I don't class Black Sabbath among my favorite bands, but one can't deny their pioneer status in the creation of heavy metal as a musical genre. Their "occult" theatrics and graphics, outrageously presentated, and Tony Iommi's guitar sound (a side effect of a work accident as a teenager which cost him the tips of two of his fretting fingers -- he made false fingertips from plastic and de-tuned his strings to make them easier to fret) influenced, and continue to influence, several generations of bands. And they've sold more than 70 million records themselves, so it's not like they're an obscure influence.
Their debut album was released 50 years ago tomorrow, on January 13, 1970. It was recorded in a single 12-hour session in October of 1969. Black Sabbath included seven tracks, two of them covers. I've chosen one of those two -- "Evil Woman," by Minneapolis band Crow, as the track to feature.
See, this is what I mean about 1970 as the reason for this weekly feature. The year is just chock full of music that represents either the pinnacle of the '60s or the curtain-raising for the '70s.
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