All language subtitles for botage

(rock music)

- [Narrator] Most Black
Sabbath fans consider Sabotage

as the last iconic record
of the classic era lineup.

Though it contains many of
the progressive elements

of their prior album
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

in terms of arrangement
and instrumentation,

it is a decidedly heavier affair
than its 1973 predecessor.

This time around the
band wanted to pare down

the arrangements a bit
and go in more direct,

heavier approach for what
would be their 6th album

in exactly as many years.

Sabotage will be recorded
at Morgan Studios

in Willesden North London in
February and March of 1975

and issued later that
year produced essentially

by guitarist, Tony Iommi
and engineer Mike Butcher.

(rock music)

Before arriving at Morgan Studio,

writing and rehearsal
took place at Field's Farm

and at lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's house.

Though hampered by legal battles,

the band persevered and created arguably

one of the best records
of their entire career

and maybe the first
progressive metal album.

♪ I wanna tell you yeah ♪

Ironically, to tell Sabotage's tale,

we have to first discuss
how the band themselves

were sabotage by management.

The main characters are Jim Simpson,

a club promoter in Sabbath's
native Birmingham, England,

and the band's first real manager.

Patrick Meehan, an up and coming manager

and the son of Patrick Meehan Sr.,

who was a more established manager.

Wilf Pine, a local henchman and
right-hand man to Don Arden.

Don Arden, heavyweight manager,
connected to the mafia,

current employer of Pine

and former employer of Meehan's father.

At June 1970, Sabbath's first album

is on the British music charts

and soon they'll be following it up

with their second album, Paranoid.

By most indicators,
Sabbath was on its way up

but current manager, Jim Simpson

wasn't getting them paid for
gigs like other similar bands.

In particular, a band called Black Widow

managed by Patrick Meehan Jr.

was getting double what
Sabbath made for gigs,

even though Widow was not
charting or selling records.

Before Sabbath's debut album had exploded,

Simpson had booked concerts
at a much lower rate

and would not cancel or renegotiate

the originally agreed upon price.

Iommi said, "It was getting silly.

Even the people who ran the
clubs we played were going,

'You should be getting more than this.

What are you doing playing here?'"

Knowing of Sabbath's
potential financial success

and their unhappiness with the
way they were being managed,

Don Arden decided to make a
play to take them from Simpson.

Known as the Godfather
of Rock and Mr. Big,

Arden started out doing standup comedy

and was particularly known for
his impressions of masters.

In the 60s, he went on to
sign and manage Gene Vincent

and later the Small Faces.

Around this time, Arden
was also known to leverage

a small group of well muscled
friends to intimidate others

to see things his way.

One example of his license to
threaten potential opponents

took place back before
Led Zeppelin had formed,

when Jimmy Page and Keith Moon

were putting together a band.

Page and Moon reached out
to Small Faces singer,

Steve Marriott, to see if
he might want to join them.

The minute Marriott's
manager, Don Arden found out,

he sent Page a very clear message.

"How would you like to play in
a band with broken fingers?"

Marriott stayed with the Small Faces

and Page went on with his fingers intact.

♪ Smoke it ♪

In 1970, Arden put his plan into motion

and sent his right-hand man, Wilf Pine

to pick up the band and bring
them back to his office.

During the meeting, Arden
painted a great future,

but came on too strong when he asked them

to sign with his label
during their first meeting.

Iommi said about the meeting,

"We just couldn't do that.
It was all too bombarding.

So we came away thinking,

'Oh God, what are we gonna do now?

He'll probably have us killed.'

He kept getting in touch with us,

arranging to take us out to dinner

and all that sort of
business. He never let go."

Then one day, Wilf got
in touch and he said,

"I've got another guy
that wants to meet you."

This other guy was Patrick Meehan, Jr.

and after meeting with him,

Tony said, "He seemed
a lot calmer than Arden

and said things that we wanted to hear.

