Connor McGrath
Black Sabbath: Seventh Star
Release Date: January 28th, 1986
Chart Peak: #78 on Billboard 200
Single: “No Stranger to Love”
At what point, should a band call it quits? It’s a topic discussed often by classic rock fans or fans of any band where the average age of its original members is north of 40. Is there a certain number of original members that have to be in a band for it to be considered a legitimate lineup? Or is there another criteria to make or break a band’s legitimacy? I overheard a discussion about this on my local classic rock station after somebody mentioned a recent Foreigner concert in the area where none of the original lineup played (lead guitarist Mick Jones is still with the group but was sidelined with an illness the night the band played here) and the ensuing minor controversy amongst local rock fans. That transitioned into the DJ talking about Boston’s truly awful recent release Life, Love & Hope, which only featured the band’s lead guitarist/main songwriter Tom Scholz on all of the tracks (though their late frontman Brad Delp makes a posthumous appearance on three tracks) and how nobody cared about it because there weren’t enough original members involved. Then the DJ deemed Foreigner’s tourmates for this summer, Styx, “legitimate” because they have original lead guitarist James “JY” Young and rhythm guitarist Tommy Shaw, who’s been with them since 1975 (original bassist Chuck Panozzo pops in occasionally to guest). Although THAT band is missing arguably its most famous member, their highly theatrical former frontman Dennis DeYoung, who quit the band acrimoniously in 1999.
And of course, when it comes to this discussion, you have to mention KISS! Remember Connor’s KISS Corner every Wednesday Night, here on Culture Crossfire.
What was I talking about? Bands without many original members! Well, unfortunately for you Foreigner fans, I’m not going to be discussing Mr. Moonlight for another few months. We’re going to be talking today about The Godfathers of Metal, Black Sabbath, who since the dawn of the ’80s have become more famous for their frequent line up changes then they have for their monstrous riffs. The album, 1986’s Seventh Star, was released near the beginning of an “illegitimate” era of the band’s history.
Background: Of course, some people think Black Sabbath quit being Black Sabbath when vocalist Ozzy Osbourne was fired from the band in 1979. Ozzy’s successor Ronnie James Dio would be deemed by most as a worthy replacement and some even prefer him. However, drummer Bill Ward was unhappy after Ozzy left and quit the band shortly into the tour to promote the first Dio fronted album Heaven & Hell.
After Dio’s second album with Black Sabbath, 1981’s The Mob Rules, he left the band along with Ward’s replacement Vinny Appice because he thought Sabbath’s founder and lead guitarist Tony Iommi wasn’t giving him enough creative control. Now this is where things start getting murky. And I mean, murkier than switching singers (and drummers) twice in three years. After Dio and Appice left the band, Bill Ward (now sober) rejoined the band behind the kit and the band embarked on a fruitless search for a new frontman. Everybody from Robert Plant to David Coverdale to a young, little known rocker named Michael Bolton (one of these things is not like the other…) was considered for the job but eventually the band decided to choose Ian Gillian from Deep Purple (and Jesus Christ Superstar!) to front the band. Now according to Gillian and Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, the band had no intention of releasing material as Black Sabbath and that the name was forced on them by their manager Don Arden (Ozzy Osbourne’s father in law and Sharon’s Dad) and their record label.
No matter what the name, you would think that lineup would produce some awesome, monstrous metal. Ian Gillian was/is definitely in the same league as Ozzy and Dio in terms of being a great hard rock vocalist. With 3/4ths of the original lineup of Black Sabbath and the famed frontman of Deep Purple, you think you’d get a classic album, right?
Released in August 1983, Black Sabbath’s Born Again was reviled by critics and fans alike. The mix for the album was notoriously bad and the tour was fraught with problems most notably the fact that the design of a giant Stonehenge set used for the stage was botched when Don Arden wrote down the sizing of the set in meters when he meant to write it down in feet and the set was too big for most arenas. A year or so later, This Is Spinal Tap came out which mocked the debacle. The whole ordeal was embarrassing. The only joy really taken from the experience was Don Arden’s joke that Ozzy Osbourne’s kids (his grandkids) were as ugly as the baby on the cover (There was also a really bad track on the album called “Digital Bitch” about Sharon!) Needless to say, the failure of the album led to more turmoil. Ward relapsed before the tour and left the band (to be replaced by Bev Bevan, drummer for the most metal of bands, ELO) and Gillian left after the tour to rejoin Deep Purple.
