Black Sabbath's Paranoid at 50: potent anthems of working-class strife

Written off by critics as horror trash from ‘unskilled labourers’, Sabbath’s masterpiece album took beaten-down listeners on a rollercoaster out of their strugglesI first heard Black Sabbath’s second album during the part of my childhood when I was most susceptible to its charms. As a quiet, earnest Catholic school kid – the kind that excitedly whispers “I’m clean!” to themselves after their first confession – it’s not all that surprising that I eventually got bullied. The boys called me names, pushed me into lockers, and dug their pens and markers into my clothes, as if to tell the rest of the pack: “He will let you do this!” Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/16/black-sabbath-paranoid-at-50-potent-anthems-of-working-class-strife #black_sabbath #metal #ozzy_osbourne #culture #birmingham #british_identity_and_society #pop_and_rock #music