
Posts Tagged ‘Black Sabbath’
BLACK SABBATH – ” The End “
Posted: November 8, 2017 in MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osborne, The End, Tony Iommi
The BLACK SABBATH – ” The Ten Year War ” 8LP vinyl set
Posted: October 26, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, The Ten Year War

Black Sabbath’s lavish new 8LP vinyl box set, “The Ten Year War”, which features coloured vinyl pressings of the band’s first eight albums, books, posters, USB stick and more. BMG issue a new limited edition Black Sabbath vinyl box set called The Ten Year War which features the first eight Sabbath albums pressed on coloured vinyl and re-mastered from the original tapes (by Andy Pearce). The hefty (and pricey) set also includes two two rare seven-inch singles, a crucifix-shaped USB stick with high-res audio of the eight albums and various printed material. Watch the unboxing video of The Ten Year War below:
Albums in the box
Coloured vinyl pressings of:
- BLACK SABBATH
- PARANOID
- MASTER OF REALITY (including original fold-out colour poster)
- VOL. 4
- SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH
- SABOTAGE
- TECHNICAL ECSTASY
- NEVER SAY DIE!
Two seven-inch singles
- Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)/Black Sabbath (Japanese version)
- Paranoid/The Wizard (Chilean version)
- Crucifix shaped Black Sabbath USB stick, exclusive to this box set, with MQA high definition audio of the first eight Black Sabbath albums.
- The Ten Year War brochure, reproduced from the original publication.
- Hardback book, featuring accolades from the cream of rock royalty, coupled with official and candid iconic photography of the band during their 1970s tours, recording sessions and photo-shoots.
- Tenth Anniversary World Tour 1978 Official Programme
- Reprinted tour poster from the 1972 Seattle Centre Arena show.
Box set cover art has been created by globally renowned street artist Shepard Fairey
All box sets are individually numbered

BLACK SABBATH – ” Paranoid ” Released 18th September 1970
Posted: September 18, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, Paranoid

Although it wouldn’t appear on American record store shelves until the early months of 1971, Black Sabbath’s seminal sophomore album, “Paranoid”began invading the U.K. (and Europe) on September. 18th, 1970. It quickly raced up the charts in many countries and reached an astonishing No. 1 in the band’s homeland.
Paranoid proved that the wholly unexpected Top 10 success enjoyed by the Birmingham quartet’s modestly recorded self titled debut released barely six months prior, had been anything but a fluke. For vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, Paranoid was just a hastily assembled collection of the best songs they had to offer, even as they were learning to cope with a hurricane of fame, well beyond their wildest expectations. Black Sabbath released ‘Paranoid’ their second studio album in the US. The album features the band’s best-known signature songs, including the title track, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’. The album was originally titled War Pigs, but allegedly the record company changed it to Paranoid, fearing backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War. Its sales were enhanced by the success of the “Paranoid” single. “That single attracted screaming kids,” Iommi recalled in the liner notes to Reunion in 1998. “We saw people dancing when we played it and we decided that we shouldn’t do singles for a long while after that to stay true to the fans who’d liked us before we’d become popular.