I think Born Again‘s not that bad actually. There are moments where it’s actually quite good and I think it’s more true to the original Sabbath sound than the swords and sorcery, Wizards and Dragons centered Dio era. I’m not alone in liking the album and its undergone a minor critical revival however, in 1983, it couldn’t be perceived as anything but a major disaster. And with an album cover as bad as that, you could have recorded Paranoid again and people still wouldn’t have shut up about that ugly demon baby. Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi attempted to regroup with Bill Ward and an unknown singer named Dave Donato but that iteration of the band fell apart quickly. Geezer Butler left the band (and Bill Ward left for a third time), leaving Tony Iommi as the band’s sole original member. Iommi wisely decided to put Black Sabbath on an indefinite hiatus.
Black Sabbath did a one off reunion of the original lineup with Ozzy at Live Aid in Philadelphia in July 1985 and it seemed like that would be the perfect send off for the band. Or would it?
The Album: In the second half of 1985, Tony Iommi set about recording his first solo album. The original concept for the album was to pair the legendary metal guitarist with different legendary metal vocalists on each track; such as Rob Halford from Judas Priest, David Coverdale from Whitesnake, and even former Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio. But corralling ’80s rock stars is a lot like herding cats and that idea fell apart. The guest stars idea did lead them to a lead vocalist. Glenn Hughes, who had fronted British funk rock trio Trapeze and ironically had helped replace Ian Gillian as a lead vocalist in Deep Purple a decade earlier. Hughes is eternally on the list of “Most Underrated Rock Vocalists” and talent wise was easily on the level of Sabbath’s previous vocalists. However, he also had a terrible habit of sabotaging his own career. He was a severe coke addict and alcoholic during this period and it’s kind of a headscratcher that Iommi brought him in in the first place. Perhaps Iommi thought he’d do a better job of keeping Hughes in line than he did with the previous frontmen.
Whatever personal problems Hughes had, it didn’t effect his vocals on this album. In fact, as strange as it is to say, he’s almost too good of a vocalist. His vocal style almost but doesn’t quite fit the sound. He has a bluesy, almost soulful quality to his voice. He’s more like Paul Rodgers from Bad Company than Ozzy or Dio. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a huge problem. Ronnie James Dio was a completely different frontman than Ozzy but Iommi as well as the rest of the band were able to tweak the band’s sound to fit Dio’s strengths while still sounding like Sabbath. Even Born Again sounded like a Sabbath album.
On Seventh Star though, there’s kind of a discordant quality to the material. Take the opening track, “In For The Kill,” for example. It has the vibe of a Dio era track. It’s perfectly fine. Iommi has a cool solo and Hughes gives his best effort but there’s something a bit off about it. Every time I listen to it, I think “Dio really would have been awesome singing this.” Hughes is a tremendous singer but is out of place doing power metal. Years later, he quite accurately summed it up by saying him fronting Black Sabbath was like James Brown fronting Metallica. I’m sure James Brown’s renditions of “Sad But True” and “Master of Puppets” would have been interesting but it wouldn’t have been the right fit.
The second track on the album and the only single released from it, “No Stranger to Love” is probably one of the most controversial Sabbath songs along with “Changes” (their 1972 ballad) and their 1995 collaboration with Ice-T. Unlike those other to songs, I think “No Stranger to Love” is a really great track. One of the most underrated power ballads of all time. Hughes delivers an absolutely fantastic, powerful vocal and Iommi does some great bluesy playing. However, many longtime Sabbath fans recoiled at the sound. Iommi playing power ballads was like, well, James Brown fronting Metallica. If Foreigner had released “No Stranger to Love” as a follow up to “I Want To Know What Love Is,” it would have been a big hit. But as a Sabbath song? Radio programmers don’t like the idea of Sabbath and Sabbath fans don’t like the idea of power ballads.
That’s the problem with Seventh Star. There are some really good songs on there but they don’t really sound Black Sabbath. The title track is a really decent blues rocker with another great vocal performance from Glenn Hughes. It’s not very metal though. The traditional metal tracks just sound like okay retreads of Black Sabbath or Deep Purple. The original rhythm section of Black Sabbath is tremendously underrated, especially Geezer Butler. Geezer’s bong rattling bass playing is as important to the Sabbath sound as Iommi’s guitar playing. Bassist Dave Spitz and drummer Eric Singer (future KISS drummer appearing in Connor’s KISS Korner column next Wednesday here on this very site!) are fine but they’re faceless in the background. It’s not a group effort but a showcase for Iommi’s guitar playing.
