September 18, 1970 - Paranoid

Only 8 months after their debut album, Black Sabbath released their second album of 1970 on September 18, named "Paranoid" after the album's hit single. Fresh off the success of "Black Sabbath", they returned to the studio very quickly and recorded the whole album in 6 days. Man these guys are efficient! Their first album was excellent and I'm sure this one will be too. Let's find out!

Side 1 begins with the epic "War Pigs", which has a slow opening carried by a bass riff from Geezer Butler. After about a minute we hear our first "da-da". Just two notes followed by silence; so very simple, but it sounds so amazing. Ozzy Osbourne's voice sounds so epic and the lyrics about war and death are very dark, meant to show the evils of man. There's a different slow riff with some great drum fills by Bill Ward that leads to the second verse, which has another catchy guitar riff from Tony Iommi. Ozzy sings how politicians start wars and then sit back and let the poor fight them, certainly not wrong there. More cool fills by Ward bring us to the guitar solo, and Iommi goes pretty crazy! He is really talented and he shows it. After the solo we're back to "da-da" with another epic verse sung by Ozzy. Ward keeps up the great drum fills and we have yet another new riff, making this near 8-minute song pretty progressive. Iommi delivers another fantastic guitar solo and this song is an instant classic with so many awesome heavy riffs. It all.ends.very abruptly. The next track "Paranoid" was released as a single prior to the album and was a huge hit. Black Sabbath wanted to name it "War Pigs" but the record company thought it better to name it after the successful single. You can see why it was successful, opening with a very catchy guitar riff that is easy to remember, but also quite fun. A very simple riff backs Ozzy's singing and this song, at under 3 minutes, was made for radio. Iommi delivers a solid guitar solo, not too flashy, but apt for the song. That riff is still going, carrying this song almost the whole time as we hear one final verse. Track 3 is titled "Planet Caravan" and is a stark difference from the first two rockin' tracks. The song is carried by a slow bass riff by Butler and features Ward on congas with Iommi playing some trippy guitar. Ozzy's voice is put through a Leslie speaker to achieve that distorted sound and the song and lyrics are very space-y. Iommi still finds time for a pretty sweet extended guitar solo and there's even some piano near the end. This song is much different than anything else on the album, but I still like it in it's own way. Side 1 closes out with the thumping bass drum of "Iron Man". There's a distorted note as Ozzy says "I AM IRON MAN", but don't be confused: this song is  not about the Marvel superhero. The lyrics tell a tale of a man in the future who goes back in time to prevent a terrible tragedy from happening, but when he time travels he turns into iron. He tries to warn the people, but they pay this iron man no mind and this infuriates him. He plots revenge on the people and ends up causing the destruction that he saw. Very sci-fi for sure. This song is carried by a slow, epic guitar riff that again just sounds amazing. Iommi comes up with so many great riffs, and this one is a real heavy headbanger. Ozzy's lyrics copy the epic riff as well, and we also get some slow ascending scales on guitar. Iommi plays one of his best guitar solos (and that is really saying something) which also has excellent bass by Butler backing it. More scales lead to a final verse and after that Ward drum rolls to prepare for us yet another crazy solo. The amount of epicly amazing guitar on this song, and this whole side, is staggering. I thought the debut was good, but oh my this is some fantastic stuff!

Side 2 keeps the awesome rolling with "Electric Funeral", which opens with a distorted guitar riff. Ozzy continues his style of singing along with the guitar as the lyrics describe a post-nuclear world. After a couple verses Ward's drums signal the start of a new faster riff. They eventually return to the slow opening and let it slowly fade out from there. Track 6 is called "Hand Of Doom", opened by a slow bass riff from Butler and a catchy drum beat by Ward. It picks up into a heavier version of the riff with lots of great drum fills. I love when Ozzy yells, he has a passion to his voice that sounds great. Iommi's guitar cues a new rock and roll style riff with a marching rhythm and there is an decent guitar solo, but not one of his best. They play a couple more verses and let Butler's bass play it out. The next track is an instrumental titled "Rat Salad", which opens with an awesome guitar riff by Iommi and some decent fills by Ward. I'll call this part the chorus as it's repeated a few times. Iommi goes off for an excellent lead bit, we hear the chorus again and then the drum solo begins. Ward is all over the drum set and I think this is a great little song. They play the chorus once more after an excellent drum solo. This song very much reminds me of "Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin from last year: both have great guitar openings, a drum solo and a finale. This wicked album comes to a fittingly wicked end with "Fairies Wear Boots", the only song with lyrics written by Osbourne (Butler does the majority of lyric writing). It's led by another fantastic and catchy guitar riff with some great bass backing as well. There are several nice fills by Ward with a short guitar solo in the middle, before we finally get to the first verse. Ozzy sings about walking home late at night, and seeing a fairy with boots on dancing with a dwarf. A heavier riff leads in to the chorus where Ozzy pleads for us to believe what he saw. Iommi plays a great guitar solo and there's a great instrumental bit before they return to the chorus. In the final verse we hear that Ozzy went to the doctor to see what's up and he said "smokin' and trippin' is all that you do." Seems pretty accurate for Ozzy. It ends with another guitar solo that fades out to end the record. 

That is the end of "Paranoid" and holy shit that was an amazing album. Other than Planet Caravan (which is still a cool little song) the whole album is full of rockin' guitar riffs and there is just so much awesomeness in these songs. "Black Sabbath" earlier this year was a great album, so for me to say that this one is better without a question is quite a statement. It really is an amazing album top to bottom and I'm sure it will be at or near the top of my year-end rankings. I cannot wait to hear what these 4 talented musicians will do next after such a great start to their career. My next release came out less than a week after this one, see you shortly!