Black Sabbath - Paranoid - Meaning of the song
As the title suggests, this song is about a man who is paranoid. The driving guitar and bass create a nervous energy to go along with Ozzy Osbourne's desperate vocal. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, who wrote the lyric, explained the song's meaning to Mojo magazine June 2013: "Basically, it's just about depression, because I didn't really know the difference between depression and paranoia. It's a drug thing; when you're smoking a joint you get totally paranoid about people, you can't relate to people. There's that crossover between the paranoia you get when you're smoking dope and the depression afterwards."
"Paranoid" is a fan favorite, the far from a band favorite. Geezer Butler told Guitar World magazine, March 2004, "A lot of the Paranoid album was written around the time of our first album, Black Sabbath. We recorded the whole thing in about two or three days, live in the studio. The song 'Paranoid' was written as an afterthought. We basically needed a 3-minute filler for the album, and Tony came up with the riff. I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy was reading them as he was singing." Tony Iommi explained:
"The song was written as a filler for the album - it was never intended on being anything else. But it became a single because it was a short song, and because it became what it did, most people knew us because of 'Paranoid' in them days."
Paranoid - Lyrics
Finished with my woman 'cause she couldn't help me with my mind
People think I'm insane because I am frowning all the time
All day long I think of things but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify
Can you help me occupy my brain?
Oh yeah
I need someone to show me the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind
Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal
And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it's too late
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