Now, just take a moment to let this sink in. Between 16-18 June 1970 in London, in just three days, Black Sabbath recorded their second album. It is true that much of the album had already been in mind before they went into the studio. In November the previous year, the band had spent six weeks in Zurich playing at what was then known as the 'Beat Club'. During this period they had played seven 45-minute sets per day. At this time they didn’t have a lot of written material, and they would often play one long 45 minute song in each set, improvising and experimenting all the way through. In this way, the foursome would often come up with riffs or lyrics or long moments that struck a chord with them, and they would then work on those during their next set, and in this way began to compose pieces that eventually could be formed into songs. It was during this period that much of what would appear on their second album was first formed. By the time they came to the studio for those three days of recording, they were well underway when it came to writing the material that would be put down during those sessions. Not all of it, as we will soon discover, but a vast majority.
So let’s delve back again. On those three days, Black Sabbath put down on tape an album that by any stretch of the imagination does not contain a weak track. Indeed, by the terms of a greatest hits album, this one could easily be described as such. Because every single song on this album is one of the band’s greatest, best known songs. And to achieve this on just their second album, just four months after the release of their debut album, that had already set the charts on fire, is an incredibly amazing achievement. That album, the one that took three days to complete, was titled “Paranoid”, and although its predecessor is often quoted as the one where heavy metal began, it is truly this one that is not only the leader of the pack in that regard, but also by a fair margin.
The songs on this album are strong, forthright and eternal. There are songs on this album that are known by people of all ages, no matter what type of music they enjoy and listen to themselves, and every song acts as a piece of the enormous puzzle being put together. As much as the opening track to the band’s debut album is iconic, it is no more so than the opening to their second album. That warbling bass line from Geezer, brought along by Bill’s powerful tom hitting and hi-hat crashes, toned in by Tony’s outstanding guitar riff, encapsulate everything that made this band what it was. And then the two beat start stop of the riff into Bill’s hi-hat serenade, and Ozzy finally arrives to begin the story. And then the flurry into the heart of the song, with guitars and drums ablaze and Ozzy pontificating from the stage. The song itself was originally intended to be called “Walpurgis”, as Geezer explained: "I wanted to write a song called 'Walpurgis' – you know, the Satanic version of Christmas – write it about that Satan isn't a spiritual thing, it's war-mongers. That's who the real Satanists are, all these people who are running the banks and the world and trying to get the working class to fight the wars for them. We sent it off to the record company and they said, 'No, we're not going to call it that. Too Satanic!' So I changed it to 'War Pigs'”. "War Pigs" has at times had some sections of society up in arms and proclaiming the evil of the band for the final line of the song ("Satan laughing spreads his wings"), without listening to the song and realising it is preaching against war and those who perpetrate it rather than being a song about the devil. Ozzy's vocals are at their best here, not overreaching but reaching highs and emoting through the different ranges required of the song, especially impressive when all he has in support at times are Bill's hi-hats. A truly outstanding track in the history of metal music, and a killer way of opening the album.
"Paranoid" was famously written as an afterthought, when a final song was required to fill out the album. Various quotes range from this taking anywhere between five minutes to two hours to flesh out, but given it produced the bands' only top ten single, it is still a remarkable achievement. Tony's riff is still one of the most renown of all time, with anyone who picks up a guitar being able to play it. Sometimes simple is more memorable. Written to be a single release, it came out three weeks before the album, and its immediate popularity led the record company to change the name of the album. Initially it had been set to be “War Pigs”, but at the last minute the record company took the name “Paranoid” instead, which is still memorable because the cover art couldn’t be changed, and thus we have an album cover that doesn’t really react to the album’s title. Ina 2013 interview with Mojo magazine, Geezer said: "Paranoid is about depression, because I didn't really know the difference between depression and paranoia. It's a drug thing; when you're smoking a joint you get totally paranoid about people, you can't relate to people. There's that crossover between the paranoia you get when you're smoking dope and the depression afterwards”.
