Sabbotage - Song By Song

[Zzzptm]

Thrill Of It All comes next, which is another of my favourites and the last part in the greatest musical 26 minutes of all time. I love the stripped back beginning and the way it builds.

Totally with you here on this KDC. And I love the lyrics on it, to boot. It's a very upbeat song, overall. Oh yeah.

[Charger]

Thrill Of It All is the best track of the second half of the album but it's still a far cry from any of the first 3 songs. The riff is lacking punch and it's kind of like the song tries to build up into something but it never gets there.

It's a track that is pretty indifferent in the end...doesn't raise much emotion one way or another.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

... and then we move on to the "rest" of the album!

Supertsar is a nice instrumental with an old Russian feel to it. The choral arrangement works pretty well. I like it, it doesn't detract from the album, but at the same time doesn't add much.

[Charger]

Supertzar works best as a concert intro tape. On the album though it just drags on for way too long.

It's not a very interesting track...it is clear Sabbath tried to do something "big" with this track having a choir and all but it just doesn't work all that well. Lacks punch too.

[Zzzptm]

Supertsar is a play on the word "superstar", a bit of a minor-key dirge between two major-key tracks. I'm with KDC in that it doesn't add much. If it went straight from The Thrill of it All to Am I Going Insane, we wouldn't miss it all that much.

I mean, it's OK, but it's no "Blow on the Jug".

[Typhon]

Supertzar, not "Supertsar" Mr. Zzz, is a bitter-sweet track for me.  I don't mind it, but it is not something I would even call Rock music.  An interesting try at something different is the best way I can describe it.

[Zzzptm]

Supertzar, not "Supertsar" Mr. Zzz, is a bitter-sweet track for me.  I don't mind it, but it is not something I would even call Rock music.  An interesting try at something different is the best way I can describe it.

Ah, but in Russian itself it's a "ts" character at the start of the word "tsar". It's often rendered with a z, but it's still a "ts" sound. Play on words will stand for me.

[Zzzptm]

While we're going through this album, it's also important to note that this album was very difficult to record for all kinds of legal reasons, the band having found out during the SBS recording that their management was ripping them off, with the litigious fallout of that realization still ongoing during the recording of Sabotage. Much of the album deals with the band's frustration of doing all this work recording and touring, just to pay a bunch of lawyers.

[Charger]

And then we come to the worst song in the entire catalogue of Black Sabbath.

This absolute and total turd is not only the worst Sabbath song but one of the worst songs ever made. There is absolutely nothing good about it.

What was going through their minds when they thought that this song would be a good idea is beyond me....well I guess the only thing going through their minds at the time were drugs...which I think is the only even remotely justifiable reason for doing a song this shitty.



EDIT:
I thought one vomit would be enough but then I realised it wasn't...

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Am I Going Insane (Radio) - the turd in the pile of diamonds. It's not as bad as Changes but is a skip for me and I rarely listen to it, perhaps once a year.

I've heard it was orignally intended to go on an Ozzy solo album which never materialised, fortunately when it finally came, that solo album was a vast improvement!

BTW "Radio Rental" is Cockney Rhyming Slang for mental, so the song was never a radio friendly edit as some thought.

[Typhon]

Am I Going Insane (Radio) is the other song from this album that is nothing special, but again, does not bother me.  Technically, it is a BFTO tune.

[Zzzptm]

I actually like this track. It starts off with a major key, upbeat tune, things look good... and then it slides into madness. It goes from light to dark and sets things up for the flipside of Megalomania, The Writ.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Finally we come to The Writ. It's a fine song which effectively portrays the anger and frustrations of the legal wrangles with their managers. It's not the best song on the album, but has grown on me over the years.

A quick shout out to Blow On A Jug, I think this could have been developed into a fully fledged song and it could have worked!

[Charger]

The Writ suffers seriously from being too long for it's own good. It comes off as rather pompous.

It doesn't have the flow of Megalomania nor the drive nor the energy...it's lacking in all of those departments.

Bit overly experimental this track...best part of it is the Blow On A Jug outro!

[Zzzptm]

Again, I'm with KDC - it's a song that has grown on me more and more. But the bass intro always lulls me into a false sense of security before the whole band blasts me out of the water. I like the first part of the song the best, but enjoy it as a solid track overall. All in all, it's one more reason for me why I enjoy Sabotage the most out of the Ozzy era.