This post is going to make a connection between the recently deceased rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, his band Black Sabbath, and the late, brilliant British poet W.H. Auden. Trust me, it will make sense. Here goes . . .
In the early days of so-called "Heavy Metal," four singers were widely recognized as pioneers in the genre: Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, Roger Daltrey of The Who, and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath. To this day, it is hard to find a male metal singer not influenced at least in part by one of these rock gods. [Note: Most critics would not call The Who a heavy metal band. If we were just talking about their studio albums, I would agree. Their live act at the time, however, was literally the loudest in the world and featured the distorted guitar and driving rhythm section characteristic of Metal proper.].
Ozzy recently passed away at the age of 76. As front man for a metal band, he was unique in that there were no prior performers to whom he could be directly linked. Plant, Gillan, and Daltrey all gave off vibes that called to mind Little Richard, James Brown, Elvis, Tina Turner, and Mick Jagger (who was himself inspired by the same stars.).
So what to make of Ozzy? In this post I write only for myself, as someone who was fortunate to engage the music of Black Sabbath when it was at its most raw and vital. At that time (i.e. the mid-1970s) I was in a Catholic High School and, like all teens, struggling to find my way in the world. While discovering Sabbath, I was also into the literature of Herman Hesse and the polemical works and fiction of George Orwell. All three of them, for me anyway, provided comfort for a young person filled with anxiety over the prospect of having to survive in an absurd world that rewards stupidity, scorns independent thought, reduces love to Hallmark card cliches, and induces fear of authority and of the unknown. The fact that Black Sabbath was censored on FM radio at that time only increased my tendency to elevate them to the level of more "serious" poets, pundits, and polemicists.
My personal fascination with Ozzy had nothing to do with the "Prince of Darkness" and "Madman" brands, both of which struck me as nonsensical, music industry hype to sell records, merchandise, and concert tickets. My guess is that Ozzy too, in the early days at least, was at best amused by his public image. Unfortunately his alcoholism and drug addiction made it difficult, for most of his adult life, for him to take full control of his persona and personal narrative.
For those of us who bothered to listen to Black Sabbath in their classic period (1969-1975), there was something quite profound going on in the music. The metal genre, with its loudness and distortion, mimics a chaotic environment that any working class person can identify with. When I learned that Sabbath were from Birmingham, England--a distinctly working class town--their music made even more sense to me. I have no idea what the band THOUGHT they were doing in those early days, but for me Sabbath seemed to be about provoking us working class folks to reflect on the depravity of our condition and the social forces that create it. Ozzy did not write all or even most of the lyrics back then, but it did not matter: his voice was a literal instrument that spanned the emotions of despair, longing, anger, confidence, and ecstasy in ways that few vocalists have ever been able to pull off. Black Sabbath songs are notoriously hard for other bands to cover NOT because of the guitar and rhythm section, but because it's almost impossible to do justice to Ozzy's original vocal interpretations.
The album that introduced me to Sabbath was Volume 4 (originally released in 1972), which I probably started to get into around 1974 or 1975. Imagine what an alienated teen like me--steeped in Catholic guilt and reading Hesse and Orwell, would have thought when hit with Vol. 4's opening tune, "Wheels of Confusion":
Then the Paranoid album, with the classic "War Pigs":
Generals gathered in their masses
just like witches at black masses
evil minds that plot destruction
sorcerers of death's construction
in the fields the bodies burning
as the war machine keeps turning
death and hatred to mankind
poisoning their brainwashed minds, oh lord yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away
they only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor
Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah!
Now in darkness, world stops turning
as she is aware there's bodies burning.
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of god has sturck the hour
Day of judgement, god is calling
on their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
ALL RIGHT NOW!
Then the "Masters of Reality" album with the anthemic "Children of the Grave"
After Ozzy Osbourne got fired from Black Sabbath in the late 1970s, I pretty much stopped listening to them. The band continued to make some good albums with a number of great singers, most notably Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan. But without Ozzy there was something missing, and so I pretty much lost interest.
Then in graduate school, I just by chance happened to read some of the old works of British poet W.H. Auden. I learned that Auden spent much of his youth in Birmingham, England--where the members of Black Sabbath were from. When I read Auden's poem "The Unknown Citizen" (originally published in 1939), I immediately thought of Sabbath's early records again.
Here is the full poem:
W.H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen
(To JS/07 M 378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
What I found remarkable about that poem was its powerful mockery of the manner in which modern society made humans into "unknown citizens" for whom happiness is a matter of doing what you're told and not rocking the boat. [Notice how Auden dedicated the poem to JS/07 M 378--signifying his revulsion at how modern society reduces us to numbers].
In my view, early Black Sabbath--like Auden--were angry at this pathetic state of affairs. I did not necessarily think of it this way in my teenage years, but I came to believe that early Sabbath was provoking me to be anything BUT an "unknown citizen." Auden said, "When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went." What I heard Ozzy saying was, "when there's war, there's war pigs starting it."
Ozzy Osbourne was many things, but "unknown citizen" was not one of them. The dream of early Black Sabbath, and really all heavy metal at its best, is that none of us will be unknown citizens. Rather, each of us should strike out against the pressures to conform and should instead become KNOWN. Known for what? For thinking independently and maximizing our individual creativity in whatever we pursue in life.
In a real sense, early Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne liberated Auden's Unknown Citizen. Thank goodness for Birmingham, England.
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