blues”“, which was released as a single in the US. The song was a huge hit, with the video in heavy rotation on MTV. 1992 saw the release of the “Immigrant Song” b/w “Hey Hey What Can I Do” (the original b-side) as a CD single in the United States second box set was released in 1993; the two box sets together contain all known studio recordings, as well as some rare live tracks.

In 1994, Page and Plant reunited in the form of a 90 minute “UnLedded” MTV project. They released an album called “No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded“, which featured some reworked Led Zeppelin songs, and embarked on a world tour the following year. This is said to be the beginning of the inner rift between the band members, as Jones was not even told of the reunion.^[71] When asked where Jones was, Plant had replied that he was out “parking the car.” On 12 January 1995, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the United States Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were inducted by Aerosmith‘s vocalist, Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. Jason and Zoe Bonham also attended, representing their late father. At the induction ceremony, the band’s inner rift became apparent when Jones joked upon accepting his award, “Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number”, causing consternation and awkward looks from Page and Plant.^[72] Afterwards, they played a brief set with Tyler and Perry (featuring Jason Bonham on drums), and with Neil Young and Michael Lee replacing Bonham.

On 29 August 1997, Atlantic released a single edit of “Whole Lotta Love” in the U.S. and the UK, making it the only Led Zeppelin UK CD single. Additional tracks on this CD-single are “Baby Come On Home” and “Travelling Riverside Blues“. It is the only single the band ever released in the UK. It peaked at #21.^[73] November 11, 1997 saw the release of Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions, the first Led Zeppelin album in fifteen years. The two-disc set included almost all of the band’s recordings for the BBC. Page and Plant released another album called Walking into Clarksdale in 1998, featuring all new material. However, the album wasn’t as successful as No Quarter was, and the band slowly dissolved afterwards.

On 29 November 1999 the RIAA announced that the band were only the third act in music history to achieve four or more Diamond albums.^[74] In 2002, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones reconciled after years of strife that kept the band apart. This was followed by rumours of reunion, quickly quashed by individual members’ representatives. 2003 saw the release of a triple live album, How the West Was Won, and a video collection, Led Zeppelin DVD, both featuring material from the band’s heyday. By the end of the year, the DVD had sold more than 520,000 copies.

In 2005, Led Zeppelin received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Led Zeppelin ranked #14 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.^[75] In November 2005, it was announced that Led Zeppelin and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev were the winners of the 2006 Polar Music Prize. The King of Sweden presented the prize to Plant, Page and Jones, along with John Bonham’s daughter, in Stockholm in May 2006.^[76] In November 2006, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers, a presentation of an award to Jimmy Page and then a short speech by the guitarist. After this, rock group Wolfmother played a tribute to Led Zeppelin, playing the song “Communication Breakdown“.^[77][78]

On 27 July 2007, Atlantic/Rhino, & Warner Home Video announced three new Led Zeppelin titles to be released in November, 2007. Released first was Mothership on 13 November, a 24-track best-of spanning the band’s career, followed by a reissue of the soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same on 20 November which includes previously unreleased material, and a new DVD.^[79] On 15 October 2007, www.news.com published an article that Led Zeppelin were expected to announce a new series of agreements that make the band’s songs available as legal digital downloads, first as ringtones through Verizon Wireless then as digital downloads of the band’s eight studio albums and other recordings on November 13. The offerings will be available through both Verizon Wireless and iTunes. On 3 November 2007, a UK newspaper the Daily Mirror announced that it had world exclusive rights to stream six previously unreleased tracks via its website. On November 8, 2007, XM Satellite Radio launched XM LED, the network’s first artist-exclusive channel dedicated to Led Zeppelin. On 13 November 2007, Led Zeppelin’s complete works were published on iTunes.

[edit] 2007 reunion

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin and Jason Bonham at The O₂ in London in 2007

Main article: Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert

On 10 December 2007 the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited for a one-off benefit concert held in memory of music executive Ahmet Ertegün, with Jason Bonham taking up his late father’s place on drums. It was announced on 12 September 2007 by promoter Harvey Goldsmith in a press conference. The concert was to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegün Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. Music critics praised the band’s performance. NME proclaimed, “What they have done here tonight is proof they can still perform to the level that originally earned them their legendary reputation…We can only hope this isn’t the last we see of them.”^[80]. Page suggested the band may start work on new material,^[81] and stated that a world tour may be in the works.^[82] Meanwhile, Plant made his position regarding a reunion tour known to the Sunday Times, stating: “The whole idea of being on a cavalcade of merciless repetition is not what it’s all about”. However, he also made it known that he could be in favour of more one-off shows in the near future: “It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to play together from time to time.”

On 25 January 2008, in an interview during the half time of a basketball game at Madison Square Garden, Robert Plant was asked if Led Zeppelin would be seen back together again in the venue. He said “I don’t know what is around the corner … Right now all my energy is based on other projects”.^[83] Three days later, at a press conference in Tokyo, Jimmy Page revealed that he is prepared to embark upon a world tour with Led Zeppelin, but due to Robert Plant’s tour commitments with Alison Krauss, such plans will not be announced until at least September.^[84] On 17 May 2008, Canadian music station Much Music announced that Led Zeppelin plans to announce four August dates in Toronto, Ontario at the Rogers Centre. However the band’s management has since denied the rumours.^[85] On 07 June 2008, Page and Jones joined Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins onstage at Wembley Stadium to perform Led Zeppelin tracks “Rock and Roll” (Hawkins on vocals and Grohl on drums), followed by “Ramble On” (Grohl on vocals and Hawkins on drums). Dave Grohl has been a longtime Led Zeppelin fan, telling the audience “welcome to the greatest day of my fucking life”^[86].

[edit] Songs in other media

While members of Led Zeppelin have seldom allowed their works to be licensed for films or commercials, in recent years, their position has softened. The songs of Led Zeppelin can be heard in movies such as Shrek the Third, One Day in September, School of Rock (“Immigrant Song” in all three), Dogtown and Z-Boys (“Achilles Last Stand“, “Nobody’s Fault but Mine“, and “Hots On for Nowhere“), Almost Famous (“That’s the Way“, “The Rain Song“, “Misty Mountain Hop“, “Bron-Yr-Aur“, and “Tangerine“), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (“Kashmir“), and Small Soldiers (“Communication Breakdown“). The television series One Tree Hill featured the song “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You“. The band has denied frequent requests by developers of popular music video games to use their songs. Like with other forms of media, the band seeks to protect the integrity of their work. Specifically, “the band isn’t comfortable with the prospect of granting outsiders access to its master tapes, a necessary step in creating the games“.^[87]

Also noteworthy is Cadillac‘s use of “Rock and Roll” in their US TV advertising campaign. Recently, Led Zeppelin have agreed to allow Apple to sell their music in Apple’s iTunes Store, with the recently released greatest hits collection Mothership as the marquee offering.^[88] In April 2007 Hard Rock Park announced it had secured an agreement with the band to create “Led Zeppelin – The Ride” – a roller coaster built by B&M synchronised to the music of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. The coaster will stand 155 feet (47 m) tall, feature six inversions, and spiral over a lagoon. It will be found in the “Rock and Roll Heaven” section of Hard Rock Park. As of 13 September 2007, the ride track is complete, and the park conducted successful test runs in December.

