Black Sabbath: Never Say Die! 1979-1997 (Rockdetector)
by Garry Sharpe-Young

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Book Reviews of Black Sabbath: Never Say Die! 1979-1997 (Rockdetector)

Book Review: If you're a fan of Black Sabbath - DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK!
Summary: 5 Stars

Garry Sharpe-Young has interviewed just about everyone involved with the band during the time that Ozzy left/quit/was fired in early 1979 up until the point of the Ozzfest "reunion" shows in 1997. Such wide ranging topics as replacing Ozzy for real in 1979 with someone new, the band's trepidation at continuing to call themselves Black Sabbath through some of the big changes and low points in the career. Having run the Black Sabbath Online website since 1995, I was fortunate enough to know and work with several of the former members of Sabbath. I'm often praised for the comprehensiveness of my website, and the info I portray. There is a lot about Black Sabbath I know, more than the average fan. However, I'm no fool, and I'm not naive - I don't claim to know everything that ever happened with the band. I have to say after reading this book, I learned a good number of things I had NO CLUE even existed or happened. There's several stories in here that big Sabbath fans would have heard before, but there's far more that I'd wager that the book's reader had never known about. I cannot stress strongly enough the quality of detail that the book brings to the various folks who have played with the band over the years. We find out a lot about some of the more obscure members (Joe Burt, Terry Chimes), and some of the more well known (Ronnie Dio, Ian Gillan, Rob Halford).

While there's no stone unturned, there are a few that I would have preferred a longer look under. The closure of the Cross Purposes tour and the recording and start of the Forbidden album was brushed over fairly quickly, while the period with Jeff Fenholt is given what seems like 10 times the space in terms of pages. I realize you can't go into supreme detail about every single bit of minutiae, otherwise you'd have a book for each era of the band (which I personally wouldn't mind, but I digress). I still feel that some periods were glossed over. And speaking of Fenholt, there has been a lot said about his participation and non participation in the band, some of which by myself. This book goes into a level of detail about Fenholt that I've not been aware of before, and may change your mind about Fenholt's place in the band's history (it certainly got me to thinking about that issue). I'm even quoted in the Fenholt section of the book with a quote from the timeline page on my site (in what appears to me anyway to be a negative light regarding my previous thoughts regarding Fenholt & Sabbath). This book isn't for you if you want to find out what the meaning of the actual songs are about (although that is covered a bit here) - this book is geared more towards the people themselves than the actual music as such.

While I don't want to give away the cool details in the book, I will say one thing about the "stuff I didn't know before in this book" - Tony Martin is well known for being the guy that Sabbath brought in to re-record the Ray Gillen vocals from their 1987 album, "Eternal Idol". Something I did not know that this book claims is that the same thing happened twice - on another Sabbath album Tony Martin was brought in to re-record the vocals that were already laid down, but then the decision was made to use the original version anyway - check out the book for which album this is, and other equally surprising revelations.

I cannot say this strong enough. If you are a fan of Black Sabbath, and ESPECIALLY the non Ozzy years of the band, you owe it to yourself to check out this book. Is this the definitive be-all end all of the history of Black Sabbath during these years? No - I don't think any book could ever do that. However, this is by far the best accounting of the non Ozzy Sabbath history that I've yet seen put in print. We've had (far too) many books about "The Osbourne Years". It's about time we have a book that sheds some light on the otherwise mostly ignored years without Mr. Osbourne in front of the mic. If you're a fan of Black Sabbath, buy this. It's an awesome read. It has some behind the scenes photos too (some of which have been seen before), including one of Ray Gillen I rather wished I hadn't seen (no it's nothing morbid like that) - you'll know what I mean when you see it. :) This book should be considered a Sabbath bible for fans of non Ozzy era Sabbath, and for those who claim that Sabbath is "Only Ozzy", read the book! It might change your mind about the validity of the music, because it brings light to the struggle and fight that Mr. Iommi put on to keep the name and the quality music going.

Never Say Die indeed!

Summary of Black Sabbath: Never Say Die! 1979-1997 (Rockdetector)

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