Some Songs Considered

“Mama, I’m Coming Home” – Ozzy Osbourne
(Words/music: Lemmy Kilminster, Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, available on No More Tears, Epic 1991) 

I don’t know a lot about metal, but I know enough to know that this is not what I would have thought a song written by these three gentlemen would sound like.  Sure, the power ballad generally fits somewhere between a daring reinvention and a damning softening, but if nothing else it gives radio something tangible to grab onto.  Aside from Black Sabbath, my introduction to most of Ozzy Osborne’s songs came from elsewhere – friend’s recommendations or the legends of Randy Rhodes’ guitar playing.  When I was growing up, radio never really played “Crazy Train” enough for my liking, but they did play “Mama, I’m Coming Home” a lot.  And that’s probably where I grew to love it. 

All joking aside, “Mama, I’m Coming Home” is a well-written ballad, from the gentle guitar of the opening through the build up to the harder sections to that terrific chord right after the chorus.  It’s this chord – the one held and resolved on “home” – that always sticks with me, and when I’m scanning the radio compulsively, it’s the main reason why I stick around.  Without this moment, I’d probably write off this song as a cashgrab and make some crack about naming this album after a shampoo bottle slogan.  With this bit of vocals added in, it’s worth every cent Misters Kilminster, Osbourne, and Wylde collect in residuals. 

More on Ozzy Osbourne: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Paranoid” - Black Sabbath
(Words/music: Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, available on Paranoid, Warner Brothers 1971)

Back when I was a practicing drummer, I played on and off with a couple bands in high school.  By “played on and off with a couple of bands,” I mean that I occasionally played with other musicians in someone’s basement or garage and never any gigs.  One of which was with two guys who played together a lot and wrote maybe a dozen songs together.  I played with them a couple times and each time they would have new songs, some of them being slow heavy dirges, some of them upbeat punk songs.  The only thing that these songs had in common was that the two of them knew them in their entirely – chord changes, when the bridge came in, etc – and they would play them and expect me to follow along.  I would do my best and they were just happy to have a drummer playing with them, so it was always a good time.  One time, they started playing the riff to “Paranoid” and I beamed with joy – finally, a song that I knew!  I gleefully played through the song to my best memory, which was enough to impress my friends into inviting me back.  Then again, I was really the only available drummer they knew…

While other longer songs in the Black Sabbath / Ozzy Osbourne catalog get more attention, “Paranoid” deserves its share of praise.  Built around that signature riff, “Paranoid” chugs along for three minutes, using power chords, brief blasts of guitar solo, and Ozzy’s stream of consciousness.  Its brevity is a virtue; “Paranoid” is simple enough to rely on adrenaline for three minutes (or two minutes and fifty three seconds to be specific) but would collapse from exhaustion if it were any longer.  Instead, it’s an exercise in simplicity when many of its fellow songs expand to epic proportions. It’s understandable why we’re drawn to the overblown theatrics in “Iron Man” and the wall of guitars in “War Pigs” - they are monolithic works that inspired countless metal bands and deserve their lionization.  However, “Paranoid” deserves more than a passing nod and the wave of faceless punk bands that thanklessly made careers out of “Paranoid” clones.

More on Black Sabbath: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm