This last session really started with the "I Am Ozzy" book. I was bored on a trainride and tried to buy some magazies, nothing interesting available though so I turned to the pocket shop and decided for the Ozzy book.
Then I got Tony Iommi "Iron Man" (but why the hell did they add the Iron Maiden M in Man on the pocket edition???) for Christmas.
But the books of Iommi and Ozzy are both released quite recently and basically address the same subjects, at least party - first halves of the books. The funny thing though, even if it is the same story it doesn't match 100%, some parts are the same of course, the real milestones but the stories around are quite different. I'm not saying any of the two is more right than the other. It's two people telling their versions of the story. And that alone is interesting enough I think.
Looking at the books from a more critical perspective, "I Am Ozzy" is very well written, the storyline is great and it has a smooth flow. "Iron Man" is more like Biographies are in genereal, a little messy, sharp cuts and doesn't really get deep into most of the subjects. There are many fragments in the Iommi book I would have loved for him to elaborate about a bit more... The stories are very interesting, how musicians has come into Black Sabbath and moved on with hardly making a mark in history. And I can not but admire his dedicatio to the music, through the up's and down's for if not 50 at least well over 40 years now.
Steven Rosen's "Wheels Of Confusion - The Story Of Black Sabbath" was the first book i bought. It took forever to get through it, mainly because my skills in English was far from good at the time. But also because it is as many other biographies, messy. Also, I doubt it helps that it is Bill Ward that tells the story. Even if it is common in all the books, the phrase "I'm not sure, don't remember it very well, we were doing a lot of dope at the time"... So this one I probably should read again, to get Bill's version of the history as well.
There are tons of books available and this one, "How Black Was Our Sabbath" was promoted as more dramatic as it really is. For me they could have left out the parts when they (David, Graham and a few more in the Sabbath crew in the 70's) wasn't working with the band. The timeline in this book mismatches with "Iron Man". Well, "I Am Ozzy" doesn't really match with "Iron Man" either for that sake. But when this book gets real it really is fantastic. David worked as a personal assistant to Ozzy, driving him around, sorting out most everything and being his left hand. My impression before reading it was that this should be some evening paper journalism, success and sell out. But it's not, there are really heartfelt stories, good, bad, fun & sad... This book sure was a lot better than I expected. A little difficult language perhaps, but great story line, great way of telling.
Mick Wall's biography is of course not a Black Sabbath book alone, apart from how Mick got the status he has got there are great stories about many of the musicians he has met as a journalist or working with/for. Ozzy and Sabbath being a major part in the book. The funny thing though, neither "I Am Ozzy" nor "Iron Man" even mention Mick Wall, not even once. Of course, this can have something to do with the hostility between both Sabbath and Ozzy towards Don Arden who was Mick's boss. According to the Ozzy and Iommi books, Mr Arden wasn't a very sympathetic person. His biography, "Mr Big", also written by Mick Wall I started to read but never got passed his childhood which I didn't think was particularly interesting. Still great writing, I really love how Mick writes so "Paranoid" is worth rading just because of that.
Then I finally got my hands on Mick's first book, another Ozzy biography "Diary Of A Madman". Since I got it a few days ago I haven't read it yet. I haven't really decided yet if it is too much with another Ozzy/Sabbath book now. The good thing with books is that they last forever.
Then, while I'm at it... I decided to shop for more books and made a great bargain, gotta love eBay... The Rockdetector books I've been thinking of buying for a really long time but never really gotten to it. I guess the book about Ozzy is just a start. I really want the A-Z's about different styles in Metal as well. Then I found another Ozzy book "His Own Words" which held a lot of very cool pictures at least. And another Black Sabbath biography titled "Rat Salad", gonna be interesting to see what that is.
Also listen a bit here and there is another Rockdetector book "Never Say Die". This one, Sabbath Story from 1979 to 1997 would be very interesting. Of course, this is handled in the "Iron Man" book but as I said, that book could have been double to do all stories justice. So a real book of this era would be amazing. I haven't found it for sale anywhere though, anyone knows if it is out?
Have I missed anything? Is there more books about Sabbath to read?
So now I really hope that Iommi recovers from cancer so he can show the world again that he's the Master of Heavy Riffs...
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