December 01, 2006

Hygge

The Christmas Lunch in Denmark is the high point of the social year. Ours will begin at 4 this afternoon and continue into the wee hours. There are games-- I wrote a quiz, here's one of the questions:

Who of the following has not sung for Black Sabbath?
Ozzy Osbourne
Tony Iommi
Terence 'Geezer' Butler
Ronnie James Dio (of Rainbow)
Bill Ward
Dave Walker (of Fleetwood Mac)
Ian Gillan (of Deep Purple)
Bev Bevan (of Electric Light Orchestra)
Iggy Pop (of The Stooges)
Jeff Fenholt
Glenn Hughes (of Deep Purple and Trapeze)
Ray Gillen
Tony The Cat Martin (of The Alliance)
Rob Halford (of Judas Priest)
Rudolf Schenker (of The Scorpions)
Ravi Shankar
Rick Wakeman (of Yes)

See comments for the answer.

6 Comments:

At December 01, 2006 10:21 AM , Blogger Matt_J said...

The original members of Black Sabbath were Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Terence ‘Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums), all from Birmingham England. Ozzy Osbourne recalled the happy, friendly lyrics of pop music at the time, such as "if you ever go to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair...," - "Screw that,", they said, "let's go over there and scare the shit out of everyone !!!" The band had several number one hits in the early 70s including Paranoid and War Pigs. The band was a hit and by 1973 Black Sabbath released their fifth album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, recorded with Yes keyboardist Bill Wakeman, who did not sing. After a few years Ozzy and Bill were drinking and taking LSD every day for about two years straight. Ozzy stopped showing up for practice in the late 70s and so the drummer Bill Ward filled in as singer, followed by Dave Walker of Fleetwood Mac. Ozzy was asked to leave the band and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio of Rainbow. Dio and the new drummer Vinny Appice then left to form the band ‘Dio’ and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple stepped up to the microphone. Ian says, ‘"I had no plans to join Black Sabbath. I went out with Geezer and Tony and we got drunk, and I found out the next day that I agreed to join the band. And they're such nice guys.’
The drummer Bill Ward dropped out of the Born Again tour and was replaced by Bev Bevan of the Electric Light Orchestra—but he never sang. Also, Jeff Fenholt claims to have been Sabbath’s lead singer for about seven months, but Sabbath members maintain that he was never a band member and only recorded some demos for Iommi’s solo album. Fenholt says he left the band because their values were not compatible with his faith.
During the mid-80s the singer Glenn Hughes , formerly of Deep Purple but now with Black Sabbath, got into a fistfight and the severe blood clotting in his throat made him lose his voice. He was replaced by Ray Gillen for the rest of the tour. Tony ‘The Cat’ Martin then joined the band to record Eternal Idol. The band broke up after the tour.
In 1988 the magazine Kerrange! announced that Tom Jones had joined Black Sabbath, but you should note that this edition of the magazine was published on the first of April.
The Band went back to its earlier line up from The Mob Rules tour of the 80s and had some success with Dehumanizer in the early 90s. Ozzy came out of retirement and asked the band to open his shows in Costa Mesa California. The band agreed, everyone except for the singer, Ronnie James Dio. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was brought in to sing for these shows.
In 1997 during Ozzfest the original members of Black Sabbath joined forces for the first time since the Live Aid shows of 1985.

 
At December 01, 2006 4:56 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Would you like to see the pope at the end of a rope?

youtube has some black sabbath:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DHXoqa3y7A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93uORxJkiAo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KtWNW-bxzo

 
At December 01, 2006 10:44 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

It's funny that Ozzy verbally had that "screw that" attitude, because lyically he was a hippie on his first few albums. And then there's that song that Tim quotes, After Forever. Lyrically, this song is Christian rock. Musically, it's my favorite.

 
At December 02, 2006 6:36 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

Good post... I believe the answer is Iggy Pop. He just doesn't have the right tonality. Are all the games like yours? Cuz if they are I'm moving to Denmark, and it's not just for the Hagan Daz.

 
At December 02, 2006 9:49 PM , Blogger Matt_J said...

There are other games too, its a subculture. A little later in the evening I got everyone to sing Johnny Cash's Mean Eyed Cat. The DJ (a postdoc from Helsinki) played Roxy Music, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, RHCPs, Christmas hits.
The menu at a Danish Christmas party is always the same. Starts off with pickled herring on rye bread with schnapps. They pass out little tubs of bacon fat to spread on the bread. And sliced onion on the fish. Main course is pork with the rind still attached fried to a crisp, with red cabbage. Dessert is rice pudding with cherry sauce.

 
At December 02, 2006 10:01 PM , Blogger Matt_J said...

No, Iggy Pop never sang for Sabbath. As you say, the ambience is all wrong. Other answers in the text above. I read some stuff when I wrote my questions-- I hadn't been aware of the links from BS to ELO and Fleedwood Mac. Most of my life I have linked ELO with the antichrist though, so it does kind of make sense. I link The Eagles with the antichrist too, but as far as I know they are not connected to Sabbath.
Here are a few of the other questions I wrote for the party:

3. Who won at Little Bighorn?
a. Dustin Hoffmann b. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer c. Black Kettle d. Sitting Bull e. Robert E. Lee

(One group answered 'e', another 'b'! Idiots.)

4. Name a positive and a negative feedback mechanism related to the growth of boreal forests at high latitudes.

5. Name the singer who goes with each of the following bands:
a. The E-Street Band
b. The New Power Generation
c. The Attractions
d. The Spiders from Mars
e. His Comets
f. The Crickets

(Someone complained that this question had an American bias and I was forced to point out that c and d are old world acts.)

 

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