Black Sabbath - Paranoid

I will continue my honest review of every song on every studio album put out by my favorite band, Black Sabbath. Their second album release was the mega-hit album called Paranoid, named after what studio executives believed, (correctly,) would be the album's hit single. Again, this album was not the first or second album I had listened to. I had bought the back albums once I became aware of the band. Strangely, at the time, no one I knew liked Black Sabbath. Even the rock radio stations didn't like them and rarely, if ever, gave them air time. But to me, Black Sabbath was the best, and although somewhat bewildered as to why no one else but one friend of mine liked them, I was undeterred in my interest and desire to buy all their albums.

PARANOID

Like I did with their debut album, I will start with the cover. It's not as good of a cover design as their first album. But it does have some interesting backstory. I read somewhere that the original title of the album was going to be War Pigs, named after the first song on the album. Thus, the image of a warrior. But studio executives intervened, as I explained above, and renamed the album without bothering to redesign the cover. So the warrior image remained.

 War Pigs

Like I said, the lead off song of the album is War Pigs, and yes, it's a ten out of ten. It begins with a sound that residents of the UK had been all too familiar with not too many years before. Air raid sirens. Then a heavy metal power chord interrupts the sirens, and plods its way to the eventual voice of Ozzy singing about the pigs of war. Meaning those politicians who have no qualms about sending other people to die in a war. It's a long song, but a great one, and it never gets old. Black Sabbath's live performances often featured this song as the lead off song to their performance.

Paranoid

So the executives got their wish when they required Sabbath to come up with one more song, and it was this one. Iommi put a riff together which became this song. Geezer was the lyricist, and they had their biggest hit. To this day, Paranoid is the one song most people will recognize as the band's biggest hit. I like the song, to be sure, but I like other songs better. Nevertheless, it's a ten out of ten.

Planet Caravan

This is a song removed from the heavy metal sound. But it works for me. It's a soft song, and the vocals are sung through some kind of electronic device. But the distorted vocals work for this song, and I like it a lot. It is a ten out of ten. This is proof to anyone out there, that not all of their songs have to be heavy metal power chords to rate a ten.

Iron Man

A fan-favorite, and it was already recognized as a great song before the Marvel Comics movie came out featuring the song. It's a great riff, and a great song, and a ten out of ten.

Electric Funeral

A great song. It's a slower song, and it's a ten out of ten. I was glad Sabbath included it in their final tour. Ozzy can sing it just as well now as he did 50 years ago.

Hand of Doom

Another great song. It has a slow beginning with a bass guitar and quickens with a rock-hard, heavy metal segment and ends with the bass guitar. It seemed as though Sabbath could do no wrong. Every song was a great song from the start of their first album to this one. A ten out of ten.

Rat Salad

This song has some controversy. Some people don't like it. I love it. And I give it a ten out of ten. Why don't some other people? Well, it's an instrumental. No lyrics. And it features a drum solo by Bill Ward. So why is it controversial? Because Led Zeppelin included an instrumental featuring a drum solo on their second album So what, I say. Both songs are great.  

Fairies Wear Boots

Black Sabbath achieved absolute greatness with this song. In my opinion they had already achieved greatness, but this song is a masterpiece. And I don't label a song a masterpiece very often. Only two times had I called a rock song a masterpiece. And this song is one of the two. Sure there are other songs that qualify. And other songs I may concede are also masterpieces. But this song could well be the best song Sabbath ever wrote and performed. And I am very glad they performed it often during their tours. They knew what they had in this song. The song Paranoid may be their greatest hit single, but this song is their greatest song. If I could give it a higher rating I would. But alas, it's a ten out of ten.

So there you go. Every song is a great song and rates a ten out of ten. Does that mean it's a better album than their debut? No. I rate no album a higher rating than their debut album, nor will I call any album a greater album than their debut album. Don't forget, until someone decided to put that one song on their debut album that wasn't originally there, every song on that one was great also. But this review is about Paranoid, and the highest rating for Paranoid is deserved.