Black Sabbath Paranoid Track By Track Thread

As Godshifter says is the general definition. I tend to also mean tonally as well often when I speak of pocket. Meaning a sound sits well with the other sounds, tonally and timewise.

 

Great review. Tony's solo has a unique sound in that it is purely in the Dorian mode. He is soloing over a C Chord but is playing a solo that is based on the notes in a B flat scale. I am not sure if he knew that he was playing modally or if he just liked the way it sounded.

 

@GodShifter. I hope you don't mind if I ask an off topic question. It's regarding TE pressings or maybe pressings in general

 

I love that you pointed that out, and wish I could quickly by ear detect the dorian mode. I tend to use it when nothing else works or to add a flavor when I've been sitting in natural or pentatonic minor too long..... I'm not too at home in Dorian, it's like an afterthought.

It's fascinating to me to think of how players in the early early 70s and before got around musically. By the time I started playing (late 70s) there was so much tab available to learn scales, arpeggios, modes. In times I've jammed with non rock musicians, they tend not to have modes memorized but play what is on a page. My reference tends to be the black guitar grimoire book.
Crazy what 70s players might of been doing if that book was around then....
Hand of doom
I love the groove of this and also that when the heavy part comes in you hear the guitars volume rise, as opposed to a punch in for the heavy guitar. With this you get a continuous performance, though there is definitely some overdubbing too.
The solo is really good, and I think I do some practicing in dorian. Hand of doom is probably the Paranoid track I listened to the least over the years, which at this point makes it my favorite on the album.

 

lol, I don’t certainly don’t mind you asking, but I’m not the guy ask about pressings, reissues, and what not. I have my copies of albums and that’s it. Outside of my equipment, I’m hardly an audiophile. I don’t believe in spending money on other copies of stuff outside of bonus tracks. I’m not, in the least, trying to be condescending or blow you off, but it’s just not my area of expertise. That said, there are MANY here who’s expertise is just that.

 

So, I have a question. I purchased "We Sold Our Soul..." on CD today.
I did not even notice the cover art. I saw the title and thought, ooohhh, I have totally been wanting this (it was like $9). Well, the cover is totally bizarre and it does not have a WB label. Mostly it is strange. I am not concerned of being ripped off or anything. The quality is pretty great if not a bit muffled sounding in some areas (my husband does not hear that though) and the discs are pristine. I am mostly concerned that I am inadvertently part of some seedy operation

Anyway, I am just curious if anyone would know why it has no WB label. Could it be a bootleg? And what does it mean that it is an early pressing?

 

It's probably legit. Google the label that's on your CD to find info from discogs or allmusic, or try the search function here.
I've been finding a lot of info on pressings here. In any case the real criminals in the bootleg scene are those selling product, buyers to a much lesser degree. I've went from being an owner of one original WB cd pressing of Vol 4 to owning three different masterings, after the thread. I had to stop myself from buying Vinyl of it last night, Amazon has a good price on the 2009 mastering, which I have a CD copy of on the way.

 

I usually can't tell some modes as well. Heck, I usually can't for instance rip a C Dorian scale off. I cheat and play off the counter part Major or Minor scale.
BTW, Guitar Techniques magazine will have a section on the Dorian Mode in the May issue. Should be interesting. Peter Frampton uses Dorian mode a lot.

 

Thanks Jeff. My hubby thought it is probably legit too. It sounds soooo awesome. Oh, the rain on Black Sabbath is encompassing.
I did not see the 2009 remasters for sale on Amazon. Maybe I just wasn't looking well enough.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Vol-4-180-Gr...d=1524459700&sr=8-2&keywords=black+sabbath+LP
It says it's a 2016 release but on the track listing it shows all 2009 remasters for the song tracks.
The 2009 remaster seems to be the best reasonable priced pressing out there for Vol 4, according to much mulling around in threads here. I've already ordered a CD with 09 mastering, but this vinyl is cheap. That said, this could be the later remaster and Amazon is all F'd up, which I have too on CD, and it's pretty good.

 

Sorry for being late to the party. Anyways, now I'm looking forward to contributing with my two cents

My apologies too for not being able yet this time to comment about the album lyrics, since I terribly lack enough vocabulary to easily identify the words being sung, even when by such an original singer like Ozzy. And I guess you realise that I'm more familiar with the English language only when it comes to reading or writing with the facilities of an on-line dictionary.

 

Thanks for that tube man! Bill really shines insanely high!

 

I feel sorry to hear all that about RRB...

 

Very interesting video btw.

 

Paranoid is to me a flat out milestone, and one of my very favourite albums, obviously. What a perfect contrasts of slow and fasts tempos ... loud and soft passages.... It's just ALL about dynamics, restraint, raw power and explosive interplay, everything drenched with such a mind blowing intensity probably never previously explored in rock music with such grandeur. And I think its mood dynamic and atmosphere is literally absent from a lot of music up to these days, really a bit of a lost art, alas.

