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Last Updated on 06:27 PM by Nikos Nakos
In 1982 Ronnie James Dio along with Vinny Appice left Black Sabbath in order to create his own band, probably as he got tired being number 2 in Sabbath as he was in Rainbow or at least (only) in his mind… So future wasn’t so bright for Black Sabbath. After all it was only 3 years before that the shock of Ozzy’s and Ward’s departure has shaken the Sabs and now an equal shock was too much too handle for Tony and Geezer. At the same time arena rock was popular again as punk was just another (dead) trend but certainly before it became a memory and Vivian’s Westwood middle name it helped Heavy Metal to be much more mature and enriched “N.W.O.B.H.M. on speed” in order to be born the one and only Thrash metal. Speaking of N.W.O.B.H.M. Iron Maiden and Def Leppard was ready to conquer America while Van Halen, Priest, Journey and many more bands were taking air-radio time making rock ‘n roll cool again to the masses, even though 2 giants of rock Zeppelin and Purple were actually on ice or even dead.
Back to Sabbath, the band changed also its management in 1982 to Don Arden, yes Sharon Osbourne’s father, which tried to keep Sabbath in their high status despite the many lineup changes. Actually Tony Iommi planned to make a new project, named Born Again, something like a super group, but Arden intended to make Sabbath more popular than his son in law…., so he insisted the band to use the famous and recognizable name of Black Sabbath. As there was only 2 members in the band he managed to bring back Bill Ward that now was (newly) sober as also he was looking for a new singer. Many tried to take Dio’s (and Ozzy’s) place and it was too hard to be in these guys shoes even if your name was David Coverdale or Robert Plant. The main problem was that they (Sabs) wanted a new type of singer, neither a clone of their previous ones, neither a too recognizable with a characteristic voice… After many auditions and too many send tapes (even the unknown back then Michael Bolton send one) Iommi finally took Ian Gillan that Arden suggested from the very first time! But damn it Gillan had (and still has) a characteristic voice, too recognizable that everyone could understand who he was!!! He was the voice of DEEP PURPLE… Anyway the choice was obviously a good one but at the same time a mini disaster with a short lifespan. Iommi has spoken a lot of times about this choice, actually in 1992 he admitted in Guitar World that Gillan was a great singer but from a different background that made him difficult to sing old Sabbath material. The legend says that the manager of Gillan convinced him on meeting Butler and Iommi in a bar where after heavy drinking at a pub named “The Bear” in Oxford both sides agreed that this whole project would turn into something really good.
As a producer Robin Black, who had previously worked as an engineer in the mid 70’s in “Sabotage” album, was the choice. Now that’s what we call terrible as the final result was the worst possible one. There’s a bootleg (actually the demo tapes) that has the rough mix, and the track listing a bit different where you can hear “Born Again” in a better and less sloppy sound. Personally speaking I don’t care for technical matters and I focus on the songs and the band members’ performance strictly, still this album is the exact opposite of “Black Album”, if you know what I’m trying to say here. Iommi speaking about this fact, tried to have fun about it, remembering that the band had horrified from the final product and the awful production, but it was too late to change anything as they were already on tour somewhere in Europe and the album already on charts! The truth certainly must be much different though as rumors were speaking about an angry Butler being annoyed from the mix as Gillan’s voice was a bit in front from the other instruments. Addition to all the non-convincing answer from Sabbath, the band let some rumors spread, claiming that the master tapes had damaged from humidity.
“Born Again” is the 11th studio album by the Brummies, released in August 1983 and this is the album that marks a rather difficult and unpopular era for the band. After that release every album will have lineup changes, and would never achieve great reviews or commercial success. But wait a minute,“Born Again” was a commercial success! It’s the highest charting album in the U.K. (# 4) since 1973’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and sold over 300,000 copies in the first years something that turned it to a platinum release. Still the album reviews was mixed back in the days and in the same 1992 interview in Guitar World magazine Iommi confessed that he didn’t like many of the songs. The recordings started in May 1983 at The Manor Studio in the Oxfordshire countryside. Gillan was a weird persona and definitely much more a rockstar than the other band members. He (Gillan) was not staying with the others inside the house during the recordings and he was sleeping outside in a marquee tent. We are talking of course for a giant tent that had everything from cooking area and bedroom etc etc… Despite his overweening character; Gillan seemed to have brought Sabbath down to Earth in terms of lyrical themes. Geezer and Dio were not into everyday themes, while Ian was writing about sexual things, true facts or even about things that happened to him or the band.