But at least the four young men knew better than to mess with their winning formula. They once again retained producer Roger Bain and, other than enjoying the luxury of spending more time in the studio (versus the frantic 24 hours afforded to their debut), also maintained their songwriting penchant for wanton, unrefined musical power. Their lyrics avoided pop music’s traditionally pithy stories of love and lust in favor of more desperate subjects steeped both in the occult and real-life terrors.
To wit, Paranoid’s opening epic “War Pigs” started out named “Walpurgis,” before lyricist Butler swapped satanic ritual for equally evil warmongering. The future doom standard “Iron Man” shrouded apocalyptic allegory under the guise of dark fantasy, while “Electric Funeral” cut right to the chase. The terrifying “Hand of Doom” contained graphic warnings about heroin addiction.
Even a song as surreal-seeming as “Fairies Wear Boots” was actually inspired by run-ins with belligerent skinheads at the band’s shows. And though Paranoid’s sonic wildcard, “Planet Caravan,” professed science fiction musings over its unnaturally gentle, psychedelic dreamscape, the provocatively named “Rat Salad” was clearly just a platform for Ward to shine, based on John Bonham’s “Moby Dick.”
Finally, there was the bite-sized, frantic title track, which was jammed together so quickly in a fit of spontaneous inspirational combustion, that reading too much into its hastily coupled words is both unwise and, frankly, unnecessary — except to point out how its vague ramblings on loneliness, misery, and general confusion about one’s lot in life once again connected with disenfranchised listeners everywhere.
Needless to say, it was precisely this vast population of marginalized youths, feeling excluded by society, that started flocking into Black Sabbath’s growing fan base around the world, lured by Paranoid’s undeniable destiny to become heavy metal’s definitive watershed.
Nothing has changed since Paranoid‘s release. Heavy metal continues to seduce generation after generation of rebellious kids seeking music they can relate to, and vent their pent-up frustrations and aggression to — all of it facilitated by the thousands of subsequent albums that can trace this fundamental purpose and usefulness to Black Sabbath and their most important career’s achievement, Paranoid.
BLACK SABBATH – ” The Ten Year War ” Box Set
Posted: July 21, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, Box Set, The Ten Year War
The Limited Edition Box Set Includes: 8 x vinyl LPs meticulously reproduced in their original sleeves, re-mastered by renowned mastering engineer Andy Pearce from the original tapes and pressed on 180 gram splatter-coloured vinyl, each LP with unique and individual colouring.
• BLACK SABBATH
• PARANOID
• MASTER OF REALITY (incl original fold-out colour poster)
• VOL. 4
• SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH
• SABOTAGE
• TECHNICAL ECSTASY
• NEVER SAY DIE!
plus
• 2 x rare 7” singles, reproduced in their original sleeves: *Japanese *version of Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)/Black Sabbath. *Chilean *version of Paranoid/The Wizard (only 100 copies of the original radio promo were pressed)

• Crucifix shaped Black Sabbath USB stick, exclusive to this box set, which can be worn round the neck and contains MQA high definition audio of the first eight Black Sabbath albums
• The extremely rare The Ten Year War brochure, reproduced from the original publication
• Hardback book, featuring accolades from the cream of rock royalty, coupled with official and candid iconic photography of the band during their 1970s tours, recording sessions and photo-shoots
• Tenth Anniversary World Tour 1978 Official Programme, impeccably reproduced
• Reprinted tour poster from the 1972 Seattle Centre Arena show
• Box set cover art has been created by globally renowned street artist Shepard Fairey
Black Sabbath are one of the world’s most popular and enduring heavy metal bands and are constantly credited with inventing and defining the genre. To this day, the world of metal – fans and artists alike – cites Sabbath as being both influential and inspirational.
From the blues-laden metal which defined the band’s sound on their self-titled debut, to the multi-million selling follow-up, ‘Paranoid’, Sabbath captured the attention of a generation hungry for a new musical direction. However, the all-conquering enthusiasm shown by Sabbath’s rabid fan base wasn’t always mirrored by the gatekeepers within the music press, and it is this disparity which inspired the band to publish The Ten Year War brochure. This document was a playful dig at the journalists of the time with the witty tagline: “More good press than most – more bad press than any”.
With a career spanning 50 years, Black Sabbath have proven time and time again that their musical heritage is unrivaled. Having sold tens of millions of records, sold out global arena tours and bewitched millions of dedicated fans, the band have built a catalogue envied by all.
The Ten Year War box set brings together the first eight Sabbath studio albums in one place, plus a swathe of other rarities, and celebrates the band’s achievements on the stage, in the studio and in the public eye.
BLACK SABBATH – ” Balearic Sabbath ” Remix By DJ Robert E. Lee
Posted: April 6, 2017 in MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, DJ Robert E. Lee, Remix

Black Sabbath is directly responsible for some of the hardest and heaviest sounds ever created by man or beast. One fateful day in Birmingham, seventeen-year-old sheet metal worker Tony Iommi lost a couple fingertips in a bloody industrial accident, and the world gained heavy metal as a result. Well, Iommi claims it was an accident, anyway. Seems more like a deal with the devil,
Anyway, despite their well-earned reputation as the grandfathers of everything hard, heavy, and unholy in general and the architects of blood-freezing doom metal in particular, early Sabbath wasn’t always heavy, all the time. They mellowed the fuck out on occasion. Brit DJ Robert E. Lee proves the case with the incredible Balearic Sabbath, a 35-minute excursion into Black Sabbath’s most placid moments, a slow n’ easy Sunday morning remix full of free-flowing flutes, jazzy coffeehouse guitar noodles and softly banged bongos. From “Planet Caravan” to “Laguna Sunrise” to “Solitude” and back, this droopy-eyed foray into Sabbath’s gentler side is the perfect soundtrack to your next lost weekend.
BLACK SABBATH – ” Born Again ” Demo’s
Posted: October 1, 2016 in MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, Born Again, Ian Gillian

