Music Friday: "War Pigs"

Ozzy Osbourne died recently. 

He's an icon of course, and I occasionally listen to the Ozzy channel on SiriusXM radio. I grew up in that era of hard rock/heavy metal. 

For me, I liked him best as the lead singer of Black Sabbath. 

So I present to you "War Pigs." 

Music Friday: "Changes"

Charles Bradley passed away a few years ago. I think I've featured this song before, but I'll do so again. 

Until I watched this video, I didn't know this was a Black Sabbath cover. That shows how big of Black Sabbath fan I am. 

Music Friday: "Paranoid"

Today is not only Veteran's Day, but it's also National Metal Day.

In the past, I've posted songs related to veterans, which you can mash below if you like.

• "Tour of Duty"
• "Soldier's Get Strange"
• "Dress Blues"

Today, however, since it's National Metal Day, I'm going with a band often credited with being one of the first heavy metal bands: Black Sabbath. 

It's the band circa 1970.

As a musical genre, metal is pretty easy to make fun of and criticize--the mainly male angst, self-destructive themes, Tolkien-like or creepy lyrics by some, the bad-boy mystique of many of the bands, the wearing of Spandex, big hair, and you could probably add your own to this list. And do so in the comments section if you like.

However, as a teenager in the 80s, metal was a genre I listened to often. It wasn't the only type of music I listened to by any means, but I still like it.

From the goofiness and bawdy nature of Van Halen to the anger and aggressive riffs of Metallica, metal has influenced my musical tastes.