One of the most intriguing aspects of “Paranoid” for me has always been that, as influential as it has been on the sound that became heavy metal, not all of this album could be categorised as heavy metal. "Planet Caravan" is the best example of this, utilising a much slower pace and gentle music, bongos in the background rather than Bill Ward's usual pounding drums, and Ozzy's very downplayed vocals. There's nothing overtly heavy metal about this track, and yet it is still very much a part of the Black Sabbath sound. The band may have built up its reputation as they progressed over the 1970's, but their influences still came from the 1960's, and the experimentation that bands such as The Beatles used in their music, and the way that bands such as The Yardbirds and The Who and Jethro Tull went about their music. The band themselves apparently had their doubts about putting this song on the album. Tony mentioned in his autobiography: “It was almost one of those ‘Should we do this?’ moments”. In many ways, it emphasises the brilliance of the heavier songs on the album rather than detracting from them.
No punters, "Iron Man" is not about the famous Marvel Comics superhero, but rather Geezer Butler's anti-hero who travels time to the future and sees the Apocalypse, before travelling back to warn the people of his day of the danger. In the process he turns to steel and is shunned and feared by those he had returned to help, and instead becomes the creator of the Apocalypse he saw. Dominated by yet another brilliant Iommi riff, the lead break is also a star attraction, with some magnificent drumming from Bill Ward. At times it sounds like he has six arms such is the flurry of tom hitting going on, while Geezer's bass just rumbles underneath in perfect synchronisation. Apparently the early title of the track was “Iron Bloke”, which probably would have worked in Australia but maybe not anywhere else. Ozzy wrote in his autobiography: "Tony Iommi turned out to be one of the greatest heavy rock riff-makers of all time. Whenever we went into the studio we'd challenge him to beat his last riff – and he'd come up with something like 'Iron Man' and blow everyone away”. It closes out the first side of the album with perfect poise and devastation, both lyrically and musically.
The amazing tones of “Electric Funeral” opens up the second side of the album, unexpectedly brilliant in its own way. That wonderful warbling guitar riff from Tony creates such a surprising atmosphere that matches the differences offered by “Planet Caravan”, in a more full on and bombastic way, especially in the second half of the song. The mood and tempo of the track lures you in with its subtlety, lyrically bringing together further visions of the apocalypse, this time with nuclear warfare. It seems to draw from several different bands from the late 1960’s but with the Sabbath ramped up sound on it. It even works beautifully as it fades out to nothing... and then the quieting bass introduction of “Hand of Doom” seeps into the speakers, creeping up on you from the shadows. You can almost imagine Ozzy with that crazy look on his face sneaking up behind you as you listen. "Hand of Doom" is almost three songs in one, such are the marvellous silent breaks between the increased energetic pieces of the song. If you didn't know the song, you could be forgiven for thinking they were separate songs. It is such a great song with powerful images, another hallmark of Geezer's lyrical contributions, delving into the problem of soldiers returning from the Vietnam War strung out on heroin, which the band witnessed first-hand when they played two American Army bases. Geezer observed in later years: “There were no programs telling you that the US troops in Vietnam, to get through that horrible war, were like fixing up and all this kinda thing. It just stuck in my head, and when we got to "Hand of Doom", that's what I wrote it about"
The intriguingly titled "Rat Salad" is an instrumental dominated by the solo drum breaks by Bill, which was inspired by the gigs the band played in Europe when they had to perform several slots every day, of which one would be entirely filled by a Ward drum solo. It is another vastly underrated track in the Black Sabbath discography, and fits in with this album and its various moods wonderfully. And then we move into the gorgeously performed "Fairies Wear Boots", which sounds like a hippy flower power song on acid that has been tuned down to get the maximum heavy grunt out of it. The lyrics, as opposed to the usual, were composed by Ozzy Osbourne, and according to Geezer was the result of a group of skinheads in London calling him a "fairy" because of his long hair. By the second half of the song however the subject has turned completely to LSD. Everything about this song is fabulous, the almost stomping riff of the guitars emphasised by Bill’s drumming combines beautifully with the title of the song, imagining fairies stomping around the garden. And again, the song fades out wonderfully, this time with Tony’s guitar solo to bring to a close one of the most important albums ever released.
