Classical Composer Reacts to War Pigs (Black Sabbath) | The Daily Doug (Episode 137) 

Doug, as a 45 year old dude, trying to pick his life up out of the ashes, just know that having you, daily, there to perk me up is quite a lot. Cheers, buddy.

Geezer’s bass tone is incredible. What a beast.

This song is amazing to me because it manages to be so heavy yet so musically sparse. Tons of space between the sounds, and the guitarist is so tasteful.

Im a newly 50 year old guy also risning from the ashes, healt issues, family problems, covid and i also find comfort in watching these reactions of music i love analysed, great job

thanks for featuring not just something topical, but one of the best songs of all time!

For me, the craziest things have happened. Back in 1972, 12yrs old, I was listening to this on '10' on my record player .. with the window slightly open casting a breeze across a lighted candle, for atmosphere .. There's guys were G-s... Decades later I am at this concert in Birmingham with my daughter. The feelings a they opened with this are undescribable and my daughter's face at the power of this - she had seen Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and had been with me to an Opeth concert .. so she was no novice. Something I can take with me when I go to the 'great gig in the sky.' I love the profound lyric to 'Us and Them' P. Floyd 'Forward he cried from the rear, And the front rank died. And the general sat, And the lines on the map, Moved from side to side.' A lot of questioning of war/religion/establishment in those days. Something sorely missed today, imo. Great video as always, Doug, thank you... :-)

Nothing is more amazing than when a band performs a song and the entire audience takes over the vocals verses and chorus.. It's a very surreal experience.. Was lucky to see 'The End' tour in WA state

My favorite song by Jinjer happens to be about war. Home Back, it is fantastic and perfectly conveys what it’s like to live in a warzone.

This song was written in the late 60s about the Vietnam war. Half a century later, the conflict's in a different part of the globe but otherwise nothing's fucking changed.

I'm glad to watch it.

1st heard this album in 1975....ahhhhhhhh it's the Holy Land...never will there be peace till God does his thing...

Hi, Mr. Helvering! Great job, adore your work. Scientific, emotional and open minded. Greatest anti-war-song ever? Civil War by Guns ´N´ Roses. With best regards Marcus

15:09 EVERY conflict can be solved when the leaders sit together and talk. EVERY war would end immediately if the leaders had to fight themselves. Just think about who is fighting in the fields: Young men who don't know each other, who personally don't have anything against each other, who could become friends if they met on the street, in a restaurant or museum. Instead they aim with guns and kill each other, not knowing who is waiting at home for the "enemy" "Imagine there's war and no one is going there." (Carl Sandburg)

There is a version to this song from Black Sabbath that has alternate lyrics

Thanks for the Mendelssohn recommendation!

Another war song is Child in Time with Deep Purple.

If you are going to watch a whole Sabbath show the Paris 1970 show is incredible. It was when people still sat politely in their seats quietly appreciating the music. The contrast with Sabbath belting out the heaviest music ever heard is awesome. Always debatable, but to me Sabbath invented metal.

Mission motherland - Helloween

I've always felt that Geezer Butler might be the most underrated musician in all of metal. Whenever anybody talks about Sabbath it's always Tony or Ozzy, maybe Dio. But Geezer is soooooo important. From his songwriting to his lyrics, and he's such an impressive player.

Not many bands can be honestly said to have invented a genre of music, and these guys invented maybe a dozen.

Megadeth Holy Wars or Peace Sells if you want to keep rolling on this trip.

The 1970 live version in Paris...is THE BEST version of War Pigs. Young Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill are fucking insane.

Great band, Black Sabbath! One of their singers, Ronnie James Dio, once fronted a band called Rainbow, who did a song called 'Stargazer', an epic song that tells the story of slaves forced to labor in the desert for a wizard. Doug, you must hear this, for your own good.

Children of the Grave is another great song to check out with some similar themes.

Iron maiden has an entire album with war topic: a matter of life and death

All the knowledge and quality of the react itself aside, that statement at the end was on spot! War Pigs has a very special place in my heart. My favorite memory to this song was, when i just got my drivers license, got my best friend in the car and we drove to a highway bridge a few kilometres out of town. It was already dark and we stood above the continously moving highway, listening to War Pigs through my crappy car speakers. We were probably smoking a whole pack of cigarettes in the one hour before, so our voices were pretty fucked up. We screamed out the lyrics as hard as we could, and every now and then i could see the look on my friends face in the car lights crossing underneath us. I could read his pure hate for war, from just the disgustment on his face. I had a neckache from headbanging the two days after, but it was such an experience. It was as if we screamed these 50 years old lyrics right into the faces of the "war pigs" of our time. Keep on doing these videos, love it!

Tony Iommi invented an entire genre of music, and all it took was sawing off the tips of two of his fingers. Necessity truly is the mother of invention.

What's that? A heavy metal week? Maiden on Monday, Metallica on Tuesday, Sabbath on Wednesday. So gooood! Besides, another war suggestion, Crusader from Saxon is a good one.

Hey please don't forget to mention Toni iomi, he is the reason Black sabbath still exist. The only founding member to carry the banner through the decades. His riffs are iconic and influenced all of metal

So glad you reacted to this .... a timeless song that unfortunately is still relevant today, Sad that us humans never seem to learn from our past !

Butler Geezer is so underrated. His playing is quite revolutionary. Children of the sea is amazing, his fills are great.

For the next Iron Maiden Monday, "For the Greater Good of God" would be great!

No better chance for a segue into "Holy Wars" imo

Every single person in the world needs to hear and understand this song.

On the subject of anti war songs, I think "21st century schizoid man" is pretty essential. Would love to see you react to it!

If you’re on a antiwar kick you should listen to Child in Time by deep purple. ( live version, made in Japan preferably). The composition will blow you away.

I love Tony Iommi and the story about his fingers and his inspiration from Django Reinhardt, if not for Django's story Iommi may have given up and never been with Black Sabbath

Please react to Stargazer or Gates of Babylon by Rainbow. Blackmore uses some exotic scales on both songs, Dio's voice is priceless and every musician does his job.

I still listen to Sabbath daily.

Doug listens to one of the most balls-to-the-wall heavy metal anthems of all time and ends with five minutes of heartfelt social commentary, and friends, I am HERE FOR IT.

Hi Doug...been seeing your reactions for some weeks now and each time I learn something new, thanks. This song is timeless and really hits the nail for the situation we're currently living here in Colombia (actually the president is frequently portrayed by cartoonists as a pig). So far there have been more than 40 dead civilians and over 400 people missing. These things have been happening in the country side for many years, but only in the last couple of weeks the people in the city have seen and felt the horror. But for the first time I get the sensation that we are not alone, that the world actually cares about what is happening here and, as Sam Cooke once said, "a change is gonna come".

Holy Wars Megadeth has an awesome mid eastern sounding instrumental mini solo

Crazy to think that there is probably three generations attending the concert 🔥

Check out the Paris 1970 version. It's with the original drummer and just insane for the time .. really remarkable intensity.

On my quest to recommend Blind Guardian "And then there was silence" a song about the Trojan War

So happy to see you doing a Black Sabbath song, innovative and timeless. If you end up looking at another Sabbath song, I'd love it if you did Heaven and Hell, particularly as Ronnie James Dio was the singer and lyricist for that song, and his style is incredible, I'd love to know what you make of that song.

The live video from Paris 1970 is one of my favorite live videos ever... great song anyway.... in every version.

Despite the ubiquitous, flower power, anti-war, hippie music out there, I still find War Pigs to be the greatest of all the anti-war songs.

The Live version of this with Dio from the Live Evil album is fantastic

Hey Dr. Doug, can you do a reaction video for Spocks Beard: Goodbye to yesterday please? thanks!