The opening track -also released as a video clip- “Trashed” was written by Gillan, telling us the story when he returned from a local pub and took the car of Bill Ward that he later crashed it (the vehicle burst into flames) before he escaped only injured. “Trashed” is a rather catchy song written in the veins of “Neon Nights” and “Turn Up The Night” showing that Gillan could write as well (or at least in the same pattern) Dio did but don’t except any dragon here… The track also gained some controversy, as it was featured in the PMRC “Filthy Fifteen” list. They claimed the song was about drug and alcohol abuse. This is definitely ironic, considering that it was in fact a warning against driving under the influence. “Thank you Mr. Miracle”, the lyric goes, “you saved me from some pain/I thank you Mr. Miracle I won’t get trashed again / Oh can’t you hear my lies? Don’t you bother with this fool just laugh into his eyes”. The song also had a music video. Like a majority of songs on the album, it was only performed during Ian Gillan’s time with the band, and was only performed once during a show on August 21, 1983.
Second track is an instrumental one like “Fluff” or “E5150” entitled “Stonehenge”. For almost 2 minutes long time keyboard player Geoff Nichols tries to create a spooky, evil atmosphere through synth and effects, but actually all we hear is a noisy sound that works like a prelude or intro to “Disturbing the Priest”. But before we continue to the next track, there’s an interesting story about “Stonehenge”. During the Born Again tour the band used gigantic Stonehenge props. It was an idea for the stage decoration from Butler but unfortunately the designers thought that the measurements should be life size… All these huge columns made from fiberglass and wood was not possible to be carried in their world tour as the columns were 13 feet high and wide as an average bedroom !!! In 1984’s infamous rock mockumentary This Spinal Tap the band had the opposite problem; Stonehenge stage props were miniatures… Generally speaking this whole world tour was a mess, as Don Arden had the idea using a dwarf actor playing the devil baby from the front cover while Gillan couldn’t remember the old Sabbath songs’ lyrics…Now this is Spinal Tap indeed!!!
“Disturbing the Priest” is another hit coming out of the album. The lyrics is once again by Gillan, telling us a real incident when he and Iommi rehearsing in a small building near a church in the English countryside and the resident priests complained for the noise that they were making. Musically speaking the song is a mixture of Purple and Judas Priest-like. Here Gillan performs excellent acting evil manners. Iommi’s crushing riffs and dark atmosphere is blended with Gillan’s screams and laughs turning this song actually into a challenge for Ozzy’s madman persona to beat. Great, catchy, suitable, “evil” (and easy) chorus “we’re disturbing the priest/ won’t you come to our feast?” for one of the best moments of the album. Opeth performed the song live on September 8th and 9th 2007, at the Anchor Bar in Stockholm, Sweden. The next so-called “track” entitled “The Dark” is another ambient either interlude as it fades or why not next song’s intro, as there are only 45 seconds of dark wah-wah sounds in the veins of “E5150”.
“Zero The Hero” closes triumphantly the first side of the album. It is probably the hit of the record and the most recognizable song of the Gillanera. Guns N Roses (“Paradise City”) and Danzig (“Her Black Wings”) have used its main riff,while Cannibal Corpse (“Hammer Smashed Face” EP, 1993) and Godflesh (Masters of Misery – Black Sabbath: An Earache Tribute, 1997) have covered the song as well. A brilliant composition with Iommi’s signature riff, a damn catchy andmemorable chorus that its simplicity makes you wants to sing along, while Gillan seems to spit the lyrics doing a rap thing or something. Extra kudos for Iommi’s extended solos that make the song even though its 7 minutes long, not boring at all. “Zero The Hero” and “Trashed” were the 2 tracks on a 7” & 12” promo that was sent to the radio stations in 1983, as also the only 2 songs that had videos from the album.
B side of “Born Again” starts with “Digital Bitch”. Cool one but you can’t deny that this is actually a Purple song… all these claiming that Gillan as a choice would turn into a fiasco, may have something like that in their minds but terms like Black Purple or Deep Sabbath couldn’t be serious for just one song (ok, “Hot Line” too…). Musically we are dealing with a fast song in the vein of “Highway Star” with nice solo and some great leads from Tony Iommi. Lyrics could easily be for Sharon Osbourne, as they speak about a wealthy shrew having her money from her father that has a computer company, but this would be way too personal and lame for 2 gentlemen like Iommi and Gillan to do.
