BLACK SABBATH – Earlest Demo Recording Unearthed

The never officially released 1969 studio session of early BLACK SABBATH, also known as EARTH, has been uploaded to YouTube. Listen HERE.

This demo has been highly sought after by collectors and is the earliest known studio recording of the legendary pioneers of heavy metal music.

Tracklist:

01. Unknown Demo
02. Early Warning School
03. The Rebel (Sample)
04. When I Came Down (Sample)
05. Thomas Jam (With Jim Simpson)

“‘The Rebel’ is without a doubt one of the most sought-after BLACK SABBATH songs ever recorded. Although a small fragment of this very un-SABBATH like song can be heard on ‘The Black Sabbath Story Volume 1’ video, most fans have never heard this still-unreleased 1969 demo.

“Is it an EARTH or BLACK SABBATH demo? One of the most frequently asked questions about ‘The Rebel’ is whether the song could be considered as an EARTH demo. Although the actual acetate credits the recording to BLACK SABBATH, the song was recorded during a transitional period. It has been alleged in several recent BLACK SABBATH biographies that the band decided upon changing their name from EARTH to BLACK SABBATH while they were on route to The Star Club in Hamburg in early August 1969. To avoid the inevitable confusion arising from this sudden change, the band performed many prior bookings as EARTH. In fact, their final gig as EARTH was performed in Kilcaldy, Scotland just one day after recording ‘The Rebel'”

In 1969 while Black Sabbath was still sort of transitioning from their original name “Earth”, they recorded a series of demo songs written by fellow Birmingham musician, Norman Haines. Haines was the keyboard and organist in the Brummy band, Locomotive who scored a hit with their version of Dandy Livingstone’s ska-smash, “A Message To You Rudy”.

In August of 1969, and according to Tony Iommi in his book, My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath, the band stepped into the same studio that The Beatles recorded much of The White Album in during the summer of 1968, the opulent eight-track room at Trident Studios in Soho, London. Iommi had never set foot in a studio before and had no idea how to mic his own guitar properly. The band recorded “The Rebel” and then a couple of months later a second track that was also written by Haines, “When I Came Down” at Zella Studios, Birmingham in October of 1969.

Engineer Roger Bain, (who at time had never worked with Sabbath, but would go on to produce their next three albums) wanted to reduce the amount of distortion in the band’s sound. Lead guitarist Tony Iommi angrily responded: “Fucking leave it! It’s a part of our sound!”

http://www.blacksabbath.com/