From Loudersound.
Black Sabbath’s performance of Paranoid at Jazz Bilzen festival in August 1970 is a sweet snapshot of metal history.
Black Sabbath’s Paranoid is indisputably one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time, but it wasn’t always an instantly recognisable rock anthem. When Sabbath played the Jazz Bilzen festival in Belgium on August 21, 1970, their signature song had yet to break into the UK charts, or trouble European radio airwaves, so it’s easy to imagine how confusing it was for an audience of stoned hippies gathered to see the likes of Cat Stevens, The Kinks and Dizzie Gillespie, to hear Ozzy Osbourne wailing about insanity, depression and suicidal thoughts over *that Tony Iommi riff.
Actually, you don’t have to imagine, because there’s priceless footage of Sabbath’s performance on the band’s official YouTube channel. It’s a wonderful snapshot of heavy metal history.
Famously, Sabbath knocked out Paranoid in 30 minutes purely to add another three minutes of music to their second album. Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler initially didn’t want to jam on Tony Iommi’s ‘throwaway’ riff at all because they considered it a Led Zeppelin rip-off.
“Ozzy and I thought it was too close to Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin,” Butler recalled. “We always loved Zeppelin in them days, sitting round on the floor smoking dope and listening to that first album. So when Tony came up with the riff to Paranoid me and Ozzy spotted it immediately and went, ‘Naw, we can’t do that!’ In fact we ended up having quite a big argument about it. Guess who was wrong?”
“I remember going home and I said to my then-wife, ’I think we’ve written a single’,” Ozzy recalled. “She said, ‘But you don’t write singles.’ I said, ‘I know, but this has been driving me nuts on the train all the way back’.”
Paranoid reached number 4 on the UK singles chart on August 29, 1970. Its parent album, Paranoid, became Sabbath’s only number 1 album of the decade one month later.
Paranoid – 50th Anniversary Edition 5-LP box set in stock now!
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- Black Sabbath - T.V. Crimes - UK - 12" picture disc - £35.00, $45.15, €41.65 (New Item) (arrived 24-Jul-2024 13:51)on July 27, 2024 at 12:32 am
BLACK SABBATH TV Crimes (Limited Edition 1992 UK 3-track 12" Picture Disc single, also featuring Letters From Earth - Alternative Version & Mob Rules - Live, housed in a PVC sleeve with illustrated backing insert 12EIRSPD178)
- Black Sabbath - Never Say Die! - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £30.00, $38.70, €35.70 (New Item) (arrived 19-Jul-2024 16:19)on July 27, 2024 at 12:32 am
BLACK SABBATH Never Say Die! (1978 UK 'spaceship' label 9-track LP, complete with illustrated credits inner, fully laminated picture sleeve. The sleeve shows just a little light shelfwear & the vinyl remains in excellent condition with just afew light surface scuffs to show for over forty years)
- Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - 2nd + Inner - VG + Ticket stub - UK - vinyl LP - £75.00, $96.75, €89.25 (New Item) (arrived 09-Jul-2024 11:52)on July 27, 2024 at 12:32 am
BLACK SABBATH Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973 UK second issue 8-track vinyl LP on the black & silver label with silver 'WWA' label logo, housed in matt gatefold picture sleeve with the inside image going all the wayto the outer edges without a border. The rear of the sleeve states manufactured and printed in England with no reference to 'Howards Printers' and has 'album concept and design: Pacific Eye & Ear...' credit printed in a bold print on the back.This copy also contains the original lyric inner that has no tears or seam splits. The sleeve displays some general shelfwear, and the vinyl itself has a handful of inaudible cosmetic surface marks that do not affect play. A superb play copy of this fantastic Sabbath album WWA005)
- Black Sabbath - Paranoid - 2nd - VG - UK - vinyl LP - £95.00, $122.55, €113.05 (New Item) (arrived 09-Jul-2024 14:59)on July 27, 2024 at 12:32 am
BLACK SABBATH Paranoid (1970 UK second issue 8-track vinyl LP on the Vertigo label with large 'swirl' logo, matt gatefold picture sleeve without the 'Big Bear' credits on the inside and comes complete with the poly 'swirl' inner. The sleeve displays some light general wear, with a catalogue sticker to the front and a small area of paper loss to the reverse. The labels are both clean with some light spindle marks and the vinyl has a scattering of light scuffs. Overall a Very Good example, and still a respectable play copy) #Top 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time
- Black Sabbath - Greatest Hits - Textured Sleeve - UK - vinyl LP - £25.00, $32.25, €29.75 (New Item) (arrived 12-Jul-2024 12:55)on July 27, 2024 at 12:32 am
BLACK SABBATH Greatest Hits (1977 UK NEMS issue 10-track vinyl compilation LP including Paranoid, Changes, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, War Pigs and more. The textured picture sleeve shows a little evidence of shelfwear and the vinyl has just a fewlight scuffs leaving it Excellent NEL6009)
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