Master of Reality is "Soul" Music

This has been one of those rambling thoughts which seem to invade my mind from time to time, the idea that the band Black Sabbath (first incarnation, we'll get to the Dio years later) didn't start out just inventing the category of Heavy Metal they infused Blues and Soul music into their unique sound and from that was birthed Heavy Metal.

Now I don't want to start my first post in SEVERAL years out without showing some semblance of due diligence to help prove my point. I want to take this time to tell you about how my ears interpret the sounds of the Sabbath (Ozzie Years), and how it compares to brain-shaking songs by John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, the latter especially.

I think I was 14 or 15 the first time I heard the driving ominous bass-line of the self-titled Black Sabbath, I believe it was on one of those MTV "Rockumentaries" which they used to fill time and most likely get impressionable teens to sit through commercials. The clip might have lasted a good 10-15 seconds but that’s all it took. If you start the from 5:15 you get a taste of what my young mind was subjected to. An awesome build-up and if you're already somewhat predisposed, this is the holy grail of riffs and rebellion all in one.

This obviously isn't a traditional longing soul ballad in the way you get from Otis Redding's Cigarettes and Coffee but it captures your imagination and ears.

 I've heard and read countless interpretations of the self-titled song and they always come back to the same conclusion, its fucking scary until when you break it down to the barest of basics: The Grim Reaper has come to take someone away and they don’t want to go. It's the band and Ozzy's vocals that make it the sort of thing that makes people scared.

While this song serves as a great intro into the band it's not what this post is about, it simply serves as an introduction (at least for me) into the band and their art. The album that actually gets me thinking in these terms is actually their 1971 release, Master of Reality.

Here we have an album which takes you all over the place in terms of subject matter, artistic freedom and a big challenge to those that listen with preconceived notions of what lies within.

Sure you could call this stoner rock, but what "rock" in the early 70's wasn’t; this album is special. I'm sure some Doom fans will fight the soul music label out of sheer defiance for another label to be put upon the record but stick with me and I promise I've got something. This album takes you on a journey and while the A-Side (the first 4 songs - my apologies to those with later releases, my only exposure to the album is as the original UK release which is only comprised of 8 songs) are easily dismissed as "stoner rock", the last four take you on a FUCKING RIDE of emotion and imagination. The last 4 songs on the album Orchid, Lord of this World, Solitude and Into the Void, are our focus.

Starting with Track 5: Orchid, a slow, melodic intro into the best B-side in history (yeah, I know, but I had to say something inflammatory to keep your ire up). Orchid presents like an old world balladeer strumming down the street, on a spring evening, no change cup, just walking and strumming to fill the night air with his song.

A light rhythmic strumming of acoustic guitars mixed together to welcome you into another side of the album's experience.

Honestly, I've always felt that the production of Master Reality was brilliant not only in the way the songs were recorded but most startingly in how each of the B-side 4 meld together so perfectly, as if one of those long-ass Led Zeppelin or Grateful Dead medleys. Now, I didn’t get a hold of this album until I was in my 30's and the first listen is one of those ear-perking moments.

"What is this?"

"I thought I was listening to a Sabbath album".

"What WAS THAT?".

Sure I'd been versed in Sabbath before. I started my foray into Sabbath with the compilation "We Sold Our Soul For Rock and Roll", merely weeks after the experience I spoke of earlier. But this was something different. The difference begins with Orchid and opens the door to Lord of This World.

Lord of This World wakes you up from the quiet contemplation of Orchid and stick it's foot in your mouth, almost to say "Listen Up, we're about to school you kid". Tony Iommi is our guide in Lord of This World's beginning. The first 28 seconds of the track are of him and Bill Ward showing the audience where their music comes from. The first salvo being the initial brooding intro which pierces the black background of momentary silence in the transition from Orchid and then cradling you like a swaddled child in its mothers arms. It takes another 14 seconds before Ozzy steps to the mic to the deliver the wake-up call…

[Verse 1]

"You're searching for your mind don't know where to start

Can't find the key to fit the lock on your heart

You think you know but you are never quite sure

Your soul is ill but you will not find a cure, yeah"

Now, I'm sure someone will take these lyrics and say this is where I get the idea of the album being "soul" music, but it's not, I assure you my argument is not that shallow. My interpretation of Soul music is a feeling, a universal emotion that allows the sounds to connect you no matter who you may be or can understand. If this song were played with a translation I think the majority of folks no matter thier native tongue would concur.

Of course there is interpretation or at worse conjecture, but this is more than a guess, stick with me.

Ozzy opens Lord with a picture of a person grappling within themselves to feel whole and secure within that feeling. Something is keeping this person from feeling as though they should. Whole, confident and at peace within themselves. What is holding them back? And who is the narrator?

[Verse 2]

"Your world was made for you by someone above

But you chose evil ways instead of love

You made me master of the world where you exist

The soul I took from you was not even missed, yeah"

Ahh, here it is. The source of their lack of fulfillment, is the fact that they've so poisoned the once fertile landscape that is a human soul with evil ways, when in truth ALL our lives should be dedicated to love of fellow man and nature (the world made for you by "someone above"). Exploitation and Narcissism are not the ways of human evolution, they are of regression, backwards thinking and an opening to evil.

[Bridge]

Lord of this world

Evil possessor

Lord of this world

He's your confessor now

[Verse 3]

You think you're innocent,

you've nothing to fear

You don't know me you say, but isn't it clear?

You turn to me in all your wordly greed and pride

But will you turn to me when it's your turn to die? Yeah!

This is where the song turns into a thick rib-eye steak perfectly reverse seared, charred and lightly coated with a smokey and browned blue cheese.

