Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction

hi everyone as promised this is going to be Black Sabbath Black Sabbath Black Sabbath two things have really caught my attention first I've been told that Black Sabbath is the birth of heavy metal and second this is the very first song they published so here we have a band which comes out for the first time and when they do they invent something that was never heard before an entirely new genre which over time was picked up and carried on by others developing all the way to now almost 53 years later but before I start my first listen experience with Black Sabbath I want to share a little thought with you you see recording your first listen of a song doesn't really take too much time or effort 20 30 minutes max of recording time of course there's the setup and takedown and all of that that's it and I know it is indeed interesting to ReDiscover a dear piece of music through the eyes well in this case the ears of a professional musician who has never heard it before but the second part is at least from my perspective far more interesting than the first listen because there for an in-depth analysis I work for hours over the course of several days to assess discover learn and choose what and how to present the highlights of my Discovery Journey remember I've been listening to it many times over in the course of those days so I'm immersing myself in this particular musical experience my reason for well actually I have two reasons for doing this one is good music should never be treated carelessly and the second is we should always desire to dig deeper to find out more learn more about anything well in this case it's about music which I am passionate about and I know many of you are too and it's especially about music that is deeply loved by many people now Vlad and I are a little disappointed to see that many of you aren't watching the second part of each pair of videos the first lesson and the in-depth analysis so I know maybe maybe you just want the thrill of watching someone hear it for the first time and that's all but I would love for you to also have the thrill of discovering something new in it for the first time as well for example the the on a dish by Rammstein my first listen now at this day that I'm recording this has 166 108 views whereas the in-depth analysis only has 23 164 views that means that only 14 percent of those who have watched the first part have gone on to watch the second part as well or Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits the first listen has two hundred and six thousand nine hundred and fifteen views today the in-depth analysis has 47 620 views that's 23 of those who've watched the first part have gone on to watch the second part as well now you don't have to go on and watch the second part but I strongly encourage you to I really want you to give it a try go on check it out I always link it for easy access and do let me know in the comments how it impacts your experience of the song I so enjoy the comments of those of you who have gone on and do go on to watch the second half I love hearing your feedback your input I love hearing how it has affected your way of hearing this the song and how you bring me even more new ideas and things to notice within the music and so I just want to encourage you go on and try it out see if it's worth it for you as well I think it will be so having said all that let's move on and um I am ready to dive in to this Triple Decker Black Sabbath music and see what it's like so let's get started here we go [Music] it's interesting to me how already no music has played but the title Black Sabbath and then the rainstorm effect along with the church bells is setting up in my mind that maybe there's been some bad news it's a very dark day it's it's gloomy weather but but the gloomy weather is more representative of a very black day in experience I don't know it's coming but that's what I'm hearing at the beginning [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] I think that that opening is really amazing just those few notes and maybe it's because I'm getting more used to this guitar sound right so I'm able to to hear musically what's happening more than just trying to decipher what it is I'm hearing and so I feel like that opening was just very compelling and also the drums gave this um feeling of I don't know I just feel like it all worked together so well and gave a really gripping opening to the piece so now the voice has just come in I'm going to back up a little bit and we'll go on [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] one oh yeah I feel like it's really um how should I say I guess what I want to say is that it's it's painting a picture in my mind of something happening some experience going on and and um it doesn't sound of course I'm just at the beginning it doesn't sound terribly complex but it's so um effective in getting this image across to me I can I can picture a street and uh uh an environment and uh uh feeling around this experience and that to me is something that is a really great accomplishment for music to achieve so let's go on oh yeah [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] I love what the music is doing with this this motif [Music] bomb it's it's it's using the same thing over and over but it's so perfect for this and I don't feel like it's um you know sometimes you can have something repeating over and over and it gets older you feel like it's tiresome or it's just there to to give you a rhythmic push or something like that but I feel like here it's really part of the Artistry of the piece so I'm going to go on but I just wanted to mention that that little interlude where there was no voice between the verses and the same thing was happening over and over it was so effective and I guess that seems to be my theme word on this piece so far is that it's effective okay I'm going to keep going [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] oh no no please foreign I'm also enjoying that this is not so frantic and crazed as the King Diamond song that I listened to um it's more it's more like it's it's setting you up and giving you enough information enough shape and color and music to set the scene and even the lyrics are are not saying a whole lot it says a little bit