What is your favourite HEAVY METAL song?

In Finland, in every gig you can hear shouted: ”Soittakaa Paranoid”. - Play Paranoid. Every time, no matter what band or group with whatever instruments is on stage.

For me, the interplay between Bill Ward’s drum work and Tony iommi's guitar work on "War Pigs" from that album was kicking hardest.

Starting playing in the late 80s, we were all trying to learn Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Testaments etc. But every single one of us all still jammed on Sabbath tunes. Still do to this day. Geezer and Steve Harris had the most impact on my playing as a bass player than probably anyone else. It's a shame the song is the most played of theirs that it's kind of gotten to that eye-rolling point whenever it comes on, but those first two albums are still amazing all these years later.

OMG you hit the guitar tone 99% spot on!

Holy crap that guitar tone you got was AWESOME!!! Really close to Tony's sound. Love it.

Interesting parallels with Django Reinhardt. One of his biggest hits with the Hot Club de France was Minor Swing and that was also recorded as an afterthought because they still had a few minutes left in the studio and on the record. Stephane Grappelli graced it with one of the greatest jazz solos ever. Just extraordinary. Love Paranoid, too, of course. Thanks Warren for all your content and tutorials!

Sabbath are most certainly at the core of metal, and they just wrote so many cool songs in general! Nice man!

Damn Warren you really dialed in his tone🎉

BLACK SABBATH FOR ETERNITY

Paranoid, Smoke On The Water, Satisfaction, Walk This Way, Under Pressure.... etc.. Perfect examples that the riff (or motif) doesn't have to be complicated. And It's not just in rock/pop music. John Williams' Theme from Jaws, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or Finlandia by Sibelius.. it does not get much simpler than that.

I heard the Paranoid album for the first time at the tender age of ten years old. It was a glorious sound to my then fresh ears.

Great video as always. Even awesomer because, Sabbath 🤘 Iommi's simple but elegant riffs are timeless

Sabbath is so important to me. Thanks for covering this!

I was lucky enough to jam with Tony in the mid-80s because I was recording some stuff with Lita Ford, who he was dating at the time. We were between takes, and instruments were set up...including a left-handed guitar. Curiously enough, the jam was jazz standards, not rock. I was more into Prog at the time. I asked him why he didn't infuse more jazz into his rock material, something evident, perhaps, in Planet Caravan. Basically, he said he could Jazz all day, but rock paid the bills. I noticed his prosthetic fingertips, but even didn't ask him about that. In a pre-Wiki world I was unaware. I asked a mate that evening, and he gave me the story. Overall, I met him for 20 to 30 minutes, but he was a nice, approachable guy.

Love Black Sabbath🌟

Thanks Warren. Had the pleasure of meeting Tony Iommi and saying thank you in the eighties whilst on a plane from LA to Mexico City. Cozy Powell was drumming for Sabbath at the time and I sat next to the singer Tony Martin. As it was a Mexicana flight, there were no class divisions. An enjoyable flight.

The commentary here is simply sublime. Your passion for Sabbath, Warren, is clear (even if you did mention it once or twice). I found 'metal' hearing this song in about 1981/82 and for a decade it was all consuming, I craved the music and no other mattered to me; Sabbath played music that mirrored how I felt as a young teenager. For me, Black Sabbath (song) was a killer.

Thank you!!!! please do a video deconstructing the recording/mixing techniques of this iconic song!!!!!!

Thanks for rekindling my childhood memories. My older brother wore out this album on 8 track. Had to tape it back together in multiple places and there were skips all in from the splices. Thanks again Warren for all you do! Happy Holidays to you and yours!

That brings back memories. The first band I was in around 1974 we covered Paranoid, Silver Machine, and Sweet Child in Time. Happy days.

Black Sabbath is an amazing album. The cover is one of the best pieces of visual Acid Rock art work ever made.

Yes thank you for this Warren! One of my favorite bands! 😀

HM = I feel Fine / Think for Yourself / Helter Skelter / I Want You / Taxman / (of course) It's all Too Much etc. AND Dave Davies. As one fine British HM chap once announced, "I got Blisters on my fingers!". And Paranoid is a fine example of the genre. A good selection.

One of the first riffs l ever learned in 1970 Born to be Wild was the first recording l bought in 69 as a 14 year old, Sadly not a right lot has impressed me since, The 70s gave us some of the finest music ever

Important to note - Heavy Metal was used first by Steppenwolf on Born To Be Wild for the motorcycle heavy metal thunder engine sound. It became the sound for describing music later in 1970.

For me, at age 15, Sabbath's first album was an absolute game changer; it was like nothing else. And oddly enough, there were three albums that were huge for me and my crowd at about the same time: Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull's Benefit, and Cat Stevens' Tea For the Tillerman. We were nothing if not eclectic...