[edit] Allegations of plagiarism

The credits for Led Zeppelin II were the subject of some debate after the album’s release. The prelude to “Bring It On Home” is a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson‘s “Bring It On Home” and drew comparisons with Willie Dixon‘s “Bring It On Back”. “Whole Lotta Love” (sample (info)) shared some lyrics with Dixon’s “You Need Love/Woman You Need Love”, though the riff from the song was an original Jimmy Page composition. In the 1970s, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over “Bring It On Home”; the case was settled out of court.^[16] Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and copyrights. Sixteen years later, Dixon filed suit against Led Zeppelin over “Whole Lotta Love” and an out-of-court settlement was reached.^[89] Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon. Similarly, the “Lemon Song”, from the same album, included an adaptation of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor”. The band and Chester Burnett reached an out-of-court settlement to give co-credit to the author of the original song.^[90]

Dave Headlam, in an article entitled “Does the song remain the same? Questions of authenticity and identification in the music of Led Zeppelin”, suggests that “…in the course of studies on the music of Led Zeppelin, it has become apparent that many songs are compilations of pre-existent material from multiple sources, both acknowledged and unacknowledged.” He contends that “…songs like ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Dazed and Confused’ are on the one hand not “authored” by Led Zeppelin, but [rather are] traditional lyrics…” ^[91] However, noted blues author and producer Robert Palmer states “It is the custom, in blues music, for a singer to borrow verses from contemporary sources, both oral and recorded, add his own tune and/or arrangement, and call the song his own”.^[92][93] Folklorist Carl Lindahl, refers to these recycling of lyrics in songs as “floating lyrics”. He defines it within the folk-music tradition as “lines that have circulated so long in folk communities that tradition-steeped singers call them instantly to mind and rearrange them constantly, and often unconsciously, to suit their personal and community aesthetics”.^[94]

In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page commented on the band’s use of classic blues songs:

[edit] Discography

Main article: Led Zeppelin discography

Studio albums

• Led Zeppelin (1969)
• Led Zeppelin II (1969)
• Led Zeppelin III (1970)
• Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
• Houses of the Holy (1973)
• Physical Graffiti (1975)
• Presence (1976)
• In Through the Out Door (1979)
• Coda (1982)^[96]

Filmography

• The Song Remains the Same (1976)
• Led Zeppelin (DVD) (2003)
• Mothership (DVD) (2007)

[edit] History

[edit] Formation and early days (1968–1969)

Following the breakup of their previous band Mythology in 1968, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward sought to form a heavy blues band in Aston, Birmingham, England. The group enlisted bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, who had played together in a band called Rare Breed. The new group was initially named The Polka Tulk Blues Company, and also featured slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan “Aker” Clarke. After shortening the name to Polka Tulk, the band changed their name to Earth, and continued as a four-piece without Phillips and Clarke.^[4][5] Earth played club shows in England, Denmark, and Germany, with sets consisting of cover songs by Jimi Hendrix, Blue Cheer, and Cream; as well as lengthy improvised blues jams. In December 1968, Tony Iommi abruptly left Earth to join Jethro Tull.^[6] Although his stint with the band would be short-lived, Iommi made an appearance with Jethro Tull on the The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV show. Unsatisfied with the direction of Jethro Tull, Iommi returned to Earth in January 1969. “It just wasn’t right, so I left”, Iommi said. “At first I thought Tull were great, but I didn’t much go for having a leader in the band, which was Ian Anderson‘s way. When I came back from Tull, I came back with a new attitude altogether. They taught me that to get on you got to work for it”.^[7] While playing shows in England in 1969, the band discovered they were being mistaken for another English group named Earth, and decided to again change their name. A movie theater across the street from the band’s rehearsal room was showing the 1963 Boris Karloff horror film Black Sabbath. While watching people line up to see the film, Osbourne noted that it was “strange that people spend so much money to see scary movies”.^[8] Butler wrote a song titled “Black Sabbath” after reading a book by occult writer Dennis Wheatley, and seeing a black-hooded figure standing at the foot of his bed.^[9] Making use of the musical tritone, also known as “The Devil’s Interval”, the song’s ominous sound and dark lyrics pushed the band in a darker direction, a stark contrast to the popular music of the late 1960s, which was dominated by flower power, folk music, and hippie culture. Inspired by the new sound, the band changed their name to Black Sabbath in August 1969, and made the decision to focus writing similar material, in an attempt to create the musical equivalent of horror films.

[edit] Black Sabbath and Paranoid (1970–1971)

Black Sabbath were signed to Philips Records in December 1969, and released their first single, “Evil Woman” through Philips subsidiary Fontana Records in January 1970. Later releases were handled by Philips’ newly formed progressive rock label, Vertigo Records. Although the single failed to chart, the band were afforded two days of studio time in late January to record their debut album with producer Rodger Bain. Iommi recalls recording live: “We thought ‘We have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing.’ So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff.”^[10] The eponymous Black Sabbath was released on Friday the 13th, February 1970. The album reached number 8 in the UK, and following its US release in May 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year, selling a million copies.^[11][12] While the album was a commercial success, it was widely panned by critics, with Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone dismissing the album as “discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitised speedfreaks all over each other’s musical perimeters, yet never quite finding synch”.^[13] To capitalise on their chart success in the US, the band quickly returned to the studio in June 1970, just four months after Black Sabbath was released. The new album was initially set to be named “War Pigs” after the track of the same name, which was critical of the Vietnam War. However Warner changed the title of the album to Paranoid, fearing backlash by supporters of the Vietnam War. The album’s lead-off single “Paranoid” was written in the studio at the last minute. As Bill Ward explains: “We didn’t have enough songs for the album, and Tony just played the (Paranoid) guitar lick and that was it. It took twenty, twenty-five minutes from top to bottom.”^[14] The single was released prior to the album in September 1970, and reached number four on the UK charts, remaining Black Sabbath’s only top ten hit.^[12] Black Sabbath released their second full-length album, Paranoid in the UK in October 1970. Pushed by the success of the “Paranoid” single, the album hit number one in the UK. The US release was held until January 1971, as the Black Sabbath album was still on the charts at the time of Paranoid’s UK release. The album broke into the top ten in the US in March 1971, and would go on to sell four million copies in the US, with virtually no radio airplay.^[12] The album was again panned by rock critics of the era, but modern-day reviewers such as Allmusic‘s Steve Huey cite Paranoid as “one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time”, which “defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history”.^[1] Paranoid’s chart success allowed the band to tour the US for the first time in December 1970, which spawned the release of the album’s second single “Iron Man“. Although the single failed to reach the top 40, “Iron Man” remains one of Black Sabbath’s most popular songs, as well as the bands highest charting US single until 1998′s “Psycho Man“.^[11]

[edit] Master of Reality and Volume 4 (1971–1973)

