Ozzy and Geezer both say, according to, that it’s about getting attacked by skinheads. Side note: The “Ozzy and Geezer get stoned in a park” thing is from Tony Iommi. I would argue that “Fairies Wear Boots” is far superior. It’s strange, but a comparison could be made to “The Wizard.” Both in the genesis of the song being “Ozzy and Geezer Get Stoned: The Musical” (no really, they got high in a park and wrote this song about it) and the strange lyrical content. I guess you can only sing about war, violence, death, and other unseemly things before saying “We’re just gonna write about something dumber than that. It’s a relief from the dire seriousness of the rest of the album. It’s still heavy, in the way the rest of this album is heavy, but it’s also lyrically playful, and sonically playful, prone to sudden structural shifts. Rather, this just seems like a band practice jam that eventually became live filler that eventually became a lighter, goofier song. I mean, it would genuinely be hard to get weirder than “Fairies Wear Boots.” What kind of boots are they anyway? Heavy boots of lead? Is this still part of the overall arc of the album? (The one I may or may not have invented.) If so, the song is a little more fantasy oriented, and maybe it’s the “total meltdown” point of the “Hand of Doom” main character.Įxcept the song seems a little to throwaway, lyrically, for that. A completely stoned out of its mind note.īlack Sabbath did a few drug odes. Which is not an affront to “Electric Funeral” and “Hand of Doom,” but more that “Fairies Wear Boots” wants to go out on a high note. By the time we’re in full “Fairies Wear Boots” mode we’re ready for a strong outro to the album, especially on the side that’s a little more mired in darkness and drone. The “Jack the Stripper” intro, when listened to fully on the album, is seemingly the wrap up to “Rat Salad,” the padding song of Paranoid. Take solace in that and keep on keepin’ on. Really, we’re all here for the distorted, bluesy guitar lines, and you’re totally killing it. 27 years later, Harvey Milk will release The Pleaser and pay homage to you, ZZ Top, and every bluesy or over the top metal band before them, taking similar themes (and the genre) and flipping them on their heads. You neither have to justify your drug habits nor your religious beliefs to me. Like, why do I care whether or not Geezer wants me to get blazed in the park this weekend? Or if my morals align with Sabbath’s brand of Christianity? Sabbath, it’s okay. I love the genre, but I don’t identify with the content. Seriously? Am I really analyzing Sabbath’s moralistic viewpoints on getting high and partying? What has my life become? John can attest to my bizarre relationship with stoner rock. Granted, “Hand of Doom” is about heroine and “Fairies Wear Boots” is about less addictive psychedelic drugs… Taking each song individually gives us polarized views on drug use, humanity, etc., but together they create a balance. It’s more than a little weird that we’ve got “Fairies Wear Boots”–a psychedelic trip–and “Hand of Doom” on the same album. It’s a jump within Paranoid but not between albums. That isn’t to say that Master of Reality lacks the heaving hitting humanistic truths of Paranoid, but we do transition straight into “Sweet Leaf” from “Fairies Wear Boots”. Paranoid goes out on a bender and Master of Reality continues the party. I don’t have a lot to say about “Fairies Wear Boots” since it lacks depth, but I like thinking about it in context. The late sixties and early seventies were rife with rockin’ love letters to the stoner lifestyle, and these songs are well rooted in the rock lineage that would birth bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard. We’re heading from one tripped out song at the end of Paranoid straight into “Sweet Leaf”, where Sabbath really belts out their love for sweet Mary Jane. “Fairies Wear Boots” is void of deeper meanings we’ve seen in previous tracks. If we’re looking at Black Sabbath songs in a straight chronology, which is what John and I are doing, right?, then “Fairies Wear Boots” is a perfect jump from Paranoid to Master of Reality.
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