Paranoid may not have been the record responsible for the change in tone – from the prettiness of peace to the horror of war and the ugliness of those who perpetuated it – but the vibe and timing drew as good a line as any in the sand as far as the despondency felt by those protesting the war went. With Hendrix playing a fuzzed-up version of The Star Spangled Banner, and Country Joe & The Fish’s Vietnam Song ( ‘Whoopee, we’re all gonna die’), sarcasm, irony and dark humour were starting to creep into the hippie movement, as ‘Nam cast an ever-darker shadow. The previous summer at Woodstock, anti-war sentiment was high, as a 300,000-strong audience of predominantly young, college-aged and draft-eligible Americans gathered to celebrate ‘Three Days Of Peace And Music’. label wanted them to change the title from War Pigs – a decision ultimately made easier when the commercial potential of the title-single was first spotted, then vindicated when it hit paydirt.Ī name change couldn’t alter what was going on or what the album represented, however. And this is before you count having a Number One single quickly written on the hoof as filler, and an anti-Vietnam War take in the lyrics that was considered so spicy that they band’s U.S. Even considering the workrate of bands in the late ‘60s and early-‘70s, even knowing that they had a war-chest of riffs and ideas from their blues club days, it is an unfathomable achievement. While also keeping up an intense touring schedule. Think about this: Black Sabbath’s debut was released on Febru217 days later, they had written, recorded and released Paranoid. They had longer in the studio than on their first two albums, but Master Of Reality was still completed in double-quick time, though most bands could try for a thousand years and still not even fall into the groove Sabbath were in here if they were pushed by Tony Iommi himself. And, having downtuned as far as was possible before it messed with Ozzy’s singing, a new door of heaviness was opened. The rhythmic tennis between Geezer Butler and Bill Ward is musical butter, able to swing and turn a corner as smoothly as a finely-sanded Tom Jones, as Iommi’s leads melt through them in a manner that’s almost calmingly satisfying. Truthfully, not since the early ‘70s has anyone been able to spin and toy with a riff quite so fluidly and powerfully as Sabbath do here.
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And when it goes fully blissed out on Solitude, it’s mellow perfection.īut there’s more to it than that. Even the album’s angriest moments, like the nuclear war warning Children Of The Grave, have a red-eyed vibe. It wasn’t just that Sweet Leaf with all its loving lyrics to getting stoned opened with Tony Iommi coughing after a bong rip, either.
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Weed music just doesn’t come any juicier than Master Of Reality. Rock would be here without them, but it would look very different indeed.Īs we continue to celebrate their big birthday year, and with their epic Paranoid recently having its own big five-oh, what better time to look back at five decades of riffs, heaviness, and wondering 'What is this that stands before me?' "When you're sitting around in the practice room and someone breaks in on a Sabbath riff, everyone joins in – they're just classic riffs." You know who said that? Dave Grohl, who was spotted energetically fanboying around Tony Iommi at the Kerrang! Awards in 2018. But where would any of these bands be without them? What Sabbath did wasn't just be very good, there was a line between what them and Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Hendrix and their other contemporaries were doing that only strengthened with time – they first made a virtue of that sinister heaviness that would turn into heavy metal, and from there, everything else. Sure, Metallica, alright Maiden, fine Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. True facts: even half a century after they first emerged with their self-titled debut, Black Sabbath are still the best band.