HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TO METAL!!!!!!!!!

The greatest music in the world turns the big 4-0 today!!!!!!

Because it was on this day back in 1970 that BLACK SABBATH released their self-titled debut album, and the world has not gotten to sleep since!!!!!

:rock: :guitar: :guitar: :rock:

From Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/x-10303-Austin-Metal-Music-Examiner~y2010m2d13-Heavy-Metal-celebrates-40-years

Austin Metal Music Examiner

Heavy Metal officially turns 40 years old

It was exactly 40 years ago today that a dark and dreary rock band from Birmingham called Black Sabbath released their eponymous debut album. Nobody could have predicted the consequences. This recording spearheaded metal music as we know it - the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Doom, Speed, Thrash, Death and Black metal all owe a vote of thanks to the work of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and the sometimes lamentable Ozzy Osbourne. They stared into the uncharted blackness and shined a light, and then they started inviting people in.

If anything, the fact that hessians around the world have an event like this to celebrate proves that metal was meant to stand the test of time, certainly more than all the rock critics predicted repeatedly throughout the years. Where are those guys now? Not enjoying metal's enduring success, that's where!

Today, all metalheads and hessians of every stripe are advised to turn up their favorite album and let it ring out wherever they go. This is our most significant anniversary yet (aside from the National Day of Slayer), so there's reason to celebrate. Play metal loud in Austin tonight, and let everyone know it's here to stay!

From The Stranger Lineout:

Ozzy-some!: Black Sabbath's Debut LP Turns 40
Posted by Dave Segal on Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 10:55 AM
Black Sabbath's self-titled, heavy-metal-germinating debut album turns 40 on Feb. 13 and Sirius XM plans to make a big deal about it—as it should. Bloody Roots host Ian Christe "will reconstruct the entire first Black Sabbath album using rare alternate takes, live versions, original recordings of the Crow and Aynsley Dunbar songs Sabbath covered for the record, and a few reverent covers by latter-day Sabbath acolytes." Important business, people (although I think Paranoid and Master of Reality are superior).

Full press release after the cut.

http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/02/12/ozzy-some-black-sabbaths-debut-lp-turns-40

(Scroll for audio clip of "The Wizard")



SIRIUS XM'S 'Bloody Roots' CELEBRATES 40TH BIRTHDAY OF BLACK SABBATH'S DEBUT

Airing Sat., Feb 13th at 6pm ET, this week's episode of "Bloody Roots"
on Sirius XM's Liquid Metal channel will honor the 40th birthday of
the UK release of Black Sabbath's monumental debut — the first true
heavy metal album and the cornerstone of all heavy metal. Celebrating
the contributions of four young misfits from Birmingham, England —
Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Ozzy Osbourne — host Ian
Christe ("Sound of the Beast") will reconstruct the entire first Black
Sabbath album using rare alternate takes, live versions, original
recordings of the Crow and Aynsley Dunbar songs Sabbath covered for
the record, and a few reverent covers by latter-day Sabbath acolytes.

Launched in 2004, "Bloody Roots" is an hour-long weekly heavy metal
history show on Sirius XM, covering different genres, eras, regions,
or moments in metal. The show airs four times throughout the week. For
more information or to check schedule, visit this location:

http://tinyurl.com/yebfnoy

The celebration of Black Sabbath's debut will continue throughout the
month on Sirius XM Liquid Metal, leading up to Eternal Black Sabbath
weekend. Every hour the weekend of Feb. 27, the station will feature a
different Black Sabbath song with commentary from Ozzy, Tony, Geezer,
and Bill, and their diehard fans and music industry veterans,
worshipping at the altar of the eternal Black Sabbath.

From NPR Music:


Lordy, Lordy, Metal Is 40: Happy Birthday, 'Black Sabbath'
by Lars Gotrich

You could argue that Pentagram was the first metal band. Or that Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues" featured the first heavy, distorted riff on wax. My personal go-to genre creation story: the actual term "heavy metal," first used in a 1971 review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come in Creem.

But as Cosmo Lee at the righteous Invisible Oranges blog points out, Saturday (Feb. 13) is the 40th anniversary of Black Sabbath's crushing self-titled debut:



Without it, you and I would not be gathered here today. There would be no Big Four, Peaceville Three, !T.O.O.H.!, or "One." There would be no Wacken, Venom, Voivod, or Vader. No Bathory, Beherit, Behemoth, or Belial (Aus, Aus, Bra, Chl, Col, Cze, Fin, Gbr, Sgp, Slv, USA, USA). No Decibel, Terrorizer, or, um, Revolver. No metal maniacs. No Fenriz. No Abbath. No Wino. No Doro. No Danzig. No blastbeats. No mosh. No fun. We would wear lighter-colored clothes. The world would be a darker place.

If you don't get all the references, that's okay. Point is: In 1970, Black Sabbath was the album that launched a thousand demonic riffs. Even the tritone that opens "Black Sabbath" (duh duhnn ddddduuuun) has been historically called diabolus in musica ("the devil in music"). Years later, I'm still terrified by the "figure in black" that haunts Ozzy Osbourne's tortured wails.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2010/02/lordy_lordy_metal_is_40_happy.html
(Scroll down for early video clip of Black Sabbath playing their title track!!)


Speaking of Ozzy, NPR's Scott Simon recently interviewed the Prince of Darkness for an upcoming Weekend Edition Saturday segment. It's about his new biography, I Am Ozzy, and not about Black Sabbath. But reading it last night, I got a kick out of the opening: "They said I would never write this book. [Turn the page.] Well, f--- 'em -- 'cos here it is. [Turn the page.] All I have to do now is remember something... [Turn the page.] [Blank page.] Bollocks. I can't remember anything." Hilarity ensues.

So blow up the black balloons, stick a tombstone in the cake and raise your devil horns high for Black Sabbath. May your grim robes enshroud terror for another 40 years and more.

[B][SIZE="7"]and the world has not gotten to sleep since!!!!!

And a whole bunch of us turned into nothing but drug-taking, Satan-worshipping losers!!:devil:

Of course, you know I'm kidding!!

I can't say I've been listening to heavy metal for those 40 years, but in the years I have been listening to it have been some of the best years AND some of the best concerts of my life!!

raise your devil horns high

And for those devil horns, we thank you, Ronnie James Dio!!:rock: