Rocktober Deep Cut B: "The Wizard" by Black Sabbath

The letter "B" presented some tough decisions with my little Rocktober deep cut experiment because of the many great "B" artists.  The logical choice would be The Beatles, but frankly, there were so many great choices that I didn't even want to attempt to narrow the list down to one.  And then there's also The Band, Beck, Beastie Boys, The Beach Boys, The Black Keys, Black Sabbath, The Black Crowes, Blue Oyster Cult, Bon Jovi, Boston, and Bad Company to name a few.  Since it's Rocktober, I decided to go with Black Sabbath because they arguably rock the hardest of all the aforementioned artists.

But what Black Sabbath song to go with?  Ozzy era?  Dio era?  There are many great options in both eras that don't get much airplay, but at the end of the day, I decided to go with "The Wizard," the second track off of the band's self-title debut album.  After the listener is shocked and terrified by the devil's triad, ghostly visions, and Satanic imagery on first track off the album, the gloomy and aptly named "Black Sabbath," "The Wizard" draws you in with its eerie harmonica siren call, before kicking in with a monster guitar and harmonica riff that repeats throughout the song.  

The song was written by all four band members, and each is an integral part of the execution.  Ozzy does his best Sonny Boy Williamson impression (the original or Rice Miller) with his harp blowing, Tony Iommi provides his usually awesome guitar work, and the rhythm section of Geezer Butler and Bill Ward provide the bottom (with Ward's drum work being particularly good).

The lyrics are about, well, a wizard who walks through a town casting spells on everyone to keep them happy.  The song is allegedly inspired by both a drug dealer and by Gandalf, although listening to the lyrics, the former probably makes more sense.  Either way, it's a badass song.  I'd put it up there with any Ozzy-era Sabbath song, but for one reason or another, it's not recognized alongside songs like "Iron Man," "Paranoid," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," "War Pigs," and "Black Sabbath."

When you're listening to this song, I want you to remember the fact that this was released within two months of Van Morrison's Moondance, Elton John's debut album, Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.  Heavy metal music is kind of taken for granted now, but this was the first real heavy metal album, and it was truly a departure from just about everything else that was popular at that time.