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The Vinyl Voyager: Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' – timelessly relevant and influential

Black Sabbath

(Photo courtesy of Nick Latona)


Today’s music industry needs a radical change. It’s become stagnant, frustrating and repetitive, and there seems to be no end in sight for bands and “artists” depleting old sounds for a modern audience too lazy to just listen to the originators.

What we need is another Stooges’ “Funhouse” or NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton.” We need someone to swoop in from the shadows to shatter all musical precedents set before it.

I probably sound like a music elitist with my head stuck high up where the sun doesn’t shine, but I’m really not — I love plenty of new music. I just feel like it’s been too long since a band like Black Sabbath has come along to take a flamethrower to all that’s annoyingly contrived about the music industry, single-handedly influencing generations of budding artists in the process.

To suggest Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” is a landmark album is redundant by now. We know — it’s been said before. But frankly, I don’t care. I love this record and everything it stands for.

These are my favorite tracks from Sabbath’s genre-defining record, etched onto freshly cleaned, virgin black vinyl, of course.

1. “War Pigs/Luke’s Wall”

I’m struggling to think of an album opener better than “War Pigs.” Between the roaming guitars and wailing sirens, it comes across like a warning to every corny ‘60s sentiment. It’s Black Sabbath placing its steel-toed boot on the neck of everything “peace and love” and writing the new definition of heavy with a bloody snarl.

“War Pigs” refines Sabbath’s blues roots and then systematically defecates all over it. This 8-minute opus had Tony Iommi playing more iconic guitar riffs than most bands muster in an entire career.

2. “Paranoid”

Hearing a band in 1970 adhere to subjects this unrelentingly dark is frankly shocking. While it's certainly not the first group to do it, bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler tapped into traumatic war aftermaths, drug-induced hallucinations and, in the case of “Paranoid,” mental illness better than anyone else.

Perhaps leaning a bit close to Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown,” the title track has managed to carve out its own massive relevance in rock music’s canon. The obsessive chugging and crack-shot speed has made “Paranoid” a timeless track anyone can get behind.

3. “Iron Man”

Iommi, while not a virtuoso, is an endless bank of emblematic guitar riffs. There’s Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and then there’s “Iron Man.” Both are perhaps the most instantly recognizable guitar anthems ever written. Go ahead, play “Iron Man” for a self-professed rock hater, and I guarantee they’ll know it immediately.

Behind Iommi though, is a trio of unrefined musicians that combine into an almost supernatural force of offbeat talent. Ozzy Osbourne will never be considered a traditionally great vocalist, and yet he still has the power to trample stadiums. Bill Ward’s sometimes sloppy drumming always had the power to foster the sacrilegious birth of heavy metal drumming. Butler, the unsung hero of Sabbath, is the only technically talented member of Sabbath and a fury on the bass.

It may seem defacing to stop here and fail to give the rest of “Paranoid” its due, but like I said before, it’s an album that hardly needs anymore written cheerleading. Instead, it needs to inspire this generation’s musical talent to conjure their own groundbreaking efforts.

I’m not saying bands should emulate “Paranoid’s” sound — God knows plenty of groups still do — I just think we need another musical revolution. The utter lack of nonconformity in the mainstream today is disheartening. Remember this, Black Sabbath not only transformed the way people understood music of the foreboding type, but they were also commercially successful.

Plenty of progressive acts go unnoticed these days and it’s a shame, but it also probably means their sound, albeit innovative, doesn’t have the mass appeal it takes to be on the cutting edge of change. Profound music that no one hears will not develop the industry further. Only bands that manage to be advanced and prominent at the same time can save us. Black Sabbath was such a band. We just need another.

Tell the reporter about your vinyl collection at nlatona@asu.edu or follow @Bigtonemeaty on Twitter.

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