'BLACK SABBATH' SELF-TITLED * FIRST PRESSING * GREEN LABEL '70 US WARNER WS-1871

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BLACK SABBATH 'BLACK SABBATH' 1970 SELF-TITLED DEBUT

FIRST U.S. PRESSING 1970 WARNER WS-1871

BLACK SABBATH

"BLACK SABBATH" SELF-TITLED 1970 FIRST ALBUM

LABEL: WARNER BROTHERS RECORDS ~ WS-1871 (S39728 / S39729)

RELEASED: FEBRUARY 13, 1970 (FRIDAY THE 13th!)

ORIGINAL FIRST U.S. PRESSING ~ GREEN LABEL

RECORDED: REGENT SOUND STUDIOS ~ LONDON ~ OCTOBER 1969

PRODUCER: RODGER BAIN

RECORDING ENGINEERS: TOM ALLOM & BARRY SHEFFIELD

PRODUCED FOR TERRY HALL ENTERPRISES

PHOTOGRAPHY & JACKET DESIGN: KEEF

MASTERING/LAQUERS: ARTISAN SOUND RECORDERS ~ PASADENA, CA

PRESSING: COLUMBIA PRESSING PLANT ~ PITMAN, NJ ('P' in MATRIX)

RECORD COMPANY: WARNER BROTHERS RECORDS, INC.

ALL SONGS COMPOSED BY IOMMI, OSBORNE, WARD & BUTLER

MATRIX (SIDE A): (Etched) WS-1871 39728-1 [artisan logo] -P

MATRIX (SIDE B): (Etched) WS-1871 39729-1 [artisan logo] P

CONDITION:  VINYL: VG+   JACKET: EX- 

I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.

This week on EBay I am offering up this early original 1970 First US Pressing of Black Sabbath’s first self-titled album.

This is my original copy, purchased back in the very early 70's, shortly after it's release, that I've taken great care of for many years. It's still in fantastic, clean, all original condition.

See details on Condition below.

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This is the rare, original, First US Pressing of ‘Black Sabbath’ the first album by Black Sabbath. released on February 13th, Friday the 13th, 1970.

If you're a fan of early Black Sabbath, you can't get much better than this. These original American "Greenie" First Pressings sound amazing. A bit more meat and punch.

They just can't be beat, unless you can get your hands on a clean 1971 UK Vertigo pressing.

These First US pressing 'greenies' are renowned for their raw and powerful sound reproduction, which perfectly captures the dark, mysterious, and intense atmosphere of Black Sabbath's music. 

The music is relentless, punchy and dynamic and full of that classic, early, Sabbath 'sludge'. On top of that, they a fun listen and sound truly amazing.

This pressing has the kind of energy, presence, and fullness needed to bring the best out of Black Sabbath. The pure analog sound quality is awesome. Rich, heavy, clear, well balanced, and Ozzy's vocals are right in your face.

This is what Sabbath was meant to be.

These early pressings allow you to hear and experience the raw energy of Black Sabbath in the way the band originally intended, and in a way that remains timeless and impressive. 

The sound on this record is deep and rich, with a clear focus on Tony Iommi's guitar playing, whose guitar tones on this album sound so fantastic.

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This album is also cut very dynamic. The heaviness really punches thru, but in the quieter sections, the softer, subtle, sound textures and nuances also come thru, creating a quiet, haunting atmosphere. 

It's a real nod to the 'warmth' that 70's analog recordings can offer.

This early all-analog 'greenie' is a fantastic version of this monumental work. It offers an intensity and sonic depth that was never achieved on later digital pressings.

It's loud and punchy, with perfect tonal balance, decent extension on both high and low ends, and of course a spacious sound stage. Ozzy's vocals are mixed perfectly. 

A truly enjoyable and essential way to listen to this classic album! 

No heavy rock vinyl collection is complete without an early, original US Green label, 'Artisan' mastered, copy of 'Black Sabbath’ in it.

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All the hype about these early 'greenie' first pressings is justified and essentially true. These green label Warner First pressings truly sound amazing.

The mastering on this album is just incredible. When you put the needle down and hear that first crack of thunder, you know you’re in for something special.

The separation of the instruments is astounding for 1970 mixing technology. The soundstage is fantastic, wide open and clear, and the stereo imaging is awesome. The sound is clear, punchy, gritty and crispy and the detail on this record is absolutely amazing.

