Is Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ the quintessential protest song?
Music has always been used as a form of expression. A lot of the time, this means talking about something deeply personal, such as love or hate. Despite the subjective nature of these songs, given how many thoughts are shared by us as humans, they become relatable and, therefore, have a broader appeal than just the person who wrote them. However, some artists take things a step further and try to write about a picture that oftentimes might be too big to look at. This is where protest music comes into play, and it’s a fine art that Black Sabbath might have just nailed down.
In Madrid, if you enter the Museo Reina Sofia, you are met with art that dates back hundreds of years, covering near enough every emotion and disaster that has ever been experienced. Depictions of the Holocaust and pain and love and melancholy and racism and sexism and elation and surrealism and the abstract merge into one another, messages begin to overlap and contort, one piece which is similar to another becomes the same thing, and the art can become lost entirely.
The most notable piece is Picasso’s Guernica, not only because of its message but because of its size and the crowd that surrounds it. The painting consists of a light bulb, a bull, fire, houses, people screaming and horses, all drawn in an obscure way, but there is no denying the horror in their faces. Critics say that it is the best depiction of the horror of war in the world, but it could also be argued that given its surroundings within the maze of a gallery, the meaning is diluted.
If, on your way to see the Guernica, you have already been exposed to every emotion, trauma and horrific event under the sun, how much can a variation of the same really affect you? Not to mention, trying to portray the horrors of war to the Madrid tourist, someone who might have never experienced it, is incredibly difficult. This is the same issue that a lot of protest music has.
As listeners of a lot of music, for a song to accurately stand out to you in a way that portrays the anger and frustration of whatever the band is writing about, it has to be something incredibly special. Not only do the lyrics have to move you, but the sound has to portray what is expressed in the lyrics accurately. The whole work must be completely cohesive, and there is no example of a track that does this better than Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’.
When Black Sabbath started making music, they tapped into a dark and brooding sound that most music lovers hadn’t heard before. They used this dark sound to write about dark topics, such as depression, addiction, the paranormal and, in this instance, war. The sound of the song matches the theme incredibly well in that sense, creating a sense of brooding in the track, something that the damned would march to, and empires collapse in the background of.
In addition, the lyricism matches this tone incredibly well. It sounds like a rebellion war cry the way Ozzy Osbourne delivers lines such as, “Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses, evils minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of death’s construction.”
Finally, you must appreciate who Black Sabbath were and what they represented to people who followed them. As working-class men from post-war Birmingham, they were living in the aftermath that such destruction could bring. There weren’t any prospects for people during this period, and instead, they were forced to work long shifts in dead-end jobs. Sabbath didn’t only articulate the horror of war, but they embodied it.
‘War Pigs’ is the definitive protest song. In the world of music, its sound still stands out amongst the noise, and that which it rebels against is perfectly personified in the lyrics, sound and the band responsible for them—a true work of art worthy to be hung in the grandest of museums.