Though it is often maligned album release by Black Sabbath as being “one of their worst albums,” I’ve always had a soft spot for the Born Again LP. Featuring Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan on vocals, many referred to this line-up as “Deep Sabbath.” Gillan, a rock super-star in his own right, was obviously no slouch, but Ozzy and Ronnie James Dio both left big shoes to fill in the Black Sabbath camp.
Fans have always been divided on the album’s iconic cover art as well. Some decrying it as one of the worst album covers of all time or at least, certainly, the worst Black Sabbath album cover, while others have found it to be a repellant work of genius. The story of this sleeve almost deserves its own post, but it’s totally worth reprinting here, direct from designer Steve Joule’s mouth:
The Black Sabbath Born Again album sleeve was designed under extraordinary circumstances; basically what had happened was that Sharon and Ozzy had split very acrimoniously from her father’s (Don Arden) management and record label. He subsequently decided that he would wreak his revenge by making Black Sabbath (whom he managed) the best heavy metal band in the world, which, of course they are but back then in the early ’80’s they weren’t quite the international megastars that they had been in the ’70’s. His plans included recruiting Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan, getting Bill Ward back in on drums and stealing as many of Sharon and Ozzy’s team as possible and as I was designing Ozzy’s sleeves at the time I of course got asked to submit some rough designs.
As I didn’t want to lose my gig with the Osbourne’s I thought the best thing to do would be to put some ridiculous and obvious designs down on paper, submit them and then get the beers in with the rejection fee, but oh no, life ain’t that easy. In all I think there were four rough ideas that were given to the management and band to peruse (unfortunately I no longer have the roughs as I would love to see just how bad the other three were as sadly my booze and drug addled brain no longer remembers that far back), anyway one of the ideas was of course the baby and the first image of a baby that I found was from the front cover of a 1968 magazine called Mind Alive that my parents has bought me as a child in order to further my education, so in reality I say blame my parents for the whole sorry mess. I then took some black and white photocopies of the image (the picture is credited to ‘Rizzoli Press’) that I overexposed, stuck the horns, nails, fangs into the equation, used the most outrageous colour combination that acid could buy, bastardized a bit of the Olde English typeface and sat back, shook my head and chuckled.
The story goes that at the meeting Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were present but no Ian Gillan or Bill Ward. Tony loved it and Geezer, so I’m reliably informed, looked at it and in his best Brummie accent said, “It’s shit. But it’s fucking great!” Don not only loved it but had already decided that a Born Again baby costume was to be made for a suitable midget who was going to wear it and be part of the now infamous ‘Born Again Tour.’ So suddenly I find myself having to do the bloody thing. I was also offered a ridiculous amount of money (about twice as much as I was being paid for an Ozzy sleeve design) if I could deliver finished artwork for front, back and inner sleeve by a certain date.
As the dreaded day drew nearer and nearer I kept putting off doing it again and again until finally the day before I sprang into action with the help of a neighbor, (Steve ‘Fingers’ Barrett) a bottle of Jack Daniels and the filthiest speed that money could buy on the streets of South East London and we bashed the whole thing out in a night, including hand lettering all the lyrics, delivered it the next day where upon I received my financial reward. But that wasn’t the end of it oh no, when Gillan finally got to see a finished sleeve he hated it with a vengeance and hence the now famous quote “I looked at the cover and puked!” Not wanting to sound bitchy but over the years I’ve said the same thing about most of Gillan’s album sleeves. He also allegedly threw a box of 25 copies of the album out of his window. Gillan might have hated it but Max Cavelera (Sepultura, Soulfly) and Glen Benton (Deicide) have both gone on record saying that it is their favorite album sleeve.
I recently became aware of a demo version of the Born Again album that some kind Internet soul has graciously uploaded to YouTube.
This “unmixed” demo version of the album completely smokes the studio release. The guitars sound more cranked, especially on the solos, the cheesetastic keyboards are gone, and everything just sounds utterly raw. “Trashed” here especially rules, as does “Zero the Hero” which I’ve always thought was musically ten years ahead of its time—to me it sounds like the birth of “nu-metal,” and this demo version is even heavier sounding than the LP release, missing all of the extra unnecessary sound effects and with slightly different lyrics.
I’m not sure if hearing this demo version of Born Again will change any detractor’s minds, but I think this is the preferred way to hear all of these songs.
MARISSA NADLER – ” Solitude “
Posted: September 26, 2016 in MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, Cover, Marissa Nadler

