“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you”.

That phrase was invented by Black Sabbath in nineteen-seventy-whenever after the release of their only ever single: Paranoid. It’s a brilliant song. All their songs were brilliant. Really ‘dark’, fucking LOUD and totally brilliant. They had to be played loud. If you turned the volume down below ‘9’ they turned off. No point listening to Iron Man or War Pigs at a whisper. Ossie Osbourne didn’t do ‘whisper’.

But Black Sabbath had a right to be paranoid because everyone was out to get them. To try and ban them. For being ‘dark’, ‘satanic’, ‘demonic’, obviously. But also, following the suicide of a young woman who’d was playing their album at the time of her death, the accusations of evil against the band went exponential. Not only were they subversive, not only were they really long-haired and rebellious, not only, if you played their records backwards Bealzibub would enter the room, but worst of all: they were working class.

Four scumbag factory workers from Birmingham who changed music forever. Of course once those accusations started flying and calls for having their music banned got under way, their fame and fortune similarly skyrocketed. No such thing as bad publicity. And the more ‘from the devil’ they were accused, the more kids wanted to embrace that, to stand out, be different.

I was watching a rockumentary about ‘the birth of Metal’. No shit. I know, with the World Cup on how do I find the time? But I make time. For what’s important. And once I’d enjoyed the exquisite moment when Ronaldo came on as a substitute, that match could never get any better, however many Portugal scored. So I went in search of the sound of my youth. Played at volume ’11’ in my brother’s room. But what separates Black Sabbath from all the other bands of that ilk, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Nazareth, was that Ossie and his merry men always seemed to be laughing. Mainly at themselves, but not exclusively. And I love that they never took anything too seriously.

Happy listenin’

A xxxx