Driving back home from the funeral services, once again feeling the searing pain of my parents who pass away, my mind was visiting ancient memories of my teenage days. At the age of sixteen, I was into what my parents considered as unholy music - we simply called it "underground music". Older folk did not take easily to this 'rubbish'. It was considered evil, dangerous and full of devilish teachings. Typical of teenagers, I too was rebellious, swam against the current and insisted on being myself whilst actually knowing fuck all about myself. Those were still the days of the gramophones and the LP vinyl records it played. This was real music and none of this modern day mp3, CD and DVD shit! So I saved up my hard earned money for a couple of weeks and bought myself a vinyl record of the wildest music at the time as can only be done by Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath itself. The music was wild for it's time, the graphics on the cover sleeve was evil, outrageous and crazy. This all appealed to my ludicrous teenage mind as being different and a self image of being a tough guy. Hell, only tough guys dared listening to Black Sabbath music! No sissy boys allowed! It conjured up wondrous images of myself, I was free to explore these at leisure whilst listening to the wild music and getting high on a cigarette.
So I brought the LP record home and headed straight for the gramophone. Within seconds the wild music of Black Sabbath was booming and resonating through every crack of the house. In the midst of my head banging dance moves, my Dad rushes in and grabs the explicit cover sleeve of the LP record. For several minutes he stood there studying the art work on both sides of the cover sleeve. Then he exploded! In one swift move, he grabbed the gramophone, shaking it and jerking it about until it finally spat out my precious Sabbath Bloody Sabbath record. The way the gramophone rid itself of my valued belonging seemed like it was happy to vomit out some unspeakable and disgusting filth. Despite my protestations and desperate pleas, the cover sleeve was immediately ripped apart. The LP record ended up been thrown like a flying saucer. The strong arm of my Dad caused the LP record to disappear within seconds into thin air as he threw it like a demented discuss thrower. Despite me searching for it later in the general direction of it's flight path, I never did find the damned LP record again.
Many years later, we all laughed about the incident. By then and with music getting wilder by the genre, Black Sabbath seemed like a meek and mild band. By then, it was a well known fact that Black Sabbath used shock tactics, propaganda and media hype to further their music careers - that was that and nothing more to it. How times have moved on and my Dad even listened to the entire recording of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - this time on CD. I could hardly hide my smile when I saw him bobbing his head a couple of time in tune with the music. So tonight, I once again play this song in your great memory. I love you and will soon be with you!
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath