Sabbath’s self-titled debut blew minds when it emerged in 1970, fusing blues-based psychedelia, mystical imagery, and slow, heavy riffs to create a template for “stoner rock,” a genre currently championed by bands such as Queens Of The Stone Age, Isis, the Sword, and Fu Manchu. By Sabbath’s second album, Paranoid [Warner Bros., 1971], Butler had begun to codify his sound and style. “War Pigs/Luke’s Wall” is stuffed with all the great Geezer hallmarks: a dark and ballsy tone, brutal right-hand attack, deep string bends, bluesy pentatonic licks, and rapid-fire arpeggiation.
Hand Of Doom
Sludgy as a clogged rivulet of industrial waste, “War Pigs” kicks off with a moody intro in an unhurried 12/8 shuffle. From the get-go, Geezer’s aggressive attack and lugubrious phrasing combine to create an indomitable low-end presence. To get Geezer’s sound, the first step is nailing his right-hand technique. Plucking his Fender Precision over the fingerboard, Geezer really hammered hard, producing a high-end clack. As Geezer told Bass Player in 2004, his ears were drawn to that kind of high-end clatter. “I remember trying to sound like Chris Squire,” he says. “Ozzy’s reaction was, ‘What the hell is that?’ I was attempting to get a sound I liked to listen to, but it didn’t fit my playing style.”
The tune’s churning intro sees the first of Geezer’s many string bends. Listen carefully to the Gn bend midway through bar 3: Pulling on the string just enough to approach the chord’s major 3rd, Butler plays the “neutral 3rd”—that microtonal interval between the major and minor 3rds. “I used to love watching Jack Bruce play,” says Geezer. “He was the first bassist I’d ever seen bending the strings—that’s where I picked up that technique. I bend the strings on practically everything I’ve done.”
Before you snap a string—or a tendon—trying to cop Geezer’s deeper bends, keep in mind that Geezer and guitarist Tony Iommi would tune down a step or more to accommodate Iommi’s technique, modified after he lost two of his fingertips in an industrial accident. It’s a big part of what makes the records sound so heavy. “The heavier the riff, the lower the tuning goes,” Geezer offers. “Tony would go down an octave, if he could!” To try it, tune your bass down a full step to DGCF, and play everything two frets higher than indicated in the tablature staff.
War Plans
Once Geezer, Iommi, and drummer Bill Ward have set the scene with the song’s churning intro, the feel and tempo shift at B, the tune’s signature verse riff. In the instrumental response that follows the verse’s call, Geezer and Iommi dig into a riff built around one of Sabbath’s harmonic trademarks: the flatted 2nd, in this case the Fn that arrives at bar 30. Wicked!
At C, intensity builds as Geezer instigates a chugging 16th-note rhythm spiced with syncopation and more bluesy runs. After another verse, the band launches into the solo section at D. After pedaling on octaves for the first three bars of the solo, Geezer really cuts loose, laying down stream-of-consciousness blues riffs that wind around Iommi’s spindly solo. Bar 76 holds an especially queasy bend, as Geezer digs in and bends up a whole-step.
At various points in the tune—especially in bars 141–146—it’s clear the bass track is a combination of two or more takes. What’s notated here is a concatenation of the more audible parts, but there are some other cool riffs and runs buried in the mix that are worth listening for.
“The first three Sabbath albums were done quickly,” says Geezer, “and you can hear the spontaneity. By the time the music is all polished and clean and technically brilliant, you’ve lost the soul.” Intentional or not, Geezer plays especially “out” between bars 80 and 83, leaning heavily on Bb, the E chord’s flatted 5th. “Because our music was so uncluttered, there was space for the bass to riff,” says Geezer. In bars 84–86, Butler begins to button up the solo with a series of root–5 arpeggios.
Iommi initiates a breakdown at F, and Geezer shifts modes by locking into a syncopated groove at bar 128. At bar 139, the band begins its protracted playout, a two-chord vamp that sees more of Iommi and Butler’s riff interplay. Here Geezer’s groove hinges on the way he ties across beat four every other bar, under the D chord. At the track’s bitter end, no, that’s not the sound of your brain melting; engineers sped up the tape in the tune’s final moments to create that swirling acceleration, like the last bit of sludgy muck being sucked down the drain.
Clearly, Geezer had chops even back in his early days, but he’s rather modest about the whole thing: “You don’t need a degree in music to play our stuff—it’s not brain surgery.” Maybe not, but you have to be on your toes to keep pace. Try applying a few of the Geezerisms here on your next rock gig. And whatever you do, keep it heavy, man!
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