In February 1971, Black Sabbath returned to the studio to begin work on their third album. Following the chart success of Paranoid, the band were afforded more studio time, along with a “briefcase full of cash” to purchase drugs.^[15] “We were getting into coke, bigtime”, Ward explained. “Uppers, downers, Quaaludes, whatever you like. It got to the stage where you come up with ideas and forget them, because you were just so out of it.”^[16] Production completed in April 1971, and in July the band released Master of Reality, just six months after the release of Paranoid. The album reached the top ten in both the US and UK, and was certified gold in less than two months, eventually receiving platinum certification in the 1980s. Master of Reality contained Black Sabbath’s first acoustic songs, alongside fan favorites such as “Children of the Grave” and “Sweet Leaf“.^[17] Critical response of the era was again unfavorable, with Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone dismissing Master of Reality as “naive, simplistic, repetitive, absolute doggerel”, although the very same magazine would later place the album at number 298 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, compiled in 2003.^[18] Following the Master of Reality world tour in 1972, Black Sabbath took its first break in three years. As Bill Ward explained: “The band started to become very fatigued and very tired. We’d been on the road non-stop, year in and year out, constantly touring and recording. I think Master of Reality was kind of like the end of an era, the first three albums, and we decided to take our time with the next album.”^[19] In June 1972, the band reconvened in Los Angeles to begin work on their next album at the Record Plant. The recording process was plagued with problems, many due to substance abuse issues. While struggling to record the song “Cornucopia” after “sitting in the middle of the room, just doing drugs”,^[20] Bill Ward was nearly fired from the band. “I hated the song, there were some patterns that were just… horrible” Ward said. “I nailed it in the end, but the reaction I got was the cold shoulder from everybody. It was like ‘Well, just go home, you’re not being of any use right now.’ I felt like I’d blown it, I was about to get fired”.^[21] The album was originally titled “Snowblind” after the song of the same name, which deals with cocaine abuse. The record company changed the title at the last minute to Black Sabbath, Vol 4, with Ward stating “There was no Volume 1, 2 or 3, so it’s a pretty stupid title really”.^[22] Black Sabbath’s Volume 4 was released in September 1972, and while critics of the era were again dismissive of the album, it achieved gold status in less than a month, and was the band’s fourth consecutive release to sell a million copies in the US.^[11] With more time in the studio, Volume 4 saw the band starting to experiment with new textures, such as strings, piano, orchestration and multi-part songs.^[23] The song “Tomorrow’s Dream” was released as a single – the band’s first since Paranoid – but failed to chart.^[24] Following an extensive tour of the US, the band traveled to Australia for the first time in 1973, and later Europe. Black Sabbath also appeared on England’s Top of the Pops in 1973, sharing the stage with such diverse acts as Engelbert Humperdink and Diana Ross.

[edit] Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage (1973–1976)

Following the Volume 4 world tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles to begin work on their next release. Pleased with the Volume 4 album, the band sought to recreate the recording atmosphere, and returned to the Record Plant studio in Los Angeles. With new musical innovations of the era, the band were surprised to find that the room they had used previously at the Record Plant was replaced by a “giant synthesiser”. The band rented a house in Bel Air and began writing in the summer of 1973, but due in part to substance issues and fatigue, were unable to complete any songs. “Ideas weren’t coming out the way they were on Volume 4 and we really got discontent” Iommi said. “Everybody was sitting there waiting for me to come up with something. I just couldn’t think of anything. And if I didn’t come up with anything, nobody would do anything.”^[25]

Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne on stage at the California Jam festival on April 6, 1974. Portions of the show were telecast on ABC in the US, exposing the band to a new audience.

After a month in Los Angeles with no results, the band opted to return to England, where they rented Clearwell Castle in The Forest of Dean. “We rehearsed in the dungeons and it was really creepy but it had some atmosphere, it conjured up things, and stuff started coming out again”.^[26] While working in the dungeon, Iommi stumbled onto the main riff of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath“, which set the tone for the new material.Recorded at Morgan Studios in London by Mike Butcher and building off the stylistic changes introduced on Volume 4, new songs incorporated synthesisers, strings, and complex arrangements. Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman was brought in as a session player, appearing on “Sabbra Cadabra” and “Who Are You“.^[27] In November 1973, Black Sabbath released the critically-acclaimed Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. For the first time in their career, the band began to receive favorable reviews in the mainstream press, with Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone calling the album “an extraordinarily gripping affair”, and “nothing less than a complete success”.^[28] Later reviewers such as Allmusic’s Ed Rivadavia cite the album as a “masterpiece, essential to any heavy metal collection,” while also displaying “a newfound sense of finesse and maturity”.^[29] The album marked the band’s fifth consecutive platinum selling album in the US, reaching number four on the UK charts, and number eleven in the US. The band began a world tour in January 1974, which culminated at the California Jam festival in Ontario, California on April 6, 1974. Attracting over 200,000 fans, Black Sabbath appeared alongside such 70′s pop giants as Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Deep Purple; Earth, Wind & Fire; Seals & Crofts; and The Eagles. Portions of the show were telecast on ABC Television in the US, exposing the band to a wider American audience. In 1974 the band shifted management, signing with notorious English manager Don Arden. The move caused a contractual dispute with Black Sabbath’s former management, and while on stage in the US, Ozzy was handed a subpoena that led to two years of litigation.^[25] Black Sabbath began work on their sixth album in February 1975, again in England at Morgan Studios in Willesden, this time with a decisive vision to differ the sound from Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. “We could’ve continued and gone on and on, getting more technical, using orchestras and everything else which we didn’t particularly want to. We took a look at ourselves, and we wanted to do a rock album – Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath wasn’t a rock album, really.”^[30] Produced by Black Sabbath and Mike Butcher, Sabotage was released in July 1975. Again the album initially saw favorable reviews, with Rolling Stone stating “Sabotage is not only Black Sabbath’s best record since Paranoid, it might be their best ever”,^[31] although later reviewers such as Allmusic noted that “the magical chemistry that made such albums as Paranoid and Volume 4 so special was beginning to disintegrate”.^[32] Sabotage reached the top 20 in both the US and the UK, but was the band’s first release not to achieve platinum status in the US. Although the album’s only single “Am I Going Insane (Radio)” failed to chart, Sabotage features fan favorites such as “Hole in the Sky“, and “Symptom of the Universe“.^[32] Black Sabbath toured in support of Sabotage with openers Kiss, but were forced to cut the tour short in November 1975, following a motorcycle accident in which Ozzy ruptured a muscle in his back. In December 1975, the band’s record companies released a greatest hits record without input from the band, entitled We Sold Our Soul for Rock ‘n’ Roll. The album charted throughout 1976, eventually selling two million copies in the US.