He just had the right way
about it at the time."

So they ended up signing
with Patrick Meehan

and Wilf Pine and their
company, Worldwide Artist.

A little over 13 months later,

Pine would drop out of the partnership

and move on to other things.

It should be noted that
there is an alternate count

of why Black Sabbath did not
sign to Arden at the time.

In the book, "One of the Family,

The Englishman and The Mafia",

it states that Black Sabbath
was told Arden was making fun

and taking a piss on Black
Sabbath at one of their shows.

After the band heard this,

they did not want
anything to do with Arden.

According to Pine, it
was a misunderstanding

and Arden did not make fun of the band.

(rock music)

Two weeks before their second
album was to be released,

Jim Simpson received a lawyer's letter

informing him that he no longer
represented Black Sabbath

nor was he allowed to contact
them directly anymore.

Jim wasn't the only one put
out by this latest development.

When Don Arden, who was still
trying to make a backdoor move

on the group found out it
was two of his own associates

that have plotted behind his
back to snatch up Sabbath,

he was furious.

Issuing threats of retribution,

he also offered financial
assistance to Simpson

who he encouraged to sue for damages.

Simpson did and was later
awarded 35,000 pounds

breaking down to 7,500
pounds from the band

and 27,500 pounds from Meehan.

With Meehan at the helm,

Black Sabbath became a
genuine international success.

The three albums that followed Paranoid,

Master of Reality in
1971, Volume 4 in 1972,

and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in 1973,

all hit the UK top 10 and the US top 20.

By 1974, the band had all
the trappings of success,

the country houses, flashy cars,

and unlimited amounts of drugs.

(coughing noises)

But after four years and at
continual cycle of touring

and recording, the band
was running on empty

and everything came to a head during a gig

at the Hollywood Bowl
on the Volume 4 US tour

where Tony Iommi collapsed.

Ozzy said about the incident,

"Tony had been doing coke
literally for days, we all had,

but Tony had gone over the edge.

He walked off the stage and collapsed."

It was not Tony's day.

Earlier that same day
during the soundcheck,

a crazed man tried to
stab Tony with a dagger,

the religious zealot
was stopped by the crew

and Tony was not harmed.

But as basist Geezer Butler says,

"We wanted to take a break
after Tony collapsed."

So the rest of the gigs for
that year were canceled.

(rock music)

The following year, 1973,

the band embarked on a tour
for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

that would take them through February 1974

for the US leg of the tour.

Just when they thought they
could take a well-deserved rest

before the UK and
Australian leg of the tour,

management call to tell the
band that they had been asked

to play at one of the largest
music festivals at the time,

the California Jam,
attended by 400,000 fans.

Geezer said, "We were in
England having just returned

from the tour when our
management called us

and said we had to go back
out and do the California Jam.

We said no, but we were
eventually forced into doing."

- [Emcee] This act is
pulled in from England

just for this concert.

A warm United States
welcome for Black Sabbath.

(audience applause)

- [Narrator] This was just one of the ways

Sabbath was getting
manipulated by management.

Also during this period and
unbeknownst to the band,

Patrick Meehan had
filtered a large portion

of the royalties to himself
instead of the band.

Even though Black Sabbath played

the 1974 California Jam festival

and received a generous
quarter of a million dollars

for the performance,

the band members were paid
only a thousand dollars each

for their efforts.

- We love you all.

(audience cheers)

- [Narrator] Osbourne complained,

"Patrick Meehan never
gave you a straight answer

when you asked him how
much dough you were making.

Butler said it more bluntly,

"We felt we were being ripped off."

For Iommi, the situation with Patrick

had already become unworkable
even before the band

began to question his business dealings.

"We could never find him
when bills had to be paid."

Iommi recalled, "It was a nightmare

and eventually I was left with no option,

but to walk away and try
to pick up the pieces."

