composed by Terry Butler, Tony Iommi, John Osbourne, and Bill Ward
This track demonstrates how some performers ultimately epitomize themselves through a sharp and dramatic formal departure. Black Sabbath’s music was characteristically slow (not to say drug-impaired) conveying an undeniable grandeur through VERY SIMPLE guitar figures cranked through an overdriven signal processor (Mr. Fuzztone to you) without the encumbrance of, for example, Jimmy Page’s knack for orchestrating Led Zeppelin’s defining group-wide distortions of scale as well as his own guitar sound. Thus Zeppelin defined “heavy metal” despite being wholly unlike anyone else in that putative category. Thus, comparatively (and before I had any inkling of Ozzy Osbourne’s genuine comedic gifts), I thought Sabbath might be the most dimwitted rock band ever, and “Geezer” Butler’s lyrics have never suggested otherwise. But “Paranoid” does, because it is more dance music than heavy metal. The rhythm section clomps along no more adroitly than it does on “War Pigs,” but Tony Iommi’s guitar figures are built not just for speed, but for acceleration. The actual tempo never varies but one’s ability to take in the sonic information seems to expand exponentially over the two and three quarter minutes, as does the song itself. Sabbath never actually accelerates -- (why should they?) -- but you do.
Note: 25 secular essays (each one exactly 200 words long) about 25 songs, to appear one per day during Advent (or so) from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21.
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