Black Sabbath was all about being heavy, deep, dark and evil sounding. On the opening title track, after the storm passes, the moment that the band enters is intense, overwhelming and genuinely terrifying.

You're suddenly hit with a heavy, massive, powerful wall of sound that you hear in your ears, but also feel in your chest. These early all-analog pressings have frequencies that you can't necessarily hear, but you can certainly feel them.

The 'growl' of Geezer's bass is intense, guttural and nasty. Absolutely killer. It's so thick and full that you feel like you can reach out and grab it.

Bill Ward's drums are powerful, thunderous, energetic and dynamic, plus he adds crisp, little detailed accents on his cymbals

Tony's Gibson SG guitar is crunchy and just sizzles. He gets some incredible tones, and his wah-wah work on 'The Wizard' is mind-blowing.

Then there's Ozzy's ominous and stunning vocals, which have immense presence and his voice just jumps out of the speakers, right into your face.

It blows my mind to realize that this was recorded over 50 years ago, using basic early 70's recording technology. No digital trickery, no layering and precision overdubbing, just pure, honest, heavy, sludgy rock and Roll.

This is one of those records that sounds better the louder it gets. This is a record that begs to be cranked up to deafening decibels. The limits of 70's recording technology start to show when the volume gets to 11, but in normal listening range, this record is ridiculously phenomenal sounding.

The clarity, balance, and openness of this album is just stunning. It's airy but tight, punchy and sounds absolutely incredible. Everything is so wonderfully dynamic, clear, spacious, plus you can feel it, as well as hear it.

This first Sabbath album was meant to sound dark, menacing, powerful, and mysterious. These US Artisan mastered First Pressings do just that. After all, there's a witch in the middle of the front cover for a reason.

To my ears, the later pressings may sound a little 'cleaner' and have better range, but they all somehow lose a bit of the "darkness and doom" that these original greenies contain.

This is one of the best versions of the band's first album, "Black Sabbath" that I've ever heard on vinyl.

One of the greatest debut albums ever.

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This album has been remastered, re-mixed, and re-interpreted by all the top recording engineers and top audiophile labels, but, nothing beats a First Pressing 'greenie'. 

These early greenies are a 'must have' because of their historical context and their exceptional sound quality. They remain a great listen even half a century later.

This record begs you to crank your system up and play this at top volume.

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As I mentioned, these First Pressing 'greenie' albums were mastered and cut with the mid-range slightly forward to emphasize Tony Iommi's guitar and Ozzy's powerful voice.

Tony Iommi is one of the all time great guitarists, and the tones he gets out of his Gibson SG, through Laney amps, are just incredible. Most guitarists were using Marshalls in those days, but Iommi liked Laneys, which gave him a distinctive tone.

This album is full of Tony's brilliant playing and his fantastic, monstrously heavy, thick, burning. powerful riffs.

His dark, sludgy, inventive guitar work amazingly compliments the dark lyrics and Ozzy's voice.

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This self-titled debut masterpiece was recorded in one 8 hour session in October 1969 at Regent Sound Studios and released on Friday the 13th, February 1970, and reached number 8 in the UK Albums Chart.

Many of the songs on this album have Tony Iommi trading off, back and forth, with Ozzy's haunting, powerful voice. Ozzy at his most powerful and Tommy Iommi at his most creative make for music that's simply spectacular.

The album starts off with the sound of a thunder storm and rain. A lonely bell rings in the distance and then boom, the first metal riff ever played bangs in your ears.

The tone is set right away with the eponymous track “Black Sabbath”, a masterfully-played highlight of the album complete with the ambiance of rain and church bells to create the proper atmosphere.

The song is about a figure in black which bassist Geezer Butler claims to have seen after waking up from a nightmare. Ozzy's haunting voice suddenly appears and sings "What is this that stand before me?"

Tony Iommi's guitar work, Bill Ward's drumming, Geezer's Bass and Ozzy's iconic voice function well together to produce a dark, spooky, ominous, and oppressive mood that sets the tone for the rest of the record.

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Ozzy’s very powerful, natural, haunting, iconic voice and unique delivery perfectly complements  the songs and fits Black Sabbath’s music like a glove.

Ozzy sounds deep and emotional, fittingly eerie and alien at times, and his voice perfectly enhances the dark menacing lyrics and is an inextricable part of the whole Sabbath sound.  

