ozzy osbourne played harmonica on the wizard black sabbath.
ozzy osbourne played harmonica on the wizard black sabbath.
who played harmonica on the wizard black sabbath?
ozzy osbourne
other times, the vocalist will bring another musical "voice" to the table, most commonly a harmonica or percussion; mick jagger, for example, played harmonica and percussion instruments like maracas and tambourine whilst singing at the same time. keith relf of the yardbirds played harmonica frequently, though not often while also singing. ozzy osbourne was also known to play the harmonica on some occasions (i.e. "the wizard" by black sabbath). vocalist robert brown of lesser known steampunk band abney park plays harmonica, accordion, and darbuka in addition to mandolin. flutes are also commonly used by vocalists, most notably ian anderson of jethro tull and ray thomas of the moody blues, though these are difficult to play while singing at the same time.
musical ensemble
while dio's addition revitalised sabbath and brought them a younger, more enthusiastic fan base, there were some critics and listeners who insist sabbath had been irretrievably altered, with "rolling stone" contending, "although dio could belt with the best of them, sabbath would never be the same." in his autobiography iommi admits, "we were doing big shows and it was difficult for ronnie to go out and stand in front of people who had seen ozzy in that spot for ten years. some of the kids hated it and they'd shout: 'ozzy, ozzy!' but eventually ronnie won them over." in an interview with songfacts, former osbourne guitarist zakk wylde of black label society dismisses the idea of the dio-era being authentic sabbath: "you listen to black sabbath with ronnie james dio in it, and it's not black sabbath. they should have just called it heaven & hell right from the beginning. because you listen to that "heaven and hell" album, that doesn't sound anything close to black sabbath. i mean, that sounds about as much like black sabbath as "blizzard of ozz" sounds like black sabbath. if you were to play black sabbath for me – and i'm a huge sabbath freako – and then with father dio over there, i'd be going, 'oh, cool, what band is this? this is good stuff.' i mean, the songs don't even sound black sabbath-y. i mean, 'neon knights', could you picture ozzy singing over that song?" regardless of what ozzy loyalists thought, sabbath was back, with mick wall noting in his book "black sabbath: symptom of the universe": "for once their timing was spot on. in britain, "sounds" magazine had begun championing a new musical phenomenon it dubbed 'the new wave of british heavy metal' ... the reborn black sabbath, with their glistening new sound, incomparable new singer and top-drawer new album, were seen as part of a widespread revival in rock fandom."
heaven and hell (black sabbath album)