Black Sabbath – Born Again

- All My Vinyl

Black Sabbath – Born Again

byJoe Siegler
Posted on September 29, 2024

10 minute read

AllMyVinyl #34
Band: Black Sabbath
Album Title: Born Again
Release Date: 12 Sep 1983
Date purchased: Unknown
Location purchased: Unknown
Color of vinyl: black
Number of discs: 1
Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

This album has a lot of memories for me. When I first got into Sabbath, Mob Rules was the first album I got. There was Live Evil, but that was a live album – they aren’t ever as important to me. So when they said they were hooking up with Ian Gillan, but with the return of Bill Ward, I was all psyched. Back in that day you got your news from places like Hit Parader or Creem magazine. That’s where I found out. At that point I wasn’t into Deep Purple either, so the Purple/Sabbath connection was never a thing to me. I didn’t think it was weird, I just figured Ian was the next man up – as Sabbath was the shit. Let’s keep this going basically!

I LOVED this album immediately. By this time I had bought to and listened to all prior Black Sabbath albums, and the music on Born Again felt to me like a return to form, that early mid 70’s Black Sabbath sound. It was heavy as fuck – I mean the noise and bottom end bass sound in Disturbing the Priest and Zero the Hero were over the top. I bought it on both vinyl and cassette at the time. I still have both of them all these years later, although the vinyl copy was rescued from my mom’s basement in 2023 after sitting there since 1992. But I’ll be playing my OG vinyl today – the same copy I bought back in 1983.

This was also the first tour I saw Black Sabbath on (5 Nov 1983). Quiet Riot opened, who were riding high on Metal Health. That was the first concert anywhere with “festival seating” in the US since the Who concert in Cincinnati in the late 70’s where some kids were trampled to death. It was loud of course, but what doesn’t get talked about enough was how BRIGHT it was. The band had this cross above the stage which was the brightest thing I’ve ever seen. I mean at full blast it was positively blinding. Pulled a couple of shots of the cross from the Zero the Hero video, but I don’t have one of it at full blast.

Speaking of Zero the Hero… So many people keep saying that the GnR song “Paradise City” sounds like the riff from ZTH. I can clearly say I’ve never heard that – I don’t understand that whatsoever. Never did. Anyway, about the songs..

Trashed is a song that I wish got played live. It never did. Was the lead single, there was a music video produced for it, but Sabbath never did it live. It’s my favorite kind of Sabbath song – a fast (by Sabbath standards) song that’s about 3.5 – 4 min long. Loved Tony’s solo – something I’m gonna say a bunch. The song is based off the real life story of Ian Gillan wrecking Bill Ward’s car during the making of the album. The video doesn’t have anything to do with that – it’s a weird stupid thing – bunch of random imagery which included drinking as part of it, but it’s well.. I’m not even sure how to describe it. The video is embedded below. Check it out for yourself.

One other thing about Trashed. In 2006, Ian Gillan put out an album called “Gillan’s Inn”. It was a greatest hits album, but not your standard one. It covered his entire career, but he re-recorded all the songs on it. Black Sabbath is represented by Trashed here. Ian sings it, Tony plays guitar, but the rhythm section was more from Deep Purple, being Roger Glover & Ian Paice. That version is embedded in the videos below.

Stonehenge – While officially listed as its own song, it’s really just an intro to the next song. The 2011 Deluxe edition had an extended version of Stonehenge, but it didn’t make a huge difference, it’s a piece that really is just there to be an intro for the next song.

Disturbing the Priest – Well, now this song declared in a loud roar that Black Sabbath was truly “Born Again”. This song was a declaration of statement to me. I adored the music, I loved the lyrics (based off a real life story in making the album – apparently they annoyed a vicar not far from where they were recording). “The Devil and the Priest can’t exist if one goes away. It’s just like the battle of the sun and the moon and night and day”. Knowing what I know now, that was Ian writing into the mythos that is Black Sabbath. He’d never write lyrics like that for Deep Purple. Works for me. I was fortunate in that I got to see the Born Again band (well, Bev) do this live in 1983. It’s a smoking hot track with some stellar sounds coming from everyone involved.

The Dark – Another instrumental intro, but this one’s even shorter than Stonehenge. I wish they would have taken this and Stonehenge off the album and written another really short song. The two songs are 2:43 combined (5:32 if you count the extended non album version). Would have preferred that to a few minutes of instrumental noodling.

Zero the Hero – This is similar to Disturbing the Priest to me, although it’s not as much of a statement song as Disturbing is. This is one where I love the song and the music. The driving beat that is in the background when Ian isn’t singing works very VERY well for me. I don’t usually sing background music when songs are going, but I do here. The lyrics (and especially the video) make me go “what the fuck is this?” I mean what the hell is actually happening here, Ian?

You sit there watch it all burn down
It’s easy and breezy for you
You play your life to a different sound
No edge no edge you got no knife have you
Your life is a six-lane highway to nowhere
You’re going so fast you’re never ever gonna get down there
Where the heroes sit by the river
With a magic in their music as they eat raw liver

Zero is another song I’m super glad I got to hear live, as outside of the Born Again tour, the only other time it was ever played live was in an medley segment during the Seventh Star tour. Never played live again, sadly.

Digital Bitch – OK, everyone seems to think this is about Sharon Osbourne. I never felt that personally, to be honest. Sure it’s easy to trash her – a lot do. But I didn’t see this song as a song about her. The opening guitar riff is a great Tony one, and it’s my favorite kind of Sabbath song. 3:40 in length, a fast tone and good song. Has some good Ian screaming in it – but not the over the top stuff, good use of his voice beyond simple delivery of lyrics.

Born Again – The one song on the album I can say I don’t really care for. I was never a fan of the slow vibe here. I get you need to do one to change the tone a bit. I don’t object to it being slow, but this felt TOO plodding for me. I don’t hate it – because it’s really hard to hate anything Tony Iommi is on. It just doesn’t do anything for me. Additionally, I object to the use of “gray and plastic retards” as the parent of a special needs child. But even if that last part wasn’t in play, the song still doesn’t do anything for me, except maybe for some Ian shouting.

Hot Line – Now THIS one.. This for me is the best song of the album, an opinion that is in the minority (wait till you get to my hot take in a minute). As I said before, love a good fast Sabbath song that doesn’t overstay its welcome (this is 4:53, so ALMOST too long for this category). I wish more people knew about this one. I adore it. Above the great tune, this is peak Ian Gillan screaming. This reminded me of the stuff he did in the early 70’s with Deep Purple (hello Child in Time). This song in my opinion should have been the lead single, and not Trashed. This would have been more of attention grabber than Trashed was (as much as I like that song). I simply cannot think of a way to express in words how much I enjoy this song – love Ian’s screaming in the final verse.

Keep it Warm – The album finishes with this song, which is the source of an amusing meme that myself and the Deep Purple Podcast guys were pushing for awhile. The lyrics include the line “Keep it Warm Rat” – which I was posting so much at one point on twitter, I briefly got it as a trending term – #KeepItWarmRat. I still use it any time I post about anything Born Again, so here it is again. ha. It’s not the strongest song on the album. I seem to recall reading something about it being about Ian and a former girlfriend/lover/etc. It’s not bad, I do listen to it all the time, but not the strongest one for me. Tony’s guitar bride is quite strong, though – with some great bass work by Geezer behind it.

The Fallen – The Fallen is a song that was recorded for the album, but not included. The album had unmixed demos floating around for years (at the wrong speed), and this song was on there. However, in 2011, Black Sabbath finally released a deluxe edition of this album with The Fallen. I can see why it was left off. The vibe is unlike anything else on the album. In that regard it reminds me of the B-Side from The Eternal Idol called “Some Kind of Woman” which is unlike anything else on that album. It starts off with a drum intro by Bill Ward which was quite nice. Overall a nice track that was left off the album.

My Hot Take – I’ve expressed this opinion online many times, and I usually get torched for this, but I will not back down. Will die on this hill. On the 2011 deluxe edition is a live recording from the Born Again tour. In it, they of course do some of the Sabbath stalwarts from the Ozzy era – I mean how could Sabbath NOT do that. But the hot take is this. I feel that Ian Gillan (live) does a better edition of the song Black Sabbath than ANY other singer that has done that live. Ozzy, Dio, Martin, Halford, Ray Gillen. His laughing and shrieking in-between the actual lyrics of the song are absolutely fucking killer. I feel VERY strongly about this. It’s the single best rendition of that song done live of all time. Period.

The biggest slag this album has had is people don’t like the mix. I get that, much has been said over the years – since the original release 41 years ago. However, recently (and I mean recently) Tony Iommi took possession of the original multi-track master tapes for it. That was first reported some time ago (I think about two years ago?) but at that time it was only PART of the tapes. The full set wasn’t until relatively recently. It’s my understanding that a remix of the album WILL happen, but it’s not the next project on his plate. There’s a lot to sort out for that including a lot of legal and financial issues.. It will happen eventually, but I wouldn’t look for it for a couple of years. I want it as much as you. Even MORE, so people will stop asking about it. Got to love this fun image thrown out there by Ry over at Sabbath Bloody Podcast. Remember… this is a FAKE fan created image – it’s just fun though.

One of my highlights of this which isn’t connected to the album as such is the time I got to interview Krusher Joule about the cover art. He cleared up the source of the “baby” image and the fact that Depeche Mode had used the same baby image on their cover art too at one point. That was back in June of 2004 when I did that. I was proud of that, because I broke that to the internet in general, my interview with Krusher is still on my website here.

To sum this up… I LOVED this album from the day it was new. Mix and all. It’s got some smoking hot songs on it. I still love it 41 years after it’s still released, and the fact my brother found my old 1983 vinyl copy in my mom’s basement in 2023 was awesome, as I can still play it – the same way I did when I first fell in love with it when I was just 18. Pushing 60 now, and it still works.

Thanks for reading, and… #KeepItWarmRat

(For those of you reading this on social media, I wrote this first on my blog, where I’ve embedded the videos I mention above on the page. You can check out that version if you want here.