Not only does he (mostly) hit the right notes, but he actually improves the songs with his determinedly demonic execution. It just wouldn't be Black Sabbath without Ozzy's unique voice, as fans would come to find out.

Ozzy was the perfect 'metal' voice for Sabbath's tales of madness and despair. His vocals just leaves you speechless.

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This copy is the very rare First American pressing.

True American First Pressings can easily be identified by the Green 'WB Shield' Warner label, the bold 'Stereo' printed at the bottom of the label, and the rim text that reads "Warner Bros. Records Inc. A Subsidiary and licensee of Warner Bros. Inc. Made in USA."

This early first pressing has the writing credits listed on 2 lines at the bottom of the labels on both labels. That was felt to be too 'crowded' and was expanded to 3 lines on later early pressings.

UK first pressings came in a Gatefold jacket, but American pressings did not.

The inner gatefold sleeve of the original UK release featured an inverted cross containing a poem written by Roger Brown. The band were reportedly upset when they discovered this, as it fuelled allegations that they were Satanists or occultists, but the band eventually embraced that publicity and exploited it..

The Gatefold sleeve wasn’t the only difference between the UK and USA versions.

As I'm sure you know if you're reading this, the song "Evil Woman" was not included on the North American releases due to the fact that Warner didn't think that a cover song, by the band Crow, was strong enough to appeal to the American market. Warner decided to replace it with the Sabbath original track "Wicked World" which was recorded at the same session and was released as the B-side of the 'Evil Woman' single in the UK.

Eventually "Evil Woman" found it's way back onto the album on various re-issues and CD versions.

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BLACK SABBATH’S ICONIC COVER ART

The beautiful and iconic cover photo appears to resemble the evil character thar Geezer Butler claimed to have encountered. The image perfectly reflects the music contained inside.

The photo was taken at Mapledurham Watermill, situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, by photographer Keith 'Keef' McMillan, who was in charge of the overall album design.

Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in a black cloak, portrayed by model Louisa Livingstone

According to photographer Keef, Livingstone was wearing nothing underneath the black cloak, and some experimentation was done involving some "slightly more risqué" photographs also taken at the session.

Keef chose the cover shot instead of a racier image because he decided that "any kind of sexuality took away from the more foreboding mood".

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Although Black Sabbath's debut is considered an undisputed classic and one of the most influential albums of all time, it received genuinely negative reviews upon release.

Rolling Stone's Lester Bangs described the band as sounding like Cream, who he disliked, and said the band "sound like Vanilla Fudge paying doggerel tribute to Aleister Crowley."

Despite the critics, the album sold well.

‘Black Sabbath’ was the first album of what was then a new movement and a debut at the highest level, and by early 1971, this album, and their next, ‘Paranoid’, had proven that 'Power Rock', as it was called back then, was a viable commodity. Their records were selling well and their live shows were in demand and selling out everywhere they played.

“We had proved against all odds that we were a viable band, much to the annoyance of our critics,” bassist Geezer Butler. 

Those first 2 albums had swung like a wrecking ball through rock’s established world order, forging and creating a totally new sound and new genre.

This album had an earth-shaking impact and sent ripples through the rock world. The album caught the ear of rock’s next generation, proved the potential and power of the music, raised the bar, and made Heavy Rock and 'Metal' the success it is today.

'Black Sabbath’ is one of the great, classic, heavy rock albums of all time, and it's impact and influence is still felt in music today.

This album introduced many 'new' heavy rock sonic landscapes, many of which are still being idolized, imitated, adored and explored by many of the rock bands that followed in Black Sabbath's wake.

Over the next few years and albums, Black Sabbath changed significantly, progressed, and became slightly more sophisticated, but this 1970 first album is considered by many to be the point in time where Black Sabbath shined and heavy metal rock was born.

During these sessions, the classic Black Sabbath 'sound' had truly finally arrived. Nobody else, no other band, sounded anything like them at the time.

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The title song ‘Black Sabbath’ is a great early heavy metal song and does a fantastic job of setting the tone and feel for the rest of the album.

Much of the title song's power and the rest of this is album's vicious heavy punch came from Tony Iommi’s pivotal move to experiment and down-tune his Gibson SG by multiple half-steps to C#, to reduce string tension, thus making the guitar less painful for him to play. 

