Black Sabbath Paranoid Track By Track Thread

The other Sabbath track by track threads were a lot of fun. This is my favorite album by the band so I thought I would give it a go.

Not much left to say about the album so here is something from Wikipedia that encapsulates all that needs to be said about the album as a whole.

Paranoid is the second studio album by the English rock band Black Sabbath. Released in September 1970, it was the band's only LP to top the UK Albums Chart until the release of 13 in 2013. Paranoid contains several of the band's signature songs, including "Iron Man", "War Pigs" and the title track, which was the band's only Top 20 hit, reaching number 4 in the UK charts. It is often cited as an influential album in the development of heavy metal music.

 

War Pigs

This song is a lesson in open string use, finesse, coloration using your thumb to deaden bottom strings and volume control. Songwriting wise, masterful use of lead ins and cadences. Brilliant songwriting IMO....the best song ever written by them and the most masterful playing on their part.
The song starts in unison with Iommi hammering a sliding chordal figure of D5 (power chord) to E5. The volume of the guitar amp starts the low E string ringing slightly on its own even though he never picked it. This is called sympathetic resonance where a passive string reacts to a vibration. The tempo is dirge like almost funeral march in nature. At :06 Iommi slides down from the single notes E to D where the D Note starts to feedback from his vibrato shake. At :12, Iommi adds some color with a slide to the G sharp at the 11th fret fifth string. The open E string once again rings in sympathy. He adds a suspended fourth note at :13. Then at :19 it's back to a slide from D-E and back to D. Slight changes in the rhythmic pattern using chordal slides are what makes the opening sound interesting. At :25 he adds additional color by voicing the D-E power chords but this time an octave higher at the 10th and 12th position. An air raid siren (foreshadowed by the guitar feedback earlier) comes in at :31...run for cover if you can. The intro moves along until at :51 where Geezer Butler plays a descending cadence line leading us to the start of the verses at 1:04. The Generals are compared to Witches and Sorcerers harking back to the themes on the first album but this time with a political spin. Iommi hammers out a sliding chordal pattern of D5-E5 throughout and also adds some fills along the way. At 1:47 a bridge starts with Iommi shifting to the octave position again for the D-E slide. He follows with a semi chromatic line of G-F sharp-F-E using power chords at the 15th to 12th frets.
At 2:07 another bridge section (or Verse B?) enters with Iommi playing the open E string slightly palm muted then adding a staccato partial E minor chord at the 12th fret at 2:08. The verse continues with Iommi playing a hammer on riff with a pulloff until at 2:39 where it is back to the open E and E minor staccato riff. The verse returns at 2:49.
At 3:10 the D-E power chord with chromatic line returns. Lots of changes. At 3:30 the song hangs on the E power chord where Iommi starts his soloing in E minor pentatonic. He starts off with some wicked sounding sliding octaves thru 3:37 giving the solo a jazzy sound. In his personal style, the solos are double tracked at times giving the song an unsettling feel. At 4:10 Tony plays an awesome sounding descending octave line adding in the open E string at strategic points to give the line a droning sound. Awesome bend from D-E at 4:13. At 4:19 a cadence starts leading to the verse at 4:41. Cool eighth notes played on the cymbals by Bill Ward...almost a jazz type flourish.

The final verse goes thru 5:22 where the bridges repeat until at 5:43 there is an abrupt stop beginning the first outro. Here Iommi plays a cool sounding arpeggiated E power chord but adding in the E octave and D note to almost give it a sound of tolling bells which are rung for the dead that lay in front of us. This pattern is a masterful use of rhythmic variation since most of the song is built around the D-E sliding chordal motif. E-B-D power chords follow at 6:00 with some fantastic rhythmic flourishes at the end of the sequence. At 6:19 Iommi moves the arpegiatted pattern down to D commencing a cadence, then to C and finally on B at 6:32. At this point, Bill Ward executes an amazing rhythmic cadence that is truly mind blowing. How they come in at 6:35 following this cadence so tightly is a tribute to their musicianship. This section is a second outro. The D-E sliding chord comes crashing in with Iommi playing somber sounding motifs based on the E minor scale....sad outbursts for the dead that lay in front of us. Iommi once again solos in E minor pentatonic with his trademark edgy sound using pulloffs and hammer ons. At 7:18 the motifs in E minor return until at 7:39 where the arpeggiated E power chord returns repeated until finally...the tape is sped up until the chord ends up on C sharp bringing the song to an end.

 

Classic LP from front to back War Pigs is a awesome opening track and the album doesn’t let go right from the beginning, it just holds on to your ears and won’t let go great album through and through, my favorite track is Hand Of Doom

 

Good post, gotta say that Electric Funeral IMO is one of the "doomiest" track they did besides Black Sabbath and N.I.B. and Planet Caravan was a very nice surprise on this album. You can't go wrong with Sabbaths first four albums.

 

While there is a Touch Of overplay, still an awesome album

I’ll comment when I can

 

My first Sabbath experience.