[edit] Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! (1976–1979)

Black Sabbath began work for their next album at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, in June 1976. To expand their sound, the band added keyboard player Gerry Woodruffe, who also appeared to a lesser extent on Sabotage. Technical Ecstasy, released on September 25, 1976, was met with mixed reviews. Allmusic gave the album two stars, and noted that the band was “unraveling at an alarming rate”.^[33] The album featured less of the doomy, ominous sound of previous efforts, and incorporated more synthesisers and uptempo rock songs. Technical Ecstasy failed to reach the top 50 in the US, and was the band’s second consecutive release not to achieve platinum status, although it was later certified gold in 1997. The album included “Dirty Women“, which remains a live staple, as well as Bill Ward’s first lead vocal on the song “It’s Alright”. Touring in support of Technical Ecstasy began in November 1976, with openers Boston and Ted Nugent in the US, and completed in Europe with AC/DC in April 1977. In November 1977, while in rehearsal for their next album, and just days before the band was set to enter the studio, Ozzy Osbourne quit the band. “The last Sabbath albums were just very depressing for me”, Ozzy said. “I was doing it for the sake of what we could get out of the record company, just to get fat on beer and put a record out.”^[34] Former Fleetwood Mac and Savoy Brown vocalist Dave Walker was brought into rehearsals in October 1977 and the band began working on new songs.^[11] On January 8, 1978, Black Sabbath made their first and only appearance with Walker on vocals, playing an early version of the song “Junior’s Eyes” on the BBC Television program “Look! Hear!”.

Tony Iommi in 2005.

Osbourne initially set out to form a solo project, which featured ex-Dirty Tricks members John Frazer-Binnie, Terry Horbury, and Andy Bierne. As the new band were in rehearsals in January 1978, Osbourne had a change of heart and rejoined Black Sabbath. “Three days before we were due to go into the studio, Ozzy wanted to come back to the band,” Iommi explained. “He wouldn’t sing any of the stuff we’d written with the other guy, so it made it very difficult. We went into the studio with basically no songs. We’d write in the morning so we could rehearse and record at night. It was so difficult, like a conveyor belt, because you couldn’t get time to reflect on stuff. ‘Is this right? Is this working properly?’ It was very difficult for me to come up with the ideas and putting them together that quick.”^[34] The band spent five months at Sounds Interchange Studios in Toronto, Canada, writing and recording what would become Never Say Die!. “It took quite a long time,” Iommi said. “We were getting really drugged out, doing a lot of dope. We’d go down to the sessions, and have to pack up because we were too stoned, we’d have to stop. Nobody could get anything right, we were all over the place, everybody’s playing a different thing. We’d go back and sleep it off, and try again the next day.”^[34] The album was released in September 1978, reaching number twelve in the UK, and number 69 in the US. Press response was again unfavorable, with Ed Rivadavia of Allmusic stating that the album’s “unfocused songs perfectly reflected the band’s tense personnel problems and drug abuse.”^[35] The album featured the singles “Never Say Die” and “Hard Road”, both of which cracked the top 40 in the UK, and the band made their second appearance on the Top of the Pops, performing “Never Say Die”. Touring in support of Never Say Die! began in May 1978 with openers Van Halen. Reviewers called Black Sabbath’s performance “tired and uninspired”, a stark contrast to the “youthful” performance of Van Halen, who were touring the world for the first time.^[36] The band filmed a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1978, which was later released on DVD as Never Say Die. The final show of the tour, and Osbourne’s last appearance with the band (until later reunions) was in Albuquerque, New Mexico on December 11. Following the tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles and again rented a house in Bel Air, where they spent nearly a year working on material for the next album. With pressure from the record label, and frustrations with Osbourne’s lack of ideas coming to a head, Tony made the decision to fire Ozzy Osbourne in 1979. “At that time, Ozzy had come to an end”, Iommi said. “We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time. We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like ‘Rehearse today? No, we’ll do it tomorrow.’ It really got so bad that we didn’t do anything. It just fizzled out.”^[37] Drummer Bill Ward, who was close with Ozzy, was chosen by Tony to break the news to the singer. “I hope I was professional, I might not have been, actually. When I’m drunk I am horrible, I am horrid,” Ward said. “Alcohol was definitely one of the most damaging things to Black Sabbath. We were destined to destroy each other. The band were toxic, very toxic.”^[38]

[edit] Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules (1979–1982)

Sharon Arden, (later Sharon Osbourne) daughter of Black Sabbath manager Don Arden, suggested former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio to replace Ozzy Osbourne in 1979. Dio officially joined in June, and the band began writing their next album. With a notably different vocal style than Osbourne, Dio’s addition to the band marked a change in Black Sabbath’s sound. “They were totally different altogether”, Iommi explains. “Not only voice-wise, but attitude-wise. Ozzy was a great showman, but when Dio came in, it was a different attitude, a different voice and a different musical approach, as far as vocals. Dio would sing across the riff, whereas Ozzy would follow the riff, like in “Iron Man”. Ronnie came in and gave us another angle on writing.”^[39] Geezer Butler temporarily left the band in September 1979, and was initially replaced by Geoff Nicholls of Quartz on bass. The new lineup returned to Criteria Studios in November to begin recording work, with Butler returning to the band in January 1980, and Nicholls moving to keyboards. Produced by Martin Birch, Heaven and Hell, was released on April 25, 1980, to critical acclaim. Allmusic said the album was “one of Sabbath’s finest records, the band sounds reborn and re-energized throughout”.^[40] Heaven and Hell peaked at number 9 in the UK, and number 28 in the US, the band’s highest charting album since Sabotage. The album would eventually sell a million copies in the US, and the band embarked on an extensive world tour, making their first live appearance with Dio in Germany on April 17, 1980

.

Black Sabbath toured the US throughout 1980 with Blue Öyster Cult on the “Black and Blue” tour, with a show in Uniondale, New York filmed and released theatrically in 1981 as Black and Blue. On July 26, 1980, the band played at a sold out Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles with Journey, Cheap Trick, and Molly Hatchet to 100,000 fans. The next day, the band appeared at the 1980 Day on the Green at Oakland Coliseum. While on tour, Black Sabbath’s former label in England issued a live album culled from a five-year old performance, entitled Live at Last without any input from the band. The album reached number five on the British charts, and saw the re-release of “Paranoid” as a single, which reached the top 20.

