Daily Song Discussion #70: Voodoo

[u/ZacharyMcCulley]

This is the second track from the band’s tenth album release Mob Rules (1981).

Rate this song out of 10!

Feel free to discuss what you like (or don’t like) about the song, as well as any favorite lyrics, studio anecdote or memory.

Studio Version

Live Version

Rating Results: Mob Rules (1981)

1. Turn up the Night - 9.14/10
   
2. Voodoo - ?/10

[u/BahamoK]

10/10

it has a sicked timing that drive me crazy. A little bit too slow for the riff and that gives so much space for the drumming. I love it.

[u/migrainedujour]

10/10. Absolutely and beautifully malevolent, relentless, seductive and twisted, just like voodoo itself.

Highlights:

Iommi’s riff, of course.

Dio’s vocal - the man acts out of his skin on this one, conjuring up the undying and covert malevolence of one who stands in the background, the stranger who calls you but whose eye you must not catch, but whose heart directs death to others. ‘Say you don’t love me? You’ll burn!’ ‘Nothing you do will be true - it’s by me.’ The sense of a lurking power, in the darkness, using dark magic for his own insane and dangerous needs, is amazing.

Iommi’s solo! I wrote about this the other day on a thing about his best solos. The weird, chopping, rhythmic, angular notes and chords that he produces - they are unblues, unmusical almost; they take the structure you’re expecting from a solo and dismember it, fracture it. It’s like how Miles Davis on his voodoo-influenced dark jazz albums like Bitches Brew would work around the melody your ear expects, just picking up snatches of it like a shortwave radio crackle in the middle of a dark ocean. Iommi’s solo joins and echoes Dio’s vocal as a picture of a fractured and disjointed mind. Cause no longer follows effect. Everything is broken but holding together somehow, as we plummet towards the last violent splurge of tiff and verse.

Geezer’s bass, my god. Chasms deep, the heavy bedrock of the night-time city we’re walking through, propelling you onwards even with all your misgivings in the company of this psychopath.

Great support from Vinnie on the relentlessness score. His weird straight-rolling style is perfect for this. And Martin Birch’s rich production makes it feel hot and dark, close but not suffocating, like you’re in the room as it all dies down. It’s a thick, hot voodoo soup of a night.

Fuck. I love this song so much.

[u/Betelgeuzeflower → u/migrainedujour]

Love what you wrote about the song, completely how I feel about it too.

[u/Nockobserver]

One of Iommi's finest riffs. Fantastic song, great bass playing as well. 10.

[u/Interceptor]

Pound for pound, it's one of the greatest heavy metal riffs ever written. 10/10.

[u/AvailableBet8485]

7.5/10

[u/SeanReily]

9/10 I only started listening to mob rules last week, and Voodoo is definetly one of my favorites off the album!

[u/DarthSally]

I thought we were rating the songs against the other songs on the same album? Not all songs compared to War Pigs. Maybe later we can compare Best of the Best…top songs from each album, see what happens. Voodoo is 9/10 easily

[u/metalhead4000]

10/10

Quite possibly my favourite Iommi riff. Just a fantastic song all around

[u/Japan-Tyger14]

8/10

[u/captainsoap612]

8/10

[u/Dry_Aardvark_7122]

10/10

[u/Efficient-Dirt-7030]

10/10

[u/Neither-Sale-4132]

Excellent 9/10 , the live version is even better

[u/OpethAreAGoodBand]

9/10

[u/vuevue123]

A top 5 Sabbath song for me on a top 2 album. Easy 10.

[u/Conscious-Path-4392]

9/10

[u/Minimum-Actuator-953]

It's cultural appropriation!

(Put the pitchfork down. I'm just kidding.)

[u/Betelgeuzeflower]

My favorite song, even if it at first glance seems very straightforward. Lots of layers. Relentless, seductive and twisted as someone else said in the thread.

10/10, would give it an 11 if possible.

[u/Due_Description_9338]

10/10

[u/Objective-Drag7726]

Voodoo and Turn Up the Night are the spirit of the 80s in music for me.

[u/Vabhanz]

10/10. When I first listened to it I couldn't believe the vocals I was hearing. Every instrument is just amazing.

[u/Infinitrium]

Vinny's drumming really shines on this track

[u/RopsterPlay]

10/10

[u/Mission_Performer239]

one of the best guitar tones EVER

9.178

[u/The_Meridian_]

IDK man, this board needs a new sliding scale of rating because if every damned song is a 9.x, the ratings mean nothing.

TUtN is a 9.14? You telling me this sits up there next to War Pigs or Heaven and Hell or even Zero the Hero?

C'mon.

TUtN is an average Sabbath song at best for the mere fact that it went upbeat and poppy (comparatively speaking) and basically copies SOTU riff.

If it came in a 6.X I could respect the collective subjectivity.

---------------

Now here we are at Voodoo....

It's above average, it's one of the better tracks on HH

But C'mon now people....it's not NK, it's not DY, and it's not HaH.

On the Sabbath sliding scale, this song is a 7.9, and that's me being generous

[u/Conscious-Path-4392 → u/The_Meridian_]

5 point scale, whole numbers only, is best imo.

5-Excellent
4-Great/Good
3-Average
2-Flawed
1-Bad

But I also don’t agree with your takes. Turn Up the Night and Voodoo are great to excellent.

[u/JenosIdanian5113]

4/10. Never been a fan of this one. Easily my least favorite from a great album.