1970 Hit By Black Sabbath Ranked Among the Top Rock Songs of All Time

Throughout the late ’60s and ’70s, English band Black Sabbath released several hits that ended up massively impacting the rock genre.

For instance, Ultimate Classic Rock recently spotlighted Black Sabbath’s 1970 track “War Pigs,” off the band’s second record, Paranoid, for its significance. The publication featured the track on its ranking of the “Top 100 Rock Songs of All Time,” placing it at the list’s 56th spot. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, with “War Pigs,” Black Sabbath created a remarkable protest song that is an almost harrowing listen.

In a 2017 interview with Mojo, per Songfacts, Black Sabbath’s bassist and lyricist, Geezer Butler, explained that the Vietnam War was the reason he and his bandmates, who consisted of the late Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward, came to pen “War Pigs.”

“Britain was on the verge of being brought into [the war]. There was protests in the street, all kinds of anti-Vietnam things going on. War is the real Satanism. Politicians are the real Satanists. That’s what I was trying to say,” said Butler.

Ward shared how Vietnam veterans responded to their protest songs “War Pig,” “Iron Man” (1970), and “Children of the Grave” (1971), when they toured the United States in the ’70s during an interview for the 2010 BBC documentary Heavy Metal Britannia.

“There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of vets coming in to the shows, and they were in wheelchairs, and they would have, like, a flag on their wheelchair,” said the 78-year-old drummer during the interview. “And so they got ‘Children of the Grave.’ They got ‘Iron Man,’ you know, they didn’t need to translate it or anything else. They felt it. They heard it. They enjoyed it. And when we played ‘War Pigs,’ God bless them, nearly to a man, they all stood up. They were being held up in their wheelchairs.”

Ward then said, with emotion in his voice, that he’ll always remember looking out at those crowds.

“When you see that, you don’t forget that,” said Ward in the interview.