Another anti war song around the Vietnam era: “Child in Time” by Deep Purple. Best version is an old 1970s live version with Ian Gillan singing.

Finally!! Sabbath Rules! 😈💥💣

"SATAN LAUGHING SPREADS HIS WINGS". What a line.

This was a good choice of video to cover, but you really must also check out the Paris 1970 version. Just brutal, and with their real drummer!

The Longest Day by Iron Maiden. Or better yet, the version by the O’Keefe Music Foundation kids (OMF). Been a Maiden fan since their debut album and have seen them many times. The kids from OMF do a great job of covering this song. Please do it...one old guy to another \m/

Yeah, now I'm sure, Doug has perfect pitch and great sound memory. He remembered the key from the album version and could tell the difference from his memory, awesome ear

I had the opportunity to see Ozzy live about 25 years ago, and he played War Pigs. Singing/yelling the 2nd line of all the couplets with 15,000 of my closest friends was a pretty amazing memory.

I'll tell you geezer never gets the recognition as a bass player he deserves. One of the greatest ever

"Deep Purple - Child In Time" is a great song on that anti-war theme. Still on Black Sabbath, "Children of the Grave" and "Heaven and Hell" also have great messages worth a listen. And of course, I'll always drop "Rainbow - Stargazer".

I’m a 24 years old student of guitar, and i’m studyng to be a music teacher one day, you give me every day so many musical Notion, that are very precious to me, thank you so mouch and go ahead.

Saw Black Sabbath live (this lineup) a few years ago. Best concert I've ever been to and Ive seen a few. The audio, mix, volume ...... oh, and the drummer, something very special.

Tony's guitar work is amazing , particularly with the problems with his fingers. Apparently he got a lot of self belief from the way Django Reinhardt mastered the guitar with his problems.

Sticking on the war/trauma theme, try "The Enemy Inside" by Dream Theater as it's about PTSD

Black Sabbath with Led Zepplin came from the black country heavy industrial area of West Birmingham and really founded heavy metal

There's actually an early version of War Pigs called Walpurgis here on RU-vid with different lyrics.

If you want an antiwar song there is no better than Ιron Maiden's "Afraid to shoot strangers"!!

As someone who fled from my hometown due to a war, I'm glad pieces like War Pigs exist.

I saw this tour in Austin, TX. Ozzy was so far off-key on nearly every song that it nearly ruined the show. I say nearly, because Tony and Geezer were so nailed down in the pocket that Ozzy's shite didn't even matter. Great show.

You did it - you actually acknowledged the bass player! But while listening so many times to Iron Maiden - not one word about Steve Harris' bass playing and it's contribution to Iron Maiden's unique sound ;-)

The amount of musical simplicity on this song is the same amount of geniality it have. Ps: Greetings from Brazil 🇧🇷

Marillion-Forgotten Sons and Max Webster-Oh War are 2 other powerful war themed songs

Listening to Geezer and Tony play at the same time is always absolutely incredible.

Doug, one of the greatest prog epics of all time awaits you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J8Zc7TJa1zU.html I think this would be a good fit for you and your channel!

If you are going to do war songs, you definitely need to do "Child in Time," by Deep Purple

I was fortunate enough to be of the right age group to hear this song on the radio when it was first released in 1970, when I was a mere 10 years old. It hit my friends and I like a ton of bricks. There is just so much awesomeness on so many different levels packed into this song!!! You've done an incredible job summing up why this song is so amazing (and IMPORTANT!), Doug. Your articulation here is "All Killer, No Filler". I really loved in particular how you pointed out how we as a global society are in so much of a better position to communicate with each other our awareness of the poison the people in power are wielding over us compared to when this song was first released to the public over 50 years ago. In summary, from one Doug to another...BRAVO!!!

If you’re sticking with the war theme, check out the final solution by Sabaton. Such an interesting and emotive progression

Motörhead - 1916. I've seen this suggested to you before, but this is the first time I've suggested it.

