"Fairies Wear Boots" is a song by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, appearing on their 1970 album Paranoid.
| "Fairies Wear Boots" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Black Sabbath | |
| from the album Paranoid | |
| Released | 18 September 1970 |
| Recorded | 1970 |
| Genre | Heavy metal[1] |
| Length | 6:14 |
| Label | Vertigo |
| Songwriter(s) | |
| Producer(s) | Rodger Bain |
On original 1970 US copies of the Paranoid album, the song's intro was listed under the title "Jack the Stripper", formatted as "Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots".[2]
The song has been ranked the 11th best Black Sabbath song.[3]
Background
The exact inspiration behind "Fairies Wear Boots" is unclear. In the 2010 documentary film Classic Albums: Black Sabbath's Paranoid, the band's bassist Geezer Butler states that Ozzy Osbourne composed the lyrics after a group of skinheads in London called him a "fairy" because of his long hair. However, Butler also stated Ozzy’s lyrics often went off in random tangents, and the second half of the song was about LSD.[4] Osbourne, in the same documentary, said he wrote the lyrics about LSD. In 2010, Osbourne stated in his autobiography I Am Ozzy that he did not recall what the song was written about.
Versions
A live version of "Fairies Wear Boots", taken from a session for the BBC's John Peel Sunday Show dated April 26, 1970, is featured on the bonus disc of a 1997 Ozzy Osbourne compilation entitled The Ozzman Cometh. The song also appears on the Black Sabbath's first compilation album, We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll.
Osbourne released a live rendition of the song on his 1982 solo album Speak of the Devil.
Personnel
- Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
- Tony Iommi – guitars
- Geezer Butler – bass
- Bill Ward – drums