Since time immemorial (well, since 1970 anyway) Man has struggled in vain to answer the burning question that will not go away. That question that keeps us up at night, tossing and turning, grinding our teeth until we have to get up and put on the albums and listen to them again, and even then we don't know for sure which is better: Black Sabbath's debut or
Paranoid?
Now, at last, this question will be answered for all time. Thousands of people --- well, hundreds --- well, a lot --- well, a few --- well, okay, one --- one person has laboured ceaselessly over the last few months to unravel this enigma and come up with a definitive answer. Using scientific logic and empirical data, we will pit these two legendary albums against each other, to see who comes out on top.
Take your places, sportsfans! It's time to
VS
Although debate has raged through this forum, and others, as well as other media, as to which album is the best, I am not making a personal choice here. Each album will be rigorously tested under the criteria shown below, and points awarded for each. At the end, we'll total up the points and see who comes out on top. Could be a shock, could be a foregone conclusion. Even I don't know the result at this time.
Some of these may seem frivolous concerns, but they all go to make up part of the picture, so bear with me.
The first point is
Year Released. This is easy. “Black Sabbath” came out in 1970, so did “Paranoid”, leaving the contest a dead heat.
Black Sabbath1,
Paranoid 1
So no blows are struck. Each dances around the other, probing, feinting, looking for an opening.
Next we move on to
Number of Tracks.
Black Sabbath has seven, eight if you include the CD reissue, but
Paranoid has eight on vinyl, making it the clear winner in this section.
Black Sabbath 1,
Paranoid 2
Paranoid lands the first blow.
Black Sabbath reels back.
Now let's look at
Album Lengths. It's all very well to have eight tracks when the other album has seven, but what if your eight run for less than its seven? This is clearly a case where size
does matter, and the score comes out thus:
Black Sabbath runs for a total of 38 mins 12 seconds, while
Paranoid hits in at 42 mins 7 seconds, so once again Paranoid takes the round.
Black Sabbath 1,
Paranoid 3
Paranoid hits out again; Black Sabbath ducks but is unable to avoid the blow.
Now let's go
track-by-track for
length comparisons:
Black Sabbath Track 1 (“Black Sabbath)” 6:20
Paranoid Track 1 (“War pigs”) 7:57
Black Sabbath loses out to
Paranoid's first track, so we have a score of
Black Sabbath 1,
Paranoid 4
Black Sabbath Track 2 (“The Wizard”) 4:24
Paranoid Track 2 (“Paranoid”) 2:53
Black Sabbath starts fighting back!
Black Sabbath 2,
Paranoid 4
Black Sabbath Track 3 (“Behind the walls of sleep”) 3:37
Paranoid Track 3 (“Planet caravan”) 4:32
Paranoid takes it again!
Black Sabbath 2,
Paranoid 5
Black Sabbath Track 4 (“NIB”) 6:08
Paranoid Track 4 (“Iron man”) 6:00
Black Sabbath edges it, just!
Black Sabbath 3,
Paranoid 5. Closing the gap, but can the debut maintain this momentum or will it slip behind again?
Black Sabbath Track 5 (“Evil woman”) 3:25
Paranoid Track 5 (“Electric funeral”) 4:53
Paranoid hits back!
Black Sabbath 3,
Paranoid 6!
Black Sabbath Track 6 (“Sleeping village”) 3:46
Paranoid Track 6 (“Hand of doom”) 7:08
Clear winner for
Paranoid, taking the score to
Black Sabbath 3,
Paranoid 7
Black Sabbath track 7 (“Warning”) 10:08
Paranoid Track 7 (“Rat salad”) 2:30
Big fightback from
Black Sabbath as it crushes
Paranoid with its final track! Even if the seventh AND last tracks on
Paranoid were added together they would STILL be shorter than the epic closer on the debut.
Final score after the individual tracks:
Black Sabbath 4,
Paranoid 7
Although
Paranoid has the extra track it has already scored its hit for having more tracks, so it's unfair to compare “Fairies wear boots” to an nonexistent track on the debut.
Paranoid is now raining blows down on Black Sabbath, which seems unable to avoid them and defend itself. Could this contest be over before it even begins?
Next up:
Hit Singles. Yeah, we know where this is going don't we?
Black Sabbath, despite being the emergence of both this band and doom, indeed heavy metal itself, has absolutely no hit singles on it, while
Paranoid scored a big top ten hit with the title track, giving it a clear victory here.
Black Sabbath 4,
Paranoid 8
Another uppercut takes Black Sabbath and its eyes are a little bleary now.
But let's forget hit singles. Sabbath were never a band who were about chart hits. Which of the albums has the most Sabbath standards on it? Let's take a look.
With one track less,
Black Sabbath is probably not in the greatest position, and other than the title track and NIB, I think that's it, two tracks. Whereas Paranoid has of course the title, “War pigs” and “Iron man”, so again it takes the prize.
Black Sabbath 4,
Paranoid 9
Seems like Black Sabbath is about to go down...
How about
Album Sales? Which of the two albums shifted the most units? Well,
Black Sabbath was possibly a two-edged sword: first, nobody had really heard anything like this before, so it was unanticipated and some people might have wondered about buying it, whereas by the time
Paranoid rolled around almost eight months later, excitement would have been at fever pitch, and everyone who had bought, or wanted the debut would buy the new album. Add to that the chart impact of the title track going to number four and it was likely that
Paranoid reached more new fans than the debut had. It looks like this could be another bloodbath!
Well, not quite.
Paranoid does get it, but
Black Sabbath does not disgrace itself. The latter sold 1.6 million copies, while the debut could (only) manage one million. So again,
Paranoid gets it.
Black Sabbath 4,
Paranoid 10
A vicious punch to the chest, Black Sabbath is winded, legs shaky...
How about
Status? Surely both albums went at least Gold, if not Platinum? Let's see;
Black Sabbath Platimun in both the USA and the UK,
Paranoid Platinum in Canada (sounds like the name of a prog rock band!), Quadruple Platinum in the USA and SIX TIMES Platinum in the UK! Oh yeah,
Paranoid knocks it out of the park here! No contest.
Black Sabbath 4,
Paranoid 11
A sneaky little rabbit punch almost floors Black Sabbath, but it keeps its feet and the ref sees the illegal move, orders both fighters back to their corners for a minute. Gratefully, Black Sabbath sucks in breath and spits out teeth.