And it was taken to court saying that it was because of the album that she was depressed and killed herself, which was totally ridiculous, I think. It took twenty, twenty-five minutes from top to bottom. The song "Paranoid" was written as an afterthought. Maybe the biggest hit of Ozzy’s group, along with “Iron Man.”. So regardless of a band or the style of music in question, somebody may shout "Soittakaa 'Paranoid'!" We basically needed a 3 minute filler for the album, and Tony came up with the riff. With Paranoid in England, for instance. [5], According to extant lyric sheets, "Paranoid" was at one time titled "The Paranoid. I'd cut my arms, stick pins through my fingers, that kind of thing. "[2] In the liner notes to the 1998 live album Reunion, bassist Geezer Butler recounts to Phil Alexander that they wrote the song "in five minutes, then I sat down and wrote the lyrics as quickly as I could. Originally the band had wanted to call the album War Pigs after the song of the same name, but the record company persuaded them to use "Paranoid" instead because it was less offensive. All songs composed by Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne). They were our favorite band by that time." Particularly, the lyric "I tell you to enjoy life" was misheard as "I tell you to end your life". [8] The original UK vinyl release was in a gatefold sleeve featuring a black-and-white photo of the band, posed outdoors on a grassy hill. In the 1992 documentary Don't Blame Me Osbourne concurs: "It was me and five kids living in a two bedroom house. [10] According to Rolling Stone's Joe Levy, "Sabbath ruled for bummed-out kids in the Seventies" and "nearly every heavy-metal and extreme rock band of the last three decades", including Metallica, Nirvana and Slipknot, "owes a debt of worship" to Iommi's "crushing" guitar riffs, Ward and Butler's "Visigoth rhythm section" and Osbourne's "agonized bray" on tracks such as "Paranoid", "Iron Man" and "War Pigs". That's who the real Satanists are, all these people who are running the banks and the world and trying to get the working class to fight the wars for them. [7], "Paranoid" drew controversy for apparently encouraging suicide, much like the song "Suicide Solution". 1, Butler expresses his frustration at how fans misinterpreted the band's lyrics, stating that "for instance, on 'Hand of Doom' they'll pick up one sentence out of that and blow it up into this big thing, like as if we're telling everyone to go and shoot smack. The song was covered by industrial rock group the Clay People for the various artists compilation album Shut Up Kitty, released in 1993. 12 in the US in March 1971[19] with virtually no radio airplay. "[citation needed] Scott Ian of Anthrax told Nick Bowcott that "War Pigs" is "the sound of the apocalypse. Paranoid was originally titled War Pigs, but the record company allegedly changed it out of fear of a backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War. A live version by Doctor and the Medics was included on the 12" of their single Burn, in 1986. In Finland, "Paranoid" has the same status as Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" in the United States as a song the audience finds humorous to request during a concert. [23], Speaking to Guitar World in 2008, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains called "Hand of Doom" "a masterpiece. My father worked nights, my mother worked days, we had no money, we never had a car, we very rarely went on holiday ... And suddenly, you know, we hear about 'If you're going to San Francisco be sure to wear a flower in your hair'. As drummer Bill Ward explains: "We didn't have enough songs for the album, and Tony (Iommi) just played the guitar lick and that was it. ", The album's opening track "War Pigs" was originally intended to be called "Walpurgis". However, he did note that the band does take musical heaviness to "undreamt-of extremes". On "Planet Caravan", Osbourne sings through a Leslie speaker, with the singer telling Mojo in 2010, "Then Rodger Bain used an oscillator on it – whatever that is. According to Alexander, "Paranoid" "crystallized the band's writing process, with Iommi initiating the ideas with his charred riffs, Ozzy (Osbourne) working on a melody, Geezer providing drive and the majority of the lyrics, and Bill Ward locking into a set of often pounding rhythms beneath Butler's bass rumble." The single was released in September 1970 and reached number four on the UK charts, remaining Black Sabbath's only top ten hit. We sent it off to the record company and they said, 'No, we're not going to call it that. The Castle Communication edition (1986) featured a live version of "Wicked World". "[citation needed] In the Holiday 2008 issue of Guitar World, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead called "Iron Man" one of the most memorable riffs of all time while Kerry King of Slayer cited "Electric Funeral" as having "some monster riffs that have stood the test of time". There was no programs telling you that the US troops in Vietnam, to get through that horrible war, were like fixing up and all this kinda thing. It looks like a fridge with a knob on. It just stuck in me head and when we got to "Hand of Doom", that's what I wrote it about.". "[5] Regarding the song "Paranoid", Smith recalls, "It was on an acetate.