War Pigs

For other uses, see War pigs (disambiguation).
"War Pigs"
Song by Black Sabbath from the album Paranoid
Released 18 September 1970 (1970-09-18)
Genre Heavy metal[1]
Length 7:58
Label Vertigo
Writer(s) Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward
Producer(s) Rodger Bain
Music sample
"War Pigs"
Paranoid track listing
"War Pigs"
(1)		 "Paranoid"
(2)

"War Pigs" is a song by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. It is the opening track from their 1970 album Paranoid.

Overview

The original title of "War Pigs" was "Walpurgis", dealing with the witches' sabbath.[2][3] "Walpurgis is sort of like Christmas for Satanists. And to me, war was the big Satan", said bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler. "It wasn’t about politics or government or anything. It was [about] evil. So I was saying 'generals gathered in the masses / just like witches at black masses' to make an analogy. But when we brought it to the record company, they thought 'Walpurgis' sounded too Satanic. And that's when we turned it into 'War Pigs'. But we didn't change the lyrics, because they were already finished."[4] Prior to its official release, the band often altered the lyrics significantly when performing it live.[5] An example of this can be found on Ozzy Osbourne's compilation The Ozzman Cometh, which features an early version recorded by Black Sabbath for BBC Radio 1 on 26 April 1970.[6] While Butler has said that "War Pigs" is "totally against the Vietnam War, about how these rich politicians and rich people start all the wars for their benefit and get all the poor people to die for them",[7] vocalist Osbourne has stated that the group "knew nothing about Vietnam. It's just an anti-war song."[8] The song's instrumental outro is entitled "Luke's Wall".[9]

Drummer Bill Ward's first memory of performing the song was at The Beat Club in Switzerland in 1968.[7] The band was required to play multiple sets every night and had little material in their repertoire at that point, so they would perform lengthy jam sessions to fill out the sets.[2] Iommi has said that "War Pigs" originated from one of those live jam sessions.[10]

The addition of the air-raid siren and the speeding up of the song's end were done by producer Rodger Bain and engineer Tom Allom. The band had no input in these decisions, though they were pleased with the results.[2]

Legacy

Martin Popoff has called the song an "ugly, antiwar classic now considered one of Sabbath's top two or three most enduring compositions".[5] Guitar World described the song as "the greatest HM song ever."[8] The magazine also included the song on their list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" and ranked it in 56th place.[11] Steve Huey of AllMusic called the song a "standard".[12]

The song is notable for its publication in the American folk music magazine Broadside, which normally did not feature rock songs.[13]

The song's iconic guitar riff largely inspired that of Arctic Monkeys' 2014 single "Arabella", to the extent that the band often perform an interlude of the song, to enable Alex Turner to get his guitar in time for his solo.

Personnel

See also

References

  1. ↑ William Irwin (September 18, 2012). Black Sabbath and Philosophy: Mastering Reality. John Wiley & Sons. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-118-39761-9.
  2. 1 2 3 Iommi, Tony (2011). Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-30681-9551.
  3. ↑ Alexander, Phil (1998). Reunion (Media notes). Black Sabbath. Epic.
  4. ↑ Wiederhorn, Jon. "Black Sabbath Bassist Geezer Butler Gets 'Paranoid'". Noisecreep. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  5. 1 2 Popoff, Martin (2006). Black Sabbath: Doom Let Loose: An Illustrated History. ECW press. p. 32. ISBN 1-55022-731-9.
  6. ↑ The Ozzman Cometh liner notes, Epic Records, 11 November 1997.
  7. 1 2 Popoff, Martin (2006). Black Sabbath: Doom Let Loose: An Illustrated History. ECW press. p. 33. ISBN 1-55022-731-9.
  8. 1 2 Clerk, Carol (2002). Diary of a Madman: Ozzy Osbourne: The Stories Behind the Songs. Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-56025-4720.
  9. ↑ As noted on the labels of early North American Warner Bros. Records pressings of Paranoid, (catalog no. WS 1887), released January 1971.
  10. ↑ Orshoski, Wes (2 November 2002). "Rhino Bows Sabbath Fete with Two-Disc Anthology". Billboard.
  11. ↑ "100 Greatest Guitar Solos: 51-100". Guitar World. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  12. ↑ Huey, Steve. "Allmusic (((Paranoid > Overview)))". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  13. ↑ Kelly, John (11 November 2000). "Delivering a radical broadside". irishtimes.com. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
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