An early Sabbath demo comes to light!
An article by Rob Dwyer with Joe D'Agostino
I’ve been dying to post about this new discovery for the past few days, but I wanted to be sure that this was truly “the real deal”. Recently, a 7” demo (possibly an acetate) of an unreleased 1969 track called “When I Came Down” fell into the hands of an American collector named Joe D'Agostino. It appears to have been recorded during the period in which the band was doing gigs under the names Earth AND Black Sabbath (between March and October ’69). “WICD” may very well be the 3rd Earth demo to surface, with “Song For Jim” and “The Rebel” being the first 2. Undoubtedly, it is the most significant Black Sabbath track to come to light in many years. While there are probably many more gems still locked in away in the vaults, so few have been heard by anyone outside of the band and their insiders.
I’m going to let Joe tell you the rest of the story. Afterwards, I’ll give you my observations on my first preview of his prized gem!
Joe D'Agostino:
“Hello Robert, I love your website! In
1976, I was first exposed to SABBATH when my 17-year-old brother played me the
PARANOID LP. I've been absolutely
obsessed with them ever since. At
age 9 I had a ticket to see SABBATH & THE RAMONES in Long Beach, CA
[12/4/78], but my mom wouldn’t let me go because I was "too young."
“Finally,
I got to see OZZY solo in the summer of '81 and it was great!
I have however always been a fan of TONY more so than OZZY, but don't get
me wrong. I still love OZZY!
As a teenager, I became very involved with record/memorabilia collecting.
One of the rooms in my house looks like a record store with thousands of heavy
prog (early metal), NWOBHM, doom and death metal items (tons of bootleg vinyl).
I have records worth hundreds of dollars each, but recently I scored the
ultimate rarity….”
“I
picked this piece up from a lucky fellow who received it as a gift from IOMMI
back in the sixties. He also sold
me 2 incredible scrapbooks with articles dating back to the EARTH days!
Included also was a slide from a photo he took when they were still
EARTH. I had the slide developed
and the photo is really cool (posed, not live).
If THIN LIZZY’s "Farmer" 7" goes for over $1000, my
record is easily worth more than double that.
Wouldn't you think? The
LIZZY piece though extremely rare was officially released in 1970.
It has since been bootlegged and the A side has been officially released
on CD.”
If
this is really an acetate that was never meant for circulation, then I figure it
would easily be worth more! And
since the studio pressed this record, not a record label, this is most likely
the case. Back in the days before
cassettes became so common, bands would have the engineers put their rough mixes
and demos on acetates so they could listen to them outside the studio.
But the critical difference between acetates and vinyl is the material
they are pressed on – acetates are actually a metal plate with a layer of
acetone placed over them. These
degrade rapidly with each play of the record, so it’s important to record
these before playing them more than once!
I spoke
with Joe for the first time on the phone last night and we chatted for a couple
hours about our mutual loves, collecting, his Earth scrapbook and of course,
“When I Came Down”. About 30
minutes into our two-hour conversation he asked me, “Do you want to hear
it?” I’d have to say that
was one of the easier questions I’ve answered in the past year or so!
After
fumbling with his phonograph for a moment, he dropped the needle in the groove
and the magic began! Although he
apologized for the surface noise, I didn’t hear all that much in the way of
defects. The song begins with a
sliding blues/pentatonic lick played in slow, but upbeat and swinging tempo.
After just a few guitar licks, it was clear to me that this could be no
one but Iommi. Each of his phrases
is punctuated by either his trademark stinging vibrato or a few power chords.
The feel reminded me of “Evil Woman”, but the tempo isn’t quite as
fast. Ozzy is wailing over the
verse, which is in the same groove as the intro, but with Tony bashing E7 chords
on the accents with a 1 – 2 – THREE, 1 –2 – THREE beat.
In the place of the chorus is a sort of bridge, similar to way that “N.I.B.”
is arranged. In fact, the feel of
the song reminds of “N.I.B.” in the sense that these II sections are in
half-time to the main riff.
I know
it’s impossible to appreciate a song without actually hearing it, but rest
assured that this record is quite real and undoubtedly the work of the Sab’s
circa 1969. And after hearing just
the first 90 seconds of the song, I’m convinced that this is a better track
than either “The Rebel” or “Song For Jim”, neither of which seem to
groove like “When I Came Down”.
JOE: “I
have heard in the past that "Song For Jim" and "The Rebel"
were pressed up as demo 7", but was skeptical. Now I believe they probably were. Do you know anything about these two?”
I
have spoken to a few people that have claimed that a demo 7” of these tracks
does exist, but have never been circulated beyond a few insiders.
It is these tracks that have long been regarded as the “holy grail”
of Sabbath collectors. But then again, who knew that “When I Came Down” existed
in 7” form!
I had read
on some other Sabbath sites how “When I Came Down” was written by
Locomotive’s keyboardist Norman Haines, but that band thought it unsuitable
for inclusion on their first album. I
was unable to tell whether this demo is from the BLACK SABBATH sessions or
simply from an earlier demo from a slightly earlier session.
The inclusion of “The Wizard” implies that it was definitely from
this era. But interestingly enough,
there are no keyboards on this version of the track.
So even if Haines did write the track, he isn’t heard playing with
Sabbath on this demo.
So, the
inevitable question here is “will we ever get to hear the whole thing?”
Joe has assured me that he is not a hoarder and will contemplate long and
hard about how he can share this with the Sabbath fans that will be dying to
hear it. It’s quite obviously a
priceless track, but he has expressed to me that he’s more interested in the
song from a fan’s perspective than a financial one.
But he has much to consider before simply releasing it to the masses.
At the very least, let’s hope he’s willing to come up with a sample
for us to enjoy in the meantime!
Stay tuned
to Sabbathlive.com for more information on this special song as it becomes
available!
1971 promo picture from postcard
