Fact check: Paranoid by Black Sabbath was created in 20 min just to fill up 3 min in the album

1. Summary of the results

The original statement is partially accurate but oversimplified. Multiple sources confirm that "Paranoid" was indeed created quickly as a filler track, but the exact timing varies in different accounts:

• Drummer Bill Ward states it took "twenty, twenty-five minutes from top to bottom" ^{[1] [1]}
• Bassist Geezer Butler gives two slightly different accounts:
• In one version, he says they wrote it "in five minutes" with the entire process taking about two hours ^[1]
• In another account, he describes it as a quick process where "Tony came up with the riff, I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy was singing them as he was reading" ^{[2] [2]}

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original statement omits several important contextual details:

• The song was created during a recording session at Rockfield Studios in Wales ^[3]
• The entire album's recording took place from June 16-21, 1970 ^[4]
• The quick creation was necessitated because they "didn't have enough songs for the album" ^{[1] [1]}
• The song was specifically created to be a "3 minute filler for the album" ^{[2] [2]}

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original statement's main issues are:

• It oversimplifies the creation process by focusing only on the initial writing period
• It fails to distinguish between the initial composition and the full recording process
• It presents a single time estimate (20 minutes) when different band members have given varying accounts of the timeline ^{[1] [1]}
• It might create a misleading impression that rushed or quickly created songs are of lesser quality, when in fact "Paranoid" became one of Black Sabbath's most iconic tracks despite its rushed creation