Great episode. Timeless song.

Another great video. Thanks again good sir!

Awesome choice for a song analysis. My first concert ever, I saw Sabbath supporting Grand Funk in 1972, as they were touring off Paranoid. I was a big Grand Funk fan who knew nothing about Sabbath going in. Mind blown! As a bass player, I spent hours learning Geezer Butler's parts as he - along with Dennis Dunaway from Alice Cooper - were probably my two biggest influences.

Great video, thanks Warren! This song was my introduction to Sabbath, it was a hit on the radio and I bought the single, then got into the album, then got into the first album. A review at the time said Sabbath was "like a Panzer division rolling up on your front lawn", love that! We covered Paranoid in one of my first bands, badly but what fun!

Another, well made and informative vid about a classic track.......thanks warren and team

I started playing guitar some 26 years after this album was released, but "Paranoid" was among at least the first ten songs I learned. I think that says everything.

Yes, Tony was using a treble booster into a Laney 100 watt Super Group head. The Treble Booster was a Dallas Range Master that was modified (Tony doesn't know what the mod was) and it was essential to his sound until an amp tech threw it away while building a new rig for Tony in 1979.

Bought my brother this album for Christmas a couple years after it came out. It spread all over town, albums and 8 tracks. Houston raceway used paranoid intro in commercials for years.

Yes finally!! Long live Black Sabbath and Metal!!🤘🤘

Great stuff warren more of these mini documentaries breaking down songs please, for me one of my favourite rock songs is Pink Floyds money from dark side of the moon, Dave Gilmores guitar work is excellent on it, the use of effects and recording techniques for the time are amazing, along with the sound effects although not hard to recreate, very effective for the track, and the use of keyboards and sax on there really gives the song some edge, I think Pink Floyd are one of the greatest bands in rock history. And give us a break down of that SG when you get it cheers. Also favourite heavy metal band Motorhead, favourite track the Ace of Spades.

Sabbath has influenced so many modern metal genres, great video! 🔥

I could be wrong, but I believe the pedal chug parts were done with all downstrokes.

Paranoid is the most influential metal album, period. One could say that Black Sabbath's first album is the most influential for obvious reasons, but Paranoid is Black Sabbath discovering exactly what they want and were capable of executing to pitch perfection.

Great band that led the way forward for heavy metal. Loads of teenagers including myself ( long time ago LOL ) played this song in bands at school. Fantastic video. Thank you very much

nice one, been waiting for you to touch on Sabbath

Great video as always, Warren. But I just wanted to hear / learn more about the song, production, recording, mixing etc. I just started to eat my desert to continue to watch the video and I heard, thank you ever so much ...... 😲.

Incredibly, I heard portions of this record on ADF radio flying over North Vietnam!

nice job Warren!

Took a few months rest from the interwebs, but great to see Warren's still at this - Another corker! Got some back catalogue to catch-up on 👍

I bought the LP in 1971. I was 14 and was paid $5 for 6 hours work on Saturday. On my bike ride home I would spend my $5 on an album at a guitar shop.

5:28 I am so glad hearing you say "I really wanna get one of his SG's now. I've just talked myself into it." Because you did that to me so many times with your videos. 😅 Thanks for another marvelous review out of the rich book of music-history.

I totally agree with Black Sabbath being the great innovators of Heavy Metal, but before that the album that blew my mind and changed my life forever was Are You Experienced? By Jimi Hendrix. Both of these albums felt like they came out of nowhere to change everything thereafter, and I was weaned on The Beatles. How wonderful is was growing up with the Beatles and seeing the changes that came with each new album. But, just when you thought all the innovation was originating with The Beatles, came Jimi Hendrix, and later Black Sabbath. I’m very happy to have been a youth during the 60’s and into the 70’s, having graduated from HS is 1973.

Cheers, Warren!

Something I noticed when I switched from Guitar to Bass is the Bass line on Planet Caravan is identical to this riff. The only difference is in the Bass line he plays an E and hammers on when he shifts down to D he bends the 5th. This is the only Bass line in Planet Caravan repeated 48 times. Also the tuning instability associated with the Gibson SG is playing a part in the Sabbath sound.

Great to hear you mention Olly Allcock Warren. A legendary musician here in Carlisle and the Cumbrian band circuit!

So simple, so classic.

That slap-back echo on Ozzy's voice also helps create the clangorous overall sound of this great track

The things that change music for me personally was the first two albums from the electric light Orchestra just so different it inspired me to want to be in a band and be creative

Supermassives' sonic equivalent, Sabbath' s Gravity & time-defying command was inescapable, still is. Age 12, Paranoid album, and the big "resistance is futile" voice hit me... BAM! Another sabb-head born...haha! Sabbath just 'is' ...far as I'm concerned..