When it comes to reviewing an album such as Paranoid, an album that is one of, if not, the MOST influential album of all time in the heavy metal music genre, it can be seen to be a lost cause. This album must have been dissected, discussed and detailed hundreds of thousands of times over the past five decades and more - in a positive fashion, in a negative reaction, and even in an ambivalent way. Nothing that I have mentioned here will be new. Anything I add will have been said before more times than one could imagine. And the opposite will have been just as furiously debated as well. In the end, all I can do is put down my thoughts regardless of its originality or circumstance, and add it to the sea that makes up the populous thoughts of this album.
My journey with Black Sabbath began with the two albums that Ronnie James Dio had helmed in the early 1980’s, through circumstance and not through a choice of the lead singer. This album was then the next that I heard, sometime during 1986 when my music world was changed forever. I had actually heard Ozzy Osbourne’s solo albums and Black Sabbath’s Dio-helmed albums before I got around to hearing “Paranoid”, which is certainly an interesting journey to get to that point but as it turns out not one that disaffected my enjoyment of any of these albums. And my love of this album grew over time. To begin with I just used to love listening to the songs. Eventually at some point, probably when I began to be interested in actually playing these songs, I listened to them more carefully, and began to pick up on things that I had never noticed before, deeper aspects to the way the music had been created and played, and how that gave each track several levels that I had never noticed while I stayed on the surface and just enjoyed what I heard. Delving deeper into each track, and actually listening to what each instrument was playing, opened up a whole new level of love for this album for me.
I’ve had this album on a lot in recent times. Prior to the final “Back to the Beginning” concert in Birmingham, I had all of Sabbath’s 1970’s albums on rotation in preparation for it. Then on Ozzy’s sad passing three weeks later, I went through them all again. And now, for the past 2-3 weeks, I have had “Paranoid” on constant, consistent rotation. And this album rarely stays away from my stereo long at the best of times, but I have really indulged myself now over a two month period. At it never gets old. It is still as much fun to listen to now as it was two months ago, two years ago, two decades ago. And why is that? Let me explain it like this.
This is not what I consider my favourite Black Sabbath album. Those of you who have listened to episode 50 of this season's podcast will know of my undying love for the album “Heaven and Hell”, and how much of myself is tied up in the gloriousness of that album. So, while that would be my favourite Black Sabbath album, this certainly comes in a close second. Along with a few others.
What I can say is this. For me, “Paranoid” is the greatest heavy metal album of all time. I don’t think it is a contest. And you could name another half a dozen albums simply from Black Sabbath that you could argue are ‘greater’. And another fifty perhaps whose tracklist and structure could claim that mantle. But here is my counter. “Paranoid” was released in 1970. Apart from a couple of Led Zeppelin albums, the very early Deep Purple albums that are not really classed in the same sub genre we are discussing here, and maybe a few other albums around this time that had some influence on bands down the track, THIS was the first of its kind. The debut album had some amazing songs on it that broke the mould, but also a couple of tracks that follow a slightly different path. “Paranoid” was unique for its time, and in many ways remains so now. Eight tracks. Almost 42 minutes long. Each of them representative in some way of the music genre that this album created, heavy metal. Heavy songs. Doomy songs. Faster songs. Mid-tempo songs. Sludgy songs. The riffmaster, creating guitar riffs that spanned generations. His partner on bass, who created basslines that segued away from where the guitarist was going, and yet combined so amazingly that it created a wall of sound that few have been able to challenge in the years since. Bill Ward on drums at his peak, playing hard heavy beats, but also offering the little fills and frills that were so much a part of making these songs unique. That simple hi-hat intro to “War Pigs” that is so synonymous with the song, a simple addition with the lifting of the hi-hat on the 11th tap to create that change that has made it memorable. And Ozzy Osbourne, whose remarkable vocals emphasised the moods of each track and truly bring joy to each of them. These four created 8 tracks that each contain their own individual brilliance, and combined create the perfect heavy metal album. The FIRST perfect heavy metal album. There are others that followed. But this was the first. This was the template. All of those other perfect heavy metal albums exist only because of “Paranoid”. This is the giant, and it is yet to be slayed.
55 years on from its release, it was only two months earlier that the band lost its first member with the passing of Ozzy Osbourne. In time, all four will eventually pass. But their legacy will forever be this album, an album that will still be as important in another 55 years as it remains today. All hail Black Sabbath, the masters and creators of an album that remains a landmark in the history of music.
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