If you know the man as well as I do, Black Sabbath songs could very well be used to sum up my friend’s entire youth, or at the very least, his first love from beginning to end, and it’s amazing those songs written for an entirely different purposes could so perfectly fit a mold of meaning so different from original intent. It feels like a redundant thing for me to say that music is like a friend, that's always there for you, or that music stirs us and helps us understand ourselves, but it is true, and it bears repeating. Operating as best friend, I was there for him that night, but I was not the only one, so was Ozzy. That night, all those years ago, my friend said something nice to me about how I was always there for him. It seemed to me to be a pretty good idea for a pair of Music In Reviews, and now here we are. It never occurred to him that he had said these things, or the obvious correlation within the two statements, until years later when I pointed it out. My friend did not realize it at the time but he had brought up Black Sabbath songs to explain his feelings at both the beginning and end of this relationship of his. “Changes” is a song about my friend’s broken heart and the person he lost. While the song “Changes” is clearly about losing someone dear, a lover originally, and now arguably a friend in Randy Rhoads, that does not matter too much to me. Unlike “Sabbra Cadabra,” there is some depth in “Changes,” at least emotions more complicated than lustful/loving joy. That moment, as unimportant as it was for me, is permanently imprinted on my memory and whenever I hear “Changes” now, I think of that conversation, that girl, and my friend. In fact my ignorance of Black Sabbath really was something to be ashamed of. I did not want to admit it at the time, but I had never heard the song “Changes” before then. My friend was right about himself too, he was going through changes. It is true that for the longest time the only version of “Changes,” you heard on the radio was a live version of Ozzy performing in memory of Randy Rhoads. The history of the song “Changes,” was true, the song experienced a huge resurgence of popularity after the death of Randy Rhoads.

My friend was right about everything he said. My friend too had lost someone close to him, and he too was going through changes. Ozzy lost his guitarist and best friend when Randy died, and it seemed so appropriate to sing “Changes,” since after all that was what Ozzy was going through. He told me about how Ozzy sang it in tribute to Randy Rhoads after he died.

The metaphor of his choice was a song, Black Sabbath – “Changes.” He told me about how Ozzy Osbourne’s live version of the song is the much more popular version and how that live version got a lot more radio play than the original studio version. The night did not seem unique at the time, we treated it like any other, but there was one thing my friend said that stood out to me.Īs if to sum up the evening’s purpose my friend gave me a quick synopsis of his situation. That something was beer, that someone was me. This was the night that my friend's first love had left him, and he wanted something to distract him and someone to talk to. I believe the year was 2003 I got a phone call from my friend who was looking for someone to drink with. Songs can take on radical new meanings if they come into your life at unique times, and speaking of Black Sabbath whenever I hear “Changes,” I think about a very specific moment in time. Up until a then I only possessed two Black Sabbath CDs, the self titled “Black Sabbath,” and “Paranoid,” I have since rectified that situation by purchasing “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” and “Black Sabbath Volume 4.” It is a wonderful thing that after so many years I can still look deeper into bands I have known for years and learn so much more about them.

A few months back that Craig Kemery told me to dig deeper into Black Sabbath.

Song changes by black sabbath