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My music students have been attempting to learn Black Sabbath’s classic anti-war song “War Pigs.” To be clear, this isn’t an example of a radical teacher attempting to indoctrinate his students with anti-war propaganda—it’s just a really rockin’ song (and features a killer, groovy introduction in 6/8 time, before transitioning to a brisk, sludgy 4/4). We were working on the tune before Russia invaded the Ukraine, and before there were really even murmurs that this quixotic invasion might happen.
Also, I am not reflexively anti-war. My instincts are to abhor war (which would have been news to my teenaged self, who still believed war was a glorious test of courage and mettle—it can be, but it’s much more complicated than that two-dimensional, chivalric notion I harbored as a doughy teen), but war is inevitable. The Bible prophesies about “wars and rumors of war,” and not all war is inherently bad.
It’s not all inherently good, either—sometimes war is just that—war.
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The Portly Politico 
The whole album is phenomenal. And definitely worth studying from a musical perspective.
A lot of music historians will argue in favor of this album being the first official Heavy Metal album.
Also when it comes to art in general, I put politics aside. I could disagree with someone politically and still like his or her music/art/poetry. And the opposite is true. I think Hector Berlioz and I could have been great friends if we were contemporaries but I just don’t like his music.
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Dude, for real—such a great album.
I agree re: art and politics—but I love Hector Berlioz, ha! “War Pigs” is just a banger of a song regardless of its message (which seems pretty accurate, for what it’s worth!).
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