"Lord of this World, Evil Possessor, Lord of this World. He's your confessor now…." What a bridge, there is something about this that I wish everyone throughout the world could think about for a little bit.

You could take this a couple different ways, but here is my favorite. Our human character, most probably individual who has spent their lives in pursuit of the spoils most associated with greed and pride, is being shown a mirror. A silent narrator whispers in their ear.

"You've made this world, a world filled with greed and spoils of the world you were gifted. I can no longer help you. He, he is your confessor now"

But who is he? And (again) who the heck is the narrator?

I believe that throughout the song the narrator is Satan. Watching over this person and recounting with delight the past actions, as he's got another one in the bag. The bridge however, is different. The bridge is another voice and temperament, one of despair, like the town-crier in the saddest village since Gomorrah. Informing (albeit silently) our human has had their final judgement, it's too late.

In verse 3, things become even clearer, the devil is still gloating after his latest catch. But again the catch in this case still thinks they are "doing good", making profit and pushing further their idea of innocence to the forefront of their mind, when in fact they are already doomed. They've been worshiping at the temple of greed, pride, and evil for a long time. Will they finally accept their fate once they are done for?

WOOOOOOOO!

After all that it feels like we need a Quaalude, and as it turns out the band thought so too. Here is were we are introduced to Solitude.

Solitude is a song in which you can easily get lost in the cadence. It's a definite come down from Lord and is almost contemplative about love, loneliness and loss. For nearly 5 minutes Ozzy laments about the loss of someone dear and close. Now I haven't done the research to figure out who Tony and Geezer (the writers of the song) were thinking of but the feeling of loss is palpable. No drums and I believe little bass to provide the foundation, the song is a simple gut-wrenching look into a person dealing with the absence of someone special.

The thing that makes Solitude so perfectly a match here is the way in which it ties the side together. Orchid opens the door. Lord of This World shows you the denouement of a wicked life and Solitude could easily be thought of a survivors tale. The next track could easily be called the "cause" of this life, War, which leads us to one of the best endings of any album (FIGHT ME), Into the Void.

Now Solitude leaves us with a pretty black and still crackling soundstage (if you're critically listening, if you're not sitting in the "sweet spot" you'll also notice this with a good pair of sealed headphones) . Out of this abyss comes a screech. This screech ( my apologies I've been banging my head trying to think of a adjective), a deeply tuned guitar shouts 23 notes at you, welcoming you back to the carnival. For 99 seconds Ward, Butler, and Iommi workout what feels like a jam session. Each showing a little flair in their due time and flexing the muscles while Ozzy sips champagne and grog chasers in the corner waiting for his cue. When his cue does show, it’s an immediate nasally blast of War and destruction.

As I've said in the past that I've never seen a War film that is pro-War, I don't think I've ever heard a song about war that wasn't actually anti.

[Verse 1]

Rocket engines burning fuel so fast

Up into the night sky they blast

Through the universe the engines whine

Could it be the end of man and time?

[Verse 2]

Back on earth the flame of life burns low

Everywhere is misery and woe

Pollution kills the air, the land, the sea

Man prepares to meet his destiny, yeah

Rocket salvos fill the night sky, so high into the sky they ride that their engines whine throughout the atmosphere. This time our Narrator wonders if this is the last straw for the planet, what will we do when those that wage war for a living finally get what they want, a bonus.

[Verse 3]

Rocket engines burning fuel so fast

Up into the black sky so vast

Burning metal through the atmosphere

Earth remains in worry, hate and fear

We the "normal folk" live here on Earth going about our lives; some filled with love and thought, others with hate, fear and greed. We are all here on this spinning rock, and unfortunately the majority of us live in a world in which we are all at the mercy of those that profit in taking others lives and exploiting the planet. Every night on the news we see more hunger, death, destruction, hate, and apathy. If we care enough, we pick a side. If we don’t care, we turn the channel and watch others play act their fears. What is to come of this, of us?

[Verse 4, 5 and 6]

"With the hateful battles raging on

Rockets flying to the glowing sun

Through the empires of eternal void

Freedom from the final suicide"

"Freedom fighters sent out to the sun

Escape from brainwashed winds and pollution

Leave the earth to all it's sin and hate

Find another world where freedom waits, yeah"

"Past the stars in fields of ancient void

Through the shields of darkness where they find

Love upon a land a world unknown

Where the sons of freedom make their home"

OK, now I know I got a little preachy back there but this has got to be my favorite part of the song.

WHAT? Are we now abandoning Earth? WHAT? Where are we going? The Sun? WTF?

Yeah, it's nuts to suppose that Iommi and Ward are actually thinking about escaping the earth, but there it is, clear as mud. The ideas in the middle of the song of those of an exasperated human race tired of living under the constant woke of war and death. So how do they fight back, they don’t. They leave. Freedom Fighters sent out to the sun, escape form the brainwashed winds and pollution, leave the world to all its sin and hate, find another world where freedom waits, YEAH!

People don't want to live in a world corrupted on so many levels by (often times) the same people selling peace. They will do anything, even climb into a rocket pointed at the sun in order to find a place where they can live their lives. The final verse says it perfectly.

"Leave the earth to Satan and his slaves

Leave them to their future in their graves

Make a home where love is there to stay

Peace and happiness in every day"

While this is the last song on the album I think it was the one that actually caught my attention as the flagship song on the album because of its upward gaze, imagination and depth. We can make a better world, even if we have to leave this one to those that don’t.

...And there you go, my ideas (long-winded as they might be) behind one of my favorite albums and the opening salvo into my petition for every record store to carve a space out in their "Soul" section, for one of the best to ever exist. Master of Reality.

All of Side B

Peace!