Vinyl Vault Entry #5: Recollecting First Vinyl Purchase with Black Sabbath's Paranoid

Everyone remembers their first record purchase, and for this Vinyl Vault entry, T&E writer Alex explains how Black Sabbath's Paranoid sent him down the vinyl rabbithole. He also discusses the quirks of the Korean pressing, and how this seminal rock 'n roll album captured the cultural zeitgeist of the early 70s. 

Album: Paranoid (1970)
Artist: Black Sabbath
Label: Vertigo/Warner Bros.
Genre: Heavy Metal
Favorite songs: “Paranoid,” “Planet Caravan”

 
Why did you choose this record? 
This and the double live album At Folsom Prison and San Quentin by Johnny Cash were the first two records I ever bought. Yep, Paranoid is responsible for sending me down the rabbit hole of collecting vinyl. I bought it on a trip to Seattle that I took one summer in college. I forget the name of the shop, but I remember it was really close to the University of Washington. It must have had a lot of rare collectible albums because the Sabbath and Johnny Cash albums were the only two records I found that piqued my interest and that I could actually afford. When I came home from my trip, I set up my parents’ old turntable that hadn’t been used in decades and played those two records nearly every day. A few weeks later, I went back to Tucson for fall semester and bought myself a turntable after I moved into my new house. The rest is history. 
 
What pressing is this record?
This is actually a Korean pressing from 1970 that somehow found its way to the United States. The jacket/sleeve and disc carry the logo of the label that released the album in South Korea instead of Vertigo or Warner Bros., and “Iron Man” is misprinted as “Lion Man” on side A.

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Talk about the significant history of this album.
It was 1970 – flower power had met its ugly death a year earlier with the one-two punch of the Manson Family Murders, and the Rolling Stones thinking a drunken motorcycle gang like the Hells Angels would make good security guards when they played Altamont Speedway. Public opposition to the Vietnam War was at critical mass, and American GI’s were coming home, or to England, noticeably shaken with PTSD and severe drug addictions. A lot of young men were bitter and disillusioned. The world must have felt like a bad acid trip back then, and people must have felt like it was one from which they couldn’t come down. Black Sabbath exploded onto the scene with both their self-titled debut and Paranoid, capturing the undercurrent zeitgeist of that year in the process. You could tell the late 60’s hippie roots were there, but there was something darker about their music. The overdriven blues rock coming from the Woodstock crowd just sounded drugged out; Sabbath straight up sounded evil. 
 
The first five Black Sabbath albums laid the groundwork for heavy metal music as a whole. It goes without saying that the genre as we know it would not exist if it wasn’t for them. Recorded and released just a few months after the release of their debut album, Black Sabbath wasted no time setting themselves apart from their peers on Paranoid. The entirety of Side A reads like a greatest hits compilation – “War Pigs,” “Paranoid,” “Planet Caravan,” and “Iron Man?” What a run. On side B, “Electric Funeral” and “Hand of Doom” are full of hypnotizing guitar riffs that have stood the test of time.
 
What does it sound like? 
It sounds like… a 50 year old piece of vinyl. To be fair, the music itself has held up fairly well for its age; you can hear every instrument and Ozzy’s voice perfectly, but it sounds like they had a campfire going in the studio, especially on side A. Still, you can tell every person who owned this record took good care of it, and on speakers and at a loud enough volume, it’s easy to tune out the background noise.

Tell us about the album art featured on this record.
It’s a blurry photograph of a guy in a helmet and space suit popping out of the bushes with a laser sword and shield. According to Wikipedia, the album name was originally going to be War Pigs, and the artwork was supposed to tie in with that name, but the label decided the record would be easier to sell if it was called Paranoid because the song “Paranoid” was already taking off as a single. Ozzy Osborne implies that the guy is dressed as a pig, and he doesn’t know what that has to do with being paranoid. Neither do I, Ozzy. Neither do I. I feel drunk when I look at it, and I feel like I could have taken this photo (or, more accurately, been the guy in the picture) when I was in college, so I think everyone involved in coming up with the artwork was just drunk.

​What does this album pair well with?
A hot summer day and sticky indica bong rips.
 
RIYL:
Motorhead, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, music in general… I mean come on dude, it’s Sabbath
 
Tell us more about your record collection in general.
My collection fills up about a crate and a half and mostly consists of new albums that leave an impression on me, reasonably-priced good record store finds, and albums that have sentimental value to me. Unsurprisingly, a lot of my collection is from the 2010s – metal, hardcore, alt, and indie – but I also have a few older metal, punk, classic rock, and jazz records. However, I only recently bought the shelf you see in my pictures, and moving my collection onto there from my crates has really made me realize how criminally small my rap/hip-hop collection is... I need to fix that!