Vocalist Ronnie James Dio

On August 18, 1980, after a show in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bill Ward was fired from Black Sabbath. “I was sinking very quickly”, Ward later said. “I was an unbelievable drunk, I was drunk twenty-four hours a day. When I went on stage, the stage wasn’t so bright. It felt like I was dying inside. The live show seemed so bare, Ron was out there doing his thing and I just went ‘It’s gone’. I like Ronnie, but musically, he just wasn’t for me.”^[41] Concerned with Ward’s declining health, Iommi brought in drummer Vinny Appice, without informing Ward. “They didn’t talk to me, they booted me from my chair and I wasn’t told about that. I knew they’d have to bring in a drummer to save the (tour), but I’d been with the band for years and years, since we were kids. And then Vinny was playing and it was like ‘What the fuck?’ It hurt a lot.”^[42] The band completed the Heaven and Hell world tour in February 1981, and returned to the studio to begin work on their next album. Again produced by Martin Birch, and recorded at John Lennon‘s old house in Ascot, England, Black Sabbath’s second album with Dio, Mob Rules was well received by fans, but received mixed reviews from critics. Allmusic’s Ed Rivadavia called Mob Rules “a magnificent record”,^[43] while Rolling Stones J.D. Considine gave the album one star, claiming “Mob Rules finds the band as dull-witted and flatulent as ever”.^[44] The album was certified gold, and reached the top 20 on the UK charts. The album’s title track “The Mob Rules” was also featured in the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal, although the film version is an alternate take, and differs from the album version. The chart success of the unauthorised live album Live at Last prompted the band to record their first official live album titled Live Evil on the Mob Rules world tour, in Dallas, Texas on May 12, 1982. During the mixing process for the album, Iommi and Butler had a falling out with Dio. Iommi and Butler accused Dio of sneaking into the studio at night to raise the volume of his vocals. In addition, Dio was not satisfied with the pictures of him in the artwork.^[45] “Ronnie wanted more say in things,” Iommi said. “And Geezer would get upset with him and that is where the rot set in. Live Evil is when it all fell apart. Ronnie wanted to do more of his own thing, and the engineer we were using at the time in the studio didn’t know what to do, because Ronnie was telling him one thing and we were telling him another. At the end of the day, we just said, ‘That’s it, the band is over’”.^[46] “When it comes time for the vocal, nobody tells me what to do. Nobody! Because they’re not as good as me, so I do what I want to do,” Dio later said. “I refuse to listen to Live Evil, because there are too many problems. If you look at the credits, the vocals and drums are listed off to the side. Open up the album and see how many pictures there are of Tony, and how many there are of me and Vinny”.^[47] Ronnie James Dio left Black Sabbath in November 1982 to start a solo project, and took drummer Vinny Appice with him. Live Evil was released in January 1983, but was overshadowed by Ozzy Osbourne‘s Speak of the Devil, a platinum selling live album that contained only Black Sabbath songs, released five months earlier.^[48]

[edit] Born Again and Seventh Star (1983–1986)

Left with just two original members, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler began auditioning new singers for the band’s next release. After failed attempts with the likes of Whitesnake‘s David Coverdale, Samson‘s Nicky Moore, and Lone Star‘s John Sloman, the band settled on former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan to replace Ronnie James Dio in 1983.^[11] While the project was not initially set to be called Black Sabbath, pressures from the record label forced the group to retain the name. The band entered The Manor Studios in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, England, in June 1983 with a returned and newly-sober Bill Ward on drums. Born Again was met with mixed reviews from fans and critics alike. Allmusic’s Ed Rivadavia called the album “dreadful”, noting that “Gillan’s bluesy style and humorous lyrics were completely incompatible with the lords of doom and gloom”.^[49] The album reached number four on the UK charts, and number 39 in the US.^[24]

Ian Gillan in 2005.

Although he performed on the album, drummer Bill Ward was unable to tour due to the pressures of the road, and quit the band in 1984. “I fell apart with the idea of touring,” Ward later said. “I got so much fear behind touring, I didn’t talk about the fear, I drank behind the fear instead and that was a big mistake.”^[50] Ward was replaced by former Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan for the Born Again world tour, which began in Europe with Diamond Head, and later in the US with Quiet Riot and Night Ranger. The band headlined the 1983 Reading Festival, adding the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water” to their set list. The tour in support of Born Again included a giant set of the Stonehenge monument. In a move that would be later parodied in the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, the band made a mistake in ordering the set piece. As Geezer Butler later explained:

We had Sharon Osbourne’s dad, Don Arden, managing us. He came up with the idea of having the stage set be Stonehenge. He wrote the dimensions down and gave it to our tour manager. He wrote it down in meters but he meant to write it down in feet. The people who made it saw fifteen meters instead of fifteen feet. It was 45 feet high and it wouldn’t fit on any stage anywhere so we just had to leave it the storage area. It cost a fortune to make but there was not a building on earth that you could fit it into.^[51]

Following the completion of the Born Again tour in March 1984, vocalist Ian Gillan left Black Sabbath to re-join Deep Purple. The band enlisted Los Angeles vocalist David Donato, the only Black Sabbath vocalist not to record an album with the band. The new lineup wrote and rehearsed throughout 1984, and eventually recorded a demo with producer Bob Ezrin in October. Unhappy with the results, the band parted ways with Donato shortly after.^[11] Disillusioned with the band’s revolving lineup, bassist Geezer Butler quit Black Sabbath in November 1984 to form a solo band. “When Ian Gillan took over that was the end of it for me”, Butler later said. “I thought it was just a joke and I just totally left. When we got together with Gillan it was not supposed to be a Black Sabbath album. After we had done the album we gave it to Warner Bros. and they said they were going to put it out as a Black Sabbath album and we didn’t have a leg to stand on. I got really disillusioned with it and Gillan was really pissed off about it. That lasted one album and one tour and then that was it.”^[51] Following Butler’s exit, sole remaining original member Tony Iommi put Black Sabbath on hiatus, and began work on a solo album with keyboardist Geoff Nicholls. While working on new material, the original Black Sabbath lineup were offered a spot at Bob Geldof‘s Live Aid benefit concert on July 13, 1985. The band agreed, performing a three song set at the Philadelphia show. The event marked the first time the original lineup appeared on stage since 1978, and also featured reunions of The Who, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Although there were rumours of a full Black Sabbath reunion following Live Aid, Ozzy Osbourne was enjoying success as a solo artist, having released three top 20 albums, and selling nearly ten million albums since his firing from Black Sabbath. Returning to his solo work, Iommi enlisted bassist Dave Spitz and drummer Eric Singer, and initially intended to use multiple singers, including Rob Halford of Judas Priest, ex-Deep Purple and Trapeze vocalist Glenn Hughes, and ex-Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio. “We were going to use different vocalists on the album, guest vocalists, but it was so difficult getting it together and getting releases from their record companies. Glenn Hughes came along to sing on one track and we decided to use him on the whole album.”^[52]

Glenn Hughes in 1995.

The band spent the remainder of the year in the studio, recording what would become Seventh Star. Warner Bros. refused to release the album as a Tony Iommi solo release, instead insisting on using the name Black Sabbath. Pressured by the band’s manager, Don Arden, the two compromised and released the album as “Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi” in January 1986. “It opened up a whole can of worms really,” Iommi explained, “because I think if we could have done it as a solo album, it would have been accepted a lot more.”^[53] Seventh Star, which sounded little like a Black Sabbath album, incorporated more hard rock elements popularised by the 1980s Sunset Strip hard rock scene, and was panned by the critics of the era, although later reviewers such as Allmusic gave the album favorable reviews, calling the album “often misunderstood and underrated”.^[54] The new lineup rehearsed for six weeks, preparing for a full world tour, although the band were again forced to use the Black Sabbath name. “I was into the ‘Tony Iommi project’, but I wasn’t into the Black Sabbath moniker,” Hughes said. “The idea of being in Black Sabbath didn’t appeal to me whatsoever. Glenn Hughes singing in Black Sabbath is like James Brown singing in Metallica. It wasn’t gonna work”.^[52][55] Just four days before the start of the tour, vocalist Glenn Hughes got into a bar fight with the band’s production manager John Downing which splintered the singer’s orbital bone. The injury interfered with Hughes’ ability to sing, and the band brought in vocalist Ray Gillen to continue the tour with W.A.S.P. and Anthrax, although nearly half of the US dates would eventually be cancelled due to poor ticket sales.^[56]

