Latest Updates - Black Sabbath

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Comment by Strawberry_Lynn:

"Borrowed his underpants?"

OML, that's gross. They wouldn't have even been fresh ones

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Comment by Strawberry_Lynn:

Kab2012: Everyone hates seeing members of their favourite band being replaced, but in some cases, a bit of new blood can be a good thing. I found your comment interesting

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Comment by Strawberry_Lynn:

Album review by Johnny Hotten

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Comment by Strawberry_Lynn:

Judging by the title, the line-up for this LP is the same as the previous one, though this time all songs are written by guitarist Tony Iommi. That might be the line-up of the band on the rear of the sleeve, but it is too small to read

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Comment by Strawberry_Lynn:

I don't even follow Black Sabbath, but somehow, I ended up looking up their LP discography, and I have found the changing line-up of the band interesting. After two studio albums, Ron Dio has left at this point, being replaced by Ian Gillan, which surprised me. Drummer Bill Ward's name didn't appear on the songwriting credits for the previous album, so I assume he left the band and came back for this one.

I shall continue scanning their output!

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Comment by Strawberry_Lynn:

No mention of band members names ANYWHERE here, be it the sleeve, labels or even the song writing credits, but judging by a comment left by Kab2112 on the following release, I take it that this was Ozzie Osborne's final release with this band

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Comment by Fokeman:

This same record appeared with a different sleeve that only referenced Eurodisc. If it were the record it would be dated 1976 (or 1978?) but with this sleeve it was released in 1979 (apparently). They don't make it easy for us, do they...

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Comment by Fokeman:

With all the information printed in English. No GEMA. All clues indicate a UK issue (another one) but this time printed and pressed in Germany. A UK issue nevertheless.

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Comment by Fokeman:

UK issue but with a sleeve printed in Holland. Nevertheless NOT a Dutch issue.

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Comment by Fokeman:

This looks like a UK issue but with a sleeve printed in Holland.

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Comment by Fokeman:

Made in Italy but with the STEMRA logo was this really sold or released in Italy? STEMRA is very specifically a Netherlands rights collection agency and would not operate in Italy. So I think this needs moving to Netherlands.

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Comment by TheJudge:

Probably my fault for not checking for a spaced version.

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Comment by Hawkmarty SUBS:

I think the search function is not as flexible as it was. The original entry has a space after the ACB.

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Comment by TheJudge:

Funny, it didn't come up when I searched under the cat# before I entered it. Merge away!

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Comment by Hawkmarty SUBS:

This is already here so will be merged.

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Comment by Fokeman:

Also came out with the later Spaceship Labels. But this later issue was allocated another catalogue number.

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Comment by Fokeman:

Bill Ward, wanting to look a bit different was wearing his girlfriend's red tights for this but didn't have any underpants. So he asked Ozzy to lend him his underpants which then required Ozzy to wear his robe with nothing on underneath. It looks a bit ridiculous but they were trying to avoid just wearing normal, everyday clothes on the album cover.

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Comment by Fokeman:

Apparently the plan was to call this LP "Walpurgis" - The Witches' Sabbath. But the obsession with evil magic and satanism was beginning to cause problems for the group who were just about to tour in the US. Therfore the track Walpurgis was changed to become War Pigs and the lyrics rewritten to reflect the change in title. Then, in a hurry to get the the album released, they organised a hurried photo shoot with a man in a pig mask. All of this was much against the will and taste of the band members. The final insult, was to change the name from War Pigs to Paranoid, again against the band's wishes with no coherence between the blurry picture of a man in a pig's head mask and the title Paranoid.

Having said all that, this album is universally considered a classic, so I don't think the story of the cover really detracts from what a stupendous record Black Sabbath produced for their second LP release.

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Comment by Quad5point1 SUBS:

With a nod to kab2112, tidier cover scans added and with a nod to gregs45s, tidier No "Jim Simpson Management" Inner Right Gatefold added. As usual, feel free to use or delete any or all images