9/18/70: Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Wrapping up a rather interesting day in 50th music anniversaries, Black Sabbath dropped their rather frightening second album on that bleak Friday in 1970.
This band, as well as Ozzy the solo artist, is a bit of an odd case for me. I’m not going to pretend to be a knowledgeable longtime fan. Osbourne went from being the dark lord of metal from my youth to the amusing caricature of himself on modern “reality” TV. Growing up in the 1970’s and 80’s, the kids who were into this music were the ones who self-tatooed “OZZY” on their knuckles with a ball point pen and seemed to miss school more often than most. You know, the “bad” kids. I always knew and liked a small handful of their songs, mainly from Paranoid, but during my adolescence Led Zeppelin and the departed-on-this-very-same-day Jimi Hendrix were the heaviest sounds emanating from the speakers in my basement bedroom. KISS for a few years of grade school. But Black Sabbath might’ve gotten me thrown out of the house. However…
The older I get, the more I like this music. And more importantly, it’s been a classic since the day of its release. Hence, it gets my 50th anniversary salute.
Tracklist
Side One:
- War Pigs
- Paranoid
- Planet Caravan
- Iron Man
Side Two:
- Electric Funeral
- Hand of Doom
- Rat Salad
- Fairies Wear Boots
-Stephen
50th Music Anniversaries and Other Musings 
I never was a huge fan of Ozzy but yes I like Black Sabbath’s early music. What confuses me is what is “metal” and what is “hard rock?” In the end I don’t guess it matters.
The rawness of those early albums is what I like.
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I agree. Hard to tell where the line is between hard rock and metal. I’ve always associated metal with the 80’s. Even as heavy as Zeppelin could be, much of their stuff was acoustic.
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I agree with your 80s point. It was a different kind of sound. Zeppelin created a lot of clone bands but the clones only concentrated on the hardness of the first two albums and threw the subtle touches out the door.
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