Black Sabbath - Born Again

Today (August 7th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of UK release of Born Again, the eleventh studio album from British heavy metal band Black Sabbath; it would be released in the US on October 4th of 1983. Although panned by critics, it charted at number 44 in New Zealand, number 39 on the US Billboard Hot 200, number 37 in Germany, number 14 in Norway, number 7 in Sweden, and number 4 in the UK.

Ozzy Osbourne - Speak of the Devil

Today (November 27th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Speak of the Devil, a live concert album by Ozzy Osbourne. What is interesting about this 1982 double-record release is that Osbourne chose to do all tracks from his days in Black Sabbath the decade prior. The album charted at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 200, eventually going Platinum. In the UK, the album topped off at number 21 on the charts.

The record was mostly culled from recordings done at the Ritz in New York City on September 26th and 27th in 1982. Three of the tracks came from rehearsals with crowd noise added during the post-production.

DVD: God Bless Ozzy Osbourne

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ozzy Osbourne has lived a very infamous rock and roll lifestyle. From the days of Black Sabbath in the 70’s to his solo career in the 80’s to the Osbournes reality show on MTV in the 2000’s, his life has always been one of public display with over-the-top moments.

In 2011, his son Jack Osbourne and film directors Mike Fleiss and Mike Piscitelli put together a documentary film entitled God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, a very intimate and honest look at the rock legend’s life. Starting with growing up as one of six children of a factory worker in war-torn Birmingham, England, it chronicles the events of Ozzy’s career and personal struggles, ending with the over-60 rocker still touring to sold-out arena stadiums all over the world.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Saturday. Today (December 3rd) also marks the sixty-third birthday of singer John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne.

Before he was portrayed as a mumbling father on a MTV reality show, Osbourne was one of the founding members of the heavy metal rock band Black Sabbath in the late 1960’s. In 1970, they released their first studio album to much success. They followed it up later that year with Paranoid which went to number 1 on the UK album charts and number 12 on the US Billboard 200 charts. The album was ranked number 130 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.