Moon Duo Planet Caravan (2020)
Still a teenager, Tony Iommi made his living like a lot of people in Birmingham, England: in the steel industry. His dream, however, was to be a musician. At one point in the late 1960s, Iommi, who played the guitar, had the opportunity to go on tour with a band in Europe. A good reason to hand in his resignation at the steel plant.
His final day at work had arrived. After he had lunch at home, Iommi wondered if he should bother returning to the factory to finish his shift. His mum, who had heard him pondering, told him to get the hell back and finish the job properly. So he went. With his head in the clouds, probably thinking about the tour—his first one!—Iommi had an accident in which he lost two fingertips on his right hand.
And what luck it was! The impaired fingers, or rather the wax-and-leather prostheses he started using, made Iommi play his guitar differently, which resulted in a darker, heavier sound. This sound would become a key element of Black Sabbath, the band Iommi founded in 1968, which is often credited for inventing heavy metal.
In 1970, Iommi and his colleagues—among them vocalist Ozzy Osbourne—released two studio albums: the self-titled debut and Paranoid. “Planet Caravan”, a song on the latter record, stuck out amidst heavier tracks like “War Pigs” and “Iron Man”, being more mellow and featuring a different type of lyrics.
It was the perfect song from Black Sabbath’s catalog for Moon Duo to cover. The San Francisco neo-psych-rock duo was invited by Brooklyn-based record label Sacred Bones to make a contribution to a compilation with cover songs on the occasion of Black Sabbath and Paranoid’s 50th anniversary in 2020. Moon Duo’s version of “Planet Caravan” turned out to be even more ethereal than the epic original. It is our song of the day.
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