[edit] The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, and Tyr (1986–1990)

Black Sabbath began work on new material in October 1986 at Air Studios in Montserrat with producer Jeff Glixman. The recording was wrought with problems from the beginning, as Glixman left after the initial sessions, and was replaced by producer Vic Coppersmith. Bassist Dave Spitz quit due to “personal issues”, and ex-Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley was brought in. Daisley re-recorded all of the bass tracks, and wrote the album’s lyrics, but before the album was complete, he left to join Gary Moore‘s solo band, taking drummer Eric Singer with him.^[11] After problems with second producer Coppersmith, the band returned to Morgan Studios in England in January 1987 to work with new producer Chris Tsangarides. While working in the UK, new vocalist Ray Gillen abruptly left Black Sabbath to form Blue Murder with John Sykes. The band enlisted ex-Alliance vocalist Tony Martin to re-record Gillen’s tracks, and former drummer Bev Bevan to complete a few percussion overdubs.^[57] Prior to the release of the new album, Black Sabbath accepted an offer to play six shows at Sun City, South Africa during the apartheid. The band drew criticism from activists and artists involved with Artists United Against Apartheid, who had been boycotting South Africa since 1985. Drummer Bev Bevan refused to play the shows, and was replaced by Terry Chimes, formerly of The Clash.^[57] After nearly a year in production, The Eternal Idol was released on December 8, 1987, to mixed reviews. Allmusic said that “Martin’s powerful voice added new fire” to the band, and the album contained “some of Iommi’s heaviest riffs in years.”^[58] Blender gave the album two stars, claiming the album was “Black Sabbath in name only”.^[59] The album would be Black Sabbath’s first release not to chart in the UK, while peaking at 168 in the US.^[24] The band toured in support of Eternal Idol in Germany, Italy and for the first time, Greece. Unfortunately, due in part to backlash from promoters over the South Africa incident, other European shows were cancelled.^[60] Bassist Dave Spitz left the band shortly before the tour, and was replaced by Jo Burt. Following the poor commercial performance of Eternal Idol, Black Sabbath were dropped by Vertigo Records and Warner Bros. Records, and signed with I.R.S. Records.^[57] In January 1988, the band began rehearsals for a planned upcoming US tour, but with low ticket sales, the tour was cancelled. The band took time off in 1988, returning in August to begin work on their next album. As a result of the recording troubles with Eternal Idol, Tony Iommi opted to produce the band’s next album himself. “It was a completely new start”, Iommi said. “I had to rethink the whole thing, and decided that we needed to build up some credibility again”.^[61] Iommi enlisted ex-Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell, and session bassist Laurence Cottle, and rented a “very cheap studio in England”.^[61] Black Sabbath released Headless Cross in April 1989, to favorable reviews. Allmusic gave the album four stars, calling Headless Cross “the finest non-Ozzy or Dio Black Sabbath album”.^[62] Anchored by the top 40 single “Headless Cross”, the album reached number 31 on the UK charts, and number 115 in the US.^[24] Queen guitarist Brian May, a friend of Iommi’s, played a guest solo on the song “When Death Calls”. Following the album’s release, the band added touring bassist Neil Murray, formerly of Whitesnake.^[11] The ill-fated Headless Cross US tour began in May 1989 with openers Kingdom Come and Silent Rage, but due to poor ticket sales, the tour was cancelled after just eight shows.^[63] The European leg of the tour began in September, where the band were enjoying chart success. After a string of Japanese shows, the band embarked on a 23 date Russian tour with Girlschool. Black Sabbath was one of the first bands to tour Russia, after Mikhail Gorbachov opened the country to western acts for the first time in 1989.^[60] The band returned to the studio in February 1990 to record Tyr, the follow-up to Headless Cross. While not technically a concept album, some of the album’s lyrical themes are loosely based on Norse mythology.^[63] Tyr was released on August 6, 1990, and reached number 24 on the UK albums chart, but was the first Black Sabbath release not to break the Billboard 200 in the US.^[24] while Blender gave the album just one star, claiming that “Iommi continues to besmirch the Sabbath name with this unremarkable collection”.^[64] The band toured in support of Tyr with Circus of Power in Europe, but the final seven UK dates were cancelled due to poor ticket sales.^[65] For the first time in their career, the band’s touring cycle did not include US dates.^[66]

Black Sabbath bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler

[edit] Dehumanizer (1990–1993)

While on his own Lock Up The Wolves US tour in August 1990, former Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio was joined on stage at the Minneapolis Forum by former Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler to perform “Neon Knights”. Following the show, the two expressed interest in rejoining Black Sabbath. Butler convinced Iommi, who in turn broke up the current lineup, dismissing vocalist Tony Martin and bassist Neil Murray. “I do regret that in a lot of ways”, Iommi said. “We were at a good point then. We decided to [reunite with Dio] and I don’t even know why, really. There’s the financial aspect, but that wasn’t it. I seemed to think maybe we could recapture something we had”.^[61] Ronnie James Dio and Geezer Butler joined Tony Iommi and Cozy Powell in the fall of 1990 to begin working on the next Black Sabbath release. While rehearsing in November, Powell suffered a broken hip when his horse died, falling on the drummer’s legs.^[67] Unable to complete work on the album, Powell was replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice, and the band entered the studio with producer Reinhold Mack. The year-long recording process was plagued with problems, primarily stemming from writing tension between Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio, as some songs were re-written multiple times.^[68] “Dehumanizer took a long time, it was just hard work”, Iommi said. “We took too long on it, that album cost us a million dollars, which is bloody ridiculous”.^[69] Dio later recalled the album as difficult, but worth the effort. “It was something we had to really wring out of ourselves, but I think that’s why it works”, he said. “Sometimes you need that kind of tension, or else you end up making the Christmas album”.^[70] The resulting album, Dehumanizer was released on June 22, 1992. In the US, the album was released on June 30, 1992 by Reprise Records, as Ronnie James Dio and his namesake band were still under contract with the label at the time. While the album received mixed reviews,^[67][71] it was the band’s biggest commercial success in ten years.^[11] Anchored by the top 40 rock radio single “TV Crimes”, the album peaked at number 44 on the Billboard 200.^[11] The album also featured the song “Time Machine”, which appeared in the 1992 film Wayne’s World. Black Sabbath began touring in support of Dehumanizer in July 1992 with Testament, Danzig, Prong, and Exodus. While on tour, former vocalist Ozzy Osbourne announced his first retirement, and invited Black Sabbath to open for his solo band at the final two shows of his No More Tours tour in Costa Mesa, California. The band agreed, aside from vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who said:

I was told in the middle of the tour that we would be opening for Ozzy in Los Angeles. And I said, “No. Sorry, I have more pride than that.” A lot of bad things were being said from camp to camp, and it created this horrible schism. So by [the band] agreeing to play the shows in L.A. with Ozzy, that, to me, spelled out reunion. And that obviously meant the doom of that particular project.^[70]

Dio quit Black Sabbath following a show in Oakland, California on November 13, 1992, one night before the band were set to appear at Osbourne’s retirement show. Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford stepped in at the last minute, performing two nights with the band.^[72] Iommi and Butler also joined Osbourne and former drummer Bill Ward on stage for the first time since 1985′s Live Aid concert, performing a brief set of Black Sabbath songs.

