RECORD CRACK: P.S. I Love You – Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” (Holland)
Growing up with Black Sabbath‘s music throughout my childhood, I associate their music with their albums. Master Of Reality is my favorite album, but two of my uncles played their music religiously. I could go to one house and listen to “After Forever” or “Into The Void”. I’d go to the apartment of another uncle and I could hear “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “Dirty Woman”, or “Symptom Of The Universe”. The imagery on their albums were cool and scary, especially Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Who was this man suffering on a bed with 666 in the background? Eerie.
For many, Black Sabbath is not associated with singles, even though the group have had radio hits. This is their biggest “hit”, “Paranoid”, but sometimes I also associate the song with the live performance MTV used to show in the 1980′s. This picture sleeve from Holland looks nothing like what I’d expect to see from Ozzy, Iommi, Geezer, and Bill. This looks like something you might see on a record by The Cure or Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Ozzy Osbourne hair, I mean damn. Was this meant to be for the teen market? I don’t know, but that’s what makes imported picture sleeves interesting, to realize that this was the way a song and band was marketed in their countries, which always brings up the question “why?” when it is not what we expect for it to be.
What do you think?