I'm a metalhead and I have always appreciated and quite like a lot of classical music. There are similarities between metal and classical both in terms of composition and themes. My all time favourite classical music is Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. That piece of music is as dark and heavy as any metal song.

Mr Doug. I recommend you to listen Into the Blue by Transatlantic. Its a supergroup of very talented musicians and I think that piece would be of your liking. Cheers

Doug...a must in Marillion's " Gaza" The live version is hugely powerful musically and in message Make sure ya pull up the lyrics Another reaction guy a year or so ago was brought to tears by it

I love Die erste Walpurgisnacht. Harnoncourt's classic recording is the one that lives on my own shelves. Also, check out Rondellus' album Sabbatum: A Medieval Tribute to Black Sabbath. They translate several classic Black Sabbath songs into Latin and perform them on early instruments like an early-music ensemble might reconstruct medieval songs, including Verres Militares, of course.

Everybody must bow their heads in utmost humility and reverence to Black Sabbath. They are forever.

I know you get tons of requests. Clutch is a band Ive been following for years. if you ever get a chance Willie Nelson by Clutch or Book, Saddle and Go by Clutch. Cheers and have a great evening!

Thank you for the Mendelssohn "Die erste Walpurgisnacht" recommendation.

I am amazed at the bass player playing without a pick, just playing finger style. Total admiration at the speed his playing incidentally my brother used to play this at full volume and I couldn't stand it but now some 40 years later I absolutely love it.

Here's a suggestion for a reaction video: Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys. It's an epic song, over 10 minutes in length and has many different layers. Would love to know what you think of it. Helloween is a German power metal band that's been around since the eighties and scored their biggest hits with the Keeper of the Seven Keys part I and II albums in 1987 and 1988, respectively. They're still actively touring and recording (or at least were, before Covid) and in 2017 former lead singer Michael Kiske and guitarist/singer Kai Hansen rejoined the band and they now have 3 guitar players, one of which is also a singer and two lead singers. :)

So many parrells run true with the situation in the Ukraine today

I really like what you say at the end of the video. I think we as a society are too docile and blindly accept what some crazy leaders propagate. Knowing that it's so easy to communicate internationally, it would be good to be less taciturn and ask more critical questions about the people who exercise power over us.

Back when artists actually said something and pushed back on culture.

Hey, high praise to the director of that Black Sabbath video. They actually focussed on the hands of the bass and guitar player! Especially during solos, directors seem to think that's when they should show random images and mug shots.

You want war?Jimi Hendrix Machine gun live at Filmore East.Or Woodstocks Star Spangled Banner

I just listened to Mendelssohn-Die erste Walpurgisnacht. I really enjoyed it, although I do not understand the language I still found it quite moving. Thank you for recommending it.

I don't know if anyone recommended this already - Gates of Delirium by Yes, it's their take on "War and Peace". It's a real trip, gives Close to the Edge a run for its money.

So Doug is officially a metalhead from now on, can we make it official as well? Iron Monday, Tuestallica, Black Wednesday, Thurdsday Priest and Frideth!

You should do more sabbath it’s so awesome

Check out Ozzy's "Diary of a Madman" with soon-to-be-RRHOF-Inducted guitarist Randy Rhoads - IMHO, the best prog metal song ever; the one every other band has been trying to replicate.

I think Jason Becker's work would be interesting to you, Doug. Altitudes and Air are some of his greatest pieces.

Hey Doug, I'm loving your videos! Thank you so much 😊. I think it would be great if you could do a reaction to King Crimson, e.g. 21st Century Schizoid Man, or Larks' Tongues in Aspic, or Red.

Yes, I know it's a cliché, but if we're talking about anti-war Rock songs, you gotta react to Fortunate Son, by Creedence Clearwater Revival! Also, talking of clichés, Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits is an absolute must!

If you really wants to enjoy Black Sabbath, IMHO, you need to listen Vol 4, specially the first song of that album...