(rock music)

The band had long suspected
things weren't above board,

but they had been too
scared and inexperienced

to directly question how their
affairs were being handled.

Despite their aggressive music genre,

these masters in reality
did not like confrontations.

As it learned over the summer of 1974,

the reality was that they
had no control whatsoever

over what happened next.

"It was like, the more you found out,

the less you wanted to
know.", said Geezer.

It was horrible.

Sabbath had been snared the same way

countless other acts had in
the music business in the 60s.

The band spent a fortunate legal fees

only to discover that in effect,

they had no real money of their own,

the cars they drove, the
houses they lived in,

all were owned on paper by Patrick Meehan

and their management company.

Most excruciating of all and
potentially career damaging,

they didn't even own their own music.

"That's why we called the
next album Sabotage.",

said Geezer.

"We were a potless, absolutely broke.

If the band had finished there,

we would have been totally destitute."

(rock music)

So the band broke it off with Meehan

and tried their hand at
running things themselves.

Drummer Bill Ward stepped up
to fill the management void,

but soon realized he didn't
have the proper skillset.

His alcoholism didn't help.

For a while, there was no manager,

instead various close friends
and coworkers of the band

worked together to take
care of different duties,

but none had everything it took

to be the actual manager of the band.

Ironically, a couple of years later,

there would be savior turned out to be

one of the most infamous gangster
managers in the music biz,

Don Arden, the guy who
tried to pressure them

into signing with him in 1970,

which by the way, Arden would eventually

become Ozzy's future father-in-law.

Even with the formidable figure
of Don Arden behind them,

the fallout with Meehan will
continue to cast a deep shadow

over Sabbath throughout the
70s and up until the 90s.

For instance, Meehan and
company not only mismanaged

their back catalog, but
they continued to profit

from a string of compilation albums

of Sabbath's most recognizable material.

After years of litigation
between the two camps,

the band was eventually forced to seek

an out of court settlement.

They agreed to pay an undisclosed amount

for breaking their contracts with Meehan,

but more costly, Sabbath also
agreed to give up the rights

to the music released while
Patrick was their manager,

most of the best work
they would ever produce.

Meanwhile, due to personality
conflicts and health issues,

the band was beginning to fracture.

Already deep into alcoholism
and drug addiction,

Bill Ward suffered
multiple health problems,

a case of hepatitis and a
mild heart attack to name two.

At the same time,

Ozzy became increasingly
distant from the band

due to musical differences
and family issues.

As many times before, guitarist Tony Iommi

took the lead in writing
the bulk of the material.

Hole In The Sky, begins
with the hum of amplifiers

set at a maximum volume and
someone's screaming attack.

Some people believe the word
was chicken, but it wasn't.

(rock music)

This scream was an in-joke delivered

by producer, Mike Butcher.

Sabbath had a supporting
act who had a manager

who would stand behind them on the stage,

shouting, "Attack, attack" said Butcher,

"So that's what I shouted
from the control room."

Hole in the Sky is a dense,
purposeful doom classic,

where you can hear how Tony's guitar tone

had gotten even larger
than on previous albums

as it loomed over the surging
swing of Geezer and Bill

while Ozzy was forced into
another high and dramatic vocal.

It begins to become clear that Sabotage

would mark the finest vocal
performance of Ozzy's career.

The sheer anger of the music is emphasized

by its abrupt look twice ending,

segwaying instantly into what appears

to be one of Tony's
sultry acoustic rambles.

Following Hole in the Sky

is the 49-second acoustic instrumental,

Don't Start Too Late,

and was inspired by tape operator,

David Harris's exasperations with the band

plowing into their takes

before he'd gotten himself prepared.

So that's David's saying, "Don't start."

And the band chuckling, "Too late."

The piece is essentially
melodically complex,

modern classical, but it's a good example

of how Sabbath liked a little
light and airy interlude

before the hulking monster
comes to wreck the village.

(rock music)

Wreck in the village is the supercharged

Symptom of the Universe.

