ABlairican Pie's video retrospective: OZZY.

[ABlairican Pie]

Over two weeks ago, the music world lost one of its most formidable talents. The voice of several generations since the early 70's and beyond. That man was Ozzy Osbourne, who began his career with legendary groundbreaking band Black Sabbath before forging a durable solo career of his own. There were few equals to the mighty Ozzman. For this reason, we salute him and his accomplishments with an extensive retrospective of his lengthy career.

Enter the world of OZZY OSBOURNE.

[ABlairican Pie]

John Michael Osbourne was born in Birmingham, England, on December 3, 1948, to a working class family in the slum district of Ashton. His family included several sisters and two parents who worked meager jobs in factories to keep their siblings afloat. Often young John would barely be able to attend school with little more than wearing pajamas to class, his parents were so broke to properly clothe him. He was largely dismissed by his schoolmasters as
"odd", when his inability to read and write properly was due to severe dyslexia, which was not understood in the late 50's or early 60's.

John experienced bullying and sexual abuse by others in his neighborhood. His situation was so traumatic to him that he often contemplated suicide. But one thing which saved him was music. He so enjoyed singing and performing that he auditioned for such roles in school as for 'H.M.S Pinafore' and others. But when The Beatles released "She Loves You", John knew that he wanted to be a rock and roll star.

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne as a young child:

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In spite of the solace rock and roll provided young John in his teen years, his life was marked by turmoil and crime. In order to make ends meet, he became a petty criminal, and an inept one at that. He wore fingerless gloves and even dropped a television set on his head while attempting to scale a fence. After stealing clothing from a shop, John's father felt it best to teach him a lesson by allowing him to spend several weeks in prison.

While at Winson Greens Prison, John learned to entertain inmates by telling jokes. He also tattooed on his fingers what would become his moniker: O-Z-Z-Y. When he left the prison, he realized that life in jail was not something he wished to do with his life. But options for the young man were scarce.

Ozzy in his teens:

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During the height of the Flower Power era in the 1960's, Ozzy was in a completely different zone from all the peace, love, and smile-on-your-brother bromides that were popular in those days. He heard songs such as "In San Francisco, Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair" by Bruce McKenzie, and thought bitterly, San Francisco might as well as be on Mars. The Ashton district was light years away from the West Coast, and filled with crime, pollution, and violence. There was little future for him. The only thing that kept him going was that his weekly grind of day jobs was able to afford him musical gear such as a sound system and a microphone. He did not want to give up on music.

He posted a notice in a local music store: "Ozzy Zig needs a gig. Has own P.A. system." Two musicians, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward, decided to respond to the ad. Iommi was familiar with this Ozzy character, but did not have the highest opinion of him--he in fact was rather bullying toward the eccentric lad. When Ozzy came to the door, Iommi nearly wanted to leave. No one could seriously want to play with Ozzy. He was too much of a character. But Bill wanted to speak more with him, and interestingly a musical partnership emerged under unlikely circumstances.

Tony Iommi was a guitarist who had two fingertips severed in an industrial accident and learned to play by using prosthetic tips fashioned with plastic bottles melted down. Bill Ward was a drummer who played jazz drums in a bombastic, unorthodox fashion. Eventually, the lineup was complete with the inclusion of Terry "Geezer" Butler on bass, who served as the band's main lyricist. The band went through several names such as Polka Tulk and Earth before changing their name to avoid confusion with another band who shared that moniker.

Ozzy and Co., 1968:

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The band pondered their new name when they noticed a movie marquee down the street with the title "Black Sabbath" on the front. The name, the Anglicized version of the Italian title, 'I tre volti della paura' (Three Faces Of Fear), by director Mario Bava, was a 1963 horror anthology which featured veteran actor Boris Karloff. Ozzy and the band pondered, why people would pay so much money to get scared? The answer was simple: People enjoyed being scared by evil things, it gave them that certain charge. The band decided to name themselves after the movie, applying the horror movie appeal to attract audiences.

It was also understandable that Black Sabbath arrived at a precarious dark moment in rock and popular culture: For all the Summer Of Love hype, the hippie movement was taking a turn for the worse in those later years in the 1960's with political assassinations, the war in Vietnam and general unrest that the anthems of "Let the Sun Shine" were unsurprisingly naive and ineffectual.

Black Sabbath in 1968 while making the transition from 'Earth':

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While Black Sabbath played mostly blues and jazzy rock covers in the early part of their career, Ozzy helped contribute lyrics to the track which would become the band's signature song: "Black Sabbath". Knowing that bassist Geezer Butler had an affinity for exploring the occult, Ozzy gave him a book on the arcane arts as a source of inspiration. One night Geezer was alarmed to find a bizarre apparition, a mysterious figure at the foot of his bed. The next day, the book Ozzy had given him had disappeared. This encounter resulted in Ozzy writing the ominous lyrics, "What is this that stands before me?"

The band's first song marked a turning point in their development. The song, whose macabre tri-tone composing the main riff, became to many the official starting point of heavy metal. Recorded in late 1969, the tri-tone, known as "The Devil's Interval", was banned by the Church in the medieval era due to its dissonant, unsettling placement of notes.

When the band played the song in their early shows, the entire pub, patrons and waitresses included, would watch in stunned amazement as Ozzy sang and howled the lyrics of this haunting song. Nothing like this had ever been attempted before in rock. The band received both applause and jeers for its presentation. Black Sabbath was making headway as a nascent band.