Roger Waters & Paul Rodgers Panned Black Sabbath in Resurfaced 1970 Review
Time isn’t always kind to people, things or opinions. Just ask Roger Waters and Paul Rodgers. Classic Rock recently resurfaced comments from the former Pink Floyd member and Free/Bad Company singer…
Time isn't always kind to people, things or opinions. Just ask Roger Waters and Paul Rodgers.
Classic Rock recently resurfaced comments from the former Pink Floyd member and Free/Bad Company singer about Black Sabbath. In 1970, both Waters and Rodgers took part in a weekly feature from British music outlet Melody Maker called "Blind Date." The feature presented a number of songs to various musicians and asked them for their opinion. The catch was the guest musician was never told the artist behind these songs.
When Waters was the guest musician for "Blind Date" in the January 10, 1970 issue of Melody Maker, one of the songs he had to review was Black Sabbath's cover of Crow's "Evil Woman."
As expected, Waters didn't hold back. He said, in part, of the recording, "It's got that kind of 'Dragnet,' 'Peter Gunn,' American detective series beginning. You keep thinking it's going to start. You think that for the first minute but then, if you are really perceptive, you realize it isn't going to start, and that's all there is."
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When Rodgers took part in the feature in the August 1, 1970 issue of Melody Maker, he was presented with the now iconic Sabbath song "Paranoid." Believe it or not, Rodgers wasn't over the moon about the track.
He said, "This is a heavy sound, but I don't know who it is. It's very well recorded, but I feel like I have heard so many things like this before. The bass and the drummer don't seem very together, and neither does the guitarist really. Maybe they are better on stage. I like things to sound heavy but melodic at the same time, as well as tight together."
Sadly, Sabbath was not favorably received by a number of people when they first arrived with their self-titled debut in 1970. In fact, they're part of a very unique club of iconic bands whose debut albums were panned by Rolling Stone. Keep scrolling to read some of those reviews!
5 ‘Rolling Stone’ Album Reviews of Iconic Debuts that Haven’t Aged Well
It's no secret that some Rolling Stone album reviews haven't aged as well as the albums they initially slammed.
Here are just five debut albums that have gone on to become iconic that were panned upon release by Rolling Stone.
Led Zeppelin - 'Led Zeppelin I'
AtlanticJohn Mendelsohn spent the bulk of his review comparing Zeppelin to the Jeff Beck Group. Mendelsohn saved his harshed critique for Jimmy Page calling him "a very limited producer and a writer of weak, unimaginative songs" and that "the Zeppelin album suffers from his having both produced it and written most of it (alone or in combination with his accomplices in the group.)" It's a good thing Jimmy improved a little in the writing department, right?
Black Sabbath - 'Black Sabbath'
Warner Bros.Lester Bangs tore Sabbath a new one in his review on their debut writing, "The whole album is a shuck...the album has nothing to do with spiritualism, the occult, or anything much except stiff recitations of Cream cliches that sound like the musicians learned them out of a book, grinding on and one with dogged persistence...The even have discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitized speedfreaks all over each other's musical perimeters yet never quite finding synch - just like Cream! But worse." Bangs may have been lauded as "America's greatest rock critic," but we're sure there are plenty disagree with his assessment here.
Van Halen - 'Van Halen'
Warner Bros.Charles M. Young declared in the first sentence of his review on Van Halen's debut, "Mark my words: in three years, Van Halen is going to be fat and self-indulgent and disgusting, and they'll follow Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin right into the toilet." It's pretty safe to say that Charles was a little off in his prediction.
Jimi Hendrix Experience - 'Are You Experienced'
RepriseIt's difficult to imagine anyone saying anything negative about the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but Jon Landau found a way. While Landau praised songs like "Purple Haze," "Hey Joe" and "The Wind Cries Mary," he wrote of the rest of the album, "Everything else is insane and simply a matter of either you dig it or you don't. Basically, I don't for several reasons. Despite Jimi's musical brilliance and the group's total precision, the poor quality of the songs and the inanity of the lyrics too often get in the way." Yeah...whatever, Jon.
AC/DC - 'High Voltage'
AtlanticBilly Altman wrote that with the release of AC/DC's debut, the hard rock genre "unquestionably hit its all-time low." On top of that, "Lead singer Bon Scott spits out his vocals with a truly annoying aggression which, I suppose, is the only way to do it when all you seem to care about is being a star so that you can get laid every night." And what's so wrong with that?!
