10 songs Black Sabbath should never have released
How do you describe the rise to fame that Black Sabbath had? Author Joel McIver does a good job in one of the books he wrote about the band. “You cannot separate the environment of Black Sabbath from the music that they made,” he wrote, “If you were a lad back then in this environment, your future was 45 years on a factory assembly line. That’s literally the truth. That’s what so many people faced.”
Black Sabbath’s debut marked a turning point for the band and music as a whole. Their raw and unrelenting approach towards music led to the creation of something that was unique but also an accurate reflection of life in post-war Britain. However, while this raw energy led to the foundation of heavy metal, it also set a benchmark that Sabbath struggled to reach again.
Their first two albums were definitive, and while much of their work afterwards was just as good, it was received by people who knew what to expect from Sabbath. As such, some of their tracks became stale. Equally, in their other songs, where they tried to give fans something different using various techniques and technologies, they fell short of the mark.
The result is that despite having a massive discography that defines heavy metal, Black Sabbath has also released several songs that should never have seen the light of day. Here are their most infamous numbers that should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Black Sabbath songs that should never have been released:
‘Planet Caravan’
This will be an incredibly controversial take. ‘Planet Caravan’ is included on Black Sabbath’s second album, Paranoid, and is considered a great track; however, while it’s a good song, it represents what ruined some of Sabbath’s subsequent albums. The song was an out-of-place piece of experimentation, which worked well on Paranoid but also created a mindset that the band carried forward.
With future releases, when Black Sabbath had more time and money to create their albums, they followed the template set out by ‘Planet Caravan’ in a bid to make more experimental music. This detracted from what made those first two albums so special: raw energy. Without ‘Planet Caravan’, some of the band’s following albums might have been better.
‘Zeitgeist’
It would be tough to throw ‘Planet Caravan’ under the bus without also criticising ‘Zeitgeist’. While several songs came out following the release of ‘Planet Caravan’, which reflected the band’s attempt to experiment, very few were as rough as ‘Zeitgeist’.
‘Zeitgeist’ wasn’t just the band trying to follow a specific sound but was essentially attempting to rewrite ‘Planet Caravan’. Bands and artists rarely rip themselves off, but with this record, that’s precisely what they did. It’s not a great listen and is a track the band could have been best not to release.
‘Digital Bitch’
Black Sabbath was never a band that shied away from hard-hitting lyrics. For instance, their track ‘Paranoid’ Geezer Butler has subsequently confirmed is all about depression; it’s just that he didn’t know how to diagnose himself at the time. Despite their embrace of controversial lyrics, they went a strange step too far on the 1983 song ‘Digital Bitch’.
Ian Gillan takes on singing duties for this track, so it’s already a tricky start, given he never really found his feet as the Black Sabbath lead. However, what makes this song much worse are the terrible lyrics, “She’s so rich, the digital bitch.” It’s an aimless song that doesn’t do much for the band or the listener.
‘FX’
What the band does with ‘FX’ is something that many artists do today, and it rarely pays off. They put together one minute and 40 seconds of slow and steady echoes. It’s clearly never intended to be considered a proper song, but it also adds very little to the album.
This sonic exploration is a waste of time and effort that should never have been included in the album Vol. 4. Luckily, the rest of the LP is a pretty exciting listen; it’s just a shame that this strange bit of experimentation breaks things up in an anti-climactic and annoying way.
‘No Stranger To Love’
There are many different things that we love about Black Sabbath, but at the forefront of what makes the band unique is Tony Iommi’s guitar playing. His toned-down style is all parts doom and gloom and lies at the heart of what makes Sabbath one of the greatest heavy metal bands in the world.
As creative individuals, they were always willing to attempt to create something different. While this is somewhat commendable, it was rare that it paid off, and ‘No Stranger To Love’ is an excellent representation of that. Black Sabbath was attempting something new with this synth-heavy track and instead made a boring and lacklustre song.
‘The Illusion Of Power’
This was a strange period for Black Sabbath as Ice T was brought on board to help produce their album Forbidden. This followed the success of ‘Walk This Way’, when rap and rock had proven to have a good working relationship, but that didn’t come through on this album.
Ice T took too much of a leading role in creating the album, to the point that it ended up hardly resembling a Black Sabbath record. His small spoken word segment on the song ‘The Illusion Of Power’ feels very out of place and cements the song as one of the band’s worst.
‘Heart Like A Wheel’
On Sabbath’s debut album, Black Sabbath, there are elongated moments of improvisation. Whether it’s long guitar and drum solos, they only add to the raw feel of the album that appeals to so many people. As such, you would think jams on Sabbath albums would go down well, but that wasn’t the case with their 1986 album Seventh Star.
While there are some good songs on the Glenn Hughes only album as the lead singer, there are also a lot of songs that fall by the wayside. One of these is ‘Heart Like A Wheel’, essentially a drawn-out blues jam. This long into Sabbath’s career, the song just didn’t hit in the same way the band were likely expecting.
‘It’s Alright’
Bill Ward is essential when it comes to Black Sabbath’s success. Where would they be without the drawn-out and exciting drumming of Ward? That being said, his attempt at singing lead on one of the band’s songs from the ‘70s was one of Sabbath’s worst offerings and, indeed, shouldn’t have been released.
‘It’s Alright’ is a challenging listen at the best of times, as everything we love about Black Sabbath seems to have been thrown away. They opted for a pop-rock song that is one of the band’s worst songs to this day. This is simply a song that isn’t worth your time.
‘Shaking Off The Chains’
This is another track from the bland Ice T produced Forbidden. “Forbidden has been a thorn in my side for years,” said Iommi, “I knew all about Ice-T and that he was good, but I didn’t expect him to bring along his guitar player to produce the album […] When a band knows its sound and exactly what it wants, bringing in an outsider is very disruptive. I found myself on the sidelines. Our whole situation had become so frail.”
One of the album’s worst aspects is its abundance of filler. Iommi’s guitar riffs are taken apart and chopped up to the point that they hardly sound like Sabbath, and the songs on the record feel completely distant.
‘Hot Line’
Tony Iommi is one of the most influential guitarists to ever pick up a six-string. His ability as a musician is unmatched, as he has written some of the greatest heavy metal music and influenced a plethora of guitarists in the meantime.
While this is all commendable, even the best guitarists have bad moments. For Iommi, this came on the album Born Again, which was one of his more lacklustre efforts. While most songs on this album reflect Iommi’s off day, ‘Hot Line’ is one of the worst tracks available that needs to be passed on whenever you get a chance.