I just remember how Sabbath used The Devil's tritone to make their songs sound "evil" while at the same time being so heavy. Sabbath and Blue Cheer must have blown a lot of minds back in the late '60's and early 70's.

Sorta brief for such a monumental composition.

It was 1988 and I was obsessed with GNR's Appetite for Destruction. My friend said he had something even better for me which I begrudgingly listened to. It was my first exposure to metal and changed my life. I dropped GNR like a bad habit.

Tony did indeed use a treble booster into the Laney. His first SG had P90s and he changed to HBs around the third or fourth album I think. That was another thing other than his fingertips mishap that fell into place - he used to play that Strat that he's got in that early photo. Just as they were about to record the first album, one of the pickups started playing up. He managed to get hold of the SG and the rest is history.

When I listen to Slayer “Gemini” it makes the volume knob go up and windows go down. I think it’s the best heavy metal track of all time.

Funniest thing is, Black Sabbath wasn't born to be a dark heavy metal band, they were into other types of music, light stuff. But having no success. Until one day, when in front of their hotel a cinema theater was showing an Italian Horror movie, called "I tre volti della paura" 1963 with Boris Karloff that was a huge success at the time, made them realize the genre they should pursue, They even used the name of the film. (In English the title was BLACK SABBATH ) And their first real HIT SONG was done in a hurry, on an afternoon since their first album was shy a song. The producer said: "Come up with something, we need one more, but it can't be longer than two and a half minutes" Iommi didn't have anything and had to come up with something on the spot, and mentioned that he had never wrote any song shorter than 5 minutes before.

Your approximation of Tony's tone is pretty darn close! 😉👍 When you haven't heard the song in years it's pretty striking how punchy it is.....considering how simply it was recorded, and I believe it was done pretty quickly, it's still a great listen!

5:10 That sound is really close! And without an SG.

What I've always said: pretty much all the best riffs have already been written... and Toni Iommi wrote most of them!

Hey Warren, a couple of albums that were super innovative: Nightclubbing Grace Jones and Sultans of Swing Dire Straits

Ha! Yes, even in the 90s teens like myself were picking up guitar and trying to learn Paranoid! It sounds both cool and accessible. Funny call out on Communication Breakdown! That's the other one. Throw in Back in Black and you have the Holy Trinity of Teen Guitar. Is that a Dynasonic style pickup in the neck of that guitar?

Sick video

You should dive into a Pixies song, with either Gouge Away, Gigantic, Debaser or Where Is My Mind?. Although not a commercially successful or popular band, it is undeniable the impact it had on modern alternative music, from influencing a 90's anthem to shaping several songs from a veteran David Bowie.

Dream come true right here ;)

My picture speaks for myself!

“Fairies Wear Boots” is my favorite Sabbath track. Seems that if you take Ozzy’s vocals out, what you end up with is a pretty swinging jazz band. The combo of Bill Ward and Geezer was nothing short of Magic.

I always LOVED Black Sabbath but the more I grow up the more I realise how influencial they were on my playing! Geeze Butler and Simon Gallup have always been my biggest influence on bass, but the way Tony Iommi plays this kind of completely disturbed blues just revolutionized everything! Also, there are videos of Iommi playing with Jehtro Tull before Black Sabbath, that's awesome, two of the best artists that ever existed together, Iommi and Anderson!

I'm convinted that Metal is a subgenre of Rock. If anything by now I feel metal is an attitude in lyrics, (black) clothes, but rock is the music style. It also speaks a lot about what forms of metal I love and which ones I can live without. But even then. I always ventured towards the more approachable subgenres. That doesn't mean there are no less approachable forms of it. But the most 'metal' I like is Cradle of Filth and Children of Bodom. Still very musical bands.

Thanks Warren and team, very interesting. I didn’t realise that Laney are based here in the Black Country. Nowadays there is lots of friendly rivalry between Black Country folk and Brummies. I wonder if Black Sabbath experienced that.

I still have my original copy of Paranoid! My parents hated it! I was 15. 67 now. Need to get my turn table up and running again.

