‘Planet Caravan’: the Black Sabbath classic they were unsure about releasing
Emerging from a smog-saturated Birmingham wrestling with its grim industrial past and an unknown future where the factories were shutting down and the entire complexion of employment was transforming, the towering riffs, otherwordly vocals, and elemental rhythms of Black Sabbath resonated. It felt like the outcome would be much darker than what came before.
In many ways, Sabbath were the ultimate anti-hippie band of their era. While they might have had long hair and bell bottoms, the four Brummies hated the flower power movement. Their sound was dark, obsessed with the occult and science fiction, and generally packed a more resounding sonic punch than anything out there at the time, including the groups who would also be deemed metal pioneers, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. In an era of the Manson Murders, dire economic conditions and the space race, this was the perfect soundtrack. Sabbath knew that the optimistic promise of the 1960s had failed; to them, it had always been a fallacy. Haight-Ashbury was leagues away from Birmingham, and not just in distance.
There was nothing quite like their evil, thick, sludgy sound. Although it might have taken a while for the world to come round, with the creeping atmosphere tangible and unsettling, releasing the left-right combination of their self-titled debut and Paranoid in 1970 was enough to knock the world’s tastes into gear for the new decade.
Although Sabbath would undoubtedly earn droves of fans with their dark, narcotic essence – typified by Tony Iommi’s de-tuned riffs – there were moments when the band tapped into other areas in their early years, showing that they were not a one-trick pony. The song that most closely typifies this broad range on Paranoid, the album widely deemed their masterwork, is the slow, stoned ‘Planet Caravan’. Taking a break from the typically metal moments such as ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Iron Man’, this unhurried weed song, featuring Geezer Butler’s romantic but spacey lyrics, Ozzy Osbourne’s Leslie Speaker vocals and Iommi’s exquisite, Django Reinhardt-inspired picking, it was an effective change of pace.
Despite the song turning out to be one of their finest, in the beginning, Sabbath were unsure whether to proceed with it, given that it was such a departure from everything else in their oeuvre. Speaking on Classic Albums, Iommi recalled: “‘Planet Caravan’ was very different to anything what we’d done before, and it was almost one of those, ‘Mmm, should we do this?’ you know?”
They knew it was quiet, but they lent into it, with drummer Bill Ward playing the gentle, hypnotic congas to accentuate the romantic chime of Iommi’s delicate picked performance and his flute. Butler also remembered another similarity the group had to the hippies that saw them pursue the track: “We liked that, and it was nice and relaxing to get stoned to. So that’s where it came in.”
Although the band initially had doubts about ‘Planet Caravan’, after Osbourne put his stirring vocal melody on top of the heady number, they knew they had struck gold. With Butler penning the words about floating through space with your lover, it was unlike anything the group had ever made, and it stood out because of it.
Butler, the band’s primary lyricist, was also quick to point out that despite all of Osbourne’s notorious hellraising, ‘Planet Caravan’ was a moment where he displayed his natural knack for pulling incredible vocal lines out of the air. Remarkably, it was usually the first one he conceived they’d run with. There’s always been more to him than meets the eye.