It's such a powerful album that created one of the earliest blueprints of the dawning of an entire rock genre. Their well-known striking dark and doom laden tritone song structures, occult imagery and energetic power chords are utterly extraordinary on this album, it really testifies to the creative genius of the band.

 

War Pigs is a classic song in anyone's language.

As I already pointed out in other Sabbath thread, the utterly dark and doomy intro sets the striking intensity and drama that is explored in the whole song to a majestic degree! Btw, that intro might have been born from one more of Tony Iommi's inspirations taken from Classical Music, in this case precisely the borrowing of some classical waltz rythm. War Pigs progresses in such a powerful pace of tension/release that is really breathtaking, to say the least. The last guitar section ends it in such a majestic way that it feels to me like the climax of a terrific listening experience, utterly mind blowing. This fantastic song will always be one of my very favourites, and features one of my very favourite Ward's drummings, he's absolutely peerless there!

The track Paranoid will always stand out for its classic riff being definitely one of the most inspiring for generations of metal groups. From 80's thrash to speed metal groups and 90's progmetal, everyone owes a huge debt to it.

Planet Caravan is another example of the band's astonishing musicianship, these guys really knew their stuff. This time creating an absolutely gorgeous and genuine piece of jazzy psychedelia, enhanced by Ward's bongos and Butler's gentle bass.

Iron Man - what a menacing opening to it, developing then to an absolutely haunting, thrilling mid-section and later Iommi's spine-chilling solemn solo. Also worthy of note Geezer Butler's thumping bass lines and Bill Ward's jazzy drumming, both again bringing that breath of fresh air to the song's general heaviness.

Electric Funeral is just pure magic in the way it develops itself, starting so gloomy and dark, then a brilliant jazz influenced section develops much more muscles and energy, what a startling effect it gives! And, frankly, what an overlooked Sabbath gem it is....

The longest track of the album, Hand Of Doom starts out gloomily and menacingly slowing down thereafter. And it turns out perfect how the drumming, the bass playing, the guitar work and the singing, so brilliantly all together manage to groove, boogie, gallop, rock and do it all again with tempo shifting. All that in just one song! Absolutely amazing. Oh and this time Ozzy's inspired vocals and Ward's brilliant driving rhythm stand out IMO.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. He may also have a tailpiece on the SG that can be pushed down causing the bend. He has certainly played it in different ways on different occasions. Maybe to confuse people like us. I still think the two-string behind-the-nut technique sounds closest to the LP version. I've played it that way since forever, don't remember where I first got it from, must have been a magazine or something.

 

Hand of Doom. Another favorite of mine. It's just... perfect. For me, anyway. Especially in this live rendition:


Just watch Ozzy here. Singing this song, he looks focused to an extent that I find almost scary to watch. What a performance.

So how do you like this live version?

 

There are multiple releases out there of this compilation, sometimes with different covers, some 2xCD, some 1xCD. Most are legit, but there are also a few pirated versions. You might wanna check if you find your version here:
Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll

I always strongly disliked the fact that they wrote the "S" on both this cover and the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath cover as runes:
Runic insignia of the Schutzstaffel - Wikipedia

Obviously not a topic for discussion on this forum since it is a political issue. Just wanted to mention it because you said you found the cover "bizarre", and the runes might contribute to that effect. (Yes, I know about Kiss.)

 

with the simmons and stanley being jewish, i always took it as a take the power back thing

 

Where dat? Bain't no pig nose on my WWA vinyl! Son, son, you've gone too far...

Regarding the irrelevance of the cover following the change of title, back in the 70s I had no idea it was originally gonna be called 'War Pigs', and the cover made perfect sense to me: a paranoid nutter, in the local park at night, in dayglo pink, with a sword and wearing a helmet, jumping out from behind a tree to confront a perceived aggressor. Obvious! Quite how the sleeve designer thought the pink dude looked like a 'War Pig' is impossible to say, but if they'd kept the original title, the cover would've been even more comical than it turned out to be, IMO.

 

Yep I was looking for the tremolo on the guitar myself in the video. I didn't see a bar, but maybe it wasn't in.

 

That's certainly one way of interpreting it. In any case, the same could not be claimed for Sabbath. Anyway, we cannot discuss it here...

 

War Pigs is longer

 

RAT SALAD 1970 (Iommi, Butler, Ward, Osbourne) (2:40)

Following "Hand of Doom" is a pretty cool short instrumental named "Rat Salad" than runs off a swinging, rolling, jazzy figure with Ward doing some of his best Gene Krupa drum licks. During the main riff with the guitar and bass Ward does a syncopated snare/bass drum pattern that is really fun to listen to. "Rat Salad" is like the more interesting, concise version of "Moby Dick", I suppose. Take that, Bonham! Frankly, I've always found the drum solo on a full length LP to be a bit of a tired fallback (read: filler), but because "Rat Salad" is so short, it works where, often, drum solos on albums do not. It's interesting enough to keep the listener's attention and Ward is creative enough (and brief enough) not to make things dull.