The song lyrics also conjure up images of Walpurgis Night in Europe typically celebrated by burning effigies of witches recalling the European witch trials that led to thousands of victims, most of them women, being burned alive. In the retitled track now known as “War Pigs” the band uses the imagery of a sacrificial Black Mass to animate evil in the shape of unfettered capitalism and military forces leaving burning bodies in their wake. Navigating censors arguably turned “Walpurgis” into a much richer and more complex song.
#Black sabbath war pigs lyrics trial#
No doubt worried about bad press, the record company probably didn’t want the band to be associated with Manson and his followers who were being portrayed as a “satanic cult” by trial lawyers and the media. According to various sources, the band was forced to change the lyrics and song title to “War Pigs” on behalf of their record company who thought “Walpurgis” was too “Satanic.” The song and its corresponding album ( Paranoid) were scheduled for release at the height of the Manson Family trial, which was making headlines around the globe.
The early lyrics for Black Sabbath’s “Walpurgis” were very different and arguably more raw in the way it incorporates esoteric themes.
Today many celebrate it as a fire festival associated with Saint Walpurgis to ward off witches but it is also a Satanic holiday observed by Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. Walpurgis has Pagan roots and is also known as The Witches’ Sabbath or the night that witches gather to welcome spring before May Day aka Beltane (the Wiccan Sabbat). The track was originally called “Walpurgis” and was inspired by the international festival known as Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht) celebrated on April 30th each year. One of my favorite Black Sabbath songs is “War Pigs” and it was recorded in 1970 as an antiwar anthem that evokes the occult but its message is timeless and its origins are fascinating.
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