All of these criticisms would have been nullified if the album was released as a Tony Iommi album or Iommi/Hughes. However, Warner Brothers Records had no interest in releasing Tony Iommi’s debut album. They wanted another Black Sabbath album so under label pressure, the album was released as Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi even though Iommi was the only original member involved on the album (keyboardist Geoff Nicholls had been an unofficial member of the band since the first album with Dio, 1980’s Heaven & Hell, giving him more cred than the other non-Iommi members). Unfortunately, history will judge this as a Black Sabbath album. As a Tony Iommi/Glenn Hughes album, I’d give this a 7 out of 10. But as a Sabbath album maybe a 4/10 and that’s kind of generous. Seventh Star can hardly be considered a hard rock album, let alone heavy metal. And for a Sabbath album not to be metal is a damning indictment.
The aftermath of the album was disastrous. Shortly after completing the album Glenn Hughes was sent to a “health farm” to get in shape before the tour to promote it but his problems re-emerged almost as soon as the tour began and he was replaced by an unknown New York singer named Ray Gillen. Fans were incredulous at Sabbath changing their frontman for the fourth time in six years (not to mention, bassists and drummers!). Ronnie James Dio summed up a lot of Sabbath fans’ feelings succinctly in a February 1987 interview with Hit Parader Magazine; “Tony likes to dabble in the occult and becomes involved in some very weird things. But what he’s doing with the band now is incredible. If this doesn’t get him his fondest wish and land him in hell, nothing will.”
It’d be easier to have empathy for Iommi over the record label sticking the Black Sabbath name on his solo project, if Iommi hadn’t willingly followed Seventh Star up with three more “Black Sabbath” albums where he was the only original member in the band. Iommi briefly reunited with The Mob Rules era lineup (himself, Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice, and Geezer Butler) for 1992’s Dehumanizer but that ended when Sabbath agreed to open up for Ozzy Osbourne on the final date of Ozzy’s 1992 Farewell Tour and Dio quit, not liking that his era was taking the backseat to the original lineup (Dio’s last minute replacement? None other than Judas Priest’s Rob Halford!). Geezer left again after 1994’s Cross Purposes (recorded with Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli and late ’80s Sabbath frontman Tony Martin), deciding he didn’t want to take part in further bastardizing the band’s name. Iommi then recorded 1995’s Forbidden, produced by Body Count guitarist Ernie C, which featured the notorious “Rap Sabbath” track featuring Ice-T.
Luckily since then, Iommi’s decided to brand his solo projects as such (he even did two more collaborations with a sobered up Glenn Hughes). The original lineup of the band reunited for several tours in the late ’90s and early ’00s. The Mob Rules era lineup reunited as Heaven & Hell and released one album before Ronnie James Dio sadly passed away due to stomach cancer in 2010. In June 2013, Black Sabbath released their first album with Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals since 1979, 13, and launched a tour that goes to this day. Seems like a happy ending… however Drummer Bill Ward is no longer in the band due to a contract dispute.
So to answer the question posed at the beginning of this article? I hate to cop out (like Tony Iommi did when he agreed to call Seventh Star a Sabbath album) but the answer is I don’t really know.
In Sabbath’s case, for an album to be a credible Sabbath album, it’s got to involve Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and either Ozzy or Dio on vocals with either Bill Ward or Vinny Appice on drums. Then again, some of Black Sabbath’s albums with the original lineup from the late ’70s are as thoroughly mediocre as any of their ’80s material. In a perfect world, bands would stay together forever but that’s virtually impossible.
You can decry the Foreigners and Bostons and Styxs (and Black Sabbath’s of the world) for bastardizing their band’s name but keeping a band together is ridiculously difficult and so is paying your bills with your solo project. I’m not rushing out to see Foreigner’s current tribute band-esque lineup and I’m certainly not going to buy the recent reissues of Sabbath’s late ’80s albums but I can certainly see why bands find themselves soldiering on with few (if any!) original members. It’s a sad reality of the music world.
Next Time on Deep Discount Discussions: Michael Jackson’s comeback attempt goes horribly awry. I look back at his last studio album before his death in 2001’s Invincible.