Marissa Nadler has always had a way of haunting everything she touches. Her voice is rich with its own ghostly wisp whilst her melodies swirl and swirl until time stands still like a frozen waterfall. She’s one of the most consistently brilliant musicians in the world and we’re lucky to have her. Those of a fragile disposition should investigate her
This is my cover of the Black Sabbath song Solitude from the album “Masters Of Reality”.
Credits:
Recorded by Marissa Nadler
Vocals, electric guitars, synthesizers by Marissa Nadler
Percussion by Parker Kindred.
Mixed by Mike Fiore, 2015
BLACK SABBATH – ” Live at Ozzfest Meets Knotfest ” 24th September 2016
Posted: September 26, 2016 in MUSICTags: Black Sabbath, Live, Ozzfest Meets Knotfest

Fan-filmed video footage of BLACK SABBATH’s September 24th performance at Ozzfest Meets Knotfest at San Manuel Amphitheater and Festival Grounds in San Bernardino, California .
This is the second, and final, leg of the band’s “The End” farewell tour. They played across the country earlier this year.
BLACK SABBATH has announced that it will play its last show ever in the U.S. on November 12th at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. The gig will take place nearly five years to the day that the legendary act announced their reunion. The group has also added two more headlining shows to its North American trek, on November 8th at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma and November 10th at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. These dates come at the end of the band’s North American tour, which kicked off on August 17th in Wantagh, New York.
Black Sabbath will bring its storied career to a close in the band’s native England, with seven shows booked there in January and February. The last two, on February 2nd and February 4th, will take place in Sabbath’s hometown of Birmingham and will likely be their final shows.
The original lineup of Sabbath came together in 1969 with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. That lineup recorded and toured through 1978, and periodically reformed through the ’90s and 2000s for live work.
They regrouped again in late 2011 for a new album and tour, although Ward dropped out after just a few months. The remaining trio issued the “13” album in 2013 and backed it with a successful world tour — despite Iommi being treated for lymphoma since 2012.
Black Sabbath’s setlist for the Ozzfest Meets Knotfest:
01. Black Sabbath
02. Fairies Wear Boots
03. After Forever
04. Into The Void
05. Snowblind
06. War Pigs
07. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
08. N.I.B.
09. Hand Of Doom
10. Rat Salad
11. Iron Man
12. Dirty Women
13. Children of the Grave
Encore:
14. Paranoid
BLACK SABBATH – ” Paranoid ” 4 Disc Re-Issue
Posted: September 19, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Bill Ward, Birmingham, Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Paranoid, Tony Iommi

