The song is notable for its publication in the American folk music magazine Broadside, which normally did not feature rock songs. 'War Pigs' was ranked the best Black Sabbath song by Rock - Das Gesamtwerk der größten Rock-Acts im Check. In 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number four on their list of the 20 greatest Black Sabbath songs, and in 2021, Louder Sound ranked the song number one on their list of the 40 greatest Black Sabbath songs. 'War Pigs' is widely considered one of Black Sabbath's greatest songs. Part of what made Black Sabbath seem new was a disinclination to uplifting, or hopeful, or self-righteous.' Kelefa Sanneh wrote, 'What is memorable is the way Osbourne evokes not merely war's cost but its seductive appeal. Steve Huey of AllMusic called the song a ' standard'. Guitar World described the song as 'the greatest HM song ever.' The magazine also included the song on their list of the '100 Greatest Guitar Solos' and ranked it in 56th place. Music journalist Martin Popoff has called the song an 'ugly, antiwar classic now considered one of Sabbath's top two or three most enduring compositions'.

Main article: List of cover versions of Black Sabbath songs

The band had no input in these decisions, though they were pleased with the results. The addition of the air-raid siren and the speeding up of the song's end were done by producer Rodger Bain and engineer Tom Allom. Co-writer and lead guitarist Tony Iommi has said that 'War Pigs' originated from one of those jam sessions. The band was required to play multiple sets every night and had little material in their repertoire at that point, so they would perform lengthy jam sessions to fill in the sets. ĭrummer Bill Ward's first memory of performing the song was at The Beat Club in Switzerland in 1968. It's just an anti-war song.' The song's instrumental outro is entitled ' Luke's Wall' on US releases of the album, formatted as 'War Pigs/Luke's Wall'. While Butler has said that 'War Pigs' is 'totally against the Vietnam War, about how these rich politicians and rich people start all the wars for their benefit and get all the poor people to die for them', vocalist Osbourne has stated that the group 'knew nothing about Vietnam. An example of this can be found on Ozzy Osbourne's compilation The Ozzman Cometh, which features an early version recorded by Black Sabbath for BBC Radio 1 on 26 April 1970. Prior to its official release, the band often altered the lyrics significantly when performing it live. 'I was dreading being called up', the lyricist recalled.

'That's what started this whole rebellion thing about not going to war for anybody', said Butler. But we didn't change the lyrics, because they were already finished.' ĭuring this time period, mandatory army service had recently ended in Britain but with the Vietnam War raging, many young men feared they'd be conscripted to fight in it. And that's when we turned it into 'War Pigs'. But when we brought it to the record company, they thought 'Walpurgis' sounded too Satanic. So I was saying 'generals gathered in the masses / just like witches at black masses' to make an analogy. 'It wasn’t about politics or government or anything. And to me, war was the big Satan', said bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler. 'Walpurgis is sort of like Christmas for Satanists. The original title of 'War Pigs' was 'Walpurgis', dealing with the witches' sabbath.

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