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Alleged copying of "What to Do" and "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Because it was requested I take this to the talk page before making any edits, I'm going to do so. I sincerely think that their similarities are purely circumstantial and that the pieces that make up the riffs of the respective songs aren't anything particularly special and nothing to freak out about copying.

Before getting into music theory and whatnot, however, I would like to mention that I think it's unlikely that Iommi would have even heard "What to Do." Details about the album "What to Do" appears on seem to be few and far between. From what I've gathered, the the album was released in early 1973, while Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was recorded in September of the same year. This lack of information leads me to believe that it's unlikely that Vanusa's music was known much at all internationally, and, if that's the case, I'm doubtful that Iommi would have heard the song the same year as its release. I would also like to mention that the time between the release of Vanusa's song and Black Sabbath's song is likely even smaller than between early 1973 and September of 1973: according to the Wikipedia page on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the opening riff of the title track seems to have been the first thing written for the album.

The rest of this will purely be about the music behind the songs. I was going to upload transcriptions of the opening riffs of the two songs in question but it seems Wikipedia will not allow me to do so. That being said, I'll do my best to make my argument without them. Before I start, I'd like to mention that "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "What to Do" were recorded in different guitar tunings, the former in C#/Db standard (three semitones down from E standard, arguably the most common guitar tuning) and the latter in E standard (I actually am not 100% sure that it's in E standard, though as a very experienced guitarist, it would shock me if it's not.) This difference in tuning does not have much, or anything at all, really, to do with whether or not "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was copied from "What to Do." Guitarists play nearly identically in these tunings and the purpose is to allow the guitar to reach lower notes, (often for a "heavier" sound in heavy metal music, or to accommodate a singer's vocal range) it's the same concept as using a capo but in reverse. With all that in mind, despite being in different keys, the songs are played (again, as far as I know, and if Iommi really did copy the riff, he would have known as much as I do) in the exact same positions on the fretboard, so I will be treating these songs as if they are in the same key (which they would be if Iommi had played "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" in standard tuning), just so I don't have to say stuff like "this is the same thing as "What to Do" but three semitones down."

Probably unnecessary preamble over, let's get to the real stuff. I'll be dividing the riffs into two sections, the first two measures and the last two measures. Both riffs take up four measures, are in common time, and are about the same tempo (~140 BPM, give or take).

The opening riff of "What to Do" begins with a slide from a D5 chord on the A string to an E5 chord on the same string, both eighth notes, followed by and eighth note rest, then two more strums of the E5, the first an eighth note and the second a quarter note, then a slide down from a single E note to a D note, one the 7th and 5th frets of the A string respectively, both eighth notes. The second measure of this is nearly identical, though the eighth rest is replaced by a "dead note" strum (a strum of the strings where the fretting hand is used to mute the strings, creating a percussive sound, rather than any specific note) and the slide from E to D is replaced with plucking a single E on the A string, 7th fret, to the open E string. Fundamentally, these measures are the same and the biggest difference, the ending, was likely changed to better set up the second part of the riff.

The opening riff of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" begins with a hammer-on from the open A and D strings to an E5 chord on the same string, both eighth notes, followed by two palm muted E notes, both eighth notes on the 7th fret of the A string, a quarter note strum of the E5 chord, then another two palm muted E eighth notes. The next measure is identical, though the last two eighth notes are on the open A string, rather than being E notes on the 7th fret of the same string.

The most glaring similarity in the first two measures is the movement up to the E5 chord in eighth notes and the strumming of an E5 chord that lasts one full beat (a quarter note) on the third beat of the measure. I'm going to argue that the notes/chord used to approach the E5 chord is irrelevant, Iommi and Vanusa's guitarist both do different things, though both achieve a similar sound, and you could replace one for the other in a performance and it's unlikely many people would notice. This concept (including the exact rhythm) that takes up the first beat of the measure, however, is nothing particularly special and is used frequently in rock songs. Iommi did the exact same thing in the main riff of 1970's "War Pigs" and something strikingly similar on the opening of "Paranoid" from the same album. Deviating slightly, in 1971's Master of Reality, Iommi used a similar concept in the verse riff of "Into the Void" (which can be heard at about 1:14) and, in 1973, on the same album "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" appears on, Iommi opens "A National Acrobat" with the exact same note choice. Disregarding specific notes, this same concept can be found in the opening riff of Deep Purple's 1972 song "Space Truckin'," as well as a multitude of other songs. My point being that this whole step jump to the tonic of the key is very common for guitarists, it's a powerful resolution.