Black Sabbath will release a 4-disc deluxe edition of their classic 2nd album Paranoid, featuring alternative mix and live tracks. Black Sabbath have announced a four-disc super deluxe edition of their 1970 second album Paranoid.
It’ll launch on November 11th and is being released to coincide with the band’s final run of live dates on their The End tour, which is scheduled to wrap up in February with two dates in their hometown of Birmingham.
The Paranoid package will include the 2012 remaster of the original album, along with a rare 1974 stereo quad mix. In addition, the set will include two live performances from 1970 in Montreux and Brussels.
It’ll also feature a hardbound book with extensive liner notes, photos, memorabilia, a poster and a replica of the tour book sold during the Paranoid run of shows that year.
It’ll also include new interviews with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.
Initially released in 1970, Paranoid featured classic Black Sabbath tracks War Pigs, Iron Man, Electric Funeral, Fairies Wear Boots and the title track, which reached no.4 in the UK singles charts and no.61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
The Paranoid Super Deluxe Edition is available for pre-order via Amazon.
It may have been released 46 years ago, but Black Sabbath’s second album has lost none of its unearthly power
Rat Salad
By Sabbath standards, Rat Salad is little more than a throwaway instrumental, but by most other bands’ standards it’s pretty fucking great. 150 seconds of spiralling riffs and muscular oomph, it makes up the numbers on Paranoid to some degree, but still more than justifies its presence on this classic album by demonstrating just how fiery and exhilarating the young Brummies were by this point. Perhaps more interestingly, it has yet to be confirmed whether any of the band have ever actually eaten a rat salad. It doesn’t sound very appetising, but then they were out of their minds on drugs at the time and anything’s possible when the munchies kick in.
Paranoid
Dashed off as a last-minute filler for Sabbath’s second album, Paranoid may not have ever been intended as an immortal anthem for the ages, but that’s what it has indubitably become. As humble as its birth was, it’s a textbook example of a classic heavy rock song: short, to the point, laden with hooks and performed with the kind of urgency and vitality that only young bands with big dreams and tons of confidence can muster. The fact that it’s only the seventh best song on Paranoid is testament to the mind-bending quality of the rest of the album, rather than a criticism of the song itself. Everyone loves Paranoid.
Electric Funeral
It’s an obvious truth that he entire doom metal scene owes its collective arse to Black Sabbath, and to songs like Electric Funeral in particular. Crushing, sinister and wonderfully weird, this is a song that still sounds like the end of the world slithering towards us (and given the state of the planet at this point, we deserve nothing less). Lyrics like ‘Robot minds of robot slaves lead them to atomic rage’ and ‘Earth lies in death bed/Clouds cry water dead’ ensure that the apocalyptic vibe is virtually chewable throughout, and the way that Sabbath switch from debilitating dirge to bursts of nimble, mutant blues fury still has the power to take the breath away. May all our funerals be this electric.
Planet Caravan
They may have struck fear into the hearts of polite, Christian folk everywhere with their evil riffs and uncontrollable facial hair, but Black Sabbath were hippies at heart and Planet Caravan remains their finest ever attempt to tap into the woozy bliss of psychedelia. Satan only knows how much weed was smoked during the recording, but seldom has the notion of drifting blearily through the cosmos with one’s true love ever been so vividly evoked. And while Sabbath’s biggest and most seminal contribution to metal remains Tony Iommi’s riffs, the fact that Pantera covered this song on 1994’s Far Beyond Driven proves that Sabbath’s subtle side has had an undeniably enduring effect on the evolution of heavy music too.
Hand Of Doom
Another song that has been utterly essential in inspiring the doom metal legions, Hand Of Doom is obscenely heavy in every respect: the riffs, of course, are pulverising but it’s the lyrics that make this such a bruising seven-minute crawl through unimaginable horror. Inspired by the drug-ravaged disintegration of US soldiers returning from the Vietnam war, it’s a sustained litany of nightmarish observations set to one of the band’s most ingenious arrangements: ‘Push the needle in/Face death’s sickly grin/Holes are in your skin/Caused by deadly pin’… come on, it doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Extra points for the phrase ‘deadly pin’, which may well have saved a few people from dying in freak sewing accidents.
Fairies Wear Boots
Fairies don’t exist, so their footwear is hardly a matter for sensible discussion, but when you’re in the midst of Paranoid’s mesmerising closing track, it wouldn’t take much to make you believe and head straight for the nearest branch of Foot Locker to do some research on miniature clogs. That aside, Fairies Wear Boots is still a staple in Sabbath’s live sets, and with good reason: this song swings like a megalodon’s ballbag and deftly combines pounding blues rock vibes with a strong sense of pot-addled euphoria that reaches an almost comical peak when Ozzy sings ‘Smokin’ and trippin’ is all that you do!’, thus summing up Black Sabbath’s recreational itinerary with laudable precision. As an added bonus, this is one of the few heavy metal songs that features a dancing dwarf.
Iron Man
One of Tony Iommi’s greatest skills is to write riffs that are as easy to sing along with as the songs’ vocal parts. Whenever the band play Iron Man live, everyone goes apeshit, despite the fact that this is one of Sabbath’s heaviest, slowest and most unashamedly lumbering anthems. Geezer Butler’s lyrics were apparently inspired by Ozzy Osbourne’s observation that the song’s main riff sounded like “a big iron bloke walking about”, which is both brilliant and daft. However, there’s nothing daft about the timeless might of the band’s ensemble performance: this is the sound of heavy metal being forged in real time; immense, unstoppable, ageless and devastating.
War Pigs
46 years on, War Pigs is still one of the most ridiculously thrilling songs ever performed by human beings. You don’t have to be aware of all the noted artists and bands that have covered it – ranging from Faith No More’s straight but scintillating version from The Real Thing through to quirky art punks Alice Donut’s trombone-led demolition on 1990’s Revenge Fantasies Of The Impotent – to see how fundamental this epic and grandiose eruption of heavy, heavy thunder is to just about everything we hold dear in the metal world.
War Pigs is simply part of metal’s sonic DNA, from its bewildering succession of colossal riffs to Geezer Butler’s powerful anti-war lyrics, delivered with youthful aplomb by Ozzy Osbourne: it’s a towering template for intelligent, rampaging heaviness that still sends shivers down the spine of most sensible listeners. And yes, Geezer did rhyme ‘masses’ with ‘masses’, but so what? It’s War Pigs. It rules (and those words do rhyme, let’s face it).
BLACK SABBATH – ” Paranoid ” 46 YEARS AGO TODAY 18th September 1970
Posted: September 19, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Bill Ward, Birmingham, Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osborne, Paranoid, Tony Iommi