it kind of gives you a little snapshot and then uh sort of personal reaction to the snapshot and that's all and but it's enough to make you make me feel like I am in the moment and it allows my imagination to fill in the gaps and I enjoy that moment foreign [Music] okay something is changing there and and I'm just thinking about what I've heard so far so I want to finish my my thoughts about that in case this goes somewhere else so I'm thinking about this Motif that we've heard all the way through now unrelenting it almost becomes a sort of March uh March feel like this this terrible thing is marching on inevitably it it it cannot be stopped it's it's this horrible thing happening um and and you see it coming but you're forced to keep going there and I'm I want to find out to you that this Motif is built on the tritone and if you think back to the King Diamond piece that I looked at I talked about the tritone a little bit which is this particular interval which sounds like this this that's two sets of tritones there's one here there's one here and this this Motif is here to here and then to here whatever it's doing there and and I'm hearing that over and over and if you remember what I said about the tritone it has this whole history of connotations and associations with evil with the Devil with with hellish things and so even musically I haven't I haven't gone to the second part I I guess I'll dig into this but I just want to tell you that I'm noticing this and hearing this now and it's so obvious I want to at least to my ears and I want to make sure that you understand that this is the sound that we are hearing is this Devil's interval in the music okay I'm going to keep going [Music] my friend me today it's it's it's like so again I have the lyrics here in front of me although I have to say that I'm able to understand this singer whoever he is I've got to look that up I don't know yet um I can understand what he's saying and I'm not struggling to follow his words but anyway I do have the lyrics and so I see it coming ahead in the next nine people running because they're scared and and I guess the music started this verse with this sort of running running like like everything is everybody's running away trying to run and um I hear the music anticipating that line in the lyrics all right let's keep going [Applause] [Music] yeah and now here's where the music is getting to the point where I have to concentrate because now it's all this sound World which is still new enough to me that it sounds a bit chaotic well of course it's probably meant to sound chaotic here but but the the tone quality of the instruments has changed here for probably a very effective artistic purpose but but I have to get into it so I'm going to back up just a little bit here I want to hear that transition again as it goes through this so I think this is somewhere in the running phase [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] just a little bit again because I can hear the bass making its downwards walk over and over and it that's kind of replaced the tritone Motif and it's it's related to it but it's a different set of musical notes and now and so that's what I noticed first was the Baseline happening and I'm going to try to focus my mind to this what's going on in the guitar up top now [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] it's coming to the end but but I just noticed something this this stepping down [Music] and so forth It's been walking down one two three four something like that and now at the end it's only getting down the first two steps and then it starts over bom bom bom bom and and it's away [Music] sorry I pushed start before I was ready it's a way to it's something that that composers do to build uh tension and and increase the pace the perceived pace of the music I noticed that it's not actually speeding up Tempo wise but but the musical content is coming faster and more rapidly one after the other to where you don't even get to finish hearing one before it comes the next time okay let's see if I can make it to the end [Music] hello foreign [Music] okay I've made it to the end and I guess it wasn't as terrifyingly as intense as I thought it might be maybe I was a little nervous because of my King Diamond experience and my Metallica experience which were both I I had challenges getting through those and staying engaged but but here this one probably because it's the first and and very early in the genre it's simpler and it's easier for me to relate to because it's not too much happening at once for me to follow and keep up with at the same time I can understand why this was so popular and and became so iconic because it's an incredibly well-constructed piece of music and I am going to try to explain that in the second video and and show you some of the reasons some of the things that makes it what it is I you've heard me mention some things that I've noticed along the way and I'll be digging more into that a bit in the next video so keep your eyes open and and your ears open and um we'll see where it comes that's it for today but before I go let me remind you about the pole which is still open in the community tab if you will go there and vote for your favorite band that would be wonderful because next month I will review the winning song also remember that we publish both parts of my experience with this song at the same time here on YouTube both the first listen which I've done just now and my in-depth analysis which is coming next if you want early access to the first listen all you have to do is visit my coffee page and make a donation of your choice and then of course that will give you early access to all of my first listen videos if you want to receive notifications when I post new content you can activate it by clicking the little bell next to the Subscribe button and click this link to watch the second half of this experience where I do the in-depth analysis and I'll tell you more about what it is that I have heard in this music right now after I've had a bit of time to research more about it I'll see you soon

Channel: Virgin Rock

Views: 318,845

Keywords: rock, rock music, music review, rock music review, black sabbath, first listen, reaction channel

Id: TRr5HmpzBQM

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 24 2022