Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan
Well well! Who’d have thought a group harbouring the future Prince of Darkness™ could’ve produced something as breathtakingly evocative – and yes, beautiful -- as this?
Image from: Black Sabbath Fans
‘Planet Caravan’ is for anybody who at sometime in their life has closed their eyes and wished they were someplace else, far away. It’s for all the dreamers and those that live in hope that one day there might just be something better than what they’ve presently got.
It stems from a time long before any unsuspecting bat found itself minus a head to the tune of one and Ozzy Osbourne was still capable of stringing a coherent sentence together. Although coming from Aston -- just up the road from where this reviewer sits now -- that’s possibly open to debate.
In all honesty, it’s difficult to convey in words the ethereal wonder of this psychedelic/prog rock classic taken from the 1970 Black Sabbath album Paranoid. To do it any real justice, this review should really read: GO LISTEN, NOW!
But of course that would be rather dull for anyone foolish enough to be hanging upon my every word, so I shall press on regardless and try my best to elaborate on the previous three word instruction: GO LISTEN, NOW!
It has to be said that ‘Planet Caravan’ is markedly different to anything else that appears on 1970′s Paranoid album, both in tone and lyrics. For those expecting a headbanging, sweaty mosh-pit filler of a song (something for which Black Sabbath was to become the chief exponents), it must be said that the whole album rises above such ludicrous posturing and this track elevates it to another plane entirely. The dreamy, abstract quality comes almost as quiet relief when sat (perhaps a little uneasily) alongside the more formal, heavy-duty rockers driven by social issues/concern such as ‘War Pigs’ (insanity of war) or ‘Hand Of Doom’ (drug abuse).
Ozzy’s voice in particular is an essential component of this overall mix. The familiar nasalesque whine discarded in favour of a mellower, lulling vocal, its eerie character achieved by singing through a Leslie speaker, a method pioneered by The Beatles on the psychedelic tripsters ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘Blue Jay Way’.
Through a swirling, hazy soundscape consisting of bass, lilting guitar, snatches of interplanetary sounds and bongos it’s possible to imagine yourself drifting off on a hallucinogenic wave to far off, unchartered and nomadic lands. “We sailed through endless skies, Stars shine like eyes” as the opening lines state. A psychedelic trip committed to record.
The best song of an excellent album and a definite high in a long career of highs and serious lows for both the band and Ozzy Osbourne.
As I said, it’s for the dreamers out there – let it take you away.
‘Planet Caravan’ is on Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album, available from Amazon.co.uk
Don’t just read and applaud. Subscribe to the rather splendid RSS Feed
I really wish Black Sabbath had made more psychedelic stuff, because this is one of my favorite Sabbath songs, and I feel they could have made a lot more calm, psychedelic stuff like this… And it would have been amazing.
I couldn’t agree more. Planet Caravan certainly puts their other stuff in the shade.