Paranoid is the second studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath. Released in September 1970, it was the band’s only album release to top the UK Albums Chart until the release of 13 in 2013. Paranoid contains several of the band’s signature songs, , Paranoid the single was the band’s only Top 20 hit, reaching number 4 in the UK charts. It is often regarded as one of the most quintessential and influential albums in heavy metal history. Vertigo’s eagerness to capitalise on the success of Sabbath’s debut album, putting the band back in the studio for a follow-up. That record, initially titled War Pigs but changed at the last minute to Paranoid,
46 years ago today Black Sabbath released their single ‘Paranoid’ taken from their second studio album. The album features some of the band’s best-known signature songs, including the title track, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’. The album was originally titled War Pigs, but allegedly the record company changed it to Paranoid, fearing backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War. Watch Black Sabbath perform the iconic riff fueled/drum filled “Fairies Wear Boots” off Paranoid live in 1970.
Tony Iommi: The producer said, “We haven’t got enough songs. We need another three minutes.” So Paranoid was made up there and then. It was just a throwaway thing. While everybody popped out for a bite to eat, I came up with this riff.
Geezer Butler laughs as he tells the story of how he and Ozzy both refused to play the song Paranoid when Tony Iommi originally came up with the riff.

“It was right at the end of recording the second album, which was going to be called War Pigs,” he recalls. “We were short on material, and Tony just kind of came up with the riff on the spot. But Ozzy and I thought it was too close to Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin. We always loved Zeppelin in them days, sitting round on the floor smoking dope and listening to that first album.
“So when Tony came up with the riff to Paranoid me and Ozzy spotted it immediately and went: ‘Naw, we can’t do that!’ In fact we ended up having quite a big argument about it. Guess who was wrong? The fact that it became such a big hit for us – and is now probably our best known song
Ozzy Osbourne: I remember going home and I said to my then-wife, “I think we’ve written a single.” She said, “But you don’t write singles.” I said, “I know, but this has been driving me nuts on the train all the way back.”
Bill Ward: It was about 1:30 in the afternoon and Tony had the riffs. By 2:00 we had Paranoid exactly as you hear it on the record.
Recorded at Regent Sound Studios and Island Studios in, London
- Black Sabbath line-up
- Tony Iommi – guitar, flute
- Geezer Butler – bass guitar
- Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
- Bill Ward – drums, congas
Black Sabbath have announced a four-disc super deluxe edition of their 1970 second album Paranoid.
It’ll launch on November 11th and is being released to coincide with the band’s final run of live dates on their The End tour, which is scheduled to wrap up in February with two dates in their hometown of Birmingham.
The Paranoid package will include the 2012 remaster of the original album, along with a rare 1974 stereo quad mix. In addition, the set will include two live performances from 1970 in Montreux and Brussels.
It’ll also feature a hardbound book with extensive liner notes, photos, memorabilia, a poster and a replica of the tour book sold during the Paranoid run of shows that year.
It’ll also include new interviews with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.
Initially released in 1970, Paranoid featured classic Black Sabbath tracks War Pigs, Iron Man, Electric Funeral, Fairies Wear Boots and the title track, which reached no.4 in the UK singles charts and no.61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
The Paranoid Super Deluxe Edition is available for pre-order via Amazon.