While we don’t often associate heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath with songs about love and romance, these sentimental songs do exist—like the Black Sabbath deep-cut love song they allegedly wrote about the “ultimate romantic weekend.” (And no, the romantic weekend didn’t involve satanic rituals, looming robots named “Iron Man,” or pigs of any kind, war or not.)
The band used the unexpectedly sentimental song as the B-side opener of their 1970 album ‘Paranoid.’ (This tradition of placing one singularly chill track in the middle of their album was something Black Sabbath would continue the following year, á la “Orchid” off ‘Master of Reality.’)
The Meaning Behind This Black Sabbath Love Song
In the documentary Black Sabbath: Paranoid, guitarist Tony Iommi said the idea for “Planet Caravan” started as an impromptu jam session in the studio. Iommi began with the track’s signature riff, which he plays throughout the song. Eventually, Bill Ward joined in on Congas; Geezer Butler added his signature bass licks, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne started writing his vocal melody with scratch lyrics.
While Osbourne’s initial celestial lyrics helped inspire the final product of “Planet Caravan,” Geezer Butler would ultimately pen the rest of the words. “It was really laid-back, so I didn’t want to come up with the usual love crap,” Butler explained in the documentary. “So, it’s about floating through the universe with your loved one instead of going down to the pub and having some chips. That’s what it is about: just taking a spaceship out into the stars, having the ultimate romantic weekend.”
The song’s main melody, however, was Osbourne’s creation. Butler commended Osbourne’s ability to write vocal lines while the rest of the band jammed instrumentally. “I don’t think he gets enough credit for what a talent he had for just coming up with these incredible vocal lines out of the air. Almost always what he first came up with, that’s what we’d go with.”
How The Band Created The Track’s Distinct, Spacey Sound
On an album with heavy metal cuts like “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” “Electric Funeral,” and “Hand of Doom,” Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan” love song stands alone as a psychedelic, calming musical interlude. Tony Iommi’s repetitive, almost hypnotic guitar riff played a large part in laying the groundwork for the track’s overall vibe. But the band also utilized a few helpful studio tricks to further skyrocket the song into space.
For example, Osbourne recorded his vocal tracks through a Leslie speaker, which transmits electronic signals from an instrument (or, in this case, a vocal mic) and uses a rotating baffle chamber to manipulate the sound. This technique gave Osbourne’s vocals a distinct, muffled, and warbly tone, unlike any other track on ‘Paranoid.’
Ample flute experimentation also helped create the ethereal, spacey soundscape of “Planet Caravan.” Tony Iommi played flute on the Black Sabbath love song, except instead of recording to the original master, Iommi played along to a master track that the band had reversed. Then, the band re-forwarded the master track, thereby “reversing” the flute, and added ample stereo delay to maximize the instrument’s airy qualities.
All in all, “Planet Caravan” is a wholly unique track compared to the rest of Black Sabbath’s heavy metal catalogue, a distinction appropriately saved for one of their most unassuming love songs of all time.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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