"Sweet Leaf" is a song by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath from their third studio album Master of Reality (1971), released on July 21, 1971.[2] It is considered one of the band's signature songs[3] and was included on their 1976 greatest hits compilation We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll.[4]
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"Sweet Leaf" | |
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Song by Black Sabbath | |
from the album Master of Reality | |
Released | 21 July 1971 (1971-07-21) |
Recorded | Record Plant, Los Angeles, California, 1971 |
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Length | 5:05 |
Label | Vertigo (UK) Warner Bros. Records (US) |
Songwriter(s) | Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward |
Producer(s) | Rodger Bain |
The song begins with a tape loop of guitarist Tony Iommi coughing from a joint he was smoking with bandmate Ozzy Osbourne.[5] The song's subject is cannabis, which the band was using frequently at that time.[6] The title of the song was taken from a packet of Irish cigarettes that read "It's the sweet leaf".
"Sweet Leaf", and the Master of Reality album as a whole, arguably represents the earliest example of the music that would influence the emergence of stoner rock in California in the early 1990s.[7] A compilation album, also titled Sweet Leaf, comprising covers of Black Sabbath songs by stoner rock bands, was released by Deadline Music in 2015.
The main guitar riff, paired with a loop of a drum sample from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks",[8] is the instrumental basis of the Beastie Boys' song "Rhymin & Stealin", the first track on their breakthrough album Licensed to Ill (1986).[9]
The Red Hot Chili Peppers play the riff as the outro to their hit song "Give It Away" (1991).[10]
The Butthole Surfers reworked the song as "Sweat Loaf" (1987),[11] and Shooter Jennings references it in his 2005 song "Busted in Baylor County" from Put the "O" Back in Country.[citation needed]
Classic opener "Sweet Leaf" certainly ranks as a defining stoner metal song, making its drug references far more overt (and adoring) than the preceding album's "Fairies Wear Boots."
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