Observations placeholder
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Identifier
026966
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Tony Iommi – Iron Man
We did some work for Paranoid in Monmouth, in Wales, because we wanted to go somewhere where we could lock ourselves away. 'We were one of the first bands there, after Dave Edmunds. At the other places we'd have to go in and then go home, but here we could all be together and around each other all the time.
The recording of the Paranoid album went pretty quick. We went back to Regent Sound, working with Rodger Bain again. It didn’t take much more than three or four days, just a bit longer than the first one. ……………
…. not all of Black Sabbath was, for lack of a better word, occult, and not all of Paranoid was political. "War Pigs' actually started off s a song called ''Walpurgis', which suggests it might have been a supernatural song. …. I don’t know why Geezer changed it from ''Walpurgis' to ''War Pigs'. The lyrics were definitely his department. I always liked what he did, so I never questioned him.
…… We smoked a lot of dope, so that might be why some of the lyrics are a bit unusual. Like 'Iron Man', which came from a comic about a robot which became alive. I suppose there was a serious thought behind that, really, that somebody living couldn’t get out of that body, couldn’t get out of this thing. And look at 'Fairies 'wear Boots'. what a lyric! But nobody questioned it, people accepted it.
After we recorded all the tracks, Rodger said: ''We don’t have enough. Can you come up with another song. Just a short track?'
'Oh? Yeah, I suppose.'
The others popped out for lunch, and I started playing DadaDadaDadaDada DadaDadaDadaDadada, dudududududu-dudu, Dada da:
Black Sabbath - Paranoid (Lyrics)
When the others came back I played it to them and they liked it. Geezer came up with the lyrics, I can’t remember if Ozzy had any input in that one. When we'd start playing a new song, Ozzy would improvise and just sing anything,
'Flying out the window’ or whatever, and probably wouldn’t even know what he was singing. And then Geezer would go: 'oh yeah, I can use that!'