The use of a power chord on the 7th fret of the A string is also significant, in my opinion, as it's an octave higher of the lowest note a six-string guitar in standard tuning can reach. A multitude of Black Sabbath songs are in the key of this lowest string, E, (minor, specifically) as it allows for a big, powerful resolution to the tonic of the key. The open E string is also often used for "chugging," a technique most frequently used in metal guitar to fill space in between notes or chords by strumming palm muted notes, often the open E string. This also makes the open low E string, as well as the key of E and the octave of the note found on the seventh fret of the A string significant, players use the E string to "chug" to fill space in riffs, and using the key of E minor, and therefore often making frequent use of the E note found on the 7th fret of the A string , allows player to "chug" on a note that sounds good with the rest of what they're playing. While this may seem irrelevant, it encourages many rock and heavy metal guitarists to write in the key of E minor (or the key of whatever their lowest string is tuned to). A massive chunk of Black Sabbath use the key of E minor, and I'd wager that all of Black Sabbath's songs that are in E minor incorporate the D5 chord that is one step below E, which I would further wager that it is, more often then not, followed by an E5 chord. In fact, I know for a fact that this note choice specifically is used in significant, memorable sections of "War Pigs" (quite extensively in "War Pigs," actually, it's featured in the opening riff, the tail end of the main riff, and the beginning of the outro riff, entitled "Luke's Wall"), "Paranoid," "Into the Void," and "A National Acrobat," as previously mentioned, as well as "N.I.B.," "Lord of This World," and "Snowblind." These examples exclusively include repeated, memorable sections of the respective songs and they were all released before (or, in the case of "A National Acrobat," the same year as) Vanusa's "What to Do."

In fact, a measure almost identical, including notes and rhythm to both of these riffs can be found in the second half of Metallica's "Fade to Black," (at about 3:55). I feel this illustrates that these concepts are absolutely nothing special at all.

Just because I was curious, I had a look at the YouTube comments of an upload of "What to Do" and found even more riffs that sound incredibly similar. John Entwistle's "My Size" (1971) has the exact same rhythm and notes, as well as a similar tempo, as "What to Do" and was released two years prior. While faster, Focus' "Hocus Pocus" (1971) incorporates an incredibly similar rhythm, and, while it's in the key of A minor, the concepts used are the same. Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" (1975) also incorporates a similar rhythm and technique.

TL;DR: The way these riffs are opened are both nothing particularly special and examples of identical note and rhythm choice are everywhere, including in Black Sabbath's catalog predating "What to Do."

Now, finally, for the second part of the riff. In both songs, the rhythm for this first measure is identical: a dotted eighth note, followed by another dotted eighth note, followed by a quarter note (technically, in proper music notation, the second dotted eighth note would not be notated as such, but I chose to call it that for the sake of simplicity). The notes, however are entirely different: "What to Do" uses the chords G5, A5, and B5, while "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" uses the chords C5, D5, and E5. The chords in "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" are a fourth higher than those in "What to Do," and are played in the same fretboard positions, just on a different pair of strings. That sounds quite incriminating on paper, but this is just a sequence of whole steps (or whole tones). The concept is incredibly simple and is effectively just playing a portion of a scale. As for rhythm, once again, this is an incredibly simple and common technique called syncopation. While this exact rhythm isn't the only syncopated rhythm by a long shot, it's definitely nothing special and is used in various popular songs, for example, the opening of KISS's "Rock And Roll All Nite." The second measure of this second section of these riffs are completely different, and I don't think I need to explain why they're different from each other. I will mention, however, that in "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," Iommi ties the last note of the measure over to the first eighth note of the second measure, so he effectively played three eighth notes in a row. Once again, this syncopated rhythm isn't really anything special.

I feel as though this information pretty soundly concludes that "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was unlikely plagiarized from "What to Do" and that neither of the riffs are particularly special in terms of the concepts and techniques that they're made up of.