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 - Headless Cross - UK - picture disc LP - £75.00, $95.25, €87.75 (New Item) (arrived 18-Mar-2024 13:19)on March 19, 2024 at 4:05 am
BLACK SABBATH Headless Cross (1989 UK limited edition 9-track Picture Disc LP, featuring a full colour image of the band on one side with the album artwork on the reverse, including the bonus recording Cloak And Dagger. The disc has just a few light paper scuffs otherwise looks barely played EIRSAPD1002)
- Black Sabbath - Paranoid - Dutch - vinyl LP - £25.00, $31.75, €29.25 (New Item) (arrived 23-Feb-2024 10:30)on March 19, 2024 at 4:05 am
BLACK SABBATH Paranoid (1976 Dutch NEMS issue of the 1970 8-track LP, housed in a matte gatefold picture sleeve with 'Printed & made by Almere Printing bv, Holland' print on the inside right panel. The sleeve shows some notable cornerwear andminor edge creasing along with some light foxing to the inner gatefold whilst the vinyl is clean & grades EX/EX- with just faint paper scuffs not affecting play NEL6003) #Top 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time
- Black Sabbath - Born Again - UK - vinyl LP - £75.00, $95.25, €87.75 (New Item) (arrived 19-Feb-2024 09:40)on March 19, 2024 at 4:05 am
BLACK SABBATH Born Again (1983 UK 9-track vinyl LP, the eleventh studio album by the English heavy metal band featuring Ian Gillan on vocals, housed in a glossy picture sleeve with lyric inner. The sleeve shows minimal wear and the vinyl is Near Mint. A really nice copy! VERL8)
- Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - Dutch - vinyl LP - £25.00, $31.75, €29.25 (New Item) (arrived 19-Feb-2024 12:55)on March 19, 2024 at 4:05 am
BLACK SABBATH Black Sabbath (1976 Dutch issue of the 1970 7-track LP, housed in a matte gatefold picture sleeve with 'Printed & made by Almere Printing bv, Holland' text on the back. The sleeve shows a little scuffing around the edges and somefoxing to the inner gatefold, whilst the vinyl is clean & in Excellent conditon with just some minor signs of play NEL6002)1 #Top 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time
- Black Sabbath - Live Evil - EX - UK - 2-LP vinyl set - £25.00, $31.75, €29.25 (New Item) (arrived 19-Feb-2024 15:55)on March 19, 2024 at 4:05 am
BLACK SABBATH Live Evil (1983 UK 14-track double LP featuring the band fronted by Ronnie James Dio thundering through a set that includes Neon Knights, War Pigs, Iron Man, Fluff & many more. The glossy gatefold picture sleeve displays some light general wear with the start of a small split to the reverse and some light scuffing to the middle of the gatefold, whilst the vinyl looks barely played with a few faint signs of play SAB10)
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