First of all, don't let the title Rat Salad (which is also the title of an instrumental from the album Paranoid) scare you off, for if you do, you will be missing a great book. There have been many books written about Black Sabbath, but none of them go into such detail about the songs (from their debut album to Sabotage) as this book does. The author gives a background on Black Sabbath and throws in many other personal details about the band. He also lets us know what else was going on in the world at the time that these albums were released (both politically and musically), as well as talking about himself (though I'm not sure if the tidbit about his baby sitter was necessary!). But...the main focus here is on the songs themselves. I like that he states very clearly in the beginning of the book why he only goes up to the album Sabotage and why he didn't interview any of the Black Sabbath members for the book.
I sing and play guitar and percussion, but am hesitant to call myself a musician and I feel that I learned quite a bit from this book. After reading it (or even WHILE reading it), I found myself going back and listening to the first six Black Sabbath albums again and trying to listen more carefully. I'm not put off that the author uses big musical terms that I have never heard of (but should have), like 'subtonic' and 'submediant', but at no point in the book does it ever feel like he is talking down to the reader. Wilkinson uses a very smooth and flowing conversational tone, which makes the book both informative and entertaining to read. Besides, if one does feel a little overwhelmed by some of the big musical terms,he does explain all of these in a glossary in the back of the book. Also, by using all these big musical terms, he shows exactly WHY Iommi's guitar riffs were so unique and so special.
If you love the music of Black Sabbath as much as Paul Wilkinson and I do, then you will love this book. - Reviewed by Rich
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