Black Sabbath - *The official thread*

So, this is happening, too:

BLACK SABBATH: Super Deluxe Edition Of 'Paranoid' Due In November

September 15, 2016

BLACK SABBATH's second album, "Paranoid", will be reissued on November 11 by Rhino as a four-disc set that includes the original 1970 LP, a rare quad mix of the record folded down to stereo and two live shows from 1970, one from Montreux and one from Brussels.

JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford penned the liner notes for the upcoming release. He wrote: "'Paranoid' is important because it's the blueprint for metal. It led the world into a new sound and scene."

"Paranoid: Super Deluxe Edition" includes a hardbound book with new interviews with all band members, photos, a poster and a replica of the book sold during the group's tour in support of the album.

The quad mix included on the set's second disc comes from vinyl and 8-track pressings made in 1974. They've been long out of print. The concerts were recorded around the time of the album's release; in fact, the Montreux show was performed before the album even came out.


"Paranoid: Super Deluxe Edition" track listing:

Disc One: Original Album, 2012 Remaster

01. War Pigs / Luke's Wall
02. Paranoid
03. Planet Caravan
04. Iron Man
05. Electric Funeral
06. Hand Of Doom
07. Rat Salad
08. Jack The Stripper / Fairies Wear Boots

Disc Two: 1974 Quad Mix fold-down to stereo

Disc Three: Live in Montreux 1970

01. Intro
02. Paranoid
03. N.I.B.
04. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
05. Iron Man
06. War Pigs
07. Fairies Wear Boots
08. Hand Of Doom

Disc Four: Live in Brussels 1970

01. Paranoid
02. Hand Of Doom
03. Rat Salad
04. Iron Man
05. Black Sabbath
06. N.I.B.
07. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
08. War Pigs
09. Fairies Wear Boots

Released in the autumn of 1970, "Paranoid" is regarded by many as the finest heavy metal releases of all time, is hugely influential and has come to define the genre.

The album was produced by Rodger Bain and was recorded at Regent Sound Studios and Island Studios in London, England.

Asked if he realize how special "Paranoid" was while creating it, original SABBATH drummer Bill Ward told Goldmine: "There were several things that I felt back then but I knew that we were into something different. I mean, I think we all did. We knew that we were tapping into something we enjoyed very much. But we knew that it was different. And we knew that it was fragile as well, in the sense that this might not last more than five minutes, you know. Because there were so many opponents in, for lack of better words, higher places that were out to get that album and not give it any time at all."

He added: "When we played these songs originally, like I said earlier, we didn't know if it was going to last or not. It was actually quite fragile in many ways. But then SABBATH became generational. I guess that happens, where other bands become almost cultish. The life of SABBATH has been dependent upon others who have been influenced by SABBATH's music, just by granddad telling grandson: 'Hey, check this band out.' That's been amazing that part. We started to notice that when the guys showing up now are 50, 60 years old, and the kids there as well are, like, 10 years old. It's really neat, actually. It's very nice to see all that. I'm quite pleased how it's turned out to be influential with other musicians, too. To me, those are the things that are like silent gifts that you get when you get old. I hope that I received them with a modicum of humility and not big-headed about it."

Pressed to elaborate more on his use of the word "fragile," Ward said: "Back then, when we were making 'Paranoid' — and when we made our first album — we were still very much a band and we were very tight. There was the band, then the road managers and then the other people who would drive us around and take care of us, you know. There was probably ten of us, ten people together, and in a lot of ways there was a lot of internalizing. You know, we took care of each other's back and we looked after each other. We were really like one. I often referred to it as the Four Musketeers. It felt like that because there was so much coming from the outside. Between the media and TV and all the new audiences that we were reaching, all the new countries that we were traveling in. There was still very much this newness to everything. And I guess a sense of mistrust. We come from a really really hard, tough area in Birmingham so we learned to grow up with one eye always open, so to speak, we weren't stupid, in that sense we were pretty street smart."

He continued: "Keeping that in mind, as we were passing through record companies or talking to lawyers or anything like that, we were much very private. We huddled down and discussed everything and what was going on. We had just come from a huge two-year of touring in Europe where we would share our food. We were quite penniless so when we were playing the Star club and going through the Reeperbahn and doing all the things in Denmark and Sweden and so on and so forth, when we were doing those gigs prior to 1970, we had to learn how to survive because we were basically living for food and playing for food and things like that. So that really does breed a tough veneer, if you like. So we had that for some time. That traveled with us into the new world and the new changes that we were going through, or were about to go through. And that's what I meant by 'fragile.'"

SABBATH originally started out as a blues-rock act called EARTH, and singer Ozzy Osbourne told The Pulse Of Radio that some of that influence made its way into their first album. "We were originally a six-piece blues band," he said. "We had a saxophone player, bottleneck guitar player but they left, they fell to the way, and then we just started writing our own stuff and it came off blues. And so I suppose when we went and we did the first album, we still had that blues flavor with us, you know."

Now that I will buy!

Boris2008 wrote:

Now that I will buy!

Agreed. I am a sucker for endless "Live" albums even though they are mostly greatest hits packages in concert. If they are full shows where the band is/was touring in support of a particular album and are long lost shows from yester year like this then I am in love. I have never been a fan of the pulling of songs from different shows and dates to make one release. I abhor that.

I wouldn't mind those 2 classic vintage performances if they were put out by themselves as a 2 disc set, like the Past Lives album. I don't need another copy of Paranoid.