From Iommi's (indistinct) riff
driving the monster forward

towards craze drum fill,

the entire band is on the attack.

Not until Judas Priest Sin
After Sin two years later

with a heavy metal sound
this intense and overdriven.

And in retrospect, you
can practically envision

the entire new wave of British
heavy metal coming to life.

Closing out side one is
the nine minute 46 second,

which is the longest self
penned Sabbath tune ever,

Megalomania, which is a
much more involved piece

structurally than anything else before.

Highlights include Iommi's
snarling trilling riffs,

Ozzy growling out "Sting
Me" and then later "Suck Me"

and Bill Ward's brilliant
use of his cowbell

to count off another rhythm change.

The song is about suffering
from paranoia, depression,

and delusions.

It is in fact an actual
psychological disorder.

A megalomaniac is a pathological egotist

with symptoms like delusions of grandeur

and an obsession with power.

The song Megalomania is somewhat
disturbing, fascinating,

and exhausting all at the same time,

and definitely an ambitious piece of work.

Leading off side two is
the Angus Young type riff

and vastly underrated
rocker, The Thrill of it All.

The song has a well-used handclap element

years before John
Mellencamp's Jack and Diane.

As well as some of Ozzy's most expressive,

upbeat and heartfelt vocals.

Lyrically, there are some
brilliant sentiments here,

all couched in religion as
Geezer who wrote the words,

wonders why the world
is in such a shambles.

♪ Won't you help me Mr. Jesus ♪

♪ Won't you tell me if you can ♪

♪ When you see this world we live in ♪

♪ Do you still believe in man ♪

Geezer got the title of the
song from a book he was reading

at the time.

The Thrill of it All
also shows how the band

was not sabotaged by management alone,

tape operator, David
Harris had mistakenly wiped

the original master of the song

and the band had to rerecord it.

Rather than get all upset about it,

the guys credited him on
the album with tape operator

and saboteur, David Harris.

(rock music)

The next song on the album, Supertzar,

which initially had the working title

of we sell the worst chips in the country

would become the band's
intro music for concerts

for years to come.

Tony wrote it in the
confines of his living room

with him playing guitar and his wife Sue

on the orchestral harp,

and then later created the
choir parts on his Mellotron.

It's transformed on the album to a song

vaguely reminiscent of the
classic Yardbirds song,

Still I'm Sad.

Take a listen and see if you agree.

When it came time to record,

Tony booked the English chamber choir.

Not knowing anything about this,

Ozzy walked into the studio,

saw all these people and walked out again,

thinking he'd gone into the wrong studio.

Also during the songs creation,

Bill Ward had a mild heart attack

and needed to take a
30-day hiatus to recoup.

The 7th track from Sabotage is the uneven

and somewhat unpopular fan wise tune,

Am I going Insane Radio.

Ozzy originally constructed this song

from a solo album he
planned during the downtime

between Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath and Sabotage.

When that idea was scrapped,

he brought this tune into
the Sabotage sessions.

Concerning his aborted
plans of going solo,

Ozzy later confessed, "I
wasn't prepared to own up

to the rest of the band
and I didn't wanna give up

the success and recognition."

Some people assume the radio notation

is due to it being a
radio edit, but it's not.

Radio in the title is Cockney slang

referencing a Birmingham
business called Radio Rental.

Instead of mental, a local
would be called Radio Rental,

and eventually the phrase
would shorten to radio.

The song ends with some
disturbing laughter

voiced by a band friend

and then some bizarre hysterical crying

from what sounds like a mental patient.

According to Bill Ward,

the crying came from a tape
of Ozzy's daughter, Jessica

played at half speed,

but engineer Mike Butcher
said the crying came

from an unidentified
tape found in the studio.

No one knows for sure.

The Writ is probably the most formidable

and biting song of the classic lineup era.

It's also Sabbath at
their most progressive.