 

Thanks RRB, what a great summary of the song. It is definitely one of their masterpieces. One of the songs I get never tired of. And if am ever afraid to get tired from the album version, I just need to switch to one of their early live renditions to get fully hooked again. Bill's on fire on this song:

 

My review was a little too guitar specifics heavy. The lyrics are fantastic as well and Geezer plays some great bass lines. Bill really moves the song and keeps it from getting tied down.
The bass lines in the intro are fantastic IMO.
Ozzy sounds great as well. I like his vocal range on the song as compared to some later stuff.

 

Some more interesting stuff from Wikipedia....

"The original title of "War Pigs" was "Walpurgis", dealing with the witches' sabbath. "Walpurgis is sort of like Christmas for Satanists. And to me, war was the big Satan", said bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler. "It wasn’t about politics or government or anything. It was Evil itself. So I was saying 'generals gathered in the masses / just like witches at black masses' to make an analogy. But when we brought it to the record company, they thought 'Walpurgis' sounded too Satanic. And that's when we turned it into 'War Pigs'. But we didn't change the lyrics, because they were already finished." Prior to its official release, the band often altered the lyrics significantly when performing it live. An example of this can be found on Ozzy Osbourne's compilation The Ozzman Cometh, which features an early version recorded by Black Sabbath for BBC Radio 1 on 26 April 1970. While Butler has said that "War Pigs" is "totally against the Vietnam War, about how these rich politicians and rich people start all the wars for their benefit and get all the poor people to die for them", vocalist Osbourne has stated that the group "knew nothing about Vietnam. It's just an anti-war song." The song's instrumental outro is entitled "Luke's Wall".

Drummer Bill Ward's first memory of performing the song was at The Beat Club in Switzerland in 1968. The band was required to play multiple sets every night and had little material in their repertoire at that point, so they would perform lengthy jam sessions to fill in the sets. Iommi has said that "War Pigs" originated from one of those jam sessions.

The addition of the air-raid siren and the speeding up of the song's end were done by producer Rodger Bain and engineer Tom Allom. The band had no input in these decisions, though they were pleased with the results.

Martin Popoff has called the song an "ugly, antiwar classic now considered one of Sabbath's top two or three most enduring compositions". Guitar World described the song as "the greatest HM song ever." The magazine also included the song on their list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" and ranked it in 56th place. Steve Huey of AllMusic called the song a "standard".

The song is notable for its publication in the American folk music magazine Broadside, which normally did not feature rock songs.

The song's iconic guitar riff largely inspired that of Arctic Monkeys' 2014 single "Arabella", to the extent that the band often perform an interlude of the song, to enable front man Alex Turner to pick up his guitar in time for his solo."

 

Paranoid album......If memory serves the band wanted to call the album War Pigs and instead the title was changed to Paranoid... According to Geezer they didn't even know what the word Paranoid meant, but everybody liked the way it sounded.

War Pigs is probably the most important track the band ever did, and as far as I'm concerned the most important and best album the band ever made. Not to say that's it's my favorite, only because it's so iconic that I've plain heard it too many times. Pretty simple guitar stuff, but highly original in it's time and played with perfect feel and sense of pocket by the band. Wards signature drum part as far as I'm concerned. The lyrics are clunky yet iconic.....Paul McCartney has been savaged for much less. In this opening track Tony shows a personal lead guitar style developing.. Nobody bends stings the way he does, unless intentionally copying.

 

Thanks. What a great performance. Bill Ward is insanely good on that clip.

 

I agree the guitar parts are simple but the thing that I like about the song are the little things he did to get certain overtones with open strings. He played simple parts but dressed them up in fine fashion. His tone is striking. I think he was still using standard tuning at this point.

 

Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerer of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds...Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait `till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more war pigs have the power,
hand of god has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, god is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercy for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings...Oh lord, yeah!

 

This was my first experience with Sabbath, c. 1974 while in Junior High.

War Pigs is epic in scope with "movements" recalling a Wagner masterpiece in heaviness.

The layered sonic assault at the 2:07 mark leaves me in awe...every...time.

And the mind melting dual guitar solo in the final "movement' with Iommi's finger work ping ponging from left to right ranks as one of the best, in my book. Perhaps, not the most complicated or technical, but lyrical and emotional (to me).

Bill Ward's drumming blows my mind.

If I had to pick just one Sabbath song - I'm down with War Pigs.

 

Great summary RRB, now go finish off Love it to Death, the sun didnt arise today.
General comments first, Paranoid was initially my favorite album of Sabbath but has been eclipsed by Sabotage and Vol 4, but that is mainly because Paranoid has the songs that get played all the time: Title track, Iron Man, and War Pigs. War Pigs is the least overplayed and along with Fairies are my favorite songs on the album. I like the periods of silence in the song, the speed changes and the drum/guitar intros and outros.

 

Thanks!
I will post Sun Arise now.

 

You are correct, even the album cover art reflects a “war pig”. Paranoid a bit overplayed but I still love it. Anyone know the details of Luke’s Wall?

 

I would like to know the details as well. I have searched before but not much comes up about it.

 

I’m reading that the intro is Luke’s Wall

 

I though it started at 5:43 in the song. However, I recall reading what you have stated as well.

 

The word simple from me describing guitar playing isn't intended as a pejorative. His tone and the capturing of it by Bain on Paranoid is amazing. I agree 100% with what you're saying.