The California Jam, held on April 6, 1974, at the Ontario Motor Speedway in California, was a legendary rock festival that drew an estimated 200,000 – 400,000 fans. BLACK SABBATH flew from England especially for this show, which is considered one of the most awesome Ozzy & co. performances ever.
Black Sabbath’s 1974 California Jam performance was a monumental event, solidifying their place as heavy metal pioneers as the show was simulcast for ABC ‘In Concert TV’ and KLOS-FM radio broadcast. This is Black Sabbath at their absolute prime. Many of these people never heard of Black Sabbath before. They killed it. They blew up the stage and the crowd. These people couldn’t wrap their minds around this – a lot of them hated it but a lot of them loved it and became eternal fans.
There has been dozens of bootlegs of this Black Sabbath show at the California Jam with different titles – a few days ago appeared a new one – but none sounds as good as this “Day Of Judgement [California Jam 1974]“. Compared with the other bootlegs, the overall sound quality, especially the drums, is much, much better on “Day Of Judgement [California Jam 1974]”.
But “Day Of Judgement [California Jam 1974]” was available only a couple of days past January – as requested by Black Sabbath management, it was retired from all digital download stores – and now it’s a rarity. A shame, because as said, Black Sabbath 1974 never sounded that fuller, clearer.
Don’t worry, 0dayrox team is featuring “Day Of Judgement [California Jam 1974]” for all of you. Classic stuff like this needs to be preserved!
Regarding the show, Sabbath is on fire. They changed the hippie crowd into a metal head crowd with one song! Just take a look here:
The craziest thing about this performance is the fact that the metal aesthetic didn’t even exist yet. So they were playing what was likely the heaviest rock music at the time behind a rainbow placed in the stage while wearing the most brightly colored stage clothes anybody has ever worn, and Bill Ward’s drum kit is all decked out in hippie flowers! Oh, and Iommi’s moustache is gone!
This legendary gig features a crazy, extensive re-working of ‘Sabbra Cadabra’ from the band’s then most recent album ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’. The band was on top form from the opening notes of ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’ right through to ‘Paranoid’, the ultimate show stopper.
Black Sabbath is iconic and ground-breaking at the time, and you can hear how impressive they were live on “Day Of Judgement [California Jam 1974]”.
One of the greatest bands ever of any genre, including the genre they created.
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