Dig your channel I'm pretty new to it. These are songs that I really think changed a lot of rock and roll music for sure I'm only gonna list a few, but I can come back and list some more. for one Jimi Hendrix ,foxy lady and purple haze definitely change the Game of rock and roll with that tritone of Purple Haze with and just that heavier sound as well ad Foxy when it came to that dark crushing riff just amazing. Another song I think really changed rock and roll was 21st century schizoid man by King Crimson .that was just basically signaled what was to come in the following decade . the heavy riff also the time change signatures and the Synced up double melodies between the guitar and sax but heavy. Yes I'm of the cloth that thinks Black Sabbath's codified that sound but what preceded it was groups like King Crimson and Jimi Hendrix and Blue Cheer and so on as we all kno the thing that blacks out of the 3rd is they took that heaviness that a totality that apocalyptic theme and just did it with every song versus like a few songs here and that's to me is definitely heavy metal Sabbath is one of my favorite bands and that riff is 1 of my favorite risks I've been credibly influenced by Tony iomi and geezer Butler and bill ward the whole band pretty much when it comes to even making the music that I do So to me they will always not only be the godfathers of heavy metal but also the ones that really like you said codified the whole sound although I don't think that they were the 1st to play heavy but the genre in itself is what they took and basically were consistent with with every song in every album. Easily if King Crimson did every song like 21st century schizoid man that would have been the 1st heavy metal album or if Jimi Hendrix did the same thing that he did on foxy lady and purple haze for every song that could have easily have been the 1st heavy metal album but the themes go along with the eternality as well as the heaviness of songs so I could understand why people would not think of them in the Same light now but when I got into it it was no strange thing to see Jimi hendbix or even the who for that matter or Grand Funk Railroad in circus magazine with a lot of the metal and hard rock acts of that day back in the eighties so for me it's all consistent with each other but definitely sabbath just made it more consistent with the loudness the etonality the dark brightones and the apocalyptic and horrific themes

thank God that I found you!

Shit changed my life man for real. Great content as usual.

Wow, thats great! I used to think that one of the meaning of "heavy metal" is a name for artillery in army. Just imagine how it sounds like when the band starts playing and gaining momentum during the perfomance, and you'll feel the similiarity with big weapons blast, hum and growl. Is it somehow connected, do you think so?

I don't even have the words to describe what this band means to me.

Hey Warren, I know you usually cover rock songs, but I would love a “Songs That Changed Music” video for “Vision of Love” by Mariah Carey. The song came out in 1990, and while the instrumentals are decidedly ‘80s, Carey’s vocals are much stronger than most of the ‘80s pop divas. Just a really interesting song, production-wise.

The history of the term "heavy metal" is certainly an interesting one. I guess I always thought that, since so many bands had members that came from industrial and mining towns, places with heavy machines, rock, and metal, it became sort of a double entendre.

There's a really unique cover of Paranoid by Type O Negative that I highly recommend checking out it's awesome. They also covered the song Black Sabbath it's great

Pink Floyd The Wall is the greatest rock album ever made, simply brilliant in every way. 👍👍👍👍👍

Great video it gives insight to your musical journey and informative I didn't know all those things about the band like the upbringing and there environment growing up. The fact he lost his fingers at a young age that's brutal. I actually started playing and listening to there music thanks to you when you mentioned them in a interview you did a few years ago with Scott Devine remember? Just a side note as an adult I can listen with out prejudice or discrimination but as a kid heavy metal was off limits due to religious upbringing isn't that funny how belief systems can cast a negative light on a art form. So yea I guess you could say I was brain washed into not listening to that type of music for the fear of losing my soul. 😆 lol. A lot has changed since then I'm more open now to all sorts of music.

Gotta love Kick Start My Heart from Motley Cru. Also love Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden. But the band that speaks to me the most is Pink Floyd.

21 year old me, math major in college, card carrying nerd(so socially inept) got the album and played over and over again on our cheap stereo. I still have it, with its many pops an clicks. I put it in my DAW and burned it to CD. I want to hear it as I remember it. Not remixed to a CD.

Sabbath and the Moody Blues come from the same city.... SG's are basically a second Guitar above the 12th fret, it's so easy to play up there. Using superlight &tuned down strings he needed to keep it beefy by staying on the Low E as much as possible. I think Tony's best tone is the Dio Years, towards the end of the Ozzy era it's way to raunchy, and then with Gillian he or someone went back to that harsh fatiguing tone. Though it's not their best song, Number of the Beast changed Music, or at least what the radios would play. Changed, or upped the level of Musicianship: Yngwie's first two albums. Billy Sheehan on Eat em and Smile.

Oh yeah!!!! If you don't bob your head and rock out to Paranoid, you're not alive 🎸🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

Hi! What about the Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden?

A Town Called Malice - The Jam 👍🏼

The only thing I don't like about "Paraniod" is that Ozzy's vocals follow the guitar melody too closely. Always nice when the vocal melody complements the instrumental melody.

which speakers do you use in the cabinet

Yep, Communication Breakdown. I'd say all the early Sabbath came out of the first 2 Zeppelin albums. And, of course, 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson.

What can i say? Nailed it.

Fun fact: Tony Ioomi was the guitarist for Jethro Tull for a little bit.

I knew Geezer Butler

Wasn’t the first popular use of the term “Heavy Metal”, used in Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”?

the „caveman“drumming of bill ward is a huge factor, why sabbath sounded so awesome.