In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 11 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Reception Ĭash Box described the song as being 'as dense, musically as ' Whole Lotta Love,'' stating that 'crashing, non-stop beat with gobs of bass and drums laced liberally with stinging, echoey vocals and hot guitar licks move the song along at a blistering pace.' Particularly, the lyric 'I tell you to enjoy life' was misheard as 'I tell you to end your life'. 'Paranoid' drew controversy for apparently encouraging suicide, much like the song ' Suicide Solution'. Originally the band had wanted to call the album War Pigs after the song of the same name, but the record company persuaded them to use 'Paranoid' instead because it was less offensive. 'Paranoid' eventually became the name of the album, and somewhat unusually, the word paranoid is never mentioned in the lyrics. The guitar solo is a dry signal on the left channel, which is patched through a ring modulator and routed to the right channel this effect was used again on the song 1978 'Johnny Blade'.Īccording to extant lyric sheets, 'Paranoid' was at one time titled 'The Paranoid.' The song is an E minor pentatonic and only uses power chords. I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy was reading them as he was singing. We basically needed a 3 minute filler for the album, and Tony came up with the riff. The song 'Paranoid' was written as an afterthought. We recorded the whole thing in about 2 or 3 days, live in the studio. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler (from Guitar World magazine, March 2004):Ī lot of the Paranoid album was written around the time of our first album, Black Sabbath. 'Paranoid' was the first Black Sabbath single release, coming six months after their self-titled debut was released. It reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 61 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It is the first single from the album, while the B-side is the song ' The Wizard'. ' Paranoid' is a song by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in 1970 off the band's second studio album Paranoid (1970).

Black sabbath paranoid