WE SOLD OUR SOUL FOR ROCK AND ROLL

This is the first "Sabbath" compilation. Even at the time of release, it could not be considered as a great one. Songs are completely messed up and tracklist is quite chaotic to say the least.

Only their greatest album "Paranoïd" will be honourably represented. Four songs of which three of the most praised "Sabbath" ones: "Paranoïd" of course as well as "War Pigs" and "Iron Man". Three gigantic tracks which could not fail to sit on a compilation of course.

Their debut album is also not forgotten with three songs, of which the excellent "N.I.B.". But can you tell me what "Changes" and "Am I Going Insane" are doing here ? Although the latter was not a bad song, featuring some "Floyd" psychedelia, it does not belong to the best of their repertoire. "Changes" being one of their poorest song ever written. A mellow and useless rock ballad.

This compilation is totally useless nowadays. With the great double CD set released in 2000 ("Best Of"), it is only a pale overview of their early work. But don't get me wrong : there are a lot of "Sabbath" anthems in here. The only thing I would tell you is that moneywise their later "Best Of" is a far much better financial deal. So...

Three stars.

Great compilation, great introduction for a young listener. I started listening the band with "Vol. 4" and this compilation and I enjoyed them both. A word about selection: it's really unnecessary - the band had released their essential albums so far and all those albums are quite homogenic, so it won't matter if some other songs are selected - BLACK SABBATH released six albums before this, first compilation, was it really possible to make better selection? Oh certainly, but who cares? I remember I was a newbie and this was my introduction and I enjoyed it. Almost all the songs are equally good, which is not a case too often when publishing a compilation. So, as the title suggests, this is an excellent addition to your rock & metal collection, it's non-essential for prog rock. Still, I got this one as a pure coincidence, so I am suggesting original studio albums for starters.

A Compilation to Maintain Momentum ...

Black Sabbath's record labels quickly responded with a million-selling double-LP compilation,"We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll" (December 1975), and the band contemplated a more pronounced change of musical style. This brought about disagreement, with guitarist Iommi wanting to add elements to the sound, including horns, and singer Osbourne resisting any variation in the formula. So, you can imagine how tense the relationship between Iommi and Osbourne. Nevertheless, the album comprises compilation of songs that favor newbies or beginners. It's really good for introducing the music of Black Sabbath to new people.

Yes, from commercial standpoint this was a compilation to maintain momentum as it contains songs from the first six albums from "Black Sabbath" until "Sabotage". The opening track represents the first song the band created and it's basically titled as the name of the band which was inspired by 1963 Italian horror film. From this basic composition you can hear how Iommi invented power chords (as his fingers were injured when he worked as factory worker. His manager introduced him with a record of Django Reinhardt - guitar player with injured fingers as well). It moves beautifully to "Wizard", legendary "Paranoid" from the album with the same title which made Black Sabbath name skyrocketted, "War Pigs" and "Iron Man". The nice ballad "Changes" is also featured here while my favorite "Snowblind" and "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" will satisfy you!

For those of you who have never heard the music of Black Sabbath, buy this CD! It represents the band's best tracks even though there are still many other excellent tracks which were included, e.g. "The Writ", "Hole In The Sky" etc. Keep on rockin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Mid seventies and commercially a good move for a compilation at the time for Black Sabbath. This album encapsulates nearly all their vintage material up to this point. Many would say that after this things started going downhill for BS but this would be mostly unfair as like all bands with disruptive personnel changes and evolving directions the music changed but not necessarilly in a bad way.

There are so many great songs on We Sold Our Soul For Rock And Roll and like all compilations they very rarely compare to the original studio releases but if you are after a mix of early Sabbath then check out ' Sweet Leaf', the scinitillating ' Snowblind' and ' Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' A good compilation for the early days of Black Sabbath.

Great material in another pointless compilation

The first six Sabbath albums are considered by most fans to be the required Osbourne-era albums. Doing a compilation of that much material, as it would be for classic Floyd or Genesis titles, should really be expected to fall to the hand of doom (pun intended.) I've always maintained new fans are much better off ignoring stuff like this in favor of acquiring the original recordings where the material is presented properly and with context. But judging the title on its own merit this is at the least a reasonable attempt if ultimately still a failure. Selecting a couple tracks from each disc is a nightmare for any fan of any classic band to contemplate, but here the band chose the predictable titles for the first few. After that it gets more debatable and by the time we arrive at Sabotage their choice is akin to actual sabotage of the album. I have to believe any Sabbath fan (certainly those I've met) would sacrifice the illustrious "Am I Going Insane?" (apparently yes, Oz) with "Hole in the Sky" or "Symptom of the Universe" or nearly....any....other....track. But it really matters not because the aptly titled compilation is neither necessary nor desirable for any real Sabbath fan. Once again folks, save your hard earned money for the real thing, the original albums.

Back in the mid seventies I actually liked this band. These days, I still appreciate a few of the songs, but for the most part, I've lost interest. This collection is one of the albums from my wife's record collection.

Listening to this album for the first time in a long while, most notably I can hear how Black Sabbath was influential on many of the metal bands (and by extension, the prog metal bands) that have flourished in the decades since their heyday.

Since Black Sabbath didn't really get much airplay back then (they were much too "satanic" for mainstream radio in the seventies), only a few of the tracks, like Paranoid, or Iron Man, could be called "greatest hits". So the song selection was pretty much subjective to the tastes of whoever compiled the album. As such, it is not bad. It does give a decent view of what Sabbath was about back then.

It just sounds a bit tame these days.

I'd argue that this compilation falls just north of excellent. You can argue all day long about individual song choices. I personally feel that the PARANOID album is a slightly overrated listening experience, 4 songs is too many to include here.

Truthfully, that's entirely subjective; Black Sabbath's first quartet of albums are beyond reproach. You can count on one hand the number of bands as influential as BS to hard rock. You could almost say they invented it! As an introduction to the band's first masterpieces and some lesser known tracks, WE SOLD OUR SOULS is worth at least four stars.