[edit] Cross Purposes and Forbidden (1993–1996)

Drummer Vinny Appice left the band following the reunion show to join Ronnie James Dio‘s solo band, later appearing on Dio’s Strange Highways and Angry Machines. Iommi and Butler enlisted former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli, and reinstated former vocalist Tony Martin. The band returned to the studio to work on new material, again not originally intended to be released under the Black Sabbath name. As Geezer Butler explains:

It wasn’t even supposed to be a Sabbath album; I wouldn’t have even done it under the pretence of Sabbath. That was the time when the original band were talking about getting back together for a reunion tour. Tony and myself just went in with a couple of people, did an album just to have, while the reunion tour was (supposedly) going on. It was like an Iommi/Butler project album.^[73]

Under pressure from their record label, the band released their thirteenth studio album, Cross Purposes, on February 8, 1994, under the Black Sabbath name. The album again received mixed reviews, with Blender giving the album two stars, calling Soundgarden‘s 1994 album Superunknown “a far better Sabbath album than this by-the-numbers potboiler”.^[74] Allmusic’s Bradley Torreano called Cross Purposes “the first album since Born Again that actually sounds like a real Sabbath record”.^[75] The album failed to chart in the UK, but reached 122 on the Billboard 200 in the US. Cross Purposes contained the song “Evil Eye”, which was co-written by Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen, although uncredited due to record label restrictions.^[76] Touring in support of Cross Purposes began in February with Morbid Angel and Motörhead in the US. The band filmed a live performance at the Hammersmith Apollo on April 13, 1994, which was released on VHS accompanied by a CD, entitled Cross Purposes Live. After the European tour with Cathedral and Godspeed in June 1994, drummer Bobby Rondinelli quit the band and was replaced by original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward for five shows in South America. Following the touring cycle for Cross Purposes, bassist Geezer Butler again quit the band. “I finally got totally disillusioned with the last Sabbath album, and I much preferred the stuff I was writing to the stuff Sabbath were doing”.^[73] Butler formed a solo project called GZR, and released Plastic Planet in 1995. The album contained the song “Giving Up the Ghost”, which was critical of Tony Iommi for carrying on with the Black Sabbath name, with the lyrics: You plagiarized and parodied / the magic of our meaning / a legend in your own mind / left all your friends behind / you can’t admit that you’re wrong / the spirit is dead and gone.^[77] Following Butler’s departure, newly-returned drummer Bill Ward once again left the band. Iommi reinstated former members Neil Murray on bass, and Cozy Powell on drums, effectively reuniting the Tyr lineup. The band enlisted Body Count guitarist Ernie C to produce the new album, which was recorded in London in the fall of 1994. The album featured a guest vocal on “Illusion of Power” by Body Count vocalist Ice T.^[78] The resulting Forbidden, was released on June 8, 1995, but failed to chart in the US or the UK.^[79][80] The album was widely panned by critics; Allmusic’s Bradley Torreano said “with boring songs, awful production, and uninspired performances, this is easily avoidable for all but the most enthusiastic fan”;^[81] while Blender magazine called Forbidden “an embarrassment … the band’s worst album”.^[82] Black Sabbath embarked on a world tour in July 1995 with openers Motörhead and Tiamat, but two months into the tour, drummer Cozy Powell left the band, citing health issues, and was replaced by former drummer Bobby Rondinelli. After completing Asian dates in December 1995, Tony Iommi put the band on hiatus, and began work on a solo album with former Black Sabbath vocalist Glenn Hughes, and former Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland. The album was not officially released following its completion, although a widely traded bootleg called Eighth Star surfaced soon after. The album was officially released in 2004 as The 1996 DEP Sessions, with Holland’s drums re-recorded by session drummer Jimmy Copley.^[83] In 1997, Tony Iommi disbanded the current lineup to officially reunite with Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath lineup. Vocalist Tony Martin claimed that an original lineup reunion had been in the works since the band’s brief reunion at Ozzy Osbourne’s 1992 Costa Mesa show, and that the band released subsequent albums to fulfill their record contract with I.R.S. records. Martin later recalled Forbidden as a “filler album that got the band out of the label deal, rid of the singer, and into the reunion. However I wasn’t privy to that information at the time”.^[84] I.R.S. Records released a compilation album in 1996 to fulfill the band’s contract, entitled The Sabbath Stones, which featured songs from Born Again to Forbidden.

[edit] Reunion (1997–2006)

Ozzy Osbourne in 2007.

In the summer of 1997, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne officially reunited to co-headline the Ozzfest festival tour along side Osbourne’s solo band. The lineup featured Osbourne’s drummer Mike Bordin filling in for Bill Ward, who was unable to participate due to prior commitments with his solo project, The Bill Ward Band.^[11] In December 1997, the group was joined by Ward, marking the first reunion of the original four members since Osbourne’s 1992 “retirement show”. The original lineup recorded two shows at the Birmingham NEC, which were released as the double live album Reunion on October 20, 1998. Reunion reached number eleven on the Billboard 200, and went platinum in the US.^[11][24] The album spawned the single “Iron Man“, which won Black Sabbath its first Grammy award in 2000 for Best Metal Performance, 30 years after the song was originally released. Reunion also featured two new studio tracks, “Psycho Man” and “Selling My Soul”, both of which cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.^[24] Shortly before the band embarked on a European tour in the summer of 1998, drummer Bill Ward suffered a heart attack and was temporarily replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice.^[85] Ward returned in time for the US tour with openers Pantera, which began in January 1999 and continued through the summer, headlining the annual Ozzfest tour.^[11] Following the Ozzfest appearances, the band was put on hiatus while members worked on solo material. Tony Iommi released his first official solo album, Iommi, in 2000, while Osbourne continued work on his next solo release, Down to Earth. Black Sabbath returned to the studio to work on new material with all four original members and producer Rick Rubin in the spring of 2001,^[11] but the sessions were halted when Osbourne was called away to finish tracks for his solo album in the summer of 2001.^[86] “It just came to an end”, Iommi said. “We didn’t go any further, and it’s a shame because [the songs] were really good”.^[87] Iommi commented on the difficulty getting all of the band members together to work on material:

“It’s quite different recording now. We’ve all done so much in between. In [the early] days there was no mobile phone ringing every five seconds. When we first started, we had nothing. We all worked for the same thing. Now everybody has done so many other things. It’s great fun and we all have a good chat, but it’s just different, trying to put an album together.”^[87]

In March 2002, Ozzy Osbourne’s Emmy winning reality TV show “The Osbournes” debuted on MTV, and quickly became a worldwide hit.^[11] The show introduced Osbourne to a broader audience and to capitalise, the band’s back catalogue label, Sanctuary Records released a double live album Past Lives, which featured concert material recorded in the 70′s, including the previously unofficial Live at Last album. The band remained on hiatus until the summer of 2004 when they returned to headline Ozzfest 2004 and 2005. In November 2005, Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and in March 2006, after eleven years of eligibility, the band were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[88] At the awards ceremony Metallica played two Black Sabbath songs, “Hole in the Sky” and “Iron Man” in tribute to the band.^[89]

[edit] The Dio Years and Heaven and Hell (2006–)

For more details on this topic, see Heaven and Hell (band).

