BLACK SABBATH: A Look Back At 'The Rebel' Sessions

November 25, 2006

Rob Dwyer of the Black Sabbath Live Project has issued the following report:

"'The Rebel' is without a doubt one of the most sought-after BLACK SABBATH songs ever recorded. Although a small fragment of this very un-SABBATH like song can be heard on 'The Black Sabbath Story Volume 1' video, most fans have never heard this still-unreleased 1969 demo. Although there really isn't any substitute for actually hearing the song yourselves, I've written this article in hopes of illuminating this mystery track until that times come.

"Is it an EARTH or BLACK SABBATH demo? One of the most frequently asked questions about 'The Rebel' is whether the song could be considered as an EARTH demo. Although the actual acetate credits the recording to BLACK SABBATH, the song was recorded during a transitional period. It has been alleged in several recent BLACK SABBATH biographies that the band decided upon changing their name from EARTH to BLACK SABBATH while they were on route to The Star Club in Hamburg in early August 1969. To avoid the inevitable confusion arising from this sudden change, the band performed many prior bookings as EARTH. In fact, their final gig as EARTH was performed in Kilcaldy, Scotland just one day after recording 'The Rebel'.

"The recording session for 'The Rebel' took place at Trident Studios in St. Anne’s Court in Soho, which was an 8-track facility at the time. Overseeing the session was Gus Dudgeon, who had also worked with LOCOMOTIVE and would later produce albums for ELTON JOHN and DAVID BOWIE. The band was less than impressed with Gus, who kept using LOCOMOTIVE as the benchmark for anything they did. It was than that engineer Rodger Bain was offered his first chance to produce a record…and the rest is history.

"The band had just returned from a German tour to begin rehearsing. Manager Jim Simpson suggested that they record 'The Rebel', a song that was written by Norman Haines. Norman played keyboards in Jim's band LOCOMOTIVE. Haines also took part in this session, playing organ and piano. Two months later, the band recorded yet another Haines composition called 'When I Come Down', which was retitled 'When I Came Down' for the SABBATH version. The band weren't pleased with either of these songs, but went along with the sessions so their manager would have something to shop to the record labels. Neither song represented the heavy rock direction they were already formulating OR their EARTH-y blues based roots."

Read the rest of the article at SabbathLive.com.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).