Black Sabbath: Song Analysis

Loner

(13)

Black Sabbath

I´ve chosen to write about the song “Loner” by Black Sabbath.

Black Sabbath:

They formed in 1968 in Birmingham.

It was John Michael ”Ozzy” Osbourne, Terence Michael Joseph ”Geezer” Butler, William Thomas ”Bill” Ward and Anthony ”Tony” Frank Iommi, who first formed the band. Tony Iommi had an accident where he lost his two middle fingers on his right hand. Iommi is left handed so he had the guitar the opposite way than a guitar normally was, like Jimi Hendrix. Because of the accident he tuned down and used other types of strings. This incident is actually kind of crucial for the Sabbath sound, because of the down tuning.

At first, they where named The Polka Tulk Blues Band, then Earth. People started to mistake

They wanted to call the album “War Pigs” from the single “War Pigs”. The song was about the Vietnam War, but the record company Warner changed the name on the album to Paranoid.

They didn´t have enough songs on the album so they had to come up with a song in the last minute. Tony played a cool guitar lick an all of a sudden they had made the lead single and the song the album was named after, “Paranoid”. After this they released many albums, like “Master of Reality” and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”.

Alcohol was one of many things that got Black Sabbath separated. Or rather: in 1979 Black Sabbath replaced Ozzy with Ronni James Dio on vocals and a bit later Geezer left the band for personal reasons. With Dio the band made the albums “Heaven And Hell” and “Mob Rules”. In 2002 Tony Iommi and Ozzy performed Paranoid with some other musicians at the Buckingham Palace Garden. The original Black Sabbath line-up performed at the Ozzfest in 2015.

In 2006-10 Tony, Geezer, Dio and drummer Vinny Appice. Formed a band they called Heaven and Hell. They performed old Black Sabbath with Dio songs.

In 2012 the original Black Sabbath line-up, (without drummer Bill Ward) started to make a new

It was not before this essay that I understood what the song was about. I think that makes this song even better because of all the questions Ozzy leaves the listeners, about this lonely man. And the lyric is very deep and depressing, but very good written. Geezer is very good at writing good lyrics like this.

I also think they are one of the most influential bands ever. Especially in the hard rock and heavy metal genre. Because of this they are one of the most important bands, if not the most important band of all time in this genre.

I have actually seen them live in Oslo when they where touring for the album 13.

For me Tony is the greatest guitarist ever, with his riffs and style of playing. For example songs like “Iron Man” and “Paranoid”. Everybody has heard the riffs. Especially the “Iron Man” riff. People may not know where the riffs come from, but none the less, they are singing it. He is truly a guitar God. They have said that they are going on one last trip before they retire for good. It would be really great to see them live again. And who knows, maybe they will miss it and come back after