10 Perfect Rock Songs From 1971

So...for the past few entries on this list, things have been getting a lot more laid back than you probably thought. Hell, if you were judging those alone as your benchmark of quality, you'd think that 1971 was the year when rock decided to embrace the world of pillowy ballads for good. Rock still had teeth though, and Black Sabbath went in for the kill on Children of the Grave.

While their unofficial masterpiece Paranoid came out the year before, the key track off of Master of Reality is where Sabbath finally capitalized on their trademark heaviness. As opposed to just talking about the occult or making passing references to the devil, this is a very real depiction of what the dying hippy generation had to endure, as Ozzy warns them that they're walking a dark path if they decide to remain Flower Children.

Ozzy is not Black Sabbath though....Tony Iommi is, and this is where his real genius begins. After staying in standard tuning for most of their records, this was the first time that Iommi started to tune his guitar strings down low, making for one of the meatiest grooves imaginable when playing off of Bill Ward's drumming. This is the kind of music that stepped up the game for rock while also proving that something this sludgy could cross over to a large demographic. You're welcome, stoner rock.