The title track was something new back then and it is the first 80’s-like powerballad Sabbath recorded. Later songs like “Born Again” would be more often in band’s discography, such as “Feels Good to Me”, “No Stranger to Love” and “When Death Calls”. Closer “Keep It Warm” is also this kind of a song. Gillan’s voice is the strongest card in this one but of course once again the guitar soloing is really nice.
“Hot Line” is simple as fuck but it is one of the best moments of the album too. Purple enough, full of energy, fast paced rocker, with groovy bass lines, audibly keyboards in the background, screaming vocals and awesome riffing. My personal favorite and as Iommi in his autobiography claims Beastie Boys’ inspiration for “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)”.
The album closes with another power ballad, entitled “Keep It Warm”. The song is written for a girl named Bron then girlfriend of Ian, and once again has real life lyrics talking about human relations as a signature of its writer/composer. Atmospheric song bring me in mind “Turn The Page” as it talks about a man that needs to roam, as the musician needs to tour in Bob Seger’s song but he/she always wants someone to wait back home for him/her.
Just before the end we should say 2 words for the cover artwork too. NME listed it as in 29 of the sickest album covers ever. Famous metal journalist Martin Popoff described the front cover baby as a ”garish red devil-baby”. Kerrang! ranked it as 2nd in “10 Worst Album Sleeves in Metal/Hard Rock”. Bill Ward told the press he actually hated the cover. Not as much Gillan that he said that he vomited when he first saw it. Bollocks! This little devil is sick enough to be in a metal cover and many surely like it. Probably not as much as Don Arden that the devil baby reminding him of Ozzy’s children…. And the story behind the making of the cover goes pretty much like this. When Ozzy and Sharon left Arden’s management, Don Arden decided to make Sabbath the biggest band in the world in order to take his revenge. One of his plans was to take as many from Ozzy’s team by his side, stealing everything that could make (or better saying keep) Ozzy big. So Arden offered Steve “Krusher” Joule, Art Director of Kerrang!Magazine and previously freelance designer in the music industry since 1976 producing work for the likes of Motorhead, Sammy Hagar, Uriah Heep, Gamma, Girlschool, Blondie, The Sex Pistols and OzzyOsbourne’s ‘Diary of a Madman’, ‘Speak of the Devil’ and ‘Bark at the Moon’, the job of making the cover of “Born Again”. When Arden offered Joule the job, he was designing Ozzy’s album sleeves, so as he didn’t want to lose this job he actually gave to Arden some rough designs and grab the rejection fee. But one of the ideas, which was based on a 1968 magazine cover called Mind Alive, was the baby photo. Joule took the original photo and transformed the baby into a little devil, by using nails, horns and mostly some extra outrageous color combination. Arden loved the final result, paid Joule an amount twice as much Ozzy was paying him and voilà: the album cover that both Deicide’s Glenn Benton and Soulfly’s Max Cavalera have claimed it to be their favorite album sleeve of all time was ready and all the rest became History.
I really don’t think “Born Again” is one of the best Black Sabbath’s albums as Lars Ulrich has once stated, but I believe that it is a decent one, criminally underrated, with many excellent songs and overall it is an album that has some so many stories behind it that makes it fascinating and really worth exploring it.
*The tour was a breaking point for Butler, who admits in the Black Sabbath: 1978–1992 documentary, “I just got totally disillusioned with the whole thing and I left some time in 1984 after the Born Again tour. I just had enough of it.” Ward began drinking again near the end of the Born Again recording sessions and returned to Los Angeles for treatment. The band recruited Bev Bevan, who had played with The Move and ELO, for the tour.
**A re-mastered ‘Deluxe Expanded Edition’ of Born Again was released in May 2011, which included several live tracks from the 1983 Reading Festival originally featured on BBC Radio 1’s Friday Rock Show. Though the release was remastered, it was not remixed.
The bonus cd tracklisting:
1.”The Fallen” (previously unreleased album session outtake)
2.”Stonehenge” (extended version)
3.”Hot Line”
4. “War Pigs” (Butler, Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Ward)
5. “Black Sabbath” (Butler, Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Ward)
6. “The Dark”
7. “Zero the Hero”
8. “Digital Bitch”
9. “Iron Man” (Butler, Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Ward)
10. “Smoke on the Water” (Ritchie Blackmore, Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice)
11. “Paranoid” (Butler, Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Ward)
