Song of the day for February 5, 2024

8 months ago Brian

Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality," recorded in 1971, is seminal in stoner rock's evolution, with "Sweet Leaf" influencing bands like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. The album, noted for its darker sound and ranked by Rolling Stone among the greatest albums, is heralded for shaping sludge-metal at its peak.

Today’s songs is Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath.

On Feb 5, 1971, Black Sabbath began recording their third album, Master of Reality, in London. Cited by many as the foundation for stoner rock. The record featured a darker sound (due in part to guitarist Tommy Iommi down-tuning his instrument) that later influenced the likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Soundgarden.

“Sweet Leaf”, and the Master of Reality album as a whole, arguably represents the earliest example of the music that would influence the emergence of stoner rock in California in the early 1990s.

Billy Corgan has cited the significance of ‘Sweet Leaf’ as an influence on The Smashing Pumpkins sound in numerous interviews, noting that he first heard the song from his uncle’s copy of ‘Master of Reality’ when he was 8 years old and thought “this is what God sounds like”.

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album Master of Reality, number 298 in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 300 in a 2012 revised list, and 234 in a 2020 revised list. They described the album as representing “the greatest sludge-metal band of them all in its prime.” The same magazine also ranked the album 34th on its “100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time”