The Black Sabbath Story, Vol. 1: 1970-1978 (1992)

This chronicle of the heaviest metal band of all time will be an eye-opener to those who only know Ozzy Osbourne as that goofball dad on MTV: 30 years ago, he fronted one of the hardest-hitting and loudest rock groups around. An hour-long compilation of interviews, videos, and performance footage that, while short on length, is long on substance, The Black Sabbath Story, Volume One unearths several vintage clips that show the band at its artistic and commercial zenith: "N.I.B." and "War Pigs," filmed at concerts in Paris; a performance of "Paranoid" from Belgian TV; and a rarely seen video of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath."

Ozzy, happily, doesn't have much to say beyond belting out the tunes in his trademark yelp. When a female reporter sticks a mike in front of him after Sabbath's performance at the legendary California Jam, his incoherence is truly sublime. It's up to guitarist Tony Iommi to more lucidly recount various aspects of the band's history. --Kevin Filipski Amazon.com

sabbath video review

The footage on this isn't too bad. Some great songs, however there could be some better ones as well.
It is a must have for SABBATH fans.
There is an interview with the old manager that is pretty insightful.
Lots of little tid bits that none of us would have ever known about
early SABBATH history.
There is a cool story about OZZY beating up
a police officer when he was younger.
The sound quality is great, except its not really in wide screen.
It appears as if production added some cheesy looking black bars to the top of the screen.
Drummers will love all of the close ups of BILL WARD pounding
on his set.
April 15, 2008

BS ROCKS!!!

It was great seeing, firsthand, the early Black Sabbath days, before the split up, fighting and he said, he said! I loved it! April 7, 2008

You Won't Regret Owning It

I bought this video on VHS over 10 years ago and nearly wore it out. Great footage of the original Sabath line - up. We get to hear a new song called "War Pigs" from the "new album", with Bill Ward playing a single bass drum kit. The whole band wears jeans and sneakers in early footage and in a few short years Bill has a double bass and the band is wearing platform shoes w/satin (?) pants. This is the best overview of Sabbath from the 70's. The interviews are apparently from the era before the Reunion when apparently they didn't anticipate Ozzy returning. It's actually a pleasure hearing the interviews with Tony and Geezer without Ozzy's big mouth. Another great thing about this video is that the interviews are in between songs not during them and now that it's on DVD you can actually skip over the parts that you don't like. Also includes bonus track "A Hard Road" not on the VHS version. Tony and Geezer tell Ozzy stories and reminince about the early days. Personal favorite is the one about Ozzy beating up a doped up fan who was beating up his little boy in the audience. Overall, it seems short and will make you want to rewind (skip backward) to hear it again. This isn't one of those documentaries that drags on forever (e.g. Some Kind of Monster - ugh), but rather keeps you watching and holds your interest. Also it doesn't contain any back biting or bad mouthing just good natured remininces from Tony and Geezer.
January 29, 2007

Great history of Sabbath

I have had this video now for almost 10 years, and it is now available on DVD. But to this date, there is no DVD that even compairs to this one as far as the history and footage shown. The live videos and rare tunes played in this documentary is worth every penny i originally paid for it. I still can't believe the footage from Ontario motor Speedway in 1974, showing the massive crowd that Sabbath played, just spectacular. This video covers through early 1978, and touches on Ozzy leaving, but you'll need tape two to see that. On DVD, the 1978 year is completed on DVD 1 ending with "a hard road" and ozzy leaving. So this is a must have for any sabbath fan, and don't foget to buy the Black sabbath story Volume 2 to complete the set. July 26, 2006

A tad disappointing...

I enjoyed the band interviews that are interspersed throughout the DVD--although there were no (recent) Ozzy interviews--and particularly the interview with the band's first manager, Jim Simpson, who had some interesting insights to share on the band's origins. I also thought the "Band History" section of the DVD as a whole was pretty informative (there's even a brief Cozy Powell interview).

Having said all that, I was disappointed in the overall production of this DVD from the moment I opened it up. The sound isn't all that great, but I can forgive that considering how old a lot of the footage is. But the major sins are:

* No insert booklet (That spells C-H-E-A-P. I mean, come on!)
* The "Extras" section is comprised solely of two 90-second interviews with Tony Iommi, in which he grumbles about the state of modern heavy metal, and Bill Ward, and I'm not really sure just what he was talking about.
* The "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" video has almost two minutes lopped off the end
* The live footage of "Symptom of the Universe" and "Snowblind" was taken from the "Never Say Die" tour. I would rather have seen footage from when those songs were released.

I noticed in a couple of the reviews that some people mentioned the DVD being shorter than the 85 minutes advertised. Although I haven't timed it, I think if you add up all the various features ("Band History," etc.) it will be closer to 85 minutes.

I almost gave this DVD 2 stars for not even having a booklet, so I will recommend it with an asterisk. December 30, 2005

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