Fuckin' A man, what an amazing generation you're part of!

I remember as a kid watching pro wrestling, we got cable and I got to see a new company called the National Wrestling Alliance. This tag team came out wearing shoulder pads with spikes and face paint. They ran out to this song playing then proceeded to destroy their opponents in seconds. I was just in awe of that team and this song. I realized the that this was the greatest song I ever would hear and that the Road Warriors were the greatest tag team I would ever see. 30 years later that still holds true for me.

Lol. I think every beginner guitarist learns Smoke on the Water as one of the first riffs they learn. I learned House of the Rising Sun first ... then smoke on the water! Lol! I was 9! Damn, that is 51 years ago.

Imagine being a world war 2 vet and hearing sabbath

These are interesting posts. My dad was a Vietnam veteran and he was "in country" (as it was often referred to by many American soldiers stationed in Vietnam) when this song came out. He told me the following story several times, especially if Ozzie Osbourne came on TV for any reason. When he returned to his small, isolated rural home town, he was drinking one night and catching up with a buddy from high school. The guy told my dad, "You've got to hear this new band called 'Black Sabbath,' there isn't anything else out there on the radio much like them." So, my dad's buddy puts the "Paranoid" 8-track cassette (remember them, older folks like me?) in his car stereo. The "opener" on the 8-track is "Iron Man." My father listens to about half of the song and calmly tells his buddy, "You should turn that off." Of course, his buddy asked "Why?" My father's equally calm reply was "Just please turn that off right now" and his buddy finally complied. After the radio had been turn off, my father looks at his buddy and says, "I saw terrible things in the war. As crazy as this may seem, there was no screaming, bombs exploding, or any other battle noises that disturbed me as much as that song." My father was far more partial to The Beatles early stuff, The Beach Boys, different Motown artists, and a lot of the folk-rock music from the 1960s. He also received the Bronze Star (the 4th highest medal an American army soldier can earn) for saving another soldier's life from his unit during a firefight with the enemy and he earned the Purple Heart (among other medals and commendations) for being wounded in combat. Just goes to show how different individuals and groups can experience music so differently.