Just a sampling of links and things that Sabbath fans might be interested in.

BlackSabbath.com: At long last, the official Black Sabbath website is here!

 

BillWard.com: The one and only Bill Ward has a great site with songs, interviews, Bill's radio program, and a regular dose of Bill's love and wisdom.

 

GeezerButler.com: Black Sabbath's bassist and primary lyricist, the Irish Bard has a site of his own that's definitely worth checking out, with pictures, downloads and links to Butler's favorite animal charity sites. 

 

Iommi.com: Rock's greatest guitarist has his own site, complete with message boards, downloads, bio, tour-dates, and other goodies.

 

Ozzy.com: The inimitable Ozzy Osbourne has a site loaded with videos, photos, fan-activities, shop and Ozzypedia.

 

Sabbathlive.com: Thought this was gone? Well, technically it is, but that doesn't mean the old info's not still around Here's an archived cache of the site as it stood back in the day. Lots of great articles here, as well as a detailed timeline of the band's shows over the years. Not all the information on the timelines is current, as new knowledge has superseded formerly held beliefs, but overall, it's a wealth of material that's worth checking out.

 

Black Sabbath and Family Footage. Some intriguing rare items and videos here: Edtrader, known on Youtube for posting some great bootleg live performances, has a page of rare videos, as well as a list of things that were known to be filmed, but are currently lost.

 

The original version of "Warning" by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation:

 

Early One Morning:

"Early One Morning" is a song from blues singer Elmore James (which was also covered live by The Who in 1969), and was recorded at the now the infamous Dumfries show, purportedly on November 16, 1969 (a day before going into Regents Studio to record their first album). The discovery of the Dumfries show caused quite a stir, in part because it's the earliest know live performance of Black Sabbath! The quality is excellent (which is very surprising considering most early bootlegs). Not only does Sabbath (and it is Black Sabbath, not Earth, at this point) play cover songs, but they played the original, lengthier version of "Warning." No live version of "Warning" is available anywhere, neither bootleg or official release. The collector sold it to the Osbournes (to the chagrin of many fellow collectors and fans), though it's likely we'll eventually see Black Sabbath release it at some point (likely after they've retired).

 

The original version of "Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games with Me)" from the band Crow:

 

Black Sabbath recorded their version on November 10th, 1969 at Trident Studios. Thanks to the Deluxe Edition of Black Sabbath, we now know they recorded a version with horns and flute, as well as the more stripped down one that appears on the album and single. Unlike Crow's original, which became a top-20 hit on U.S. charts by January 1970 (it was released in October 1969), Sabbath's version (released in the UK on January 9th, 1970) failed to chart at all.