Paranoid (song) - About

About

This was the first Black Sabbath single.It came out 6 months after their first album.Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler(from Guitar World magazine, March 2004)

A lot of the "Paranoid" album was written around the time of our first album,"Black Sabbath".We recorded the whole thing in about 2 or 3 days,live in the studio.The song "Paranoid" was written as an afterthought.We basically needed a 3 minute filler for the album,and Tony came up with the riff.I quickly did the lyrics,and Ozzy was reading them as he was singing.

This is about a man who is paranoid.The driving guitar and bass create a nervous energy to go along with Ozzy's lyrics.This was used as the title to the second Black Sabbath album.The band wanted to call it "War Pigs" after another song on the album,but the record company made them use instead because it was less offensive.The album cover was a literal interpretation of a "War Pig"-it showed a pig with a sword and shield.

The word paranoid is never mentioned in the lyrics."The Wizard" a song from their first album,was used as the B-side of the single.Black Sabbath waited 2 years before releasing another single "Iron Man".They did not want to become a "Singles Band",with kids coming to their show just to hear their hits.This also ensured that fans would buy the albums. In England,this was re-released in 1980 to capitalize on the success of Black Sabbath: "Live at Last",which was released earlier that year.

The album was taken from Sabbath concert in 1975 with the original band members.After 5 years the band played the song during "Live Aid" concert with Ozzy on vocals.This song is heard briefly during the film We Are Marshall.The song is also used in 2 music based video games.In Finland, "Paranoid" has the same status as "Free Bird" in the US and "Stairway to Heaven" in the UK, regardless of the band or the type of music they play,at least once during every show,someone will shout Soittakaa Paranoid!(play Paranoid). Tony Iommi recorded "Paranoid" with a black eye after the band had gotten involved in a brawl with some punks. This incident is also referred to in "Fairies Wear Boots".

In his book "Iron Man:My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath", Iommi said he and Ozzy probably had no idea what the word "paranoid" even meant at that time. They left the lyrics to bassist Geezer Butler: they considered him the intelligent one. Black Sabbath also performed the song this on Top of the Pops in 1970. In 2002 Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Phil Collins, and Pino Palladino (of The Who) played this song in Buckingham Palace during the Queen's Golden Jubilee.