Despite the fact that he had health problems it was still a surprise to hear of the death of Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne since he had appeared on stage at the band’s final concert only a few weeks ago, albeit from a sitting position.

His band has a claim to be the founders of heavy metal. Whatever, they certainly had a profound influence on the genre.

I featured their – perhaps untypical – song, Changes, here.

This was the first track on their second LP, Paranoid, which gave them their first and biggest hit.

Black Sabbath: War Pigs

John Michael (Ozzy) Osbourne: 3/12/1948 – 22 /7/2025. So it goes.

Following last week’s offering from Black Sabbath here’s a more famous Changes – the Bowie song, here taken from BBC sessions. To my mind there’s a lot more energy in this live version than the LP track.

Edited to add – that live version has disappeared. Here’s another.

David Bowie: Changes

A most un-Black Sabbath-like Black Sabbath song, I include this not only for the mellotron but the similarity of the piano chords to those in Birth by The Peddlers and Elton John’s Border Song.

Black Sabbath: Changes