It's a slow time of year for new stuff though I have a backlog of reviews 'm finishing up, but I was watching this documentary on Ondemand so I'll write it up. My three year old daughter was trying to figure out what this was about when they went into the history of his life and I told her, "This is about a boy who grew up to become metal". With the surge in stoner rock Black Sabbath continues to be the one metal band acceptable to like from that era. But as a kid before I got into Sabbath , I was into Ozzy's solo stuff. Sure I had "Speak of the Devil" so I knew all the Sabbath songs on there and I even bought the two Dio Sabbath albums before I started collecting Sabbath proper in High school and discovered the Majick of the real Sabbath.
Jack Osborne made this film and it bears a similar formula to the one Sam Dunn applied to his films like the Rush Documentary, my favorite part of this style is the interviews with other musicians interspersed through out, this one features Paul McCartney, Henry Rollins and Tommy Lee.
Of course the beginning digs into the early days of Sabbath which is like watching the origin section of a superhero movie which has been covered in Vh1's Behind the Music, Metal a Headbanger's Journey and the Metal evolution series. I do like hearing the epic drug stories, it sounds like Geezer and Bill ward were his drug buddies while Iommi was more reserved. From reading the Doors biography, I'd sy Sabbath did more drugs than the and a wider variety than Mötley Crüe.
One thing I like about this film though I during the Osbornes I began to resent the buffoonery that Sharon obviously had him play up, do I think someone who survived a addiction doesn't have the wits to use a remote control? Of course not, I was once an addict so you can't fool me sure, I don't know where I put my keys and my phone some of the time but Ozzy has always played up his personality it's part of his brand. I think the image foreshadowed what he does for a time and it's been hard for him to be taken seriously now. This film the act is dropped and it's a more honest look at his behind the scenes.
There a really cool clip of them playing "Never say die" on top of the tops. Most of the other Sabbath footage isn't all that rare the standar California jam clips. I also like the fact there a good balanced look at his firing from Sabbath. Of course Dio is glazed over they go into Sharon managing Ozzy and Randy Rhodes discovery. Of course Ozzy's solo career would eclipse Sabbath for a time. I guess this transition was always something I had taken for granted and without a doubt those first two albums are prefect....10s if you are keeping track of my scoring . Granted Sabbath albums from the first until the technical ecstasy days would be tens as well.
Of course going into his thirties he was bloated from drinking, but until he got sober around no rest for the wicked. I would have been good with less Sabbath and more of the Randy Rhodes years as Randy shows up and then dies why not talk about the sessions and tours for Blizzardand Diary. There's a good segment of him watching his videos for. The eighties, of course he doesn't remember making them. Any fan of Black label Society needs to watch any video from No Rest Days as he is cock rocking.
It puts the pill addled days of reality tv in prespective as he discusses his current sobriety. It's in these moments the most wisdom comes, but after this I watched "I'm Your Man" the Leonard Cohen documentary, which I told some one was more compelling as Cohen actually has insightful things to say where even in his most lucid Ozzy comes off as endearing at best, though far from the fool he has let himself be portrayed as . So if you were a fan of the show, you will be disappointed, but you have no respect of them as legacy to have watched it in the first place so go drink Draino for your suicide solution.
For any fan of the Oz it's a worthwhile watch though maybe not on my top ten rock documentary list.
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