Never Say Die! 1978

Black Sabbath – Never Say Die!

Autumn and Winter for me is the season of Butler, Iommi, Osbourne and Ward.  Their music symbolises the atmosphere of a changing season and the drawing of darker evenings. A lot has probably to do with the ‘Black Sabbath’ debut cover showing a grainy Autumnal scene.  However I have been listening to the lesser of the eight Ozzy fronted studio albums of late whilst walking through darkened woods and forgotten paths and thus have reappraised them.  Of course when I talk about the lesser albums I refer to 1978s ‘Never Say Die!’ and 1976s ‘Technical Ecstasy’.  To my mind ‘Sabotage’ and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ are two of the greatest albums of all time with the first four not far behind.

Well ‘Never Say Die’ is a fantastic album.  The title track was the last song that I ritually listened to when I was about to head out to the disco (of all places) at the weekends (for courting females of course) when I was 16 - 19 years old.  It’s pumped up testosterone driven mania filled one with the confidence to take on the world back in 1986 – 89, and remember this was the ‘Thrash’ years, so there was plenty of testosterone driven mania to be found in my album collection during that period.

What makes this album so special on reappraisal is its diversity.  I love diversity in music and this has it all.

On a track by track basis my views are as follows:

Side One (As of the original Vinyl)

Never Say Die – Classic, simple catchy powerful song.  This hits the right spot.  It’s what Rock ‘n Roll is all about.  There is a confidence and aggression to this song.

Johnny Blade – Keyboards at the start followed by a driving drum pattern and another speedy riff.  It’s the drums on this track that make it.  In fact I love the drum sound on this album.  They are really to the foreground, but again different rhythms in each song.  The diversity factor again.  Ozzys’ vocals to me are urgent and unusual.

Junior’s Eyes – One of the more unusual tracks.  Drums fade in along with Geezer’s swinging Bass.  This track has a Jazz feel with Iommi’s wah wah sounding guitar.  The chorus (if it can be called a typical chorus), is heavy and powerful.  Iommi has a lot of interesting guitar overdubs on this track which adds to the atmosphere.  It’s what I love about Sabbath, the creation of atmosphere.

Hard Road – Iommi riff, overdubbed vocals.  This has to be the most upbeat and optimistic sounding songs on the album.  Not in the pop sense.  Slightly  ‘Quo’ overdubbed like vocal sound.  However this is not a pop song.  If you are feeling down listen to this.

Side Two – if side one did not cheer you up well?

Shock Wave – The shape of things to come.  This reminds me of the style applied to some of the tracks of ‘Heaven and Hell’.  One of the weaker tracks.  A simple riff, melody and vocal.  However gets interesting towards the end with a slightly left turn doomy riff with plenty of band participation ‘ohohohoing’.

Air Dance – The albums real curveball.  I love it.  A Sabbathian progressive rock song.  Starts with a driven melody followed by again jazz rhythms and piano.  Iommi captures some real atmospheric guitar and delicate solos.  The vocals and lyrics reflective and emotional.  To my ears an unappreciated classic.  Towards the end it heads for undisputed elements of jazz in every sense.

Over To You – Again similar to

Hard Road

in that it has an optimistic feel to it.  The chorus includes some elaborate piano.  Fantastic melody and vocal from Ozzy.  Similar feel to ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’s’ ‘Looking for Today’.  This song again drips with emotion and atmosphere.  This however is no light weight song.

Breakout – An instrumental – Has a swing feel to it.  Warning contains brass instruments and some jazz saxophone.  Another curveball – Doom laden jazz?

Swinging the Chain – A doomy riff by Iommi within a very low mix.  Another odd sounding track with Ward singing?  Again one of the weaker tracks.

The conclusion is that this album, as diverse as it is, is a better attempt than ‘Technical Ecstasy’. It has an upfront sound, clear guitar and drum mix, however given the context of the band situation at this time; it is an interesting, diverse, atmospheric and challenging piece of music.  One interesting fact is that the cover for ‘Rainbow’s’ ‘Difficult to Cure’ album was meant to be for this album.

Listen without Prejudice, with headphones, whilst walking at dusk in a lonely Autumnal forest.