Sweet Leaf
An ode to marijuana that opens on the sound of Iommi coughing, and a seed of stoner rock.
Black Sabbath, from Master of Reality (1971)
- Written by
- Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne
- Released
- 1971
- Length
- 5:05
- Album
- Master of Reality
The song opens with a tape loop of Tony Iommi coughing on a joint he smoked with Osbourne while recording acoustic guitar for Master of Reality, and producer Rodger Bain used the fragment as the intro. Butler wrote the song about cannabis, which the band were using constantly then. Butler said the title came from a packet of Sweet Afton cigarettes he brought back from Dublin, which carried a line about the sweetest leaf. The band played it stoned.
Legacy
Sweet Leaf and the album are named as a primary influence on stoner rock. Billy Corgan said he first heard it at age 8 from his uncle's copy of Master of Reality and thought this is what God sounds like. It was released as a single in the Philippines. Its riff is the basis of the Beastie Boys' Rhymin and Stealin (1986), paired with a drum loop from Led Zeppelin's When the Levee Breaks, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers play it as the outro to Give It Away (1991).
Covers and versions
- Butthole Surfers Reworked as Sweat Loaf on Locust Abortion Technician.
- Anthrax Play the riff as the outro to their cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
More songs by Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs, Snowblind, N.I.B., Children of the Grave, Planet Caravan, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sources
- Sweet Leaf, Wikipedia
- Master of Reality, Wikipedia