War Pigs
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"War Pigs"
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"War Pigs" is an antiwar song by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath from their 1970 album Paranoid. It is generally understood that the song is a protest against the Vietnam War; however, when the band played "War Pigs" live in the mid-1970s, scenes from World War II were projected for audiences.
As explained in the liner notes of the band's live album Reunion, the original title of the song was "Walpurgis", dealing with a witches' sabbath. The title, lyrics, and theme were subsequently changed during the recording of Paranoid. An early version, with the original theme, can be found on Ozzy Osbourne's compilation The Ozzman Cometh.
"War Pigs" is the opening track on Paranoid, Black Sabbath's best-selling album. It can also be found in every live and compilation album by the band except Cross Purposes Live, along with "Paranoid" itself and "Iron Man". The outro to "War Pigs" has its own name, "Luke's Wall" (named in homage to the band's two-man road crew, Geoff "Luke" Lucas and Spock Wall) and features a more melodic tone than the rest of the song. The last few seconds of the track feature the sound of the tape speeding up, changing tempo and pitch.
"War Pigs" is ranked number two on Digital Dream Door's "100 Greatest Metal Songs". Readers of Guitar World ranked the song number 56 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the song was placed in the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.
The tape copy sent to Warner Bros. Records in the United States contained a tape drop-out (in the left stereo channel) about a minute into the song, which has been heard on every other U.S. compilation and reissue since 1971.
Read more about War Pigs: Background and Lyrical Themes, Reception, Covers, Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or pigs:
“Armies, for the most part, are made up of men drawn from simple and peaceful lives. In time of war they suddenly find themselves living under conditions of violence, requiring new rules of conduct that are in direct contrast to the conditions they lived under as civilians. They learn to accept this to perform their duties as fighting men.”
—Gil Doud, U.S. screenwriter, and Jesse Hibbs. Walter Bedell Smith (Himself)
“I don’t like the city better, the more I see it, but worse. I am ashamed of my eyes that behold it. It is a thousand times meaner than I could have imagined.... The pigs in the street are the most respectable part of the population.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)