Vinnie Appice performing a drum solo with Heaven and Hell at Katowice, 2007

While Ozzy Osbourne was working on new solo material in 2006, Warner records released The Dio Years, a compilation of songs culled from the four Black Sabbath releases featuring Ronnie James Dio. For the release, Iommi and Dio reunited to write and record three new songs. The Dio Years was released on April 3, 2007, reaching number 54 on the Billboard 200, while the single “The Devil Cried” reached number 37 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.^[24] Pleased with the results, Iommi and Dio decided to reunite the Heaven and Hell era lineup for a world tour. While the lineup of Osbourne, Butler, Iommi and Ward were still officially called Black Sabbath, the new lineup opted to call themselves Heaven and Hell, after the album of the same name, to avoid confusion. Drummer Bill Ward was initially set to participate, but dropped out before the tour began, and was replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice, effectively reuniting the lineup that had featured on the Mob Rules and Dehumanizer albums. Heaven and Hell toured the US with openers Megadeth and Machine Head, and recorded a live album and DVD in New York on March 30, 2007, entitled Live from Radio City Music Hall. In November 2007, Dio confirmed that the band have plans to record a new studio album in 2008.^[90] In April 2008 the band announced the upcoming release of a new box set and their participation in The Metal Masters Tour, alongside Judas Priest, Motörhead and Testament.^[91] The box set, The Rules of Hell, featuring remastered versions of all the Dio fronted Black Sabbath albums, is set to be supported by the Metal Masters Tour.

[edit] Musical style

Although Black Sabbath have gone through many lineups and stylistic changes, their original sound focused on ominous lyrics and doomy music, often making use of the musical tritone, also called the “devil’s interval”. Standing as a stark contrast to popular music of the early 1970s, Black Sabbath’s dark sound was dismissed by rock critics of the era, and the band received virtually no airplay on rock radio. As the band’s primary songwriter, Tony Iommi wrote the majority of Black Sabbath’s music, while Osbourne would write vocal melodies, and bassist Geezer Butler would write lyrics. The process was sometimes frustrating for Iommi, who often felt pressured to come up with new material. “If I didn’t come up with anything, nobody would do anything.”^[25] On Iommi’s influence, Osbourne later said:

“Black Sabbath never used to write a structured song. There’d be a long intro that would go into a jazz piece, then go all folky… and it worked. Tony Iommi – and I have said this a zillion times – should be up there with the greats. He can pick up a guitar, play a riff, and you say, ‘He’s gotta be out now, he can’t top that.’ Then you come back and I bet you a billion dollars, he’d come up with a riff that’d knock your fucking socks off.”^[92]

Early Black Sabbath albums feature tuned-down guitars, which contributed to the dark feel of the music.^[11] In 1966, prior to forming Black Sabbath, guitarist Tony Iommi suffered a freak accident while working in a sheet metal factory, losing the tips of two fingers on his right hand. Iommi almost gave up music, but was urged by a friend to listen to Django Reinhardt, a jazz guitarist who lost the use of two fingers.^[93] Inspired by Reinhardt, Iommi created two thimbles made of plastic and leather to cap off his missing fingers. The guitarist began using lighter strings, and detuning his guitar in 1971, to better grip the strings with his prosthetics; a move which inadvertently gave the music a darker feel”.^[93]

[edit] Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the United States.

[edit] Legacy

With more than 100 million albums sold worldwide,^[2] Black Sabbath is arguably the most influential heavy metal band of all time. The band helped to create the genre with ground breaking releases such as Paranoid, an album that Rolling Stone magazine said “changed music forever”, ^[95] and called the band “the Beatles of heavy metal”.^[96] Time Magazine called Paranoid “the birthplace of heavy metal”, placing it in their Top 100 Albums of All Time.^[97] MTV placed Black Sabbath at number one on their Top Ten Heavy Metal Bands.^[98] VH1 ranked Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” the number one song on their 40 Greatest Metal Songs countdown.^[99] Allmusic’s William Ruhlmann said:

Black Sabbath has been so influential in the development of heavy metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. The group took the blues-rock sound of late ’60s acts like Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the bass, and emphasising screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition, Black Sabbath took that tradition in a new direction, and in so doing helped give birth to a musical style that continued to attract millions of fans decades later.^[11]

[edit] Influence

Black Sabbath’s influence on heavy metal is almost unparalleled, the band are cited as highly influential by countless bands, including Metallica, Iron Maiden,^[100] Anthrax, Opeth,^[101] Pantera, Megadeth,^[102] The Smashing Pumpkins,^[103] Slipknot,^[104] the Foo Fighters,^[105]Fear Factory,^[106] and Godsmack.^[107] Two gold selling tribute albums have been released, Nativity in Black Volume 1 & 2, including songs by Sepultura, White Zombie, Type O Negative, Faith No More, Machine Head, System of a Down and Monster Magnet. Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich, who, along with bandmate James Hetfield inducted Black Sabbath into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, said “Black Sabbath is and always will be synonymous with heavy metal”,^[108]while Hetfield said “Sabbath got me started on all that evil-sounding shit, and it’s stuck with me. Tony Iommi is the king of the heavy riff.”^[109] Ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash said of the Paranoid album: “There’s just something about that whole record that, when you’re a kid and you’re turned onto it, it’s like a whole different world. It just opens up your mind to another dimension…Paranoid is the whole Sabbath experience; very indicative of what Sabbath meant at the time. Tony’s playing style — doesn’t matter whether it’s off ‘Paranoid’ or if it’s off ‘Heaven and Hell’ — it’s very distinctive.”^[109] Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian said “I always get the question in every interview I do, ‘What are your top five metal albums?’ I make it easy for myself and always say the first five Sabbath albums.”^[109] Lamb of God‘s Chris Adler said “If anybody who plays heavy metal says that they weren’t influenced by Black Sabbath’s music, then I think that they’re lying to you. I think all heavy metal music was, in some way, influenced by what Black Sabbath did.”^[110]

[edit] Members

Main article: List of Black Sabbath band members

Current line-up

• Ozzy Osbourne – vocals (1969–1979, 1997-present)
• Tony Iommi – guitar (1969-present)
• Geezer Butler – bass (1969–1984, 1990–1994, 1997-present)
• Bill Ward – drums (1969–1980, 1983, 1984, 1994, 1997–98, 1998-present)

[edit] Discography

Main article: Black Sabbath discography

• Black Sabbath (1970)
• Paranoid (1970)
• Master of Reality (1971)
• Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 (1972)
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
• Sabotage (1975)
• Technical Ecstasy (1976)
• Never Say Die! (1978)
• Heaven and Hell (1980)
• Mob Rules (1981)
• Born Again (1983)
• Seventh Star (1986)
• The Eternal Idol (1987)
• Headless Cross (1989)
• Tyr (1990)
• Dehumanizer (1992)
• Cross Purposes (1994)
• Forbidden (1995)