I wanted to bring 7 Days of Sabbath and two weeks of celebrating the life and music of Ozzy Osbourne to a close with one of my favorite Sabbath songs (there are so many favorites!). Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots is such a great track. I'll never forget listening to the lyrics as a young stoner and thinking, "How can I see Fairies with boots on dancing with a dwarf?"
Luckily, I never quite got there.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow our mourning ends. Let the celebration continue!
HUGE props to blacksabfan for posting this. Head over to their YouTube page and check 'em out! Lots of great live and rare Sabbath videos (lots of Thin Lizzy, too!).
There are a number of Sabbath songs that started out with different lyrics than what Ozzy ended up recording. This is one I don't think I was aware of.
There was a record store in Orland Park, IL when I was in High School. Red Tower. Located in the outer circumference of the Orland Mall's parkway, this standalone building carried with it for its south suburban location, the kind of cultural cache places like The Alley and Reckless Records did in the city (I'm aware The Alley wasn't a record store, but it was the most record store-like clothing/accessory store I've ever seen). Anyway, I already knew We Sold Our Souls For Rock 'n' Roll, the post-Sabotage Greatest Hits collection you could literally buy at gas stations in the late 80s/early 90s. While that introduced me to the first phase of Sabbath's music, it didn't prepare me for the second phase, those quasi-cinematic, philosophical Science Fiction-tinged tracks like Into the Void, the closer from 1971's Master of Reality. This song introduced a thread that, while "Supernaut" tugged on it again for Vol. 4, wasn't fully realized (IMO) until 1975's Sabotage, my favorite of the group's records and criminally underrated (and underrepresented on WSOSFR'n'R - I mean, how did they only add "Am I Going Insane?"). It was in Red Tower that I first heard Into the Void, and it literally made me stop, go up and ask the guy behind the counter what was playing. The song sounds like the soundtrack to a comic book or Science Fiction film, from the lyrics to the larger-than-life riffs. Instant favorite and the first inclination that I needed to move beyond the gas station greatest hits with this band.
For the record, the alternate lyrics are not good. I mean, the actual lyrics to this track are amazing, and I'd be curious to read how the boys from Birmingham got to the finished product. It's still cool to hear this little slice of Sabbath history, though, and for some fantastic alternate lyrics to this song, there's always Soundgarden's cover from SOMMS.
The first Ozzy Osbourne album that I spent any substantial time getting to know was 1987's Tribute to Randy Rhoads, so even though this live album came out well after the first, Jet Records era of Ozzy's solo career, that is the era that initially defined Ozzy as a solo artist for me. And believe it or not, Sabbath came later.
There's something magical about the Ozzy/Randy albums. I'd offer my suggestion that 1981's Diary of a Madman is a far superior effort than 1980's Blizzard of Ozz, but that's not to put Blizzard down. It's fantastic, and opening track, "I Don't Know," while not really having much to say, is a banger. Cool seeing it performed here, live, even if this 1981 performance on live tv in Rochester, NY is one of the more sedate Ozzy performances I've seen. Hangovers all around would be my guess.
Sweetie is gone.
The Sweetness found us on July 16th, 2016 - four months and one day after Tom died. She was another cat abandoned to San Pedro's wilds, and we went through a lot with her over the not even 9 years she had us. Our time in the little apartment in Redondo Beach didn't exactly make her happy, but since moving to TN and giving her a whole house and a backyard she spent almost every day all day in, we could see how we'd changed her life and even her attitude. A once "tough love" cat became amazingly affectionate. She slept between Kirsten and I almost every night since arriving here and now, well, it's hard to move on. Luckily, we have Knox, the younger brother that Sweetie didn't ask for or want, and who is himself a bit standoffish with affection.
We'll break him of that habit.
Regular posts will resume Monday. For now, I'm too devastated to do much of anything.