Seems like another misguided cash grab from a record company to package them with Paranoid, seeing how that album was just released fairly recently as a "Deluxe Package".

EDIT: Ok, so "fairly recently" as of 2009, but still.

Every time I see this thread bumped, I'm hoping it's because they're re-releasing the Tony Martin albums I'm missing.

So I fell down a rabbit-hole today while casually surfing the web and found this pic...


...which was apparently the inspiration for the Heaven and Hell album cover...

Quote :

The album's cover art was taken from a painting by artist Lynn Curlee, Smoking Angels, inspired by a 1928 photograph of women dressed as angels smoking backstage during a break at a college pageant

I thought that was pretty neat. Enjoy the rest of your day.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

So I fell down a rabbit-hole today while casually surfing the web and found this pic...


...which was apparently the inspiration for the Heaven and Hell album cover...

Quote :

The album's cover art was taken from a painting by artist Lynn Curlee, Smoking Angels, inspired by a 1928 photograph of women dressed as angels smoking backstage during a break at a college pageant

I thought that was pretty neat. Enjoy the rest of your day.

I've heard of that before, but never saw the actual photo. Are you sure that's the right one? Those look like some very manly women lol

Arent there any unreleased tracks from the Paranoid sessions? Why not put those on the album instead of pointless live shows (which could have been released seperately)?

Hadley wrote:

Arent there any unreleased tracks from the Paranoid sessions? Why not put those on the album instead of pointless live shows (which could have been released seperately)?

Because Iommi refuses to release them.

"Iommi clears the air, saying, “…we wouldn’t release anything we weren’t proud of. I’ve got stuff at home, 24 multi-tracks donkey’s years old…I’m just not going to start releasing stuff just to make money out of it.”"

http://bigtakeover.com/essays/black-sabbath-the-lost-acetates-and-early-recordings

Lari wrote:

Every time I see this thread bumped, I'm hoping it's because they're re-releasing the Tony Martin albums I'm missing.

After resisting temptation for a couple of years, I recently broke down and bought a Russian bootleg of Headless Cross... which means it will probably be reissued legitimately any day now.

You're welcome

Witchfinder wrote:

Hadley wrote:

Arent there any unreleased tracks from the Paranoid sessions? Why not put those on the album instead of pointless live shows (which could have been released seperately)?

Because Iommi refuses to release them.  

"Iommi clears the air, saying, “…we wouldn’t release anything we weren’t proud of. I’ve got stuff at home, 24 multi-tracks donkey’s years old…I’m just not going to start releasing stuff just to make money out of it.”"

http://bigtakeover.com/essays/black-sabbath-the-lost-acetates-and-early-recordings

Wait till Tony passes. Then his estate will open the vaults and release every scrap of tape they can find for years to come. It's call the "Jimi Hendrix Effect". See also: Tupac, Prince; Elvis, Michael Jackson, etc.

Hell has apparently frozen over. Tony Iommi is currently re-mixing 1995's Forbidden album with an eye towards re-releasing it next year.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/tony-iommi-has-begun-remixing-black-sabbaths-forbidden-album-for-2019-release/

...of course he is, cuz I bought a Russian bootleg of it earlier this year, thinking it was never going to see the light of day thru legitimate channels again. That figures. (kicks rock)

They need to reissue Tyr. I have been waiting for this one forever...

And I've been waiting for Headless Cross.

Hell, just put all the Tony Martin albums back on the shelves and make a lot of fans happy, Tony!

Happy 71st birthday to the father of Heavy Metal!!  



Keep the riffs coming!!

Happy birthday. Best wishes of health!

Gilbert wrote:

They need to reissue Tyr. I have been waiting for this one forever...

I will definitely buy that one if and when it gets reissued.

Required Fields wrote:

Gilbert wrote:

They need to reissue Tyr. I have been waiting for this one forever...

I will definitely buy that one if and when it gets reissued.

This is the number one on my want list.

He went out with Lita Ford for two years -
I wont say what else she wrote.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Happy 71st birthday to the father of Heavy Metal!!  



Keep the riffs coming!!

Cheers to that!  

I hope he has many healthy years still ahead of him to create more great riffs!

I was in the trucj earlier and I had on "Ozzy's Boneyard" on Sirius and Dee Snider was talking about the "Master of Reality" album as being the first true Heavy Metal album before they played Into The Void. Such a great tune and album.

Regarding the re release of "Forbidden" I guess no one in Sabbath at the time was happy with how it came out production wise. To be honest, this is sort a forgotten era of the band for me, as I don't own any Tony Martin era albums. I'm working on changing that though.

Lari wrote:

And I've been waiting for Headless Cross.

Hell, just put all the Tony Martin albums back on the shelves and make a lot of fans happy, Tony!

I own Headless Cross on cassette, but would much rather own the CD.

I have all the Tony Martin releases on cd. I was able to pick them so up at FYE for a decent price over 10 years ago.

Required Fields wrote:

Lari wrote:

And I've been waiting for Headless Cross.

Hell, just put all the Tony Martin albums back on the shelves and make a lot of fans happy, Tony!

I own Headless Cross on cassette, but would much rather own the CD.

I remember picking this one up on cd in a tiny local shop over 10 years ago for 12$. It had been sitting on the shelves collecting dust for many years.

Over 2 years ago i was able to find the sabbath stones compilation on cd at another small shop. I instantly purchased it, since it contained some tracks from Tyr album. So i was left partially satisfied.

Interesting read:

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/prime-cuts-tony-iommi-recalls-best-worst-black-sabbath-heaviest-band-south-heaven