
Purchase
Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe
Mick Wall
St. Martin's Press
April 2015
On Sale: April 14, 2015
392 pages ISBN: 1250051347 EAN: 9781250051349 Kindle: B00NS3175I Hardcover / e-Book
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Political
Decades before reality television was invented, Ozzy
Osbourne was subversive and dark. Ozzy was the singer in
Black Sabbath, and they meant business. In an era when
bands
were measured by how 'heavy' they were,no one was
weightier
than Black Sabbath. All four founding members of the
original Black Sabbath grew up within half-a-mile of each
other in a tiny Birmingham suburb. Though all shared a deep love of music--The Beatles for
Ozzy, the Mothers of Invention for Geezer, the Shadows and
Chet Atkins for Iommi, and Gene Kruppa for Ward— they
formed
their group "as the quickest way out of the slums." This
is
the story of how they made that dream come true--and how
it
then turned into a nightmare for all of them. At the height of their fame, Sabbath discovered they'd
been
so badly ripped off by their managers they didn't even own
their own songs. They looked for salvation from Don Arden—
an
even more notorious gangster figure, who resurrected their
career but still left them indebted to him, financially
and
personally. It finally came to a head when in 1979 they
sacked Ozzy: "For being too out of control--even for us,"
as
Bill Ward put it. The next fifteen years were a war
between
the post-Ozzy Sabbath and Ozzy himself, whose solo career
overshadowed Sabbath so much that a reunion was entirely
on
his terms. Or rather, those of his wife and manager—to add
a
further bitter twist for Sabbath, daughter of Don Arden
—Sharon Osbourne.
No awards found for this book.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|