This 'down-tuning' was partially done to ease the pain and difficulty of playing with fingertips that had been chopped off in an industrial accident years earlier, but when Geezer Butler also down-tuned his bass guitar to match Iommi, together they created a new 'thicker' sound that was darker, deeper, and sludgier than anything they had done previously. Iommi called it a "bigger, heavier sound".

The down-tuning took the Black Sabbath sound into even greater darkness. It also served to help Ozzy's voice match and fit better with the songs.

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This album isn't all crunch, riff and sludge. This album also has a couple of lighter, softer, songs that act as a buffer and interlude between heavier tracks.

The band reasoned that “The mellow tracks make the heavy tracks sound even heavier” and they did.

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By late 1971, almost every rock band was creating heavy music, but Sabbath proved they did it first and did it best when they released 'Black Sabbath’ in February 1970.

The album has aged very well. Rolling Stone consistently ranks the album high in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. 

Black Sabbath went on to do loads more brilliant music, but ‘Black Sabbath’ is where it all started. It remains one of the best, and most important heavy rock and metal albums of all time.

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CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures.

I purchased this copy back in the early 70's, 50 years ago, on one of my regular vinyl digs in those days, and have taken great care of it since.

VINYL: The vinyl stil looks very nice, clean and shiny. There is some mild evidence of play, a few hairlines and paper scuffs, but no significant flaws. 

No serious scuffs, palpable scratches, or dings. It's been played a few times over the years, but always well taken care of. It still looks great. I'll call it at least VG+.

The Deadwax has the early etched matrix numbers, the 'P' for Pitman pressing mark, and the Artisan mastering mark.

See the full Matrix numbers above.

I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it still looks. Still very clean and I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

I haven't messed with it or cleaned it, other than my trusty 'DiscWasher' brush, in 50 years, since Nixon was in office. It could use a good deep cleaning to make it even better looking and better sounding than it already is. 

LABELS: This is pressed with the 'classic' early green Warner Brothers labels. An original 'greenie'. 

This First Pressing has the early Green Warner Brothers labels with the orange 'shield' logo at the top, and the large 'stereo' at the bottom.

The labels are clean and bright. No marks or damage. The spindle holes are still sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.

JACKET: As you can see from my pictures, this still looks fantastic for a 50 year old copy. 

Usually these Black Sabbath jackets show significant wear, damage and ringwear, but this copy still looks terrific.

These albums were typically played to death under unusual, sub-optimal conditions, so clean jackets and vinyl are quite rare. I took care of my records, even 50 years ago, and this one survived quite well. It's a beauty!

The artwork is bold and bright, the colors just Pop and the corners are relatively sharp. No seams splits and the spine is straight.

The surface of the jacket is still fantastic. No marks, names, writing or stains. 

This copy is a rare firstpressing and an amazing survivor.

This has been stored in a poly-lined inner sleeve for decades.

The whole record has been sleeved and stored properly for Decades, and, as you can see from my pictures, is still quite nice for an early first pressing.

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There is no denying the historical and cultural significance this album had on heavy rock and later Metal. Even today 'Black Sabbath’ remains a Quintessential masterpiece of Rock and Metal.

The fact that this amazing album came out 50 years ago just boggles my mind. Black Sabbath isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you like 70's rock, Heavy Rock and Heavy Metal and collect records, you really need this absolutely essential  album in your collection.

Add this classic, First Pressing, green label copy of Black Sabbath’s iconic first album to your collection today.

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** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.

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I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!

All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 

My grading is fair and honest. I have had over 3,600 happy and satisfied EBay customers over the years, with 100% positive feedback, and I have been buying/selling on EBay for well over 25 years, so please bid with confidence!

I'm a 0ne-man operation, this is a hobby, not my job. I do this for fun. I do this because I love music, love collecting vinyl and want others to share in that same experience. I take my time listening, researching, grading, listing and packaging. I will NOT sell any record that I personally would not want in my collection.

As you well know, packing and shipping rare records requires special care and attention, therefore, shipping cost within the lower 48 states is $5.00 on this item. If you would like insurance, or anything faster than Media/Economy Mail, please let me know and I can arrange it for you. I’ll work with you to make sure you’re happy!

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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS AND WE WISH YOU MUCH PEACE AND PROSPERITY IN THE YEAR TO COME!! ~~ JOHN