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Been takin a quiet day cause I'm feelin pretty ill.

Was listening to some mashups some guy made, and one thing that stood out was how often Black Sabbath fits like a glove with soul.

And some ppl acted surprised.

Dude. The biggest influences on Tony Iommi are blues and jazz. Big Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt fan.

Bill Ward, the drummer? Well, where did you think he got that swing from? Massive student of the School of Count Basie.

Geezer Butler? Maaaaassive jazz fan.

And bear in mind, Sabbath started out as The Polka Tulk Blues Band.

Some will be all "Ah, but Sabbath used the spooky tritone diminished thingy!"

Dude. What did you think a blue note was? Take a passing note in blues, linger on the blue note a moment, olook. There's that spooky note.

You're welcome.

Blues, jazz, swing, rock, soul, funk, hip-hop, lotsa stuff, there's divisions in the terms, but the boundaries of the terms are hazy.

Like, listen to Howlin Wolf stuff, and you'll hear rock. But he gets called a blues guy.

And there's a whole other thing in there.

If you ain't ever read about how the (yt owned) record companies when it came time to record would say "Okay, you're blues, and you're country etc" well, that'd be a good project for anybody who don't know.

Just ask Big Bill Broonzy.

Shit, I'm gonna run out of room here, cause I could write a hundred PhDs on all this stuff. Better focus.

Okay, so I was kinda talking about the metal thing.

Cause there's this idea by some ppl (no prizes for guessing the demographic) that "we're gettin the blues out of metal"

And scuse me while I laugh mockingly in the faces of these racists who don't know shit about shit.

Take Phil Taylor, drummer of Motorhead (yeah, I know, they always claimed not to be metal, but so did Sabbath for a time). Double bass pedals? Where did ya think he got the idea?

Time for a musical interlude, I reckon.
Take it away, Mr Sam Woodyard of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, if you would, please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hYXKw_XKJ0

See the blues/rock thing gets covered a bit (and fuck me, it should, cause there's a wealth of musicians who never got their dues even now and didn't get paid a damn)

But there's more. Jazz, swing (and bear in mind there were audiences going to see swing and big band while Robert Johnson was still recording blues they thought was old fashioned at the time, which the eurocentric world wouldn't even hear until decades later) and much more.

And the influences from blues and its origins into jazz, swing, soul, funk, disco, hip hop and so on.

Ppl like Charlie Watts and Ginger Baker? Hearin jazz and beats direct from Africa during their Alexis Corner apprenticeships.

Okay, I'm running out of room, but I could talk all day on this, so I will wrap up by cruising past yelling out the window thru a bullhorn something like:

"There would be no Black Sabbath without Count Basie!"

Fuckin thanx for comin to my TED talk