War Pigs (song)
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- For other uses, see War pigs (disambiguation).
| "War Pigs" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Song by Black Sabbath | ||
| from the album 'Paranoid' | ||
| Released | 1970 | |
| Genre | Heavy Metal | |
| Length | 7:57 | |
| Label | Vertigo (UK) Warner Bros. Records (US) | |
| 'Paranoid' track listing | ||
| "War Pigs" (1) |
"Paranoid" (2) |
|
"War Pigs" is an anti-war song by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath from their 1970 album, Paranoid. The song talks about war and the absurdities of those who make war without regard to the powerless people who are sent to die. It's sometimes called a protest song.
It is the opening track on Paranoid, Black Sabbath's best selling album. It can also be found on every live and compilation album by the band along with "Paranoid" itself and "Iron Man". The intro to War Pigs has its own name: "Luke's Wall". [1]
Originally intended to be the title-track, the name of the album was changed to Paranoid, as Black Sabbath's record company feared a backlash by supporters of the Vietnam War. It is one of Black Sabbath's most popular songs, and is still played on Classic Rock stations regularly. The riff, as with most Sabbath songs, is powerful and memorable, as are the eerie verses, which feature Osbourne singing alone (using a melody cribbed from their earlier "Behind The Wall Of Sleep") and punctuated at every line by a guitar lick.
The song has been covered by the band Sacred Reich on the EP Surf Nicaragua and their live EP Alive at the Dynamo, PIG on the Prime Evil EP, Cake_(band) on the B-Sides and Rarities CD and Faith No More whose cover was featured on their 1989 album The Real Thing. It has also been performed live by The Dresden Dolls in 2004 to 2006, at times with female vocalists such as Cat Power and Peaches. Gov't Mule covered 'War Pigs' on their 1999 album, Live With A Little Help From Our Friends. The song was also covered by Reef on their Waster single. Additionally, the alternative band Cake has been known to cover the song during live shows every now and then. A studio recorded version of the song appears on the band's website as an intro. It has also been covered live by bluegrass tribute band, Hayseed Dixie. War Pigs is the final track on Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckles's second album, Night Light
"It's about the sad shape that our world is in." (Ronnie James Dio, 1992).
"War Pigs" is featured as a playable track in the video game, Guitar Hero II.
British born rapper Kano sampled the guitar parts for his song 'I Don't Know Why' from his album Home Sweet Home.
The original name of the song was Walpurgis, and had totally different lyrics.
A version of the song can be found on the band Suck's 1970 psychedelic album, "Time to Suck."
The song was covered by The Flaming Lips as the closer for most of their shows for their tour supporting the album At War With The Mystics. Images of dead bodies and politicians (namely George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice) were displayed on a screen behind the band as they played.
The song is also set to appear on Cake's forthcoming album "Rarities." The song was also available to download free (for e-mail News Letter subscribers). The song is 4:06 skipping the 3:00 bridge and introduction. Instead of the prison-siren sound-effects of the original, CAKE uses air raid sirens. The outro solo is played entirely on trumpet. The song is also covered by New Orleans based funk/brass band Bonerama on their Live from New York CD.
[edit] References
The original also used air raid sirens as the intro (Luke's Wall), not prison sirens.
