Description
Cover photo courtesy Rhino Records
Track Listing
- Luke’s Wall / War Pigs
- Paranoid
- Planet Caravan
- Iron Man
- Electric Funeral
- Hand of Doom
- Rat Salad
- Fairies Wear Boots / Jack the Stripper
Writing Credits
All selections written by Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward, except Evil Woman by Wiegard/Wiegard/Waggenor Warning by Aynsley Dunbar
Other Credits
- Tony Iommi – Lead Guitar & Keyboards
- Geezer Butler – Bass
- Ozzy Osbourne – Vocals (Spelled Ossie Osbourne on the original print)
- Bill Ward – Drums
- Produced by Roger Bain (for Tony Hall Enterprises)
- Engineered by Tony Allom & Brian Humphries
- Recorded at Regent Sound & Island Studios
- Original design & photography by “Keef”
- 1996 Remaster by Ray Staff @ Whitfield St Studios
- 1996 Design, booklet notes, & sleeves by Hugh Gilmour
- 2009 Remaster by Andy Pearce @ Masterpiece
- 2009 Reissue Coordination: Steve Hammonds & Jon Richards
- 2009 Sleeve Notes by David Wells
- 2009 Digital Tape transfer by Marc Beard
- 2012 Digital Remaster by Andy Pearce & Matt Wortham
- 2012 Vinyl Mastering by Greg Moore @ Masterpiece
Notes
- The original name of this album was to be War Pigs, but it was changed due to perceived hostility the album might have gotten due to the Vietnamese War.
- The original name of the song War Pigs was Walpurgis, and had totally different lyrics.
- There were music videos for the songs “Iron Man” & “Paranoid” culled from the Beat Club footage.
- The song Paranoid appeared in a slightly altered format in the arcade videogame “Rock & Roll Racing” along with the songs Born to Be Wild & Bad to the Bone.
- Yes, it’s Ozzy singing Planet Caravan.
- Geezer Butler had this to say to a fan via email when asked what bass guitars he played on the first two Black Sabbath records: “Hello Steve, on the first two albums I used a P-bass. On the first album i used a Laney 70 watt guitar amp through a Park 4×12 cabinet [it only had three speakers in it- couldn’t afford to buy a 4th speaker]. Strings were probably old Rotosound, as I think that was the only choice in those days. They were roundwound but were so old they probably sounded like flatwounds. I’m not sure what amplification I used on Paranoid, but it was probably Laney, and newer Rotosounds. Thank you for your interest, Geezer.”
- The song “Paranoid” was the last one written for the album, and was intended as a filler song. Only took about 25 minutes to write the whole thing.
- The album’s first recording session was June 1970.
- The original working title for the song “Iron Man” was “Iron Bloke”.
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