Today, I'm gonna be talking about Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, and comparing the styles of their songs. For the purposes of this post, I'll only be using the original Black Sabbath lineup (to the extent that I'll ignore 13, since it has a different drummer (plus it's around 40 years after their previous album with Ozzy, so it's a bit different musically)).
The first thing I'm gonna get out of the way- Ozzy is a metal band, and Black Sabbath isn't, by my definition. I have complained about metal before, so I'll just quickly summarise- I'm not a fan of metal style guitars (namely the very quick riffs and the distortion). I'll be putting that aside, and comparing the bands musically instead, so this doesn't get too dull.
One big difference that I only just noticed today- Black Sabbath songs don't tend to have choruses. This isn't always true- you could argue that, say, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath does- but most of the songs I could think of at the time were this way. On the other hand, Ozzy songs (or at least, the samples I could think of) generally do have choruses. Again, there are exceptions, but as they say, there's an exception to every rule (except this one).
To make up for the lack of chorus, a lot of Sabbath songs have a change partway through- I believe the word for this is a bridge, but this might be stretching the definition a little- where a new riff is introduced, and sometimes accompanied by a change in tempo or key. This can be temporary or permanent- songs like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath change completely partway through, whereas songs like Electric Funeral have a more conventional bridge. Ozzy songs often have the more conventional style- the song will change, usually after a chorus, and before a guitar solo, then go back to normal for one more verse and/or chorus. An example of this is the song I Don't Know- two verses and choruses, a bridge, then another verse and chorus.
Of course, both of those points are generalising a lot. Ozzy and Black Sabbath both changed a lot from album to album, and I'm basically picking out songs that fit the points I'm making. Ozzy's later stuff became a lot more metal-ey, and a lot of the structures became more convoluted (with the longer songs, at least). For instance, The Almighty Dollar (which used to be one of my favourite songs, and still is one I quite like, even if it is a bit metal)- you could argue the layout is verse, pre-pre-chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, repeat, then a bridge, then another pre-chorus and chorus. That's how I think of it, anyways. It still vaguely follows the pattern, but it's definitely more complex. I actually prefer these longer, more complicated songs of his (Tomorrow, from Ozzmosis, is another example- similar format, but extended).
There are actually some songs that are very similar, structurally- for instance, Gets Me Through is basically a Sabbath song played by a metal band. I'd actually like to try making a cover of the song in a more Black Sabbath-like style if I had the resources and talent (I could probably do the bass, but that's about it). It goes the other way too- I said I'd ignore 13, but it's worth pointing out, there are songs on that album that are structurally more similar to Ozzy than to earlier Sabbath.
Anyways, that's gonna be it for today- hopefully you enjoyed this post! If you like this style of band comparison, let me know- I'd be willing to do more of these if people like them
