One of the great things about this current era of downloaded music and MP3 players is that album sales are no longer relevant to the quality of a given piece of music. It used to be that only records or CDs that sold well were considered "successful" and stayed in print for new listeners to hear. But now, most any song ever recorded can be found somewhere, whether in legal downloads, illegal torrents, or on Youtube and Myspace. New listeners can easily discover a band or artist, and usually their only context for judging now is whether or not the music is any good. Media hype, press releases, and so on have far less influence than ever before.
An example of this is that many media outlets such as Rolling Stone Magazine like to pretend that the history of Black Sabbath begins and ends with Ozzy Osbourne. It is vaguely acknowledged that Ronnie James Dio played with the band for a bit, but any other albums are forgotten. But a kid just discovering heavy music can explore various torrents, and find a host of Black Sabbath albums to download, and decide for his or her own self what they like and dislike. Awesome (IMHO) Tony Martin-sung releases such as Headless Cross and Tyr are now on an equal footing with Paranoid and Dehumanizer.
This widespread access to music makes it possible for music fans to explore vast, interconnected discographies. There's various ones out there, as musicians switch between bands and projects, but my favorite one is what is sometimes referred to as "the extended Deep Purple family." Deep Purple were one of the founders of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The second lineup of the band included Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Ian Gillan on vocals, Jon Lord on keyboards, Roger Glover on bass, and Ian Paice on drums. The third lineup saw Glenn Hughes replace Glover, and David Coverdale replace Gillan.
Ronnie James Dio's band Elf toured with Deep Purple, and Dio performed on Glover's Butterfly Ball project while Glover helped produce Elf's albums. When Blackmore left Deep Purple, he took on Dio and Elf (minus the guitarist) as his backing band to form Rainbow. After the debut Rainbow album, Jimmy Bain joined the band on bass, and Cozy Powell took over drum duties.
From this start, it gets really crazy, and I won't go into it all at this time. But here's a taste of what occured in the following 30+ years. Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath, and Dio took over the vocals. He then left and was succeeded by Ian Gillan. Ozzy formed his own band with Bob Daisley on bass (Bain's replacement in Rainbow), and Dio formed his own band with Bain on bass. Dio's band included Vinny Appice on drums, after Appice had met Dio in Black Sabbath.
Roger Glover had joined Blackmore in Rainbow after Daisley, and Joe Lynn Turner took over vocals in place of Graham Bonnet, who had succeeded Dio. Bonnet then formed Alcatraz with Swedish guitar wizard Yngwie Malmsteen. Yngwie then launched a solo carer, which saw him work at times with several former Rainbow members, including Turner and Powell. Meanwhile, Coverdale had formed Whitesnake, and was eventually joined by Lord and Paice, and then by Powell. Neil Murray was Whitesnake's bassist for a time.
By 1989, Powell had joined guitarist Tony Iommi to bring a new focus to Black Sabbath. Murray joined them an album later. Powell was eventually replaced, twice(!), by former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli. Dio kept plugging along on his solo career, with Rudy Sarzo settling in as bassist in recent years. Sarzo had earlier replaced Daisley as bassist in Ozzy's solo band, after even earlier having played with Ozzy's first solo guitarist, Randy Rhoads, in Quiet Riot. By the time Sarzo joined Dio, Craig Goldy (aka Goldie) was on his third stint as the band's guitarist. Sarzo and Goldy knew each other from the early 80's LA scene, when Sarzo was in the reformed Quiet Riot, and Goldy was in Rough Cutt. They had later formed a project together while Goldy was out of Dio's band the first time. Goldy's third stint in Dio's band was as the replacement for Doug Aldrich, who had left to join Coverdale in a reformed Whitesnake!
There's dozens of further connections I could point out, but I mentioned what I did to illustrate that, for fans of any one of these bands or performers, there are loads of releases to seek out. Someone who enjoys Turner's singing in Rainbow will probably equally enjoy his work with Yngwie Malmsteen, or on the one Deep Purple album he recorded. Whitesnake fans might well enjoy the Deep Purple albums with Coverdale on vocals. In that version of Deep Purple, Hughes also provided some vocals, and listeners who enjoy his sound can then check out the one Black Sabbath album on which he sang, and the two later albums he recorded with Iommi.
Not everyone will like everything, of course. I've stated a number of times in various forums that I can't stand Ozzy's voice. That doesn't stop me from admitting that he's produced a lot of wonderful music with Black Sabbath and his solo band. I need to explore his catalog more than I have. There's hundreds of hours of music out there for fans of any and all of these cross pollinating hard/heavy bands to enjoy. Go to sites such as Encyclopedia Metallum to find discographies and band rosters. Or check out books such Garry Sharpe-Young's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - The Battle for Black Sabbath, and Martin Popoff's studies of Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and Dio's solo career.
If the above was new to you, I hope it opened your eyes and ears to a different world. If you were already in on the story, I hope it made you aware of some additional possibilities. Happy investigating, and happy listening!
3 comments:
Yeah, technology, ain't it great? There is a greater possibility of access out there now, but it is still hard in practical terms since most people don't know all of these band histories or likely even the members. If you look up Black Sabbath on the Internet, as most kids are wont to do these days, chances are you'll be directed to Paranoid and the Ozzy material before anything else. If you continue to look and read--oh but that takes work--you can easily find the rest, which I agree is generally better than the Ozzy-Era material, with a few exceptions of course. Also, most of this access precludes the bands from making any profits at all, except for iTunes.
Yeah, but at least these (mostly) kids today have opportunities that hardly existed for us back in the day. I used to get up at 10 o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, work 24 hours a day down mill for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our dad and our mum would kill us, and dance about on graves singing hallelula. You try and tell the young folks today that, they won't believe you!
Oh wait, that was Eric Idle and Monty Python guys. In my case, I was stuck with what was played on "Pix106 Kickass Rock 'n' Roll." They played Heaven & Hell and The Mob Rules, but never played Trashed or Disturbing the Priest or No Stranger to Love.
I'd give your left nut to have so many musical listening opportunities years ago, and I'm sure you'd return the favor!
Ah, the Four Yorkshiremen, what a great skit. I used to work 29 hours a day, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, and after work dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
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