Black Sabbath: birth of heavy metal

I find it impossible to pin down the starting point of rock 'n' roll.

Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and many others played key roles around the same time in the early 1950s and before.

But heavy metal, goes my column running in today's Herald, began on this day in 1970 with the release of "Black Sabbath."

Here's a snippet:

Ominous rainfall.

Church bells.

Thunder.

Crushing guitar riffs.

The sonic equivalent of a slow, scary journey through mental hell.

And then the ... “Oh, nooooooooooooo!” howl of lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, who sounds as if he were just thrown into a lake of fire.

Read entire piece.

Happy birthday, Little Richard

PUBLIC DOMAIN Little Richard performing at the University of Texas Forty Acres Festival in 2007.

Little Richard gave me one of my all-time greatest journalistic thrills when he sang part of "Tutti-Frutti" during an interview.

Right before the phoner ended the rock 'n' roll great said: "God bless you. God bless you and your family."

So, I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Richard turned 78 today.

CLICK TO READ MY SUNDAY COLUMN "LONG LIVE LITTLE RICHARD"

Little Richard performing "Tutti-Frutti" in the 1956 Alan Freed film "Don't Knock the Rock."