Day After Day #59: War Pigs

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

War Pigs (1970)

Fun fact: My introduction to Black Sabbath was when Ronnie James Dio was leading them (okay, I don't know how much fun that was, but nevertheless). It was 1980 and I was starting to get into FM rock stations, and one of the Toronto stations played side 1 of Sabbath's new album Heaven and Hell. Dio had just taken over for Ozzy Osbourne, who was fired a year earlier. It was an excellent album and I was hooked. Later that year, Ozzy released his first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz, which featured a hot new guitarist named Randy Rhoads and was excellent.

But as I continued to listen and learn about rock, I started hearing older Sabbath songs like "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" and realized that the original lineup was pretty amazing in the early years before they all got hepped up on goofballs. In 1970, Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward were skinny punks in their early 20s when they released their self-titled debut. Generally considered the first heavy metal album, it was dark, sludgy and goddamn powerful. It ended up going to #23 on the Billboard 200. And only four months after releasing it, the band went back in the studio to record their second album.

The plan was to call the album War Pigs after the song I'm writing about today, but Warner Bros. wasn't thrilled with that idea, especially since the U.S. was still embroiled in the Vietnam War. So it was called Paranoid instead, after a song written at the last minute. 

But it was the lead track, "War Pigs," that was the stunner on this record. An anti-war screed written by Butler, the song starts ominously with an air raid siren in the distance before the band kicks in. And then Ozzy launches into that famous opening.

"Generals gathered in their masses/Just like witches at black masses/Evil minds that plot destruction/Sorcerer of death's construction/In the fields, the bodies burning/As the war machine keeps turning/Death and hatred to mankind/Poisoning their brainwashed minds/Oh lord, yeah!"

Even rhyming "masses" with "masses" in the first line doesn't diminish how awesome this song is. Butler has said the song was initially called "Walpurgis," referring to a German holiday in which Christians prayed to ward off witchcraft. He was equating war to evil, but the label thought it sounded too Satanic, so they went with "War Pigs." The band has been the target of Christian groups since the beginning who are offended by their occult references, but anyone who thinks "War Pigs" isn't an antiwar song just isn't listening.

"Now in darkness world stops turning/Ashes where their bodies burning/No more war pigs have the power/Hand of God has struck the hour/Day of judgment, God is calling/On their knees, the war pigs crawling/Begging mercy for their sins/Satan laughing spreads his wings/Oh lord, yeah!"

At nearly 8 minutes, "War Pigs" contains multitudes. There's the heavier-than-heavy main riff, the funky mid-section, dueling guitar and bass solos, and Ward's alternating thunderous and jazzy drums bringing it all home. 

I'm sure Butler and the rest of Sabbath had no idea how enduring this song would be, both musically and lyrically. Fifty-four years later, war pig politicians are still sending generations of young people to fight pointless wars throughout the world. And the song has been covered countless times by the likes of Faith No More, Ween, Billy Strings and even T-Pain (whose version actually is terrific, see below). Oh lord, yeah!