On September 18, 1970, Black Sabbath released what would become one of their most iconic albums of all time, Paranoid. Full of enduring hits, this is the album that brought us career-defining tracks like “Iron Man”, “War Pigs”, and, of course, the title track. Paranoid was a tremendous success, topping the U.K. Albums chart, peaking at No. 12 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and reaching the top five in several other countries around the world.
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On the anniversary of this tremendous album’s release, we explore six facts about Paranoid that you might not know (unless you’re a diehard Ozzy fan).
Most of the Songs Black Sabbath Jams
It’s a tale as old as time: a band is so eager to book a gig that they ignore the time frame that the venue is asking them to play. A four-hour gig with an hour and 45 minutes worth of material? Easy peasy, if you’re willing to jam. Black Sabbath found themselves in more than one of these multi-hour gigs, leading them to jam on riffs that would later become “War Pigs” and “Rat Salad”.
Some of the ‘Paranoid’ Tracks Had Much Different Sounding Names
In true U.K. fashion, “Iron Man” was originally dubbed “Iron Bloke”. (Maybe it’s the American in us, but it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue in the same way.) “War Pigs” had a different name, too. Geezer Butler originally wanted the song to be “Walpurgis”, in reference to the Satanic holiday. The record label put their foot down at Satanism references, and the band switched it to “War Pigs”.
Ozzy’s Vocals Were Essentially Turned Into a Hammond Organ
“Planet Caravan” serves as a mellow interlude for the rest of the driving heavy metal tracks on Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. Ozzy Osbourne runs his vocals through a rotating Leslie speaker, which we most often associate with the Hammond organ. The result is a choppy, oscillating, almost robotic vocal tone that floats over the ultra-chill instrumental arrangement. The track is a breath of cool, fresh air that the band sandwiched in between “Paranoid” and “Iron Man”.
The Album Cover Was Referencing a Different Title
While one could argue that the man on the cover of the 1970 Black Sabbath album, Paranoid, does, indeed, look paranoid, the band meant for him to be a war pig—hence the shield and sword. Black Sabbath initially titled the album, War Pigs. But after “Paranoid” began picking up steam as a single, the record label opted to use that song for the album title instead.
The Tragic Controversy Linked to Black Sabbath and ‘Paranoid’
Anyone who knows Black Sabbath knows that much of Ozzy Osbourne’s lyricism centers around love and light, despite what the heavy metal arrangements and mentions of dark, pagan subject matter might otherwise suggest. The Satanic controversy surrounding the band came to a head when a woman was found dead next to her turntable that had Paranoid on it, with a just small-enough dose of sleeping pills in her system to make a suicide ruling undeterminable.
In his memoir, Iron Man, Tony Iommi wrote, “It was a shock to hear about this cause because it wasn’t what we were about. We weren’t trying to kill people! Besides, if people are depressed and put an album on, they’re certainly not going to kill themselves because of the music.”
It Happens To Coincide With Another Piece of Rock History
Interestingly, Black Sabbath released Paranoid on the same day that Jimi Hendrix died. Though unrelated, the two major pieces of rock ‘n’ roll history happening on the same day is an uncanny coincidence. Ozzy Osbourne once told Rolling Stone that he and Geezer Butler watched Hendrix for the first time together in the summer of 1968.
“I seem to remember Jimi was great. But Geezer Butler said he was crap,” Osbourne said. “I don’t know, mate. I think he was taking a different drug than me. But we were only kids.” (They were both around 19 years old.)
Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
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