The lyrics were written mostly by Ozzy,

as opposed to usually
be in handled by Butler

and pertain to the lawsuit
with their former manager,

Patrick Meehan, that was plaguing the band

during the recording of Sabotage.

♪ The way I feel is the way I am ♪

♪ I wish I'd walked
before I started to run ♪

♪ To you ♪

Delivering the songs spitting
venom with manic savagery,

Ozzy's sounds particularly
angry and scornful,

especially in this section of the song

where he starts off by taking shots

at Patrick Meehan and his father.

♪ A poisoned father who
has poisoned his son ♪

♪ That's you ♪

♪ Yeah that's you ♪

♪ I beg you please don't
let it get any worse ♪

♪ The anger I once had
has turned to a curse ♪

♪ On you ♪

♪ Yeah curse you ♪

♪ All of the promises
that never came true ♪

♪ You're gonna get what is coming to you ♪

♪ That's true ♪

♪ Ah that's true ♪

♪ Are you Satan ♪

♪ Are you man ♪

♪ You've changed in life since it began ♪

The title The Writ was
apparently suggested

by engineer co-producer, Mike Butcher

after one of the manager's lawyers

had delivered a writ to the
studio during the recording.

A writ is an order issued
by a legal authority

with administrative or judicial
powers, typically a court.

Ironically, the same year
Sabbath released Sabotage,

fellow Brit band Queen
released a disk track as well

about their former manager.

You will find the same
level of seeding anger

from Freddie Mercury on
the song Death On Two Legs.

♪ You suck my blood like a leech ♪

♪ You break the law and you breach ♪

♪ Screw my brain till it hurts ♪

♪ You've taken all my money ♪

♪ And you want more ♪

♪ Misguided old mule ♪

♪ With your pigheaded rules ♪

♪ With your narrow minded cronies ♪

♪ Who are fools ♪

♪ Of the first division ♪

♪ Death on two legs ♪

For all the vitriol and the writ,

there was a note of hope and
defiance in his closing line.

♪ But everything is gonna work out fine ♪

And the short-term, at least
those words would ring true,

Patrick Meehan would
not break Black Sabbath.

In the spring of 1975,

a month after recording
was finished in London,

Mike Butcher flew to New
York to oversee the mixing

and mastering of Sabotage.

And it was there that the producer added

at the end of The Writ a
31-second snippet of music

he had recorded without
the band's knowledge.

"Microphones were plugged
in all around the studio.",

Butcher explain.

"So one night when Ozzy and Bill

were messing around the piano,
I pushed the record button."

♪ Blow on a jug ♪

♪ Everybody come on ♪

♪ Blow on a jug ♪

What he captured was a joke
song named Blow on a Jug.

"This stupid fucking thing," said Ward,

"A drunken song that Ozzy
and me would sing together

in a van or on a plane.

That's me on the piano and Ozzy blowing

on one of those brown cider
jugs, playing it like a tuba."

Ward insisted he had no
idea that Blow on the Jug

would end up on the album.

Originally, it only
appeared on early pressings.

The rumor that the Nitty Gritty band

originally played the song
Blow on the Jug is not true.

The real story comes
from a Hollywood festival

Sabbath played in 1970,
along with Mungo Jerry.

At the time, Sabbath saw these
festivals as a competition

and who would win over the crowd.

During one performance, Mungo
Jerry busted out some jugs

and the crowd went wild.

"He was playing fucking jugs

and he stole the day." Ozzy said.

After Mungo Jerry, we didn't have a hope

blowing on fucking jugs.

Just as the Beatles followed
the melody on side two

of Abbey Road, the lighthearted
and totally unnecessary,

Her Majesty, so Sabbath
closed the monumental Sabotage

with a similar tribute,

only theirs is the Mungo Jerry.

Now with all the music recorded,

the band need to create an album cover.

Sabotage was the first album

to display the group on its front cover.

The original idea for the records Artwork

was based on a famous painting
by the surrealist artist,

Rene Magritte, named Not to be Reproduced.

A man in a dark suit is
standing facing the mirror.

The reflection in the
mirror shows the man's back,

not his front.

In essence, his image has been sabotage.

The concept was conceived by Bill Ward

and his drum roadie Graham Wright,

and executed and overseen

by the Amsterdam design company, Cream

also known as the Cream Group.

(rock music)

Originally, the idea
was to go for a corridor

from a Dracula castle type thing.

Sabbath was going to be
standing in black suits

in front of full length
mirrors hanging from the wall,

and the reflected image
was supposed to be reversed

like Magritte's.

The job of making all this happen,

fell to the record company Vertigo,

which announced the photo
shoot a couple of weeks later.

Instead of an old castle,

the photo session would take place

in a small photography studio in Soho.

The band showed up thinking
they were just meeting

to talk about the album
cover, not to shoot it.

In fact, Ozzy showed up in a
kimono, "A homo in a kimono,"

as he would later describe his appearance.

Bill wore his wife's revealing red tights,

but he never wore underwear.

Ward said at the shoot, "I
had this old pair of jeans

that were really dirty, so
I borrowed my wife's tights.

And so that my bollocks wouldn't
show up under the tights,

I also borrowed Ozzy's
underpants because I had none."

We think we found some proof

that Mr. Ward is telling the truth.

If you take a look at the back
of the Sabotage album cover,

you can see Bill Ward's
underwear that he says is Ozzy's.

Now look at this picture
of Ozzy wearing underwear,

you'd be the judge.

Thinking they would superimpose
the images at a later time,

they rushed through the photo shoot,

and the outcome was far from
what had been envisioned.

Ironically, once again,

the sleeve design was
intended to illustrate

the idea of Sabotage,

but had instead become a
victim of sabotage itself.

By the time the band
had a chance to review,

it was too late to change the cover.

They hated it.

What we are left with
is a cover that manages

to be simultaneously embarrassing
and perversely endearing.

(rock music)

Upon release in late 1975,
Sabotage got a mixed reaction.

You had fans and critics
raving about the album,

including RollingStone
critic, Billy Altman,

who wrote, "Sabotage is not
only Black Sabbath's best record

since Paranoid, it might
be their best ever."

But the sales of the album
painted a different picture.

Sabotage was the first Black Sabbath album

that did not achieve
platinum status in the US

and though it reached
number seven in the UK,

it completely fell off the
charts after a few weeks.

To date, Sabotage is still
not platinum in the US

having only sold 900,000 copies,

but the album has sold over
2.5 million copies worldwide,

ranking it the 7th
best-selling Sabbath album.

- [Ozzy] The album's called Sabotage.

And then it's titled
Symptom of the Universe.

(rock music)

- [Narrator] Behind the scenes,
things continue to unravel.

Just as Sabbath felt they had
begun to get free of the mess

they found themselves in after
breaking with Patrick Meehan,

their former managers struck another blow,

authorizing the release in December

of a double album compilation entitled,

We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll

featuring all their biggest hitters

from the first five albums.

The double album was released to coincide

with a Christmas present buying season

and Sabbath didn't know
whether to be pleased or not.

Worse, the band members
made no money whatsoever

from this marketing scheme.

In some respects, Sabotage
seems like an album

with no real identity or a unifying theme,

yet as good as the album is,

it's also an album where
you can tell the wheels

are starting to come off of this.

This will become far more evident

in Black Sabbath's next release

where the band not only lost the wheels,

but the whole car fell apart.

That album, Bill Ward says,

"It was so hard for us making it,

but when I listened back to it now,

God, it's incredible."

- [Ozzy] We just had to
say on behalf of the guys

and myself, you are a good bunch of people

and we love each and every one of you.

(audience cheers)
Good night, thank you.

We love you all.