Black Sabbath recorded one of their best songs, “Paranoid”, spontaneously and did not expect it to become so popular. Initially, this three-minute track was created just to fill up the extra space on the record.
But in the end, “Paranoid” (the English translation of “Paranoid”) really surprised its creators. It became the band’s first single to reach #4 in the UK chart. It is also credited with the laurels of a classic example of heavy music and a forerunner of punk rock at the same time.
The “paranoid” wand
The Black Sabbath song “Paranoid” appeared in 1970 – just two years after the young British rock band was formed, which was later destined to become a cult band.
The band recorded this track in a record-breaking half an hour, and much later than the other compositions of the album “War Pigs” (yes, that was the original name of the 2nd LP). Most of the material had been prepared while working on the first album of the same name back in ’70. That’s why it took the musicians only a couple of days to record the new longplay.
But when the work was almost finished, it appeared that there were still 3 minutes of time left on the record which had to be urgently filled with something. This “something” was the song “Paranoid”.
The simple riff was written by guitarist Tony Iommi during the lunch break, when he was alone in the studio. Then Terence “Geezer” Butler returned to the studio to play along with him on bass. And soon the rhythmic sounds of a drum kit were heard: Bill Ward joined the pals.
Ozzy Osbourne, the lead singer, was handed “Paranoid”, which Butler had hastily sketched out. He had nothing else to do but to join the enthusiastically playing trio and start singing the words of the newly written track, reading them from the sheet.
That’s how, almost without saying a word to each other, the members of Black Sabbath composed their first hit single.
They were sure they were just fooling around. The song “Paranoid” looked too “pop” against the background of the other compositions. But producer Rodger Bain convinced them to include the track in the album. After some arguments the quartet gave it the second place on the record.
In many interviews with Black Sabbath, Ozzy and company admitted that no one knew the exact meaning of the word “paranoid” at the time. The phrase was just “in the ear”.
Therefore, the lyrics of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” do not fully address the chronic psychosis known as “paranoia.” The lyrics of “Paranoid” are simply the incoherent monologue of a psycho. At least, as Terry Butler imagined him to be (the “diagnosis” was practically made at random).
The successes of “Paranoid”, covers of it and, of course, hints of plagiarism
As soon as the Black Sabbath song “Paranoid” was recorded, it immediately began to dictate its own rules. At first, the album was titled after it. The directors of the record label Vertigo Records insisted on it.