10 Rock Songs That Mean Absolutely Nothing
5. Fairies Wear Boots - Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath's Paranoid was one of the most pivotal records in heavy metal history. While Sabbath had already started to cultivate their eerie sound on their self-titled album, this follow up showed that metal was here to stay, with brilliant wordplay from Geezer Butler on songs like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man." Though "Fairies Wear Boots" closes everything up fantastically, the lyrics make you see the song in a completely different light.
The title itself comes from an experience Ozzy Osbourne had with a gang of skinheads who beat him up for having long hair. To get his own form of payback, this song was initially constructed as a diss at these macho gang members by calling them fairies. That alone is a great start to a hard rock song, but the band sort of painted themselves into a corner after the first verse.
Instead of pushing themselves a bit more to flesh out the story, Geezer Butler ended up writing the rest of the song about being stoned on illegal substances, which has virtually no lead in. Instead of being the lyrical apex of the record, "Fairies Wear Boots" feels like the